Hiroko Asakura

Hiroko Asakura is Professor of Anthropology at the Center for Research and Advanced Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS) in Mexico City, where she has conducted research since 2010. Her work centers on gendered violence within migration systems, with focus on Central American women traversing Mexico and Japanese corporate spouses in Mexican cities.

Her academic credentials include:

• PhD in Social Anthropology (CIESAS-DF, Mexico)
• PhD in Sciences and Arts with specialty in Gender Studies (Ochanomizu University, Tokyo)

Asakura's research interrogates the emotional architectures of migration through feminist ethnography, particularly examining how gender violence becomes normalized in transit zones. Her scholarship reveals how motherhood, emotional labor, and structural vulnerability intersect in migrant experiences, with methodological innovations in emotion-centered fieldwork.

Recent publications demonstrate consistent thematic focus on gender violence in migration contexts, evolving from Central American transit studies to pandemic-era analyses of gender inequality. Her work consistently bridges Mexican migration policy with transnational feminist theory.

Major recognitions include:

• SNI Level II research designation
• Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz thesis award (2006)
• Mexico-Japan academic exchange scholarship
• UNAM postdoctoral fellowship

She secured Conacyt funding for the collective project 'Entre dos fuegos' (2017-2019) analyzing gender violence against migrants, and currently directs research on Japanese corporate migrants in Mexico City and León. As Academic Coordinator of CIESAS's Graduate Program in Anthropology (2017-2019), she shaped institutional research directions.