NEWS

2026.02.20

【Report】 The 26th AJI Book Launch was held! Dr. Sanae ITO, Ethnography of the Great Nepal Earthquake: Responding to Disaster Where Commonality and Citizenship Intersect

On Wednesday, February 4, 2026, the 26th AJI Book Launch was held. In this session, Dr. Sanae Ito, Lecturer at the Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University, and Visiting Researcher at the Ritsumeikan Asia-Japan Research Organization, presented her first monograph, Ethnography of the Great Nepal Earthquake: Responding to Disaster Where Commonality and Citizenship Intersect (Nakanishiya Shuppan, 2024).

This ethnographic monograph traces the 2015 Nepal earthquake and its subsequent recovery from a socio-cultural-anthropological perspective. Specifically, the study examines the relationship between the imagination/creation (想像／創造) of the “village” as a community and the networks of domestic and international civil institutions. Dr. Ito clarified that the earthquake victims practiced a pluralistic and flexible disaster response. While relying on the imagination/creation of traditional commonality, including the reconstruction of relationships with the land and local deities, they simultaneously utilized connections based on modern mutual aid, public awareness, citizenship, and development discourse. Through these various channels, they engaged with global civil society, demonstrating a dynamic and multi-layered approach to recovery from the disaster.

During the book launch, Dr. Ito introduced the core arguments of her work, incorporating several photographs that were not featured in the book.

During the Q&A session, the moderator, Dr. Mari ADACHI, JSPS Research Fellow and Senior Researcher at the Kinugasa Research Organization, Ritsumeikan University, asked questions about the current state of recovery and emerging trends within that process. The audience gave a variety of insightful comments and asked questions ranging from changes in government policy triggered by the earthquake to the ways in which post-disaster nationalism relates to the “Gen Z” movements of last year. These contributions provided meaningful suggestions for future research, leading to a lively and fruitful exchange of ideas.

Dr. Sanae Ito making her presentation

Please visit the following link for the Previous AJI Book Launch series:
https://en.ritsumei.ac.jp/research/aji/publication/aji_book_club/