Akira Sawata

HOME

Presentation

Akira Sawata in the symposium “Displacement and Difference: Harnessing Research to LGBTQI+ Forced Migration” at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

Where Ideas Meet

I have presented my work to diverse audiences in the United States, Japan, and other international settings. I believe that an important responsibility of researchers is to engage carefully with complex and abstract ideas, translate them into accessible forms, and share them beyond academic circles. Presentations are not only opportunities to communicate research; they also open spaces for dialogue, allowing researchers to learn from the knowledge, experiences, and questions of communities outside academia.

Scholarly Presentation

  • Sawata, A. (2026, November). Narrating crisis, authorizing restoration: The temporal-affective politics of anti-DEI discourse in U.S. higher education. [Paper Presentation]. Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) Annual Meeting.
  • Seto, R., Sawata, A., Aoki, K., & Yamawaki, K. (2026, June). On the ‘theorization’ of intersectionality: Implications for educational studies through a literature review [Paper presentation]. The 47th Conference of the Intercultural Education Society of Japan.
  • Sawata, A. (2025, November). Temporality of higher ed ‘crisis’: The ghosts of DEI and a queer future otherwise [Paper presentation]. American Anthropological Association (AAA) Annual Meeting.
  • Yakubovskiy, M., Sawata, A., Moland, N., Basit, F., & Dodrill, H. (2025, November). Haunted education: Ghostly gender and sexuality [Roundtable]. American Anthropological Association (AAA) Annual Meeting.
  • Sawata, A. (2025, November). Living with/in anti-LGBTQ+ catastrophes: Queer time, affect, and worldmaking in crumbling U.S. higher education [Paper presentation]. Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) Annual Conference.
  • Ebata, C., Kimura, T., & Sawata, A. (2025, September). Ideological debates and the practice of diversity in U.S. college admissions: An examination of the College Board’s report on holistic review [Paper presentation].
  • Sawata, A. (2025, August). Moving for hope: Queer and trans displacement through internal evasion, educational migration, and disaster evacuation in Japan [Paper presentation]. Displacement and Difference: Harnessing Research to Address LGBTQI+ Forced Migration.
  • Sawata, A. (2025, June). Transnationally mobile students’ activism and the politics of mobility: For the solidarity between immigrant and international students [Paper presentation]. The 46th Conference of the Intercultural Education Society of Japan.
  • Sawata, A. (2024, June). The gap between multiply minoritized students and the sum of single-axis student support systems: Queer international students standing between LGBTQ+ student support and international student support [Paper presentation]. The 45th Conference of the Intercultural Education Society of Japan.
  • Tokunaga, T., & Sawata, A. (2024, March). Engaging students in promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in Japanese higher education: Co-developing intergroup dialogue with university students [Paper presentation]. Comparative and International Education Society 2024 Annual Conference.
  • Sawata, A., Hagiwara, Y., & Masaki, R. (2024, March). Collaborative action research among LGBTQ+ identified and non-identified students: Exploration of the ways to continue to live together [Paper presentation]. LGBTA Faculty and Staff Networking.
  • Sawata, A. (2023, September). Do universities satisfy the intersectional needs?: Perspectives of faculty and staff and the current student support for queer international students [Paper presentation]. Tsukuba Conference.
  • Sawata, A. (2023, June). The lived experience of queer international students in Japan: With the focus on their struggles, problems, and strategies [Paper presentation]. The 44th Conference of Intercultural Education Society of Japan.

Invited Talks, Workshops, & Panels

  • Sawata, A. (2025, December). Progress and violence: ‘Managing’ DEI and pro-Palestine protest at Harvard [Invited presentation]. Queering Theory: Student Conference.
  • Sawata, A. (2023, August). The difficulty and possibility of student-led-LGBTQ+-students-support: From the perspective as a student staff at the Bureau of Human Empowerment of the University of Tsukuba [Invited presentation]. LGBTA Faculty and Staff Networking.
  • Sawata, A. (2023, May). Coming-out story: A life story of a gay male grown in Japan [Invited presentation]. Applied Linguistics Special Seminar, Tokyo Gakugei University.
  • Sato, Y., Kobayashi, R., Sawata, A., & Lu-san. (2023, March). Voice of LGBTQ+ students [Invited panel]. What is it like a university where LGBTQ+ are comfortable? – D&I in Higher Education.
  • Sawata, A. (2022, October). Life story research of queer international students: From the perspective of intersectionality [Invited presentation]. Japan Citizenship Education Forum (J-CEF).
  • Sawata, A. (2022, August). Identities and privileges [Summer special course]. Kaichi Nihonbashi Gakuen Junior and High School, Tokyo, Japan.
  • Sawata, A. (2022, September). Workshop for introduction of academia [Invited workshop]. Sumoto High School, Hyogo, Japan.
< Publication
Other Work >