Updated: Wed 3/19/08

 

 

 

 

Japan studies Graduate student
SEMINAR SERIES

Starting the fall semester of 2004, CJS provides background assistance to a student-run seminar series for graduate students.

For a map of Moore Hall, click here.

Contact CJS for more information, disability access to seminars, or to be placed on the graduate student mailing list.

 

Spring 2008

"MATERIALIZING DREAMS: TECHNOLOGY, HUMANITY, AND THE POST-MODERN TENSION IN CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE ROBOTICS

Hirofumi Katsuno (PhD candidate, Anthropology) discusses how humanoid robotics has increasingly become a site of intense politico-economic, socio-cultural and emotional investment in contemporary Japan.


Date: April 10, 2008
Time: 3:00 -4:30 pm
Place: Tokioka Room (Moore 319)

Please see the attached flyer for more details.

"AMOROUS WATERMARKS: MODES OF ENTICEMENT IN BOTH FORBIDDEN AND OFFICIALLY ENDORSED KUMIODORI PLAYS

Frances Marguerite Mammana (PhD candidate, Theatre and Dance) discusses a court dance drama form in Ryukyu in the 18th century, Kumiodori.


Date:February 14, 2008
Time: 3:00 -4:30 pm
Place: Tokioka Room (Moore 319)

Please see the attached flyer for more details.

Spring 2006

"Graduate Student Panel: Legacies of War: Occupation Propaganda, War Memory, and Anti-Base Struggles in Okinawa

Chihiro Komine (PhD candidate, American Studies), Shinji Kojima (PhD candidate, Sociology), Kyle Ikeda (PhD candidate, EALL), and Rinda Yamashiro’s (MA candidate, Sociology) will discuss Okinawan and American responses to the legacies of the Battle of Okinawa from the later years of the Occupation in the late 1960s to contemporary and ongoing anti-base struggles.


Date:February 10, 2006
Time: 3:30 -5:00 pm
Place: Tokioka Room (Moore 319)

Please see the attached flyer for more details.

Fall 2005

Graduate Student and Faculty Mixer

Date: Friday, September 30, 2005
Time: 3:00 - 5:00 pm
Place: Tokioka Room (Moore 319) [Click here to view map.]

An informal get together to:

Meet Japan focused faculty and students from other departments

Acknowledge Scholarship recipients

Learn about upcoming CJS grad student events

Spring 2005

Funeral Buddhism, Marginalized Spirits, Manga Hagiography, and Sanctified Violence: Reinterpreting Religion in Contemporary Japan [panel presentation and discussion]

Mr. Dominic V. Franchini, MA Candidate, Dept. of Religion
"Orders of Meaning in Contemporary Japanese Funerals"
Mr. Matthew D. McMullen, MA Candidate, Dept. of Religion
"Revitalizing the Role of Religion: The Spirit World of Kofuku-no-Kagaku"
Mr. Jolyon B. Thomas, MA Candidate, Dept. of Religion
"Hagiography vs. History: The Buddha's Life in Depiction and Description"
Ms. Kaoru N. Villa, PhD Candidate, Dept. of East Asian Languages & Literatures
"Buddhist Rationalization and Justification of Violence: The textual Analysis of Sawaki Kodo's Zen Lectures"

Discussant: Professor Christine Yano, UHM, Dept of Athropology

Date: Thursday, February 4, 2005
Time: 4:00 - 5:30 pm
Place: Tokioka Room (Moore 319) [Click here to view map.]

This panel examines the tensions and contestations between Japanese Buddhist ideals and religious practice that have been aggravated by the process of secularization in late 20th early 21st century Japan. Dominic Franchini's paper examines the effects of modernization and urbanization on contemporary Japanese funeral practices, contrasting them with the concept of "authentic" Buddhism. Matthew McMullen investigates the new religion Kofuku no Kagaku (Institute for Research in Human Happiness) and its search to revitalize the role of religion in contemporary society where modernization has drastically marginalized concepts of other-worldly entities such as spirits. Jolyon Thomas addresses Japanese popular culture and religion through comparing Tezuka Osamu's manga hagiography, Buddha, with "official" historical biographies, suggesting that both seek to reinvest the figure of the Buddha with their divergent concepts of his original character. Finally, Kaoru N. Villa's paper examines the controversy concerning the Soto Zen monk Sawaki Kodo's application of hongaku shiso (original enlightenment) in rationalizations for war, and offers Critical Buddhism as a possible way to evaluate Sawaki's reinterpretation of "original teachings of Buddha." The dialogue between these papers and the groups they represent offers a potential window into the overarching trend of modernization, and its concomitant marginalization and simultaneous reinvigoration of religious concepts that characterize contemporary Japan. (Click here to view abstracts.)

Informal workshop "why do we go to conferences"

Ms. Kaoru Villa, PhD student, Dept. of East Asian Languages & Literatures, UH
Mr. Kyle Ikeda, PhD student, Dept. East Asian Languages & Literatures, UH
Mr. Shunichi Takekawa, PhD student, Political Science, UH
Mr. Christopher Bondy, PhD student, Sociology, UH

Moderator / Commentator Dr. Petrice Flowers, Assistant Professor, Political Science, UH

Date: Thursday, April 21, 2005
Time: 3:00 - 4:30 pm
Place: Center for Korean Studies Conference Room [Click here to view map.]

Why do graduate students present papers at conferences? Which conference should I apply for? How can we write better abstracts to increase the chances of our proposals being accepted by conference organizers? Is there anything else to do at a conference besides presenting a paper and attending presentations? Graduate students who hope to become academics eventually have to find the answers to these questions. At the next CJS Graduate Student Seminar, we will address these questions in an informal workshop format as four Ph D students share their conference experiences. Join us and share your experiences and questions with fellow graduate students as we discuss how to get the most out of an academic conference as a junior scholar.

- Section 1: Why do we go to conferences? Which conference should we apply for?
Discussant Ms. Kaoru Villa

- Section 2: How can we write better abstracts? What is a conference organizer looking for when he selects papers?
Discussant Mr. Kyle Ikeda

- Section 3: What is going on at a big conference? What do you do in addition to your presentation?
Discussant Mr. Shuichi Takekawa and Mr. Kyle Ikeda

- Section 4: Why and how do you organize your own panel at a conference? How can we be successful panel organizers?
Discussant Mr. Christopher Bondy

Manipulation, Contestation & Negotiation of Okinawan identity: Language, Library policy, and Media representation [panel presentation and discussion]

Ms. Chie Fukuda, PhD Candidate, Dept. of East Asian Languages and Literatures
"Language maintenance and shift: In the case of Ryukyuan"
Ms. Fujiko Uehara, MA Candidate, Library & Information Science Program
"Library Policies in Okinawa under U.S. administration"
Ms. Kinuko Maehara, MA Candidate, Dept. of Sociology
"Re-making of Okinawa: The Politics of Representation in a Japanese Television Drama and its Audience Analysis"

Discussant: Professor Nakahodo Masanori, University of the Ryukyus, Dept of Law & Letters

Date: Thursday, April 28, 2005
Time: 4:00 - 5:30 pm
Place: Tokioka Room (Moore 319) [Click here to view map.]

This panel examines how the contestation and negotiation over Okinawan identity in education reform, cultural policies, and media representations during the past century have been, in no small part, a function of Okinawa's political relationship with mainland Japan and the United States. Chie Fukuda's paper reveals how the Ryukyuan "language" has been conceptualized, deployed, and utilized by linguists, forklorists, administrators, politicians, and Okinawans since Japan's implementation of assimilation policies at the end of the 19th century. Fujiko Uehara's presentation will introduce how Ryukyuan-American cultural centers, established and managed by the United States of Civil Administration of Ryukyu Islands (USCAR), were used as a tool for policy control through, among other things, USCAR publications including propaganda magazines such as Shurei-no Hikari and Konnichi-no-Ryukyu. Kinuko Maehara, in her presentation, examines the representation of contemporary Okinawa in a popular NHK television drama, Churasan, and analyzes audience reaction and commentary as found on the show's official website. Maehara's paper will also provide discussions about Japan's relationship with Okinawa as an ethnic other and Japan's myth of cultural and racial homogeneity. (Click here to view abstracts.)

Fall 2004

Contested "Japaneseness": (Re)Negotiating Nikkei and Buraku Identity [panel presentation and discussion]

Mr. Christopher Bondy, PhD Candidate (ABD), Dept. of Sociology
"Hide and Seek: Gaining a Buraku Identity and the Process of Passing"

Ms. Asuka Suzuki, PhD Candidate, Dept. of East Asian Languages & Literatures
"Are we 'Japanese'?: Construction of Ethnic Identity"

Mr. Eric Ishiwata, PhD Candidate (ABD), Dept. of Political Science
"RE-MADE IN JAPAN: Nikkeijin Disruptions of Japan's Ethno-spatial Boundaries"

Date: Thursday, November 4, 2004
Time: 3:00 - 4:30 pm
Place: Tokioka Room (Moore 319) [Click here to view map.]

In this panel presentation and discussion, Mr. Bondy, Ms. Suzuki and Mr. Ishiwata will examine the contested negotiation of 'Japanese' identity in three different sites: the education system of a Buraku community in Japan, a panel presentation at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii, and media representations of Nikkeijin in Japan. (Click here to view abstracts.)

Doing Fieldwork in Japan III: Struggles and Issues of 'Native' Ethnography [panel discussion]

Ms. Aya Kitamura, MA, Asian Studies, UH & PhD student, University of Tokyo

Ms. Akemi Nakamura, PhD student, Sociology, UH

Mr. Toru Yamada, PhD student, Anthropology, UH

Date: Thursday, December 2, 2004
Time: 3:00 - 4:30 pm
Place: Tokioka Room (Moore 319) [Click here to view map.]

University of Hawaii graduate students Ms. Kitamura, Ms. Nakamura and Mr. Yamada will reflect on their experiences as supposed 'native' ethnographers in relation to their research: Kitamura's study of Japanese Women's narratives in Hawaii, Nakamura's study of Korean background residence in Japan, and Yamada's research on Ainu people in Hokkaido. While their shared nationality with the people they are studying would seem to allow them special insider access and understanding, it also causes unforeseen barriers and impediments. Furthermore, as the panel will explore, other social attributes besides nationality such as class, gender, and age, among others, influence what a researcher encounters in the field.

Aya Kitamura will begin the panel with a short paper presentation titled "Making Oneself Visible and Vulnerable: Reflections on Researcher's Positionality" which provides a brief overview of existing literature and theoretical concerns related to ethnographic research, and then she will place her own research experiences in dialogue with these discussions. In response to the questions and issues raised in Kitamura's presentation concerning 'native' ethnography, Akemi Nakamura and Toru Yamada will share their research projects and experiences in the field. The last half of the seminar session will be devoted to questions and discussion with the audience. (Click here to view abstract for Kitamura’s paper.)

To see list for regular CJS Seminar Series, click here.

For more information or disability access, contact the Center at 956-2665.
                                       
   

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