David Blake Willis

California, USA and Kobe, Japan

David is professor of anthropology and education at Fielding Graduate University and professor emeritus of anthropology at Soai Buddhist University in Japan. He taught and did research at the University of Oxford 2006-2007 and has been a Visiting Professor at Grinnell College and the University of Washington.

His interests in anthropology, sustainability, social justice, and immigration come from 35 years living in traditional cultural systems in Japan and India. He researches and writes on transformational leadership and education, human development in transnational contexts, the Creolization of cultures, comparative education, citizenship, transcultural communities, transnational diaspora, transformative adult education, and Dalit/Gandhian liberation movements in South India.

David's publications include over 100 journal articles and chapters in books as well as Reimagining Japanese Education: Borders, Transfers, Circulations, and the Comparative with Jeremy Rappleye (Oxford Studies in Comparative Education, 2011); Transcultural Japan: At the Borders of Race, Gender, and Identity with Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu (Routledge, 2007); and Japanese Education in Transition 2001: Radical Perspectives on Cultural and Political Transformation with Satoshi Yamamura (Adelaide Shannon, 2002).

  • Work
    • Prof., Anthropology, Fielding Graduate University
  • Education
    • PhD Studies, Univ of Chicago; PhD, Univ of Iowa