IAFOR > AGen > Speakers

Speakers

The Asian Conference on Aging & Gerontology 2017 (AGen2017) is a multidisciplinary conference held concurrently with The Asian Conference on the Social Sciences 2017 (ACSS2017) and The Asian Conference on Sustainability, Energy & the Environment (ACSEE2017). Keynote, Featured and Spotlight Speakers will provide a variety of perspectives from different academic and professional backgrounds. Registration for any one of these conferences permits attendance in all three within the event.

This page provides information about presenters. For details of presentations and other programming, please visit the Programme page.

  • Dr James W. McNally
    Dr James W. McNally
    University of Michigan, USA & NACDA Program on Aging
  • Professor Hiroshi Ishida
    Professor Hiroshi Ishida
    University of Tokyo, Japan
  • Professor Haruko Satoh
    Professor Haruko Satoh
    Osaka University, Japan
  • Dr Toshiya Hoshino
    Dr Toshiya Hoshino
    Osaka University, Japan
  • Professor Michael Anthony C. Vasco
    Professor Michael Anthony C. Vasco
    University of Santo Tomas, Philippines
  • Dr Philip Sugai
    Dr Philip Sugai
    Doshisha Business School, Japan
  • Dr Maxime Jaffré
    Dr Maxime Jaffré
    Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), France
  • Dr Jane Singer
    Dr Jane Singer
    Kyoto University, Japan
  • Dr Guo-qiang Liu
    Dr Guo-qiang Liu
    Deakin University, Australia
Dr James W. McNally
University of Michigan, USA & NACDA Program on Aging

Biography

Dr James W. McNally is the Director of the NACDA Program on Aging, a data archive containing over 1,500 studies related to health and the aging lifecourse. He currently does methodological research on the improvement and enhancement of secondary research data and has been cited as an expert authority on data imputation. Dr McNally has directed the NACDA Program on Aging since 1998 and has seen the archive significantly increase its holdings with a growing collection of seminal studies on the aging lifecourse, health, retirement and international aspects of aging. He has spent much of his career addressing methodological issues with a specific focus on specialized application of incomplete or deficient data and the enhancement of secondary data for research applications. Dr McNally has also worked extensively on issues related to international aging and changing perspectives on the role of family support in the later stages of the aging lifecourse.

Featured Presentation | Methodologies for the Collection of Comparative Community Level Public Health Data: Obtaining Powerful and Statistically Meaningful Findings for Small Populations
Featured Panel Presentation | Easts Meets West – Healthy, Active and Beautiful Aging in Asia
Professor Hiroshi Ishida
University of Tokyo, Japan

Biography

Hiroshi Ishida is Professor of Sociology at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Tokyo. He served as the Director of the Institute of Social Sciences and the Director of the Center of Social Research and Data Archives, at the University of Tokyo, from 2012 to 2015. He received his PhD in sociology from Harvard University, conducted post-doctoral research at Nuffield College and St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford, and held positions of Assistant and Associate Professor of Sociology at Columbia University. He was a Visiting Professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan and a Visiting Fellow of Sociology at Yale University.

Prof. Ishida’s research interests include comparative social stratification and mobility, school-to-work transition, and social inequality over the life course. He is the author of Social Mobility in Contemporary Japan (Stanford University Press) and the co-editor with David Slater of Social Class in Contemporary Japan (Routledge). His work has been published in a number of journals and edited volumes, including American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, British Journal of Sociology, European Sociological Review, and Japanese Sociological Review.

Prof. Ishida was the president of the Japanese Association of Mathematical Sociology from 2011 to 2013, and currently serves as the secretary/treasurer of the Research Committee on Social Stratification of the International Sociological Association. From 2005 to 2010, he was the editor-in-chief of Social Science Japan Journal, an international journal on social science research on Japan published by Oxford University Press. He is the principal investigator of the Japanese Life Course Panel Surveys, funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. He presently serves on the international editorial board of several journals, including British Journal of Sociology, European Sociological Review, and Social Forces. He is currently the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) Official Representative for the University of Tokyo.

Featured Panel Presentation | Easts Meets West – Healthy, Active and Beautiful Aging in Asia
Professor Haruko Satoh
Osaka University, Japan

Biography

Haruko Satoh is Specially Appointed Professor at the Graduate School of Engineering Science in charge of CAREN (Osaka University Centre for the Advancement of Research and Education Exchange Networks in Asia) and also lecturer at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), where she runs MEXT Reinventing Japan project on “Peace and Human Security in Asia (PAHSA)” with six Southeast Asian and four Japanese universities. She is also the President of the The Asian Political and International Studies Association (APISA).

In the past she has worked at the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA), Chatham House, and Gaiko Forum. Her interests are primarily in state theory, Japanese nationalism and identity politics. Recent publications include: “Rethinking Security in Japan: In Search of a Post-‘Postwar’ Narrative” in Jain & Lam (eds), Japan’s Strategic Challenges in a Changing Regional Environment (World Scientific, 2012); “Through the Looking-glass: China’s Rise as Seen from Japan”, (co-authored with Toshiya Hoshino), Journal of Asian Public Policy, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 181-198 (July 2012); “Post-3.11 Japan: A Matter of Restoring Trust?”, ISPI Analysis No. 83 (December 2011); “Legitimacy Deficit in Japan: The Road to True Popular Sovereignty” in Kane, Loy & Patapan (eds), Political Legitimacy in Asia: New Leadership Challenges (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), “Japan: Re-engaging with China Meaningfully” in Tang, Li & Acharya (eds), Living with China: Regional States and China through Crises and Turning Points, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).

Professor Haruko Satoh is a member of IAFOR’s Academic Governing Board. She is Chair of the Politics, Law & International Relations section of the International Academic Advisory Board.

Featured Panel Presentation | East Meets West
Dr Toshiya Hoshino
Osaka University, Japan

Biography

Dr Toshiya Hoshino is presently a Professor at Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), Osaka University, Japan, and from 2015 to 2016 served as Vice-President (International) at the university.

From August 2006 to August 2008, he served as a Minister-Counselor in charge of political affairs at the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations (UN). At the UN, he was a principal advisor to the Chair of the UN Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) when Japan assumed its chairmanship. He graduated from Sophia University, Japan, completed a Master’s at the University of Tokyo, and received his Doctorate (PhD) from Osaka University.

His previous positions included: Senior Research Fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs; Guest Scholar at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University; Fellow at Stanford Japan Center, Stanford University; Visiting Fellow, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University; and a Special Assistant (Political Affairs) at the Embassy of Japan to the United States.

He is a specialist in UN peace and security policies (conflict prevention, peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding), human security and humanitarian issues, security in the Asia-Pacific region, and Japan-US relations.

He also serves as a board member of the United Nations Association of Japan, the Japan Association for UNHCR, the Japan Association for United Nations Studies, the Okinawa Peace Cooperation Center, respectively and Vice-President, EU Institute in Japan, Kansai (EUIJ-Kansai), among others.

Featured Panel Presentation | East Meets West
Professor Michael Anthony C. Vasco
University of Santo Tomas, Philippines

Biography

Professor Michael Anthony C. Vasco obtained his PhD in Philosophy, his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, and his Master of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines. He has published numerous single-authored research articles in academic journals, book anthologies and conference documents in Philosophy and Philosophy-related publications. His research interests include Contemporary European Philosophy, Social and Political Philosophy, Indian Philosophy, Buddhist Philosophy and Comparative Philosophy. He is Dean and Full Professor 2 in the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Arts and Letters and is Professorial Lecturer 3 at the UST Graduate School. During his Deanship, the Faculty of Arts and Letters, of UST was declared a Center of Excellence in Philosophy and Center of Development in Journalism, Communication Arts and Literature by the Philippine Commission on Higher Education.

Dr Philip Sugai
Doshisha Business School, Japan

Biography

Dr Sugai joined the Global MBA faculty at Doshisha Business School as a full-time faculty member in September 2013. He currently teaches Marketing, eMarketing, Marketing Research, and Sustainable & Responsible Marketing. Dr Sugai is also a Visiting Professor at Stanford University, where he teaches an undergraduate course on Innovation in Japan at the Stanford Overseas campus in Kyoto. Prior to joining the Doshisha University faculty, Dr Sugai taught at the International University of Japan in Niigata from January 2002, where he also served as Associate Dean and Dean of the IUJ Business School for six years.

Dr Sugai is the author of two books, The Value Plan and The Six Immutable Laws of Mobile Business (John Wiley & Sons), and has published case studies on KITKAT Japan, Australia’s AGL, Hatsune Miku and Walt Disney Internet Group, all of which are available through the Harvard Business School Publishing case study portal. He received his doctorate from Waseda University’s Graduate School of Global Information and Telecommunications Studies, and his MBA in Marketing and Operations Management from New York University’s Stern School of Business. He has worked as a marketing executive at American Express, Muze and Lightningcast, and currently serves as a marketing advisor and marketing strategy consultant to companies both in Japan and globally.

Featured Presentation: Establishing a Value Mindset
Dr Maxime Jaffré
Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), France

Biography

Dr Maxime Jaffré is Assistant Professor in Sociology of Culture at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS). His researches focus on issues of deterritorialisations and cultural recompositions. He is also interested in processes of institutionalisation of culture and in issues of implementation of cultural practices in the urban space. Dr Jaffré has also worked at the University of Chicago with Terry Nichols Clark, with whom he participated in the elaboration of a Cultural Mapping of Paris Métropole, on the behalf of the City of Paris. Dr Jaffré is now developing innovative statistical and cartographic methodologies involving Small and Big Data data analysis applied to urban and institutional issues. His current researches aims to determine the economic impacts of culture on cities, and on urban mobilities. Dr Jaffré has also been a consultant for the UNESCO at the Cultural Policy Division.

Spotlight Presentation | Can Data Science Do Without the Field Survey? Developing Innovative Statistical and Cartographic Methodologies Involving Small and Big Data Analyses in Social Sciences
Dr Jane Singer
Kyoto University, Japan

Biography

Dr Jane Singer is Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies (GSGES), Kyoto University, Japan. She has a Master of International Affairs degree specialising in economic and political development from the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, New York, and a PhD from GSGES, Kyoto University, focusing on development-forced displacement and resettlement. Her principal research focus is migration and displacement, with recent research investigating dam-displaced ethnic minority communities in central Vietnam and community resilience for government-sponsored transmigrants in Sumatra, Indonesia. Her other principal research focus is campus sustainability and tertiary education for sustainability. Her recent publications include two edited books, Global Implications of Development, Disasters and Climate Change: Responses to Displacement from Asia Pacific (2015, with Susanna Price) and Educating for Sustainability in Japan: Fostering Resilient Communities after the Triple Disaster (2016, with Tracey Gannon, Fumiko Noguchi and Yoko Mochizuki), both published by Routledge.

Spotlight Presentation | Applying a Rights-Based Approach in Investigating Repatriation of Fukushima's Nuclear Refugees
Dr Guo-qiang Liu
Deakin University, Australia

Biography

Dr Guo-qiang Liu is Associate Professor in Chinese Studies in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Deakin University in Australia. His interests include language and identity, language policy and planning, and China’s reconstruction of its national identity.

Spotlight Presentation | Xinhua News Agency's Coverage of the Kunming Railway Station Attack in the Context of Reshaping China's National Identity