Julia Gerster

Julia Gerster is an Assistant Professor at the IRIDES (Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Sciences) at Tohoku University, Japan. Her research focuses on disaster recovery processes in Japan, particularly the socio-cultural impacts of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster. She holds a PhD in Japanese Studies/Anthropology from Freie Universität Berlin (2019). Her work explores themes such as social capital, cultural institutions, migration, and food culture in post-disaster contexts.

Gerster’s academic journey includes exchange programs at Chuo University and Sophia University in Tokyo, where she began her disaster studies research. She has conducted fieldwork in Tohoku since 2013 under Prof. David Slater’s 'Voices from Tohoku' project and served as a researcher at Tohoku University from 2016. Her interdisciplinary approach bridges anthropology, environmental studies, and East Asian studies.

She has contributed to media discussions on disaster recovery, including articles in Die Zeit and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and has presented at conferences such as the EAJS in Lisbon and symposia in Sendai, focusing on community rebuilding, cultural narratives, and translocal identities. Gerster also engages in public outreach, organizing Japan-related events in Berlin and serving on the management board of the German-Japanese Youth Exchange Organization (DJJG).