Michael Sharpe

Comparative politics and international relations; Japanese politics; politics of migration; immigrant political incorporation; and political transnationalism

Dr. Sharpe is Professor of Political Science at York College of the City University of New York. He is also Professor of Political Science in the MA/PHD Program in Political Science and Professor of International Migration Studies in the MA Program in International Migration Studies  at the CUNY Graduate Center. Additionally, he is an Adjunct Research Scholar at Columbia University’s Weatherhead East Asian Institute. Prior to his academic career, Dr. Sharpe was employed as a political analyst for the Consulate General of Japan in New York and earlier in Tokyo, Japan as a project coordinator for the United Nations affiliated non-governmental organization, the International Movement Against All Form of Discrimination and Racism of which he now serves as a member of its board of directors.

His research interests concern the politics of migration, immigrant political incorporation, and political transnationalism in Japan, the Netherlands, and around the world. He is currently completing his second book manuscript The Politics of Racism and Antiracism in Japan under contract with Cambridge University Press in its Essentials Series on East Asian Politics and Society. Dr. Sharpe’s first book, Postcolonial Citizens and Ethnic Migration: The Netherlands and Japan in the Age of Globalization was published by Palgrave MacMillan in 2014. His other research investigates the politics of racism and antiracism in Japan, Japan as an emerging migration state, the Japanese government’s role in Japanese diaspora politics as well as the paid voluntary return of migrants and their families and implicit boundary making in liberal democracies.  

Dr. Sharpe’s Visiting Fellow or Visiting Scholar appointments include Sophia University, Keio University, the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) Leiden University, and the University of Amsterdam. He has been a Mansfield Foundation and Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership U.S.-Japan Network for the Future Program Scholar.  Dr. Sharpe’s work has appeared in scholarly publications including Ethnopolitics, Japanese Journal of Political Science, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, Policy and Society, and his appeared or been cited in  journalistic venues such as The Washington Post, Newsweek, the  Associated Press, World Politics Review, Mainichi Shimbun, Nishinippon, and Radio Nederland Wereldomroep  (Radio Netherlands Worldwide). He is currently a member of the Association of Asian Studies Northeast Asia Council Distinguished Speakers Bureau.  

Dr. Sharpe earned his PhD and Master of Philosophy in Political Science from the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York. Additionally, he holds a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, a Graduate Diploma in International Law and Organization for Development from the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, The Netherlands, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rutgers College / Rutgers University. 

PUBLICATIONS

BOOKS 

Michael Orlando Sharpe, Postcolonial Citizens and Ethnic Migration: The Netherlands and Japan in the Age of Globalization (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014)

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Sharpe, Michael O. 2022. “Two Sides of a Similar Coin: A New Norm of Constrained Rights or Latecomers to  Immigration in East Asia? Commentary on Japan and South Korea” in Controlling Immigration 4th edition., Hollifield, James F., Philip L. Martin, Pia M. Orrenius, and François Héran. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 

Sharpe, Michael O. 2022. “Black Lives Matter in Japan: The Specter of Race and Racism Haunting Japan” in Pekkanen Robert J., Steven R. Reed and Daniel M. Smith (eds.)  “Japan Decides 2021: The Coronavirus Election”. Palgrave Macmillan. 

Sharpe, Michael. “Shinzo Abe’s death reveals complex story of discrimination and xenophobia;, The Monkey Cage, The Washington Post, July 27, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/27/abe-japan-unification-church-ultranationalism/ 

Sharpe, Michael O. "“The Great Reveal: What COVID 19 Tells Us About Systemic Racism in the United States?” Feature story in “COVID-19 and Minorities in the World”." IMADR Tsushin (IMADR Journal) (In Japanese and English), No. 207.. August 25, 2021