Ryo Morimoto, Assistant Professor in Anthropology, has recently been awarded the 11th Professor Josef Kreiner Hosei University Award for International Japanese Studies for Nuclear Ghost: Atomic Livelihoods in Fukushima's Gray Zone (University of California Press, 2023). This academic award, launched in 2015 by the Hosei University Research Center for International Japanese Studies in celebration of Professor Josef Kreiner, recognizes emerging scholars residing outside Japan.

One of the first in-depth ethnographic accounts of coastal Fukushima written in English, Nuclear Ghost tells the stories of a diverse group of residents who aspire to live and die well in their now irradiated homes following the 2011 nuclear fallout. This book also received the 2025 Modern Japan History Association Book Prize. A Russian translation will also be released next month.

After serving as Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University and former Postdoctoral Fellow (2016-18) and Visiting Scholar (Spring 2025), Prof. Morimoto joined the faculty in the Anthropology Department. He is currently teaching a course titled "Catastrophes across Cultures: The Anthropology of Disaster."