Misa Izuhara FAcSS is Professor of Social Policy at the School for Policy Studies, with the expertise of the analysis of the dynamic interactions between housing (wealth) and intergenerational relations, and their associations with inequalities across the life-course. She joined the University of Bristol in 1998 after completing an MA (planning) at the University of British Columbia, Canada and PhD at the University of Bristol. Her research projects include a number of ESRC-funded grants which have explored the role of housing and asset-based welfare including their significance for family dynamics, retirement possibilities and household decision-making. Misa’s research has frequently involved international and comparative research that examined policies and practices between the UK and Japan and across East Asian societies. She is the author of Housing, Care and Inheritance (Routledge, 2009), Housing in Post-Growth Society (Routledge, 2018), and the editor of A Research Agenda for East Asian Social Policy (Edward Elgar, 2023).

Misa is a member of the East Asian Social Policy Research Network (EASP) in which she was the President between 2016 and 2018. She is also the past Co-Editor of one of the leading international disciplinary journals, Journal of Social Policy (2014-18) and Policy & Politics (2005-08). She was awarded a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2022.