Dr Papoutsaki hosting an international conference in Japan in 2023
Dr Evangelia Papoutsaki from the Unitec Research Office has been offered a six-month research fellowship by the Japan Foundation from January 2025. She will be hosted by Hokkaido University and in collaboration with Dr Meng Qu, Vice Director at the Center for Advanced Tourism Studies (CATS).
Evangelia will conduct a comparative project on “Mapping the communicative ecology of small tourist island communities: a comparative ethnographic study of three Japanese islands.”
The study will focus on three specific case studies within the Setouchi, Ryukyus and Hokkaido Island groups. Each group of islands presents a distinct tourism emphasis: with the Setouchi group highlighting art, the Ryukyus showcasing natural heritage and Hokkaido highlighting indigenous culture, with some areas of overlap.
Evangelia has an established research record in Japan and this will be her second research fellowship, she is the SICRI Co-convenor (small island cultures research initiative), which has strong connections with Japan and hosted an international conference in Japan last June.
This is the first time a Unitec staff member has been offered this fellowship by the Japan Foundation.
Read Evangelia’s Fellowship Report 2017_papoutsaki