Mayuko Onuki is an Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University, Japan. She holds a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Southern California, where she specialized in the affective and cognitive processes underlying group processes. From 2015 to 2020, she served as a Research Fellow at the JICA Ogata Research Institute, where she conducted applied psychological research on international volunteering—particularly the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV)—and social integration in post-conflict societies. Her work is grounded in rigorous quantitative methods and bridges academic research with real-world development practice. Mayuko will be speaking on Day 3 of the IVCO programme, in the session on Taking Action, Measurement and Takeaways and will share findings from an empirical study on how social capital shapes the outcomes of international volunteering.
