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Twenty-Third Annual Japan Studies Association Conference
5-7 January 2017
Hyatt Place Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Hawai'i


Established in San Diego in the spring of 1994, the JSA has assisted its members – primarily teachers from American two- and four-year colleges and universities – to acquire first-hand knowledge about Japan and infuse it into the curriculum of their home institutions. Through workshops and study-tours, and the professional networking they enable, JSA’s members have been inspired to engage in curriculum development, design study-abroad programs, and initiate Japan-related or comparative research, an outlet for which they have found both in the organization’s Japan Studies Association Journal and its annual national conference.

In January 2017 we will meet in Honolulu to share our continuous and new pedagogical and research interests in Japan’s literary and cultural traditions, historical and economic developments, sociopolitical and religious past and present. We invite proposals for individual presentations, discipline-specific or interdisciplinary panels, roundtables on pedagogy and teaching innovation and staged readings.

The following themes can serve as useful points of departure:
  • Cultural memory: historical perspectives, enduring challenges, possibilities for the future;
  • The legacy of Fukushima and nuclear futures -- healing and persistent challenges;
  • Pre-modern, modern or contemporary Japanese literature and culture;
  • Performance traditions and contemporary practice: music, theater, film;
  • Japanese aesthetics and material culture;
  • Historical, social, economic or political perspectives on Japan’s relationships with its national self and neighbors;
  • Multicultural identities in Japan;
  • Japan’s religious traditions, sacred texts and architecture;
  • Youth and popular culture in Japan; manga and anime;
  • Pedagogy, field trips and study tours: teaching Japanese language and culture – reflections and strategies, hurdles and achievements;
  • Infusing Japanese Studies into the undergraduate curriculum – successful course/program development, faculty collaboration and ways to engage with institutional core goals;
  • New voices in Japanese Studies: graduate student research.

We encourage both east-west and inter-Asian comparative perspectives and would particularly welcome contributions by alumni of JSA’s Freeman Foundation intensive workshops on Japan (2002–2016), by participants in the Wichita and Belmont workshops, both funded by a generous grant from the Japan Foundation, and by participants in the 2014 Kyoto and the 2015 Hiroshima-Nagasaki workshops.  Please contact colleagues with whom you share pedagogical and research interests and form a panel or a roundtable; this results in more engaging presentations and follow-up discussion.

Keynote Speakers

Theodore Bestor
Reischauer Institute Professor of Social Anthropology and the Director of Edwin O. Reischauer Institute for Japanese Studies (Harvard University)
     “Washoku Far and Near: Culinary Heritage and Global Food Culture”

Victoria Bestor
Executive Director of the North American Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources, an international nonprofit that provides online access services to Japanese resources.
       "Doing it Digitally: Creating Curriculum and Course Projects using Digital Tools"


Graduate Students

Annually, JSA offers up to three graduate student scholarships, $500 each. To be eligible, students must be enrolled full time in a graduate program in any content area related to Japan and must have a paper accepted for the 2017 conference. Please submit a complete copy of your paper with your proposal form, making sure that “Graduate Student” appears clearly both on the first page of your paper and on the proposal form. The successful applicants will be notified in October when acceptance letters are sent out to all conference participants.

The Venue: The Hyatt Place Waikiki Beach Hotel 

The Hyatt Place Waikiki Beach Hotel is located at 175 Paoakalani Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96815, USA. It is in the center of Waikiki, only a couple of blocks away from its world famous beach. Visit the hotel's website at: http://www.hyattplacewaikikibeach.com/.

Conference participants have been sent information via e-mail on how to make a reservation at the conference hotel. Please contact the conference co-chairs, if you have not received it.

The Friday Banquet

A Taste of Asia at Kapi’olani Community College
Ka’lkena and Tamarind Dining Rooms
Ohelo Building, 2nd floor, 6-8pm
 
Ka’lkena Laua’e is a fine-dining restaurant and the culinary laboratory of the Culinary Arts Program at Kapi’olani Community College. It is renowned for “blending the classical techniques with the global influences of [Hawai’i’s] unique geographic location.” In 2015, Chef Grant Sato won the Global Taste of Korea Competition, held in Seoul.

Additional information and maps will be provided in the conference program.


Registration

Registration for the 2017 edition of the conference is now open. The regular registration fee for full-time faculty is US$210.00. For graduate students, part-time faculty and retirees it is US$ 120.00. Regular registration closes on October 31, 2016.

Late registration starts on 01 November and ends on December 05, 2016. Beginning November 01, the late registration fee becomes US$240 for full-time faculty and US$135 for graduate students, part-time faculty and retirees. After 05 December, conference participants will be able to register on-site at the Hyatt Place Waikiki Beach Hotel in Honolulu. Details will be included in the conference program. On-site registration will be available at the late registration rates.


Submitting an abstract or a panel proposal

Abstracts for an individual presentation (approx. 250 words) or proposals for a themed panel, roundtable or staged reading (approx. 500 words) should be submitted via JSA’s website: http://www.japanstudies.org  by Monday, 26 September 2016 Please make sure that you include the name(s), institutional affiliation and contact information for each presenter.

We would also welcome your suggestions for a Japanese literary, historical or theoretical text to provide the focus of the now traditional general discussion session.


For more information, please contact the Conference Program Co-Chairs:


Dr. Maggie Ivanova, Flinders University (Australia): [email protected]
Dr. Andrea Stover, Belmont University (USA): [email protected]
Submit a Proposal