Workshop on Okinawa: Identity, History and Culture
June 9-18, 2017
Sponsored by:
Japan Studies Association
The University of Hawai’i National Resource Center-East Asia (NRCEA) and
The University of Hawai’i Center for Japanese Studies
with the cooperation of The Center for Okinawan Studies
Workshop Chairs:
A/Prof. Lonny Carlile, University of Hawai’i at Manoa
Dr Maggie Ivanova, Flinders University
Application deadline: Mach 31, 2017
Japan Studies Association
The University of Hawai’i National Resource Center-East Asia (NRCEA) and
The University of Hawai’i Center for Japanese Studies
with the cooperation of The Center for Okinawan Studies
Workshop Chairs:
A/Prof. Lonny Carlile, University of Hawai’i at Manoa
Dr Maggie Ivanova, Flinders University
Application deadline: Mach 31, 2017
Rationale and Structure
Intended for faculty from community colleges and universities with fairly low integration of Japanese Studies in their curricula, this professional development workshop engages place and location as powerful agents in meaning making in teaching, curriculum development and research. Its framework draws on Donna Haraway’s “situated knowledges” (1988) in recognizing the significance of partial perspective, oral history and narrative inquiry as non-totalizing ways of knowing. By enabling the participants’ embodied, affective engagement with sites of historical and cultural significance in Okinawa, the workshop would create possibilities for connecting with particular visions, points of view and critical positions that lie beneath Okinawa’s relationship with its past and present in the Asia-Pacific, with Japan’s mainland and with the United States.
The workshop will also utilize the pedagogical power of museum collections and site visits through Object-Based Learning (OBL): an on-site engagement with places, objects and artefacts that enables the paring of experiential learning with subject-specific knowledge. This would promote the development of critical, intellectual and affective competencies which can assist faculty not only in creating attractive and valuable study abroad programs but also in enriching their course offerings on campus and opening possibilities for cross-cultural and interdisciplinary research. Accordingly, the workshop’s mornings would be devoted to expert guest lectures on specialized topics. During the afternoons, the participants would either visit historical/cultural sites as a group or work individually with museum exhibits on a project of their own. Both would provide material for “field journals” or “research portfolios” in which participants will 1) reflect on their experiences each day and 2) collect research data (questions, observations, photographs, etc.) to support their subject-specific project. The workshop will culminate in a day-long seminar in which participants will present their research during the workshop.
The workshop will take place at two different locations on Okinawa Island to permit easier access to historical and cultural sites. Part I of the Workshop will make use of the conference and accommodation facilities of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST); situated about 30 miles NE of Naha, OIST is a suitable base for visiting sites in the northern part of the island. Part II of the Workshop will be located at the Okinawa Prefectural Museum in Naha, where a seminar room would be rented. Naha will serve as a base from which to explore museums, historical and cultural sites in central and southern Okinawa Island.
Intended for faculty from community colleges and universities with fairly low integration of Japanese Studies in their curricula, this professional development workshop engages place and location as powerful agents in meaning making in teaching, curriculum development and research. Its framework draws on Donna Haraway’s “situated knowledges” (1988) in recognizing the significance of partial perspective, oral history and narrative inquiry as non-totalizing ways of knowing. By enabling the participants’ embodied, affective engagement with sites of historical and cultural significance in Okinawa, the workshop would create possibilities for connecting with particular visions, points of view and critical positions that lie beneath Okinawa’s relationship with its past and present in the Asia-Pacific, with Japan’s mainland and with the United States.
The workshop will also utilize the pedagogical power of museum collections and site visits through Object-Based Learning (OBL): an on-site engagement with places, objects and artefacts that enables the paring of experiential learning with subject-specific knowledge. This would promote the development of critical, intellectual and affective competencies which can assist faculty not only in creating attractive and valuable study abroad programs but also in enriching their course offerings on campus and opening possibilities for cross-cultural and interdisciplinary research. Accordingly, the workshop’s mornings would be devoted to expert guest lectures on specialized topics. During the afternoons, the participants would either visit historical/cultural sites as a group or work individually with museum exhibits on a project of their own. Both would provide material for “field journals” or “research portfolios” in which participants will 1) reflect on their experiences each day and 2) collect research data (questions, observations, photographs, etc.) to support their subject-specific project. The workshop will culminate in a day-long seminar in which participants will present their research during the workshop.
The workshop will take place at two different locations on Okinawa Island to permit easier access to historical and cultural sites. Part I of the Workshop will make use of the conference and accommodation facilities of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST); situated about 30 miles NE of Naha, OIST is a suitable base for visiting sites in the northern part of the island. Part II of the Workshop will be located at the Okinawa Prefectural Museum in Naha, where a seminar room would be rented. Naha will serve as a base from which to explore museums, historical and cultural sites in central and southern Okinawa Island.
Workshop Content
The workshop anticipates interest primarily from faculty form the Humanities and Social Sciences, so the broad themes below would largely respond to their professional needs. These themes would be explored through expert talks and presentations, and through participants’ engagement with museum collections, historic places and cultural sites.
The workshop will have multiple lecturers and guest speakers, drawn from the University of Hawai'i and Okinawa’s major universities, including OIST faculty. Also, we hope to attract local artists and members of citizen’s groups as guest speakers in addition to, very tentatively, spokespersons for the Japan Self-Defence Forces base near OIST and the office of the local representative of the U.S. State Department. Workshop participants will benefit from readings packets prepared by UHM faculty; these will include materials to contextualize both the morning lectures and talks and the afternoon activities, among which also site visits.
The workshop anticipates interest primarily from faculty form the Humanities and Social Sciences, so the broad themes below would largely respond to their professional needs. These themes would be explored through expert talks and presentations, and through participants’ engagement with museum collections, historic places and cultural sites.
- Okinawa’s pre- and natural history and archaeology;
- The Ryūkyū Kingdom: prosperity, relationships with the Satsuma Domain and decline;
- Modern Okinawa as a strategic location: 1870s untill WWII;
- Okinawa and WWII;
- Postwar Okinawa: U.S. Occupation, Ryūkyū independence movement and Reversion;
- Contemporary Okinawa: tourism; ecology and natural environment; Base Issue tensions;
- Okinawa’s culture and material culture: architecture, literature, arts, crafts, indigenous beliefs; the past and present read through buildings, objects and the fine and creative arts.
The workshop will have multiple lecturers and guest speakers, drawn from the University of Hawai'i and Okinawa’s major universities, including OIST faculty. Also, we hope to attract local artists and members of citizen’s groups as guest speakers in addition to, very tentatively, spokespersons for the Japan Self-Defence Forces base near OIST and the office of the local representative of the U.S. State Department. Workshop participants will benefit from readings packets prepared by UHM faculty; these will include materials to contextualize both the morning lectures and talks and the afternoon activities, among which also site visits.
Tentative itinerary (subject to change, depending on speaker availability)
Please click here.
Please click here.
Budget and Application
Workshop participants will be responsible for their return airfare to Naha, Okinawa, for their transportation to and from Naha airport and some meals. In addition, they will pay a registration fee, currently estimated at $850. This includes double-occupancy accommodation, local transportation, speakers, and museum entry fees. Single occupancy is $300 extra.
We are offering several travel awards ranging between $700 and $1000. We encourage earlier applications to facilitate travel plans and to help JSA trip leaders make final arrangements for lodging in Okinawa. Earlier applicants will receive preference for a travel award, so there is some advantage to applying in early March.
A non-refundable $100 deposit will be due within 7 days of acceptance, with the balance due by April 30, 2017.
Application deadline: Mach 31, 2017.
Workshop participants will be responsible for their return airfare to Naha, Okinawa, for their transportation to and from Naha airport and some meals. In addition, they will pay a registration fee, currently estimated at $850. This includes double-occupancy accommodation, local transportation, speakers, and museum entry fees. Single occupancy is $300 extra.
We are offering several travel awards ranging between $700 and $1000. We encourage earlier applications to facilitate travel plans and to help JSA trip leaders make final arrangements for lodging in Okinawa. Earlier applicants will receive preference for a travel award, so there is some advantage to applying in early March.
A non-refundable $100 deposit will be due within 7 days of acceptance, with the balance due by April 30, 2017.
Application deadline: Mach 31, 2017.