Sachiko Ishihara is a postdoctoral researcher at the Anthropocene Laboratory working on the project Anthropocene Therapy.

Her PhD dissertation Sustainability Taking Place: Stories of Moving to Rural Areas in Japan discussed ideas and practices of sustainability of people who moved to two remote islands, Yakushima and Gotō located in southwestern Japan (PhD in Human Geography from Uppsala University). Utilising poetic and ethnographic writing styles, she explores stories that move beyond “doom and gloom” towards dwelling on “pleasures to be gained” by pursuing sustainability.

Drawing on this work, she continues to be interested in how larger sustainability questions are dynamically intertwined with “personal sustainability” —how people make sense of sustainability, personal and collective wellbeing, and people’s actions in sustainability.

Sachiko moved to Sweden for her MSc in Sustainable Development from Uppsala University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. In connection with these studies, she worked at a unique transdisciplinary student-led education centre, The Centre for Environment and Development Studies (CEMUS) at Uppsala University as part of the outreach and collaboration team and as a Course Coordinator. Her interest in process design, pedagogical development, and participatory learning in sustainability continues from this experience.