Email address: cschimkowsky1@sheffield.ac.uk
Twitter: @ckowsk
Research interests: Everyday experience and meaning-making, the construction of knowledge and authority, means of social control in urban spaces, East-Asian societies (particularly Japan), media studies
I’m a university-funded PhD student based in the Department of Sociological Studies and the School of East Asian Studies at the University of Sheffield. Before joining Sheffield, I’ve completed a MA in Anthropological Research Methods (SOAS, University of London) and a MA in International Relations (Waseda University, Japan). I originally started my university studies at the University of Göttingen (Germany) where I studied Political Science and Social Anthropology.
I’ve spent the better part of the last decade in Japan and China and seek to combine the thus acquired regional understanding with my Social Science training in my research. Educated in disciplines from across the social sciences, I’m a firm believer in the value of interdisciplinary research. Social Science research means questioning society and our conceptions of it; this mode of curious and critical inquiry should not stop at disciplinary borders.
My current research inquires into technologies and semiotics of control in contemporary Tokyo. The project uses qualitative methods to explore the regulatory landscape of a modern city, as well as the way people maneuver it in their everyday lives. Previously, I’ve studied topics such as identity, online sociality and orientalism.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any suggestions or concerns regarding the WRDTP (particularly if you are an EU/international student or have alternative funding!). I’m always happy to hear from fellow students, so just shoot me an email.
