Sociology book launch and talk - The trauma of perpetrators: Auto-biographical narratives of former Aum Shinrikyō members

All are warmly invited to the launch of a new book by Dr Rin Ushiyama (School of SSESW), entitled Aum Shinrikyo and religious terrorism in Japanese collective memory

To attend, please contact Professor John Nagle at john.nagle@qub.ac.uk

This talk, based on one of the chapters from Aum Shinrikyo and religious terrorism in Japanese collective memory, explores the contrasting ways in which former members of the new religion and terrorist group Aum Shinrikyō have explained their membership of the organisation. While some low-ranking members have referred to ‘mind control theory’ to characterise themselves as victims of psychological manipulation, some leadership figures have disagreed with this position, explaining their violent and criminal actions instead as outcomes of misguided faith. This talk also discusses how debates around ‘mind control’ have re-emerged in Japanese public discourse in the wake of the assassination of the former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo in July 2022.

Speaker biography
Rin Ushiyama is a Lecturer in Sociology in the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work at Queen’s University Belfast. He is a cultural and political sociologist interested in contested memories of violence, including war, terrorism, and colonialism with a regional focus on East Asia. His latest research investigates historical denial in the context of contemporary Japan and East Asia. He has published peer-reviewed articles in memory studies, social theory, and sociology of religion in journals including The British Journal of Sociology, Theory and Society, and Memory Studies.