Dr Artour Mitski

In his research Artour explores global Japanese migration with focus on Asia-Pacific and specifically Thailand; historic configurations of Japan's involvement in Asia; the role of institutions and cultural nationalism in Japan's nation-building.

His Master's dissertation in Social Anthropology "Japanese in Thailand: the discourse and routines of national identity in a globalising world" served as a launchpad for his fieldwork-based PhD thesis "Japanese Bangkok and Bangkok’s Japanese: the structures and practices of transnational belonging in a global city" where he uncovered the shifting configurations between the state, institutions, and individuals in shaping transnational migrant experience. He is currently working on turning his thesis into a book for Routledge as well as on a number of spin-off articles, whilst pursuing his long-standing interest in teaching.

Globally educated, he is a product of five different education systems. After completing a BA in Japanese Studies and Teaching Japanese on the Japanese Ministry Education (Monbusho) scholarship, he went on to pursue my Master's and Doctoral degrees at SOAS University of London, where he attended 26 courses across four faculties in Anthropology, History, Cultural Studies, Research Methods, etc. He holds Level N1 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) and the JETRO Business Japanese certificate.

With over 30 years in teaching, he sees his life purpose in popularising and disseminating knowledge. While at SOAS, he has taught all levels of the Japanese language from GCSE to Business, mentored hundreds of undergraduate and postgraduate students across faculties helping them with all aspects of coursework from essays to dissertations, conducted interactive Academic Skills workshops, and given talks and lectures on Japanese society, culture, history and arts. Building on my global corporate experience, he is a Certified Cross-Cultural Competence trainer coaching businessmen and expats on effective communication across global cultures. He writes weekly articles about All Things Japanese at ExOrienteLux.substack.com.

A huge language enthusiast, he counts Japanese, Thai, and Chinese as his top Oriental languages, while his top Occidental ones are English, Russian, and Dutch followed by French, Italian, Croatian, Afrikaans, etc. Outside his cerebral pursuits, he cooks world cuisines, teaches Power Vinyasa Yoga, and forages for exotic ingredients at food markets.

• The history and anthropology of Japanese migration to Southeast Asia
• Teaching Japanese grammar
• Thai idiomatic expressions
• Social theory
• Research methods for Area Studies
• Philosophy of science in social and cultural research
• Formal logic in social and cultural research