Sayaka Funada-Classen

Sayaka Funada-Classen is an Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS) where she teaches African Affairs, Peace and Conflict Studies, and Portuguese. She was a representative of a Japanese NGO, Mozambique Support Network, established in 2000 after the Mozambique Great Flood, and vice chairperson of the International Conference on African Development (TICAD) Civil Society Forum, a Japanese advocacy NGO, from 2004 to 2009. She is currently the chairperson of the Project in Response to Needs of Infants, Children, and Pregnant Women of Fukushima established by the citizens after the Great East Japan Earthquake and Fukushima Nuclear Crisis in March 2011.

She worked as an electoral officer for the United Nations Mozambique Operations (ONUMOZ) in post-conflict Mozambique in 1994. This experience gave her an opportunity to learn about Africa and about the challenges of peace-building. Since then, she has been engaged in studies about Mozambique. She obtained a Ph.D. degree in International Relations from Tsuda College in June 2006. She received an award from the Japan Association for African Studies in 2008 for her book History of Armed Liberation Struggle in Mozambique (published in Japanese under the title Mozanbiku kaiho toso shi).

Funada-Classen is a member of the Japan Association for African Studies, Japan Association of International Relations, the Peace Studies Association of Japan and the Japan Society of International Development. Funada-Classen is a lecturer and workshop facilitator for the “Enhancement of Governance for Building Peace in Francophone Africa” training programme organised by JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) from 2010. She is also the founder and co-organiser of the project “AfricaxJapanxWorld: Transforming Violence into Peace” which was supported by the Japan Foundation.