Nobuko Adachi recently qualified for the national championships for horse jumping.

Assistant Professor in the Sociology and Anthropology Department Nobuko Adachi proves with dedication and commitment to one's work, anything is possible. 

She compares passion towards a career with passion towards a relationship, saying that “if you want to be successful, you have to be thinking about your research all the time—from when you're brushing your teeth in the morning to when you go to sleep at night.”  Undoubtedly, it is this commitment and passion that has driven Adachi to accomplish so much since her full-time faculty appointment in fall 2006.  Recent achievements include winning the 2007 New Faculty Initiative Grant, the 2007 Research Enhancement Grant, and the 2007 College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Award for Scholarly Achievement in the pre-tenure category, and she presented a paper at the 2007 International Cognitive Linguistics Conference in Krakow, Poland. She was also invited to give a lecture at Nihon University in Japan this last summer.

“I like being full time because I feel more like I’m part of the team.”

Though Adachi was recently appointed to full time status, she has been a member of the Illinois State family since 1998 as a part-time instructor.  She notes that her familiarity with the University eased her transition to full time, but mentioned there are several differences between full-time and part-time status.  “I like being full time because I feel more like I’m part of the team,” said Adachi.  She feels her full-time status has allowed her more time and resources to contribute to the needs of the department as a whole.  One of Adachi’s current goals is to propose a new interdisciplinary course on Asian American studies, a rapidly growing field that has courses now at several universities, including the University of Illinois,Champaign-Urbana, the University of Chicago, DePaul, and numerous schools on the West coast.

Adachi feels that creating a classroom of engaged learners is one of her primary responsibilities as an educator. 

One of Adachi’s research interests focuses on issues of ethnic identity among Japanese diasporas, which are defined as the spread of people of Japanese ancestry or origin throughout the world.  She edited a book called Japanese Diasporas: Unsung Pasts, Conflicting Presents and Uncertain Futures (from Routledge this last year), with a Japanese version expected in 2008. This fall her new book, I Am Married to Your Company (which she translated, edited, and annotated with her Illinois State colleague James Stanlaw), will appear.  She is currently working on a second edited volume, The Ethnic Economy and the Japanese Diaspora, and an ethnography of her fieldwork in Brazil, We  Are the Children of Nature.

"My job is to first help students fall in love with anthropology, and then help them find topics they are interested in researching"

Adachi feels that creating a classroom of engaged learners is one of her primary responsibilities as an educator.  She recognizes that each student approaches learning uniquely and helps students discover and expand upon their strengths, while still improving upon weaknesses.  She notes that, “students who are forced to learn may understand the surface level to pass the tests, but they don’t understand the theories behind it.”  Therefore, she combines multiple modes of learning beyond the typical tests, so that all students have the opportunity to demonstrate what they’ve learned in a way that interests them the most.  “My job is to first help students fall in love with anthropology, and then help them find topics they are interested in researching.”

Adachi notes that participating in the Central States Anthropological Society helps students become “more motivated, better at organizing and presenting papers, and better prepared to apply to graduate programs.”

She also prepares students to attend and present papers at the Central States Anthropological Society (CSAS) annual meetings.  “After attending for a few years, the society has become a tradition in our department,” Adachi says proudly.  As a result of attending these meetings, she has noticed students are “more motivated, better at organizing and presenting papers, and are better prepared to apply to graduate programs.”

In her spare time, Adachi participates in horse jumping, in which she recently qualified for the national championships, and dog training.  She enjoys living in the Bloomington-Normal community because it allows her to maintain a good balance between work life and home life.  She also feels that living in the Midwest allows her to be centrally located between, and be more accessible to, many of the major conferences in the United States.  She is also producing a documentary film on Japanese funerals, which she hopes can also be used in a classroom setting.