The conference of ISA in Yokohama

4年に一度開催される世界社会学会議に出席。色々な人と交流できて、楽しかった。4年後のトロントにも参加したい。

I participated in the conference of the International Sociological Association
(ISA) which was held in Yokohama on July 13-19. ISA is the biggest association of Sociology in the world. The association holds a big conference every four
years. It also has many research committees that organize meetings every year. Many scholars came to Japan to participate in the conference. There were about seven hundred sessions and several plenary sessions.

I made a presentation titled "Poverty and Mental Illness in People Excluded from
the Labor Market in Japan" with my co-author at the session "New Inequality and Social Exclusion" of research committee of Sociology of Poverty, Social Welfare
and Social Policy (RC19). It was the first time for me to participate in the
conference of ISA and to make a presentation there. We had to submit abstracts
of our papers and to be selected by organizers of the sessions in order to make
an oral presentation. Our organizer told that more than forty papers were
submitted to our session even though only five persons could present their
research. So our session was so competitive. I was happy to make a
presentation at the session. There were many audiences at our session. I really
enjoyed listening to the interesting presentations and exchanging information
with many scholars from different countries.

Aside from our session, I participated in many sessions. I was pleased to learn
a lot from the sessions that I joined. I was also happy to meet a lot of friends.
I enjoyed dinner with them every night.

The next conference will be held in Toronto. I am looking forward to participating
in it after four years.