Dr Anna-Viktoria Vittinghoff

School of East Asian Studies

Lecturer in East Asian Studies

Anna-Viktoria Vittinghoff
Profile picture of Anna-Viktoria Vittinghoff
a.vittinghoff@sheffield.ac.uk

Full contact details

Dr Anna-Viktoria Vittinghoff
School of East Asian Studies
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
Sheffield
S3 7RA
Profile

I’m a Lecturer in East Asian Studies who joined SEAS in August 2022.

My doctoral research looked at the life and work of Yonezu Tomoko, a prominent female disabled activist in Japan whose work spanned both the radical women’s liberation (ūman ribu) and disability movement from the 1970s to 1996. Through my investigation I show how ribu thought provided a platform for new forms of intersectional activist groups to challenge productivity as the predominant measure of human value in Japan into the 1990s. In doing so my thesis provides an analysis of post-war Japanese reproduction discourse and addresses how the presence, participation, and contributions of disabled activists pushed the debate beyond bodily autonomy based on gender and sexuality.
 

Research interests

My research interests include, but are not limited to:
● The Disability movement in post-war Japan
● The Ūman ribu movement in the 1970s
● Reproductive justice and politics in modern Japan
● The intersection of disability and gender within social activism
● Eugenics in modern Japan
● Transnational networks of reproductive justice in East Asia
● The Japanese student movement and the New Left
● Social order and bio-politics in Japan
● Global 1968

Teaching activities

EAS1031 History and Culture in Japan
EAS21008 Gender and Identities in East Asia
EAS31002 Researching East Asia
EAS31003 East Asian Research Project

Publications and Awards

Publications:

Vittinghoff, A. 2022. “Re-assessing radical feminism from the vantage point of dis/ability” in Disability in Media, Law and History: Intersectional, embodied and socially constructed?, edited by Micky Lee, Frank Rudy Cooper, and Patricia Reeve.

Vittinghoff, A. 2022. “Feminism and Disability” in the Handbook for Feminisms in Japan, edited by Ulrike Wöhr and Andrea Germer. (in press)

Awards:

● Recipient of the Sarah Hyde Memorial Award 2019 for PhD research project
● Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation Studentship Sept 2018 – Sept 2020
● Japan Foundation Endowment Committee Grant for conducting field work in Japan, March 2020
● British Association for Japanese Studies John Crump Studentship 2021
● University of Edinburgh College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Centre for Data, Culture and Society Small PhD Fund, May 2020

  • Scottish Football Association Referee since 2019
  • UEFA Venue Data Coordinator since 2022