Michael Berman is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Anthropology and the Cogut Institute for the Humanities at Brown University. He has previously held positions at the University of California, San Diego, CUNY Hunter College, CUNY City College, and the University of Tokyo. Overall, he has spent approximately seven years in Japan and has conducted research in several parts of Tokyo and the Tōhoku region in northeastern Japan.

Working at the intersections of liberal secularism, capitalism, and language, that research has focused primarily on the relationship between compassion and alienation as aspects of governance, particularly in relation to acts of listening. His research links broad questions about the nature of form, relations, generality, and history to questions posed at the level of experience and interaction. More specifically, Michael asks why it is sometimes difficult to sustain meaningful relationships despite the desire to do so; how the processes involved in creating something meaningful, like a religion or humanitarian movement, sometimes lead to its undoing; and why many people come to feel isolated despite being surrounded by other people in their daily lives.

Having served as a translator for international peace conferences, he has become increasingly interested in Japan's role in world peace and how that relates to the reconfiguration of care and neglect within national borders. Michael has published multiple translations, including Yuki Masami’s book Foodscapes of Contemporary Japanese Women Writers (2015), and recently completed a draft of his first book manuscript, Heart of a Heartless World. His original work has appeared in several top-tier journals, including American Ethnologist, Language and Communication, and positions: asia critique.