Shino Hateruma, a 2016 Sylff fellowship recipient at Waseda University, visited the Sylff Association secretariat in Tokyo on November 30, 2022. She received a PhD in international studies earlier this year from the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University, for her research on the US military’s overseas presence and Asia-Pacific security.

Hateruma, second from left.

Born in Okinawa Prefecture, which hosts the largest number of US bases in Japan, Hateruma grew up amid a series of often tragic incidents and accidents committed by US military personnel. She has since developed a deep interest in the reasons for the US presence in her hometown, prompting her to undertake research on ways to resolve Japan’s Okinawa base problem through international comparison.

She is currently engaged in research at the Tokyo Institute of Technology and Okinawa International University and actively shares her analyses and perspectives on America’s overseas military presence at seminars and events throughout Japan. She plans to publish a book and journal articles based on her doctoral dissertation in both English and Japanese and expresses a strong desire to contribute to the global Sylff community. 

Warm congratulations on completing her PhD while raising her now two-year-old child, and best wishes for a successful and rewarding career.   

Mr. Sasakawa welcoming Professor Djokic during the visit to The Nippon Foundation.

On October 6, Professor Vladan Djokic, rector of the University of Belgrade, visited Sylff Association Chairman Yohei Sasakawa at The Nippon Foundation.

Professor Djokic, who was appointed rector in 2021, was in Japan to attend the Science and Technology in Society Forum in Kyoto. He and his wife, Dr. Ana Miladinovic, visited Tokyo on their way back to Serbia.

Mr. Sasakawa and Prof. Djokic exchange views on a range of topics.

In their meeting, Prof. Djokic and Mr. Sasakawa shared their views on a broad range of topics, including recent international developments and issues in Japan’s educational system.

A traditional Serbian handicraft is presented as a gift.

Prof. Djokic also stopped by the Tokyo Foundation’s Roppongi office. As an expert on urban architecture and design, he expressed great interest in the view of Tokyo from the Foundation’s 34th floor office.

A group photo at the Tokyo Foundation.

Face-to-face visits had been put on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic but are now gradually resuming. We are looking forward to the day when we can once again have in-person meetings with Sylff fellows and SSC members on a regular basis.

The Sylff Association secretariat was pleased to receive a visit on May 17, 2022, from Evgeniy Kandilarov, a 2003 Sylff fellowship recipient at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” in Bulgaria and currently a member of the university’s Sylff steering committee.

Having a visitor from abroad was very special for us, given that COVID-related restrictions have yet to be completely lifted.

Kandilarov, second from left, during his visit to the Sylff Association secretariat.

Kandilarov is an associate professor in the Japanese Studies Department at his alma mater and is staying in Tokyo through March 2023 to conduct research on the Japanese government’s policy toward Central and Eastern Europe, with a focus on the Balkans, from the Cold War to today. The research is being funded by the Japan Foundation.

He has published several books relating to his current research topic. During his stay, he hopes to analyze data from documentary sources and conduct interviews with specialists, policy makers, and practitioners to gain a better understanding of the driving factors and goals of Japan’s Balkan policy and the major outcomes of that policy.

During his visit to the secretariat, he also updated us on the recently renewed Sylff Program at Sofia University, which is being managed in an exemplary manner by Kandilarov and other members of the university’s steering committee.

We hope that his stay in Japan proves to be very productive.

Sylff Research Grant (SRG)

The Sylff Association secretariat is pleased to announce the launch of Sylff Research Grant (SRG), aimed at supporting high-quality academic research and career development among doctoral students and recent doctorates amid COVID-related restrictions. The program provides a grant of up to US$5,000 to each successful applicant.

All Sylff fellows who are currently enrolled in a doctoral program at any institution of higher learning or who received a doctorate on or after April 1, 2019, are eligible to apply. SRG may be used to support research conducted between October 15, 2022, and September 30, 2023.

Before submitting a formal application, fellows are required to complete online preliminary registration procedures before 11:59 p.m., June 30, 2022 (Japan Standard Time). Please carefully read the Call for Applications for details on eligibility, research activities for which the grant can be used, and application requirements and schedule.

We hope that eligible fellows will make most of this opportunity to advance their research activities. We look forward to receiving your application.

Participants:
—Sylff Steering Committee, Institute of Political Education “Pedro Arrupe”
• Giovanni Notari, SJ, Director (top row, third from left)
• Massimo Massaro, Sylff Chair (top row, left)
—Sylff Fellows, Institute of Political Education “Pedro Arrupe”
• Zeno Franchini (top row, right), (middle row, left to right) Francesco Montagnani, Danila Taccone, Federico Prestileo, Luca Carmelo Aiello
—Sylff Association Secretariat, Tokyo Foundation
• Mari Suzuki, Executive Director, Tokyo Foundation (top row, second from left)
• Yoko Kaburagi, Program Officer (bottom row, left)
• Maki Shimada, Program Officer (bottom row, right)

An online orientation for the Sylff Program 2022–23 was organized by the Institute of Political Education “Pedro Arrupe” on April 1, 2022, with members of the Sylff Association secretariat attending.

After an introduction to the Sylff Program by the Sylff Association secretariat, the new fellows made presentations of their action-oriented research topics designed to benefit the local community. The Institute’s Sylff program is called the “Idea-Action Research Program,” which provides a framework for fellows to apply scientific ideas to the resolution of real social issues through community engagement The following are their research topics:

Zeno Franchini: The status and effectiveness of inclusion practices in Palermo and how to create the foundations for new forms of activism and political and social struggle

Francesco Montagnani: The marginality in contexts undergoing redevelopment, with an emphasis on the decision-making practices that direct them through the construction of legitimate knowledge of the territory starting from the rearguard

Danila Taccone: Survey on the awareness regarding the rights, skills and vision of the future of girls in the age group 16-30 of a marginal neighborhood of the Palermo area in order to facilitate a process of self-narration based on the use of new technologies

Federico Prestileo: The effects of the change in public space that took place in the village of Sant'Erasmo in Palermo starting from some urban regeneration interventions that have changed its face

Luca Carmelo Aiello: Investment in the civil economy sector, with reference to the management and support of sustainable entrepreneurship paths from an economic and social point of view

The meeting ended with speeches by Mari Suzuki, Executive Director of the Tokyo Foundation, and Father Giovanni Notari, SJ, who both reaffirmed the goals of the Sylff program.

Despite the physical distance between Italy and Japan, the orientation session served as a great opportunity for the Sylff Association secretariat to learn more about the unique features of Institute’s program, notably the alignment of research and action at the grassroots level.

The island of Sicily, where the Institute is located, is one of the most marginalized areas in Italy with high unemployment and poverty rates but also with great potential not fully expressed. Located in the Mediterranean Sea, it is home to a large number of immigrants, contributing to its diversity while at the same time posing the question of their effective integration into local society. Fellows at the Institute are tackling such issues through multiple approaches, including not only academic research but also community action focusing on minority groups.

We hope that the new fellows will take full advantage of the Sylff program to advance their research and social activities and embody the Sylff mission in becoming leaders capable of transcending differences.

(from left: Payoshni Mitra and Rimple Mehta)

The Sylff Association secretariat is pleased to share wonderful news submitted by two fellows from Jadavpur University in India.

Payoshni Mitra (Photo: IWG Women & Sport)

Payoshni Mitra, a 2005–07 fellow, was appointed the first-ever Chief Executive Officer of the UNESCO-affiliated Global Observatory (GO) for Gender Equity & Sports, newly established in January 2022 in the Olympic capital of Lausanne, Switzerland, to promote gender equity in and through sports.

Mitra is a prominent athlete rights advocate and a gender and sports scholar. She has been fighting for nondiscrimination and inclusion of women athletes for over a decade, addressing human rights violations in sports, influencing important institutional changes, and helping athletes win legal cases.

Read the IWG Women & Sport press release on her appointment:

https://iwgwomenandsport.org/fr/athlete-rights-advocate-payoshni-mitra-announced-ceo-for-global-observatory/

Another Jadavpur fellow, Rimple Mehta, 2011–13, who is now Lecturer and Associate Dean, International (South and Southeast Asia) of the School of Social Sciences, Western Sydney University, has published Women, Incarcerated: Narratives from India. The book, co-edited with social anthropologist Mahuya Bandyopadhyay, is based on a social action project Mehta undertook on “Carceral Logics and Social Justice: A Dialogue between Practitioners, Scholars and Activists,” supported with a Sylff Leadership Initiatives (SLI) grant.

(photo: Oriental BlackSwan)

Mehta has been researching the issue of women’s imprisonment in India since 2008 when she met Bangladeshi women who had been incarcerated for illegally crossing the border to India. After a decade of research, her work has expanded to advocate against discrimination of women prisoners in the country, which was socially a neglected issue. She has been working to raise awareness of this issue by networking with activists, scholars, social work practitioners, and public administrators, as well as through her widely discussed first book, Women, Mobility and Incarceration.

Congratulations to both fellows for their important achievements, and we wish them even greater success henceforth in realizing their vision for a more just and inclusive society.

The Sylff Association secretariat wishes to thank the 49 fellows from 25 universities who participated in the COVID Vlogs project.

All the videos we received were highly illuminating, not only describing the COVID-19 experiences of each fellow in 21 countries but also shedding light on the impact of the coronavirus on their respective communities and potential future global implications, as well as elucidating fellow’s initiatives to be of help to others.

The fellows’ contributions to the COVID Vlogs project will become a repository of valuable lessons from the pandemic and a source of strengths and encouragement for the Sylff community.

*Listed in order of posting date 

The Sylff Association secretariat is pleased to announce its plan to launch Sylff Research Grant (SRG) in June 2022 to provide financial assistance for fellows who are either doctoral students or postdoc researchers.

SRG is aimed at supporting fellows who need to conduct high-quality research with a view to career development despite the restrictions imposed on their activities by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The details are still under development, but SRG will offer grants for academic research conducted by fellows who are currently enrolled in a doctoral program and those who, having received their doctorate within the past three years, are currently conducting postdoc research. To support fellows’ development as socially engaged leaders, SRG will provide assistance for not only academically oriented research but also activities that can be expected to lead to social betterment.

Please look forward to the official announcement of the program’s launch on the Sylff website and through the Sylff newsletter!

Note: The Sylff Association secretariat is not able to answer questions regarding the details of SRG, including eligibility, application procedures, and application documents, until its official launch in June 2022.

Sylff Research Abroad without Overseas Travel for FY2021

The Sylff Association secretariat is pleased to announce the 11 recipients of SRA without Overseas Travel awards for fiscal 2021 (April 2021 to March 2022). Like last year, this year’s Sylff Research Abroad was modified to accommodate restrictions on international travel due to COVID-related health and security concerns. We were delighted to receive a great number of outstanding applications from fellows all over the world in spite of the current constraints.

We reviewed all applications carefully from the perspectives of eligibility, the feasibility of the proposals, and the relevance of the proposed research to the applicants’ academic pursuits. The awardees were at different stages of their research, some taking advantage of SRA without Overseas Travel to collect fundamental data for their doctoral dissertation, with others using the opportunity to verify their findings and receive further advice from overseas experts.

The secretariat was heartened by the initiative and leadership demonstrated by fellows intent on taking advantage of the support program despite the pandemic-induced setbacks to their research endeavors. We are also grateful to Sylff steering committee members at each Sylff institution for their cooperation in encouraging fellows to apply.

Congratulations to all the awardees! We send them our best wishes and hope the research conducted with this award will be fruitful in advancing their doctoral research. The 11 awardees are as follows:

* Listed in alphabetical order.

Standing, from left, are Keita Sugai (director), Sachiko Matsuoka, Mari Suzuki (executive director), and Chie Yamamoto; in the front row are Yumi Arai and Maki Shimada; and on the screen are Yue Zhang and Yoko Kaburagi.

As we approach the end of 2021, we take a look back over the past year through Sylff News.

COVID-19 continued to rage in countries around the world, prompting the Sylff Association secretariat to implement a second round of financial support called COVID-19 Relief for Fellows 2021 and introduce Sylff Research Abroad without Oversea Travel for FY2021. We were happy to support many fellows who had a difficult time finding employment or continuing their studies and research. Members of the Sylff community pitched in with donations to support pandemic-affected fellows.

Though we could not meet Sylff fellows in person, we received twice as many articles as last year for the Sylff website (50 Voices articles). Submissions to the Voices from the Pandemic and COVID Vlog series were full of insights and warm thoughts. We look forward to receiving COVID Vlog messages from many more fellows through the end of February 2022.

We wish you all a safe, healthy, and happy New Year.

Follow the links to the Sylff News articles uploaded in 2021:

News from the Sylff Website

Jan 21, 2021
Nairobi Fellow Wins WTO’s Trade Economist Thematic Award

Apr 1, 2021
Sylff to Offer New COVID-19 Relief for Current, Recently Graduated Fellows

Apr 23, 2021
Applications, Donations Now Being Accepted for COVID-19 Relief 2021

Jun 25, 2021
Thank You for Your COVID-19 Relief Donations

Sep 1, 2021
Sylff Research Abroad (SRA) without Oversea Travel Launched for FY2021

Sep 29, 2021
COVID-19 Relief for 2021 Provided to about 300 Current and Recently Graduated Fellows

Oct 22, 2021
Call for COVID Video Messages from Fellows

Dec 13, 2021
Deadline of “COVID Vlogs” Extended to February 2022