Discipline of Social Sciences
Staff Profiles
Staff Profiles

Staff Profile: Yoko Kanemasu

Associate Professor

Email: yoko.kanemasu@usp.ac.fj
Tel.: +679 323 2516
Office: CELT Room 211

Education

BA in Foreign Language and Studies (Sophia University, Japan); MA in Sociology (USP); PhD in Sociology (University of New South Wales, Australia)

Research Areas

Gender, Sexuality, Women, Disability, Sport, Resistance, Identity, Representation, Migration, Pacific Islands

Bio

Yoko is an Associate Professor in Sociology and teaches social theory and research methodology at USP. Her areas of specialisation include gender, sexuality, identity, sport and migration, with a focus on the socio-political agency of marginalised communities in the Pacific. She is the author of the Routledge open-access monograph Pacific Island Women and Contested Sporting Spaces: Staking Their Claim (2023) and co-author of the Routledge monograph Women’s Football in Oceania (2023). Yoko is also the editor of the Emerald anthology Towards a Pacific Island Sociology of Sport: Seeking New Horizons (2024) and co-editor of the Routledge volume Women, Sport and Exercise in the Asia-Pacific Region: Domination-Resistance-Accommodation (2019). She is the recipient of 2022 Best Paper Award of the Journal of Sociology (for her article titled: “’Let fa’afafine shine like diamonds’: balancing accommodation, negotiation and resistance in gender-nonconforming Samoans”), 2016 Vice Chancellor’s Prize for Research Impact, and 2014 Vice Chancellor’s Prize for the Best Research Output. She is a member of the editorial boards of the International Review for the Sociology of Sport and the Journal of Pacific Studies.
Yoko is also a passionate supporter of women’s rugby in Fiji – Go Fijiana!!!

MA and PhD Supervision

Current supervision

  • Malia Vaurasi (PhD Sociology): “Exploring the Experiences and Perspectives of Rotuman Women in Community Leadership” (provisional title)
  • Mashnil Shinoy (MA Sociology): “Primary Prevention of Violence against Women and Girls: the Perspectives of Young Indo-Fijian Women Living in Informal Settlements in Suva”
  • Moana Bergmaier-Masau (MA Social Policy & Administration): “Wood & Women: the Experiences of Women Working in the Engineered Wood Sector of Forestry in Fiji”

Selected completions

  • Atele Dutt (PhD Sociology): “Corporal Punishment in Schools in Samoa: a Sociological Explanation for Its Persistence” (with Distinction)
  • Zena Sherani (PhD Sociology): “Home, Sense of Belonging and Construction of Identity amongst Indo-Fijian youths in New Zealand”
  • Malia Vaurasi (MA Sociology): “(Re)Weaving Culture and Gender: Exploring Expressions of Assertive Femininity in Rotuman Culture” (Gold Medal)
  • Koini Vuli (MA Sociology): “Pains and Gains of Women’s Rugby: Fijian Women’s Experience of a Male-Dominated Sport”
  • Sam Kaiapam (MA Social Policy & Administration): “Impacts of Labour Migration on Migrants and Their Families: A Case Study of Vanuatu”.
  • Rolando Cocom (MA Sociology) “An Inquiry On Racial, Ethnic, And National Identity Among ‘Mixed Race’ Persons Of Indian And Fijian Descent” (Gold Medal)
Courses Taught
  • SO200: Modern Social Theory
  • SO301: Sociology of Public Policy & Administration
  • SO303: Advanced Social Theory
  • AL400: Research Methodologies in the Humanities & Social Sciences
  • SO408: Issues in Social and Public Policy
  • GN400: Contemporary Feminism, Theory, Methods & Debates for Gender Research
  • GN401: Gender, Global Change & Development in a Comparative Perspective
Project in progress

A monograph contract with Routledge: Gender Diversity and Sport in Pacific Islands

Monographs
  • Kanemasu, Y. (2023) Pacific Island Women and Contested Sporting Spaces: Staking Their Claim. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
  • McGowan, L., Symons, K. and Kanemasu, Y. (2023) Women’s Football in Oceania. Routledge Soccer Histories Series. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Edited volumes
  • Kanemasu, Y. (ed.) (2024) Towards a Pacific Island Sociology of Sport: Seeking New Horizons. Leeds: Emerald Publishing. DOI: 10.1108/S1476-2854202422
  • Molnar, G., Amin, S. and Kanemasu, Y. (eds.) (2019) Women, Sport and Exercise in the Asia-Pacific Region: Domination-Resistance-Accommodation. London: Routledge.
Journal articles and book chapters
  • Nakamura, N. and Kanemasu, Y. (in press) Climate Change Adaptation Planning in Pacific Island Countries: Problematising Locally-based Knowledge and “Community”. In: Addaney, M. and Cobbinah, P. (eds.) Handbook of Planning and Climate Change Adaptation. Edward Elgar Publishing.
  • Kanemasu, Y. and Knijnik, J. (2025) South-South Comparative Feminist Inquiry: “Patriarchal Varieties” and Women’s Subversive Strategies in/through Sports in Fiji and Brazil. International Review for the Sociology of Sport.
  • Kanemasu, Y. (2024) Paddling as “Pelagic Postcolonialism”: Pacific Voyaging Resurgence, Ocean Justice and Outrigger Canoe Racing (va’a) in Fiji. International Review for the Sociology of Sport. DOI: 10.1177/10126902241282069
  • Kanemasu, Y. (2024) Pacific Sport Research: Seeking New Horizons. In: Kanemasu, Y. (ed.) Towards a Pacific Island Sociology of Sport: Seeking New Horizons. Leeds: Emerald Publishing, pp. 1–20,
  • Kanemasu, Y. (2024) Paddling Our Sea of Islands: Fiji Outrigger Canoe Racing (Va’a) as Living Culture. In: Kanemasu, Y. (ed.) Towards a Pacific Island Sociology of Sport: Seeking New Horizons. Leeds: Emerald Publishing, pp. 79–98.
  • McGowan, L. Kanemasu, Y., Taylor, C. and Symons, K. (2024) Reframing Impact through Sharing Stories: Reflections on Emerging Evaluation Practices in Women’s Football in the Pacific Islands. In: Kanemasu, Y. (ed.) Towards a Pacific Island Sociology of Sport: Seeking New Horizons. Leeds: Emerald Publishing, pp. 163–181.
  • Kanemasu, Y. and Chan-Tung, A. L. (2023) Weaving “Culture” and Political Advocacy in a Small Island Nation: Samoa Fa’afafine Association and Non-Heteronormative Samoans. In, Briguglio, L., Briguglio, M., Bunwaree, S. and Slatter, C. (eds.) Handbook of Civil Society and Social Movements in Small States. Routledge, pp. 138–149.
  • Kanemasu, Y. (2023) Fissures in Gendered Nationalism: the Rise of Women’s Rugby in Fiji. National Identities, 25(4): 375–390.
  • Kanemasu, Y. and Dutt, A. (2022) Postcoloniality, Gender and Sport: A Snapshot of the Literature and Insights from Fiji. In: Molnar, G. and Bullingham, G. (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Gender Politics in Sport and Physical Activity. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, pp. 193–202.
  • Kanemasu, Y., Johnson, J., and Dutt, A. (2022) Fijian Women’s Physical Inactivity: Through a Lens of Gender, “Race” and Disability. In: Siefken, K., Varela, A. R., Waqanivalu, T. and Schulenkorf, N (eds.) Physical Activity in Low- and Middle-income Countries. Oxon, Oxford: Routledge, pp. 187–201.
  • Nakamura, N. and Kanemasu, Y. (2022) A Minority Group’s Response to a Severe Climatic Event: A Case Study of Rural Indo-Fijians after Tropical Cyclone Winston in 2016. Disasters, 46(1): 206–225.
  • Knijnik, J., Balram, R., and Kanemasu, Y. (2022) Who Owns the Ball? Gender (dis) Order and the 2014 FIFA World Cup. In: Dashper, K. (ed) Gender, Sport and Mega-events. Emerald Studies in Sport and Gender series. Bingley, UK: Emerald, pp. 149–162.
  • Kanemasu, Y. and Liki, A. (2021) “Let Fa’afafine Shine Like Diamonds”: Balancing Accommodation, Negotiation and Resistance in Gender-Nonconforming Samoans’ Counter-Hegemony. Journal of Sociology, 57(4): 806–824. * Journal of Sociology Best Paper Award 2022.
  • Kanemasu, Y., Rakuita, T. and Kopf, A. (2021) Foregrounding Pacific Epistemologies in Curriculum Review: Exercising Educator Agency in a Process of Institutional Change. In Armstrong, A.C. and Spiller, D. (eds.) Aligning the Faculty Curricula: pedagogy in process. Special issue of Directions: Journal of Educational Studies, 35(1): 18–28.
  • Kanemasu, Y. (2020) Rugby, Nationalism and Deaf Athlete Counter-hegemony: Insights from a Case of Fiji. Sociology of Sport Journal, 38(2): 149–157.
  • Nakamura, N. and Kanemasu, Y. (2020) Traditional Knowledge, Social Capital, and Community Response to a Disaster: Resilience of Remote Communities in Fiji after a Severe Climatic Event. Regional Environmental Change 20 (23). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-020-01613-w
  • Kanemasu, Y. and Molnar, G. (2020) “Representing” the Voices of Fijian Women Rugby Players: Working with Power Differentials in Transformative Research. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 55(4): 399–415.
  • Sugden, J., Kanemasu, Y. and Adair, D. (2019) Indo-Fijian Women and Sportive Activity: A Critical Race Feminism Approach. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 55(6): 767–787.
  • Kanemasu, Y. and Molnar, G. (2019) Against All Odds: Fijiana’s Flight from Zero to Hero in the Rugby World Cup. In: Harris, J. and Wise, N. (eds.) Rugby in Global Perspective: Playing on the Periphery. London: Routledge, pp. 24–36.
    Kanemasu, Y. and Johnson, J. (2019) Exploring the Complexities of Community Attitudes towards Women’s Rugby: Multiplicity, Continuity and Change in Fiji’s Hegemonic Rugby Discourse. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 54(1): 86–103.
  • Kanemasu, Y. (2019). Going It Alone And Strong: Athletic Indo-Fijian Women and Everyday Resistance. In: Molnar, G., Amin, S. and Kanemasu, Y. (eds.) Women, Sport and Exercise in the Asia-Pacific Region: Domination-Resistance-Accommodation. London: Routledge, pp. 92–110.
  • Kanemasu, Y., Johnson, J. and Molnar, G. (2019) Fiji’s Women Rugby Players: Finding Motivation in a ‘Hostile’ Environment. In: Molnar, G., Amin, S. and Kanemasu, Y. (eds.) Women, Sport and Exercise in the Asia-Pacific Region: Domination-Resistance-Accommodation. London: Routledge, pp. 141–158.
  • Kanemasu, Y. (2018). Going Online: Fears, Pains and Thrills of Online Course Transformation. In: Naidu, S. (ed) Flexible Learning Footprints. Suva: University of the South Pacific, pp.75–85.
  • Kanemasu, Y and Molnar, G. (2017) Private Military and Security Labour Migration: the case of Fiji. International Migration 55(4): 154–170.
  • Kanemasu, Y. and Molnar, G. (2017) Double-trouble: Negotiating Gender and Sexuality in Post-colonial Women’s Rugby in Fiji. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 52(4): 430–446.
  • Horlings, I. and Kanemasu, Y. (2015) Sustainable Development and Policies in Rural Regions; Insights from the Shetland Islands Land Use Policy. Land Use Policy, 49: 310–321.
  • Kanemasu, Y. (2015) Fiji Tourism Half a Century on: Tracing the Trajectory of Local Responses. In: Pratt, S. and Harrison, D. (eds.) Tourism in Pacific Islands: Current Issues and Future Challenges. New York: Routledge, pp. 63–84.
  • Kanemasu, Y. and Molnar, G. (2014) Life after Rugby: Issues of Being an ‘Ex’ in Fiji Rugby. International Journal of the History of Sport, 31 (11): 1389–1405.
  • Molnar, G. and Kanemasu, Y. (2014) Playing on the Global Periphery: Social Scientific Explorations of Rugby in the Pacific Islands. Asia Pacific Journal of Sport and Social Science, 3 (3): 175–185.
  • Molnar, G. & Kanemasu, Y. (eds.) (2014) Special Issue: Playing on the Global Periphery: Social Scientific Explorations of Rugby in the Pacific Islands. Asia Pacific Journal of Sport and Social Science, 3(3): 175–276.
  • Kanemasu, Y. (2013) Social Construction of Touristic Imagery: Case of Fiji. Annals of Tourism Research, 43: 456–481.
  • Kanemasu, Y. (2013) A National Pride or a Colonial Construct? Touristic Representation and the Politics of Fijian Identity Construction. Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture, 19 (1): 71–89.
  • Kanemasu, Y. and Molnar, G. (2013) Problematising the Dominant: the Emergence of Alternative Cultural Voices in Fiji rugby. Asia Pacific Journal of Sport and Social Science 2 (1): 14–30.
  • Kanemasu, Y. and Molnar, G. (2013) Collective Identity and Contested Allegiance: A Case of Migrant Professional Fijian Rugby Players. Sport In Society, 16 (7): 863–882.
  • Kanemasu, Y. and Molnar, G. (2013) Pride of the People: Fijian Rugby Labour Migration and Collective Identity. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 48(6): 720–735.
  • Marsden, T., Horlings, I. and Kanemasu, Y. (2012) Overcoming Short-termism? Building Sustainable Eco-clusters in Rural Devon. In: S. Sjöblom, K. Andersson, T. Marsden, and S. Skerratt (eds.) Sustainability and Short-term Policies: Improving Governance in Spatial Policy Interventions. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, pp. 101–
  • Kanemasu, Y. and Horlings, I. (2011) The Answer Is Blowing in the Wind? Development Strategies at Crossroads in Shetland. Working Paper. Centre for Business Relationships, Accountability, Sustainability and Society, Cardiff University.
  • Horlings, I. and Kanemasu, Y. (2011) Towards an Eco-Economy? Rural Development and Farm Tourism in Devon (UK). Working Paper. Centre for Business Relationships, Accountability, Sustainability and Society, Cardiff University.
  • Kanemasu, Y. and Sonnino, R. (2009) “Dynamics of Power and Cooperation in Rural Development: the Case of Chianina Beef Production in Italy.” International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food, 16 (2): 36–
  • Kanemasu, Y. (2009) Book Review: Food Fears: From Industrial to Sustainable Food Systems by Alison Blay-Palmer. International Planning Studies, 14 (3): 329–
  • Kanemasu, Y. (2008) The Impact of Policy Arrangements. In J. van der Ploeg and T. K. Marsden (eds.) Unfolding Webs: The Dynamics of Regional Rural Development. Assen: Van Gorcum, pp.211–
  • Kanemasu, Y., Sonnino, R. Marsden, T. K. and Schneider, S. (2008) Testing the Web: A Comparative Analysis. In J. van der Ploeg and T. K. Marsden (eds.) Unfolding Webs: The Dynamics of Regional Rural Development. Assen: Van Gorcum, pp.175–
  • Kanemasu, Y. (2008) Weapons of the Workers: Employees in the Fiji Hotel Scene. In J. Connell and B. Rugendyke (eds.) Tourism at the Grassroots. London: Routledge, pp.114–
  • Sonnino, R., Kanemasu, Y. and Marsden. (2008) Sustainable Rural Development. In J. van der Ploeg and T. K. Marsden (eds.) Unfolding Webs: The Dynamics of Regional Rural Development. Assen: Van Gorcum, pp.29–
  • Morgan, K., Bastia, T. and Kanemasu, Y. (2007) Home Grown: The New Era of School Feeding. Report submitted to the World Food Programme in October 2007.
  • Kanemasu, Y., Rakuita, T. and Koster, V. (2005) Negotiating Cultural Identity in the Age of ICT: A Case Study of Fijian Immigrants in Brisbane, Australia. Monograph series no.6. ICT Capacity Building at USP Project. Suva, Fiji: University of the South Pacific.