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Portrait of Kyoko Shinozaki

Kyoko Shinozaki

Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Salzburg

Kyoko is a transnational scholar with interdisciplinary training in law (Japan), sociology (Japan and Germany), political science (USA), and gender studies and development studies (UK). Her interest in migration began during her Ph.D., which examined transnational life of irregular migrants from the Philippines working as domestic workers in a German city. While expanding on her work on different forms of labor migration and their implicit gendered nature of skills constructed in policies, her interest has grown to explore racism and institutional whiteness in higher education institutions. More recently, Kyoko has begun to study the relationship between ecology and society in depopulating peripheralized regions from a comparative perspective which has long been overlooked in migration and race studies. She sheds light on the creative and bottom-up mobilization of nature-positive revitalization in divisive times. 

Her professional services include IMISCOE (external link) 's Board of Directors and the Austrian Academy of Sciences' platform “Migration and Diversity”.

Research focus while a Fellow with Bridging Divides: 

Interlinked ecologies of migrations and mobilities: Envisioning resilient and convivial society

At the Global Migration Institute, Kyoko will analyze data on the simultaneous processes of migration/mobilities into and out of peripheralized places during divisive times, comparing Japan, Germany, and Austria. As young people leave rural areas for cities, migrants come to these areas for jobs in eldercare, agriculture, hotels, and the creative sector. Though historically providing fertile ground for traditional political forces regarding gender, migration, and ethnicity/race, some rural areas now embody “interlinked ecologies of migration/mobility”, undergoing social and ecological changes. Through exchanges with researchers, practitioners, and artists, Kyoko aims to write two articles examining the dynamic processes of these interlinked ecologies of mobility. She will explore both the potential and limits of bottom-up revitalization initiatives in peripheralized places leading to resilient, convivial ways of living together.

Relevant publications or reports:

Shinozaki, K. (forthcoming, 2026) ‘Sara Ahmed, On being included. Racism and diversity in institutional life.’ In M. Brocker & S. R. Strömel (Eg.), Das politische Denken der Gegenwart. Suhrkamp.

Shinozaki, K. (2026). ‘Gender and migration’—Towards critical gender lenses in studying migration with plural epistemologies (external link) . In Z. Lefkofridi (Ed.), Encyclopedia of gender and politics (external link) . Edward Elgar. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035322619.00038 (external link) 

Fischer, M, & Shinozaki, K. (2026). Reimagining migration studies in Europe through an interlinked lens of whiteness and coloniality (external link) . The European Sociologist, 53.

Rijcken, I. M., Karabegović, D., & Shinozaki, K. (2025). Embodied experiences in motion: integrating the senses in research and teaching. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2025.2562649 (external link) 

Gratzer, G. & Shinozaki, K (co-lead author) with D. Damyanovic, F. Hinterberger, A. Koch, M. Obrovsky, M. Penker, T. Schinko, C. Sturmbauer, K. Weber & M. Zessner-Spitzenberg (2024). Kapitel 8: Landnutzung und Klimawandel im Kontext der Nachhaltigen Entwicklungsziele [Chapter 8 Land use and climate change in the context of the UN Sustainable Development Goals]. In R. Jandl, U. Tappeiner, K.-H. Erb (Eds.), Austrian Panel for Climate Change (APCC) Special Report: Landnutzung und Klimawandel in Österreich [Land Use and Climate Change in Austria] (pp. 407–468), Springer Spektrum. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-67864-0_10 (external link)