Laura Murphy: Shifting international dynamics and academic freedom: How can university autonomy be protected?
Temple University Japan
Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies
and the
Economic Security Intelligence Lab (ESIL) at Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), The University of Tokyo
Shifting international dynamics and academic freedom: How can university autonomy be protected?
Speaker:
Laura Murphy
16 December 2025 09:00-10:00 (Tokyo/Seoul Time)
10:00 Taipei/Singapore
15 December: 16:00 Vancouver/LA -- 19:00 DC/Ottawa
Zoom only
Registration:
https://temple.zoom.us/meeting/register/YdHT9LiCT1SEI0PYB9WLLA
Overview
ICAS Temple University Japan and the Economic Security Intelligence Lab (ESIL) at Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), The University of Tokyo are pleased to invite you to an online webinar featuring Dr. Laura Murphy, Professor of Human Rights at Sheffield Hallam University and Carr-Ryan Fellow at Harvard University Kennedy School of Government.
Professor Murphy’s long-standing research on forced labor in the Uyghur region faced unprecedented interference in 2024, which culminated in the Sheffield Hallam University’s decision to discontinue her research in 2025, a development widely reported by major outlets including the BBC and The Guardian. Her case has sparked urgent debate about how external actors may seek to influence or curtail academic inquiry. Building on this and other recent examples, the webinar will explore how shifting international dynamics are creating new forms of transnational pressure on universities, and what these developments mean for academic freedom and institutional autonomy.
The session will examine the broader implications of such pressures for scholars, students, and research institutions, including constraints on transparency, access, governance, and institutional safeguards. As global political uncertainty continues to grow, these issues are becoming increasingly relevant for universities in Japan as well. The event aims to provide researchers, administrators, and students with insights into how higher education institutions can better protect academic freedom and ensure the integrity of their research environments.
In addition to Professor Murphy, the event will feature opening remarks from Robert Dujarric of ICAS, Temple University Japan and moderated by Akira Igata, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST) at the University of Tokyo.
Speakers
Laura T. Murphy is Professor of Human Rights and Contemporary Slavery at the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice at Sheffield Hallam University (UK). She has been the recipient of the National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar Award, a British Academy Visiting Fellow, and the John G. Medlin Fellow at the National Humanities Center.
She is the author of Freedomville: The Story of a 21st Century Slave Revolt (Columbia Global Reports, 2021), The New Slave Narrative: The Battle over Representations of Contemporary Slavery (Columbia University Press, 2019), editor of Survivors of Slavery: Modern-Day Slave Narratives (Columbia University Press, 2014), and author of Metaphor and the Slave Trade in West African Literature (Ohio University Press, 2012). She is also editor of the Cambridge Companion to Slavery and Global Literature (Cambridge UP, 2022).
Her research team has published a series of reports and evidence briefs about the Chinese government's intertwined systems of internment and forced labour that has been inflicted on the people of the Uyghur Region. The work investigates the international supply chains that have ties to those repressive systems, including those attached to the solar, apparel, chemicals/plastics, automotive, and critical minerals sectors. She has provided expert testimony and evidence on the crisis in the Uyghur Region to the U.S., U.K., E.U., and Australian governments, as well as provided private briefings to government agencies, advocacy groups, law firms, and others interested in the issue globally.
She has previously conducted research on forced labour in India, Nigeria, Ghana, the United States, and Canada.
She has recently been part of a team that created Core Competencies for medical professionals addressing human trafficking in healthcare settings with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Her previous research on the intersection of homeless youth and human trafficking in the US and Canada provided a four-pronged victim-centered community blueprint for how service providers can best assist youth at risk of trafficking, based on interviews with over 600 homeless youth in the U.S. and Canada. She has consulted for the World Health Organization, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Office of Victims of Crime, and the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Center, as well as other government agencies, workers unions, investor groups, law firms, and advocacy groups.
The seminar will be conducted in English, and pre-registration is required to participate.
Takehiro Masutomo Run-Ri: The wealthy Chinese escaping to Japan
Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies at Temple University Japan
Book talk:
Run-Ri: The wealthy Chinese escaping to Japan
潤日 ルンリィー: 日本へ大脱出する中国人富裕層を追う
Takehiro Masutomo
2 December 2025 from 12:15 to 13:30 (doors open 12:00)
TUJ | Room 301
RSVP by replying to this email
Contact: dujarric@temple.edu
Robert Dujarric, TUJ
Takehiro Masutomo (舛友 雄大) will discuss his bestselling book : Run-Ri: Tracing wealthy Chinese elites escaping to Japan (潤日 ルンリィー: 日本へ大脱出する中国人富裕層を追う, 東洋経済新報社, 2025) and the recent anti-immigration sentiment in Japan. Takehiro, who worked as reporter for many years in China's top business publication, has spend several years studying the migration of rich PRC nationals finding a new life, or a second home, in Japan. This migrants, different from the previous waves of Chinese who have been coming to Japan for centuries, are wealthy, well-educated, and enjoy a comfortable life in China. Yet, many are seeking to relocate to Japan. Tekehiro's path-breaking research sheds light on conditions in China, the attractiveness of Japan, and an under researched aspect of Sino-Japanese ties.
Takehiro Masutomo is a quadrilingual journalist specializing in China and Southeast Asia and adjunct researcher at Waseda University. Born in Fukuoka in 1985, Takehiro holds a Master’s degree in International Relations from the University of California, San Diego. After joining Caixin in 2010, he covered international news, primarily focusing on Japan. From 2014 to 2016, he served as a research associate at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, the National University of Singapore. Since 2022, he has provided commentary on Asian affairs for NHK Radio’s news program My Asa! In 2023, he launched the podcast Asia Frontline.
Book talk on Taiwan
The Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies at Temple University Japan presents:
[Book Talk] Ghost Nation:
The Story of Taiwan and its Struggle for
Survival
Speaker:
Chris Horton
Journalist
Monday, September 22, 2025 from 18:30-20:00 (Tokyo)
Temple University Japan Campus | Room 408 or Online
URL: https://tuj.libcal.com/event/5846974
Overview
Ghost Nation is a sweeping look at Taiwan that uses the story of four centuries of colonial history to provide context for the country's complicated present. The book avoids both-sidesing Taiwan's political status, arguing that Taiwan is already an independent country -- a country that is vital to the survival of democracies as they grapple with the growing threat from authoritarianism. Ghost Nation draws upon extensive interviews with the people who have shaped modern Taiwan, including former presidents Lee Teng-hui and Tsai Ing-wen, as well as student leaders involved in the Wild Lily and Sunflower protest movements. Rather than approach Taiwan through the lens of China, or the US-China rivalry, Ghost Nation centers the story of the Taiwanese people to explain this dynamic and indispensable member of the global community.
Speaker
Chris Horton is a Taipei-based journalist who has reported on Taiwan for publications including The New York Times, Bloomberg News, Nikkei Asia, The Atlantic, and elsewhere since 2015. Prior to Taiwan, Horton was a reporter in Hong Kong for two years, during which he covered the Umbrella protests, and in China, where for a decade-plus he focused on the ramifications of China's economic rise.
Moderator
Andy Sharp is an opinion editor for Nikkei Asia
Robert Dujarric is the Co-director of the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies (ICAS) at Temple University, Japan Campus |Robert Dujarric | Temple University, Japan Campus|
Access:
Temple University, Japan Campus, Main Building
Room 408 (4th Floor)
1-14-29 Taishido, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo
東京都世田谷区太子堂1-14-29
By train: Sangenjaya Station/三軒茶屋駅
Exit South A/南口A