Jieun Cho

Jieun Cho serves as Assistant Professor in the Department of Japanese Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), where she conducts cultural anthropological research on contemporary Japan. Her work critically examines intersections of environmental crises, social precarity, and bodily vulnerability, with deep focus on post-3.11 Fukushima communities.

Education

• Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology, Duke University

Research Focus

• Core inquiry into how families navigate environmental uncertainty through care practices amid nuclear contamination
• Specialization in toxicity, rural resilience, and kinship reconfiguration under prolonged disaster conditions
• Theoretical contributions to medical anthropology regarding embodied risk and moral agency

Publication Trends Her recent scholarship (2020-2025) reveals consistent engagement with Fukushima's socioecological aftermath, tracing how care communities emerge through recuperation retreats, domestic politics, and material interventions. These works bridge environmental anthropology with critical disaster studies, emphasizing lived experience over technical risk assessment.

Professional Engagement

• Section Editor for Anthropology News (Society for East Asian Anthropology, 2021-2024)
• Affiliated with CUHK's Research Centre for Comparative Japanese Studies
• Contributor to Japan-Hong Kong Interactions in Popular Culture initiative