Karen Nakamura

 candid photo of Professor Karen Nakamura mid-speech giving a presentation, holding a slideshow clicker, wearing a black jacket

Karen Nakamura is the Robert and Colleen Haas Distinguished Chair in Disability Studies and a Professor of Anthropology and graduate advisor for the UCB-UCSF Joint Program in Medical Anthropology, UC Berkeley. She is a cultural and visual anthropologist whose research focuses on disability, sexuality, and minority social movements in contemporary Japan. Her first book, Deaf in Japan, was on sign language, identity, and deaf social movements. She recently finished a second book on schizophrenia and mental illness in Japan entitled, A Disability of the Soul. For the past year, she has been working on a project exploring the intersections of disability, gender, and sexuality.

Excerpt from Othering & Belonging Conference

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