Research Affiliate
Biography
Akira is a Research Affiliate at the University of Oxford’s School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography (SAME). He is also Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Postdoctoral Fellow at the Graduate School of Education, Kyoto University.
Akira received his Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) in Anthropology at SAME in 2023, before staying on as a Postdoctoral Affiliate for two years. He was also JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow at Keio University between 2025-2026, while currently a Visiting Researcher at Sophia University, and Post-Doctoral Research Associate at SOAS University of London.
Born in the UK, Akira's upbringing contains a transnational mix of cultural influences, ranging from those Japanese and Canadian, to Guyanese and Indian.
Current Research
Akira's present research expands on a doctoral thesis titled International Baccalaureate Teacher Training in Japanese Higher Education: An Ethnography of Internationalist and Globalist Agendas. Contextualized in the rise of IB education in Japan, he explored how different ideologies, pedagogies, and languages forwarded by various actors – ranging from teachers and policymakers, to governmental and corporate elites – vie to define the meanings of ‘international’ and ‘global’ in everyday life.
This project's doctoral phase involved a digital ethnography of international teacher education programs inside Japanese higher education, carried out between 2020 and 2021: the peak of COVID-19. His current phase of ethnographic fieldwork partly mimics that accomplished previously, only now in-person, and under a more settled climate six years later.
Examples of Akira’s ongoing work has been published in journals ranging from Anthropology & Education Quarterly, to Japan Forum and Ethnography. His recent papers encompass theories of whiteness, minoritization, digitality, and contemplative practice.
Research Themes
Globalization / Internationalization, Nationalism / Localism, Imperialism / Colonialism, Audit Culture, Whiteness, Japaneseness, Minoritization, Language, Translation, Pedagogy, Education, Digitality, Contemplative Practice
Recent Publications
Shah, Akira. 2026. Bunkateki nashonarizumu to howaitonesu wo koete: mainoritika riron kara miru ‘kikokushijo’ to ‘gurōbaru eigo’ no kyakkanka (Transcending Cultural Nationalism and Whiteness: The Objectivization of “Returnees” and “Global English” as seen from Minoritization Theory). Gendai Shisō (Contemporary Thought) 54(5): 85-96. Tokyo: Seidosha.
Shah, Akira. 2025. Fostering Contemplative Ethnographers: A Tale of Fieldwork Ethics, Vulnerability, and Trauma in Neoliberal Academia. Ethnography 0(0):1-20
Shah, Akira. 2025. Decloaking Whiteness: Linguistic and Pedagogical Imperialisms of International Baccalaureate Teacher Education in Japan. Anthropology & Education Quarterly 56(2): e12537.
Shah, Akira. 2024. Minoritizing Identity: Imposing Racial and Cultural Illusions of 'the Japanese.' Japan Forum 37(1): 112-138.
Shah, Akira. 2023. “Digital Ethnography in COVID-19: Improvisation & Intimacy.” Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford 15: 178-193.
Email: akira.shah [at] anthro.ox.ac.uk
Social media: LinkedIn
