"Hokkaido 2020: Diversity, Transformation, Renewal"
Professional Development Workshop on Hokkaido
May 31 - June 11, 2021
THIS WORKSHOP HAS BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO THE PANDEMIC.
DETAILS ABOUT A POSSIBLE 2024 RESCHEDULING WILL BE FORTHCOMING.
DATES AND EVENTS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.
This workshop was originally planned for June 2020.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the workshop was postponed till 2024.
|
Sponsored by:
The Japan Studies Association The University of Hawai’i Center for Japanese Studies The Japan Foundation University of Kansas Center for East Asian Studies Workshop Chairs: Lonny Carlile, Director, Center for Japanese Studies at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa The workshop chairs' names are active links giving access to their e-mail addresses. |
|
“Hokkaido 2020: Diversity, Transformation, Renewal” offers a nuanced understanding of the impact of the natural environment on Hokkaido’s history, the “frontier” legacy of Japanese settlers, and Ainu society and culture. Participants will rely on “object-based learning” and “mining the museum” methodologies to engage with Hokkaido’s material culture.
The workshop runs between May 31 - June 11, 2021, and includes five days in Sapporo, a four-day study tour of Shiraoi, Matsumae, and Hakodate, and, after a day of preparation, a closing symposium in which participants offer their critical reflections on the ways the workshop promises to impact their teaching and research.
The workshop's timing takes into account the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, also postponed till 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It would allow participants to take advantage of more affordable airfare, offering enough time for independent, post-workshop travel in Hokkaido or on the mainland.
The workshop runs between May 31 - June 11, 2021, and includes five days in Sapporo, a four-day study tour of Shiraoi, Matsumae, and Hakodate, and, after a day of preparation, a closing symposium in which participants offer their critical reflections on the ways the workshop promises to impact their teaching and research.
The workshop's timing takes into account the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, also postponed till 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It would allow participants to take advantage of more affordable airfare, offering enough time for independent, post-workshop travel in Hokkaido or on the mainland.
|
|
"Ainu way of life during the 12 months of the year," a folding screen painted by Byozan Hirasawa; fragment; Hakodate City Museum of Northern People, Hakodate; photo courtesy Maggie Ivanova (JSA)
Thematic Foci
The themes of the Hokkaido Workshop will shed light on aspects of Japanese history, society and culture that tend to be overlooked in conventional understandings by focusing on three aspects distinctive to “peripheral” Hokkaido.
Through the first theme, Hokkaido’s Natural Environment, workshop participants will explore the environment’s impact on the lives of Hokkaido’s inhabitants and the region’s development, recognizing meaningful differences from mainland Japan. A visit to educational facilities and sites in Sapporo (e.g., Hokkaido University (link), Hokkaido Museum (link)) and within the Toya-Usu UNESCO Geopark (link) will allow for an intensive examination of this theme.
The second theme, the “frontier” legacy of Japanese settlers in Hokkaido, will trace a historical trajectory that simultaneously diverges dramatically from and constitutes an essential part of that of the rest of Japan. Participants will engage with this theme though museum sessions and visits to relevant sites in Matsumae (link), Sapporo (link), and Hakodate (link).
The third theme, Ainu society and culture, offers opportunities to investigate how issues relating to indigeneity play out in the context of modern and contemporary Japan. The Hokkaido University Center for Ainu and Indigenous Studies (link) has agreed to provide support for this aspect of the workshop. With the Center’s assistance we hope to be able to arrange use of facilities at the new Upopoy National Ainu Museum and Park (link) in Shiraoi, which opened in July 2020.
A key goal for the workshop is to move beyond prevalent simplistic images of the Ainu people toward a multidimensional understanding, sensitive to the complexities associated with the Ainu people and their history, culture, and their situation, perspectives and place in contemporary Japanese society.
Several museums in Hokkaido, including the Hokkaido Prefectural Museum (link), are particularly well suited for Object-Based Learning, a main methodological approach in experiential learning. The Museum has an app with extensive multilingual caption. Participants will be required to bring cell phones and/or tablets and to get data service. In addition to making it possible to use the museum app, reliable data access would allow participants to explore Sapporo, Shiraoi, Matsumae, Hakodate on their own and pursue individual research projects.
The itinerary is accessible in printer-friendly format through this link.
The themes of the Hokkaido Workshop will shed light on aspects of Japanese history, society and culture that tend to be overlooked in conventional understandings by focusing on three aspects distinctive to “peripheral” Hokkaido.
Through the first theme, Hokkaido’s Natural Environment, workshop participants will explore the environment’s impact on the lives of Hokkaido’s inhabitants and the region’s development, recognizing meaningful differences from mainland Japan. A visit to educational facilities and sites in Sapporo (e.g., Hokkaido University (link), Hokkaido Museum (link)) and within the Toya-Usu UNESCO Geopark (link) will allow for an intensive examination of this theme.
The second theme, the “frontier” legacy of Japanese settlers in Hokkaido, will trace a historical trajectory that simultaneously diverges dramatically from and constitutes an essential part of that of the rest of Japan. Participants will engage with this theme though museum sessions and visits to relevant sites in Matsumae (link), Sapporo (link), and Hakodate (link).
The third theme, Ainu society and culture, offers opportunities to investigate how issues relating to indigeneity play out in the context of modern and contemporary Japan. The Hokkaido University Center for Ainu and Indigenous Studies (link) has agreed to provide support for this aspect of the workshop. With the Center’s assistance we hope to be able to arrange use of facilities at the new Upopoy National Ainu Museum and Park (link) in Shiraoi, which opened in July 2020.
A key goal for the workshop is to move beyond prevalent simplistic images of the Ainu people toward a multidimensional understanding, sensitive to the complexities associated with the Ainu people and their history, culture, and their situation, perspectives and place in contemporary Japanese society.
Several museums in Hokkaido, including the Hokkaido Prefectural Museum (link), are particularly well suited for Object-Based Learning, a main methodological approach in experiential learning. The Museum has an app with extensive multilingual caption. Participants will be required to bring cell phones and/or tablets and to get data service. In addition to making it possible to use the museum app, reliable data access would allow participants to explore Sapporo, Shiraoi, Matsumae, Hakodate on their own and pursue individual research projects.
The itinerary is accessible in printer-friendly format through this link.
Costs, Timeline and Funding
Costs: Workshop participants will be responsible for their international airfare, for local transportation to New Chitose Airport (CTS) and from Hakodate Airport (HKD), and for most meals.
The registration fee is currently estimated at $1,700. It includes accommodation, chartered bus for the four-day study tour, museum entrance fees, local guides, and some group meals.
Funding: JSA has received funding from the Japan Foundation grant outcome, so we are able to offer between 8 travel awards, each in the amount of $1,200. No special application is required for the travel awards. Please make sure you respond to the appropriate questions (13 and 14) in Part A of the workshop application form.
Please note: the travel awards were allocated in September 2020.
Selection criteria for workshop acceptance and travel awards will include:
Timeline: As this workshop was postponed from June 2020 to May-June 2021, the successful applicants have already been notified of acceptance. The recipients of the travel awards have also been selected and notifications have been sent.
However, we anticipate that some of our participants might not be able to travel to Hokkaido for institutional or other reasons and, so, one or more places might open. This is why we invite applications for potential participants to be placed on a short wait-list.
Payments: To reserve their place in the workshop, selected participants are required to pay a $100 deposit, due on or before October 31, 2020. Access payment link here. The remaining balance will be due in March 2021.
The registration fee is currently estimated at $1,700. It includes accommodation, chartered bus for the four-day study tour, museum entrance fees, local guides, and some group meals.
Funding: JSA has received funding from the Japan Foundation grant outcome, so we are able to offer between 8 travel awards, each in the amount of $1,200. No special application is required for the travel awards. Please make sure you respond to the appropriate questions (13 and 14) in Part A of the workshop application form.
Please note: the travel awards were allocated in September 2020.
Selection criteria for workshop acceptance and travel awards will include:
- Faculty who have less experience in Japanese Studies will be given priority over those with more experience.
- A diversity of faculty from different areas within the U.S. and a diversity of disciplines will be considered.
- Degree of interest demonstrated in the applicants’ statement and C.V. in the particular sites of the Hokkaido study tour and relevance of the workshop ideas to the applicants’ discipline and/or their institution’s curriculum.
- Recommendations attesting to the applicants’ potential to infuse new materials into the curriculum.
- Evidence of interest and potential in expanding the JSA network of faculty disseminating Hokkaido-related materials at future JSA conferences, through JSA's journal, or through initiating faculty development and student opportunities at their home institution to enhance the study of Japan.
Timeline: As this workshop was postponed from June 2020 to May-June 2021, the successful applicants have already been notified of acceptance. The recipients of the travel awards have also been selected and notifications have been sent.
However, we anticipate that some of our participants might not be able to travel to Hokkaido for institutional or other reasons and, so, one or more places might open. This is why we invite applications for potential participants to be placed on a short wait-list.
Payments: To reserve their place in the workshop, selected participants are required to pay a $100 deposit, due on or before October 31, 2020. Access payment link here. The remaining balance will be due in March 2021.
|
|
Left: Clay figurines, Jomon Era, photo fragment. Right: "Journal of Travels to Ezochi" (1861) by Takeshiro Matsuura, drawing fragment; Hokkaido Museum. Top page: Ainu clothing aesthetics, flint bag, photo fragment, Hakodate City Museum of Northern People; photo courtesy Maggie Ivanova (JSA)