Yoko Arisaka
有坂陽子

I live in in Hannover, the capital of Lower Saxony in northern Germany.

I was born in Kamakura, Japan, and moved to California when I was 18 as a high school exchange student (with AFS). I completed my Ph.D. in Philosophy at the University of California, Riverside (1996). Before moving to Germany in 2005, I was an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Francisco (1996-2007). During the fall of 1997, I spent a semester as a CNRS research associate at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris.

Since I moved to Germany, I have been a Fellow at the Hannover Philosophy Research Institute (Forschungsinstitut für Philosophie Hannover, 2009-11) and have also taught philosophy at the University of Hildesheim, Germany. I also teach Japanese language at a community college (Volkshochschule) in Hannover. Occasionally I have also given cooking courses (sushi, Japanese food) at a cooking school and community college in Hannover.

My most recent work has been as a research project member with the German Research Foundation Koselleck Project, “Histories of Philosophy in a Global Perspective,” at the University of Hildesheim (2019-2024).

In Japan, I gave talks or offered seminars at Kobe University, the University of Tokyo, Tohoku University, and Kyoto University.