Position and Interests

AUG NISHIZAKA is currently Professor of Sociology at Chiba University, Japan. After teaching at Meiji Gakuin University, Tokyo, he transferred to Chiba University in 2014. His current interest is in reconstructing the conception of classical topics in social and human sciences from the ethnomethodological/conversation analytic point of view. After the explosions at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima subsequent to the Great East Japan Earthquake, he has also been analyzing various aspects of the life, first, of the people evacuated from the affected areas, and then of the people who have returned to their hometown, including interactions between medical professionals or volunteers and the people in Fukushima.

These are research projects he has engaged in or plans to engage in:

• The Interactive Constitution of Cultural Differences
• The Organization of Participation in Interaction
• Order in Psychotherapy (Therapeutic Counseling, Play Therapy etc.)
• Sociology of the Mental (e.g., Vision, Imagination & Images, Memory & Recognition)
• Sociology of Psychology: The Interactive Construction of 'Subjects' within Psychological Experiments and the Organization of Psychology Experiments
• The Mutual Organization of Perceptions, Uses of Tools and Activity
• Interaction in Obstetrical and Gynachological Clinics

Publications

• Publications in English
• The complete list of publications

The Origin of his First Name

His first name "Aug" (its original Japanese pronounciation is [aogu]) is rare as a Japanese name. His parents named him after Augustine, a Latin Church Father, and his father first romanized his name as "Aug" in fun. Then his mother started to use this form in communicating to her friends in the United States. (She studied there for two years in early 1950s.)