Dr Maki Kimura

Associate Professor (Teaching) in Gender and Politics
Room: B.13, 29/30 Tavistock Square
Email: maki.kimura@ucl.ac.uk

Biography

I obtained a BA and MA in Political Science from Waseda University, Japan, before moving to the UK to undertake my PhD research. I completed my thesis at the London School of Economics and Political Science on the system of Japan’s military sexual slavery (‘comfort women’) in the Asia-Pacific region during the Second World War exploring its genealogy and voices of victim-survivors.

Before joining UCL, I taught at various universities, and also worked as a Research Fellow at the University of East London and the Open University, conducting higher education research projects on equality and diversity. Through this experience, I became involved in promoting race equity in higher education, and am currently a member of the UCL Race Equality Steering Group. I am also committed to advocating intersectional gender equality, peace and anti-militarism, and I work actively in and with various civil society organisations, contributing to research and policy development.

Research

My broad research interests are in the areas of gender and racial equality, and social justice. My PhD research on Japan’s military sexual slavery highlighted the importance of a gendered analysis of war and conflict, focusing on the voices of victim-survivors of sexual violence. It also addressed this system in the wider context of modernity, where the intersectional oppressions of gender, race, class, colonialism and militarism are formed. 

Building on my PhD research, I undertook a research study on ‘War memorials: embodying traumatic pasts and constructing memories of war’, funded by BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants (2018-22) and explored how ‘affect’ and emotion are mobilised to form and legitimise contemporary political identities. 

I have a long-standing interest in food insecurity, urban agriculture and sustainability, and am currently developing a research study on the role of community gardens in addressing the issue of food inequality and sustainability and its potential to present a new form of governance.

Publications

Books

• Kimura, M. (2016) Unfolding the ‘Comfort Women’ Debates: Modernity, Violence and Women’s Voices. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Journal articles

• Kimura, M. (2014) ‘Performativity and Subjectification in the Changing Culture of Higher Education’, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 35(4), pp. 523–540.
• Kimura, M. (2008) ‘Narrative as a Site of Subject Construction: Through the “Comfort Women” Debate’, Feminist Theory, 9(1).

Book chapters

• Kimura, M. (forthcoming 2024) ‘Feminist Response to Sexual Slavery’, in A. Germer and U. Wöhr (eds.) Handbook of Feminisms in Japan. MHM Limited: Tokyo.
• Kimura, M. (2024) ‘The Legacy of Injustice and Resistance: Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery’, in C. Beasley, and P. Papadelos (eds.) Living Legacies of Social Injustice: Power and Social Change. London: Routledge.
• Kimura, M. (2021) ‘Geo-spatial Politics of Intersectionality: The Impact of Global and National Policy on Women, Peace and Security on Women Enduring and Fleeing War and Conflict’, in A. Biele Mefebue, A. Bührmann, and S. Grenz (eds.) Handbuch Intersektionalitätsforschung. Wiesbaden: Springer.
• Kimura, M. (2021) ‘War Memorials: Embodying Traumatic Pasts and Constructing Memories of the Asia-Pacific War’, in M. S. Micale and H. Pols (eds.) Traumatic Pasts in Asia: History, Psychiatry, and Trauma from the 1930s to the Present. Oxford/New York: Berghahn.
• Kimura, M. (2019) ‘Reflections on Commemorating Women’s Activism of the Early 20th Century: Suffrage, Peace, Transnationalism and Diversity’, in Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (ed.) Women Vote Peace: Zurich Congress 1919 to Zurich 2019. Norderstedt: BOD. 
• Kimura, M. (2014) ‘All Women Shortlists in the UK Labour Party’, in M. Miura and M. Eto (eds.) Gender Quotas in Comparative Perspectives: Understanding the Increase in Women Representatives (in Japanese). Tokyo: Akashi Shobo.
• Kimura, M. (2012) ‘Citizenship and University: University as a Space for Enacting Citizenships’, in J. Pykett (ed.) Governing through Pedagogy: Re-educating Citizens. London: Routledge.

Other articles

• Kimura, M. (2019) ‘Reflections on commemorating women’s activism of the early 20th century: suffrage, peace, transnationalism and diversity’ in The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (ed.) Women Vote Peace: Zurich Congress 1919 to Zurich 2019, Norderstedt: BOD
• Kimura, M. (2019) ‘Driven by War into Politics!: Kathleen Elizabeth Royds (Innes) (1883-1967)’, Women Vote Peace: Women.
• Kimura, M (2016) ‘The Anti-US Military Base Struggle in Okinawa, Japan’ openDemocrary.
• Kimura, M (2016) ‘Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery: Whose Agreement?’ openDemocracy: 50.50.
• Kimura, M (2013) ‘Japan’s Politicians Have a Problem with ‘Comfort Women’’, Comment is Free (The Guardian).

Teaching

The Gender and Politics modules I teach aim to challenge the Eurocentric, male-dominant, heteronormative and cisnormative understanding and practice of politics. By critically engaging with the politics of knowledge production, these modules seek to equip students with critical thinking abilities.