Aya Kimura, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Hawai’i-Manoa

Thursday, September 28, 1:30 - 3:00 pm

Burnaby Campus, Simon Fraser University
Academic Quadrangle Building, Room 5067 (Ellen Gee Common Room)

Co-sponsored with the David Lam Centre

Aya Kimura, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Hawai’i-Manoa

Citizen radiation measuring organizations (CRMO) were Japanese citizens’ groups established to measure the concentration of radioactive materials in food to ensure its safety after the Fukushima nuclear accident. CRMOs had active participation by laywomen. This lecture explores the motivations of these women to get involved in CRMOs and how they understood the value of using science in the face of the nuclear accident. The concept of gendered scientization highlights how the turn to science in dealing with environmental threats might result in gendered opportunities and challenges in pursuing environmental justice.  

Aya Kimura is the author of Hidden Hunger: Gender and Politics of Smarter Foods (2013, Cornell University Press, winner of the Rural Sociological Society Outstanding Scholarly Award) and Radiation Brain Moms and Citizen Scientists: The Gender Politics of Food Contamination after Fukushima (2016, Duke University Press). She has also co-edited Food and Power: Visioning Food Democracy in Hawai’i (2016, University of Hawaii Press, co-editor with Krisnawati Suryanata). She is currently writing, with Abby Kinchy, a book on citizen science.