Organization

Disaster Humanities and Social Science Division
Disaster Culture and Archive Studies
Associate Professor
Ph.D. (Japanese Studies)
Communication Science for Disaster Risk Reduction Lab, Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction Lab (Concurrent)

Research Subject(s)
My main research interests include the dynamics of social relations after disasters, recovery processes, the handling of negative heritage as well as identity and community building.
Key Words
cultural and collective memory / community dynamics / negative heritage / disaster risk education
Selected Works

Natalia Novikova, Julia Gerster & Manuela Hartwig (eds) Japan's Triple Disaster. Pursuing Justice after the Great East Japan Earthquake, Tsunami, and Fukushima Nuclear Accident. Routledge (June 9, 2023). ISBN 9781032375465; 292 Pages 35 B/W Illustrations.

Gerster, Julia. More than mushrooms: Local food culture and place-making after "Fuku-shima". In: Huang, Shumei and Maly, Elizabeth (2024): Place-making in Displacement: Community's responses to disasters from the Pacific Rim. Routledge Pacific Rim Geogra-phies series, 77-94.

Gerster, Julia (2023) "Place in Reconstruction and the Role of Gender: Was 3.11 a 'Window of Opportunity'?" In: Lee, Sunhee and Hiroki Takakura (eds.), Living After Disaster: Disaster Humanities of Consolation and Recovery, 189-207.

Julia Gerster & Elizabeth Maly (2022). Japan's Disaster Memorial Museums and framing 3.11: Othering the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in cultural memory, Contemporary Japan, 34:2, 187-209, DOI: 10.1080/18692729.2022.2112479

Gerster, Julia; Boret, Sebastien and Shibayama, Akihiro (2021). Out of the Dark: The challenges of Branding Post-Disaster Tourism Ten Years after the Great East Japan Earthquake. EATSJ -Euro-Asia Tourism Studies Journal. Vol 2, 1-25.

Gerster, Julia (2019). Hierarchies of affectedness: Kizuna, perceptions of loss, and social dynamics in post-3.11 Japan. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. Volume 41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2019.101304

Selected Memberships
  • European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS)
  • Japan Anthropology Workshop (JAWS)
  • Kataribe World Network (KWN)