Japan Studies Association Newsletter
June 2013
During the past several years, The Japan Studies Association has undergone a series of remarkable developments: Our refereed journal has been expanded and deepened, and will soon be available online; the JSA Annual Conference will be celebrating its Twentieth Anniversary with a special program in Honolulu next January; the Freeman Foundation Summer Institute is currently hosting its Eleventh consecutive workshop on Japan; and, most importantly, JSA has received a substantial grant from the Japan Foundation which we hope will have a lasting impact on college teaching. The web-based distribution of a renewed JSA Newsletter will enable us to keep you updated on these and other initiatives as they develop. Click here for a PDF version of the Newsletter which can be downloaded and printed.
--Tom Campbell and Andrea Stover, editors
Prestigious Grant Announced for Japan Studies Association
The Japan Studies Association is happy to announce that it has received a substantial grant from the Japan Foundation’s Center for Global Partnership, entitled Creating the Next Generation of Leaders for U.S.– Japan Educational Outreach. The grant will enable JSA to sponsor workshops and study tours in Japan and three workshops in United States over a three year period. Fay Beauchamp and Joseph Overton are the Project Directors, with Fay taking the lead in the project’s implementation while Joe continues to direct JSA’s introductory Freeman Summer Institutes.
JSA has received funding for the first year of a three year project and will receive Japan Foundation guidance in reapplying for the second and third year. Our long-term goals are to build our Japan Studies Association, including our annual meetings, so that college faculty and their students expand research and experiential understanding of Japan and its many roles in the world.
A Site visit for Workshops in Kyoto (2014) and in Hiroshima (2015)
Our first activity is a June 2013 site visit to Kyoto and Hiroshima to plan for six-day workshops to be held in Kyoto and its environs in 2014 and in Hiroshima in 2015. The participation in this site visit of our JSA leadership, Tom Campbell, Stacia Bensyl, Jim Peoples and Maggie Ivanova, as well as Fay, will help us meet the first goal of the proposal: “To develop the capacity of American college faculty to initiate, plan and implement outreach activities, including workshops and study tours in Japan and in the mainland of United States.”
Each workshop in Japan centers on its location for its theme. The Kyoto Workshop planned for 2014 focuses on the art, architecture, gardens, religions and literature of early Japan as represented in the old capital. We will be considering themes such as how Chinese influence was transmitted and transformed by Japanese agency and creativity, and the interplay of Japanese aesthetics and political power. For our June 2013 site visit, Frank Chance, Associate Director of the University of Pennsylvania’s East Asia National Resource Center, is both our consultant and guide. A specialist in Japanese aesthetics, Frank has led many faculty and student groups to Japan. The 2015 Hiroshima Workshop will mark the 70th Anniversary of the Atomic bombings. We have support from the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation which helped us to organize the 2003 JSA workshop.
Workshops to be hosted by Wichita State University (October 16-19, 2013) and by Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee (Spring 2014)
Our first year’s goals also meet the Japan Foundation’s objective “To reach out to faculty in under-represented regions of the U.S. such as the Midwestern and Southern states.” Board member Robert Fellepa has been organizing a workshop for October 16-19, 2013 with the support of Wichita State University and of William M. Tsutsui, Dean of Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences at Southern Methodist University and a specialist in modern Japanese history. For Spring 2014, Ronnie Littlejohn has accepted the responsibility of creating a workshop in Nashville, Tennessee, and will be working with our JSA leaders John Paine and Andrea Stover who, with Ronnie, teach at Belmont University. Further information on these workshops, along with application procedures, will be distributed very soon. These are wonderful opportunities to learn about Japanese culture, and JSA is proud to be able to offer them to college faculty.
JSA’s 2013 Conference: A Summary Report
The 19th National Japan Studies Association Conference took place on 3-5 January 2013. Our host again was Hawai’i Tokai International College in Honolulu, Hawai’i. Following the example set during the conference’s 18th edition, the opening reception went parallel with a pre-conference event – a screening and discussion of Aloha Buddha: The Story of Japanese Buddhism in Hawai’i (2011). Directed by Bill Ferehawk and Dylan Robertson, the film garnered the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2011 Hawai’i International Film Festival. One of the experts interviewed in the film, Dr. George Tanabe, Professor Emeritus of Religion, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, moderated the post-screening discussion. In response to the keen interest expressed by conference participants, Dr. Tanabe offered to lead a 3-hour walking tour of active Japanese Buddhist temples in Honolulu in January 2014. A very extensive bibliography on the history of Japanese Buddhism in Hawai’i can be found at the film’s website: http://alohabuddhafilm.com/alohabuddhabibli.html
A strong stream of presentations at the 2013 JSA conference dealt with current affairs and contemporary politics: discussions of the territorial disputes among Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan – the topic also of the keynote address by Dr. Edward Shultz, Dean of the School of Pacific and Asian Studies, University of Hawai’i at Manoa; the realities of post-3.11 Japan – post disaster relief and impact on farming; populism in contemporary Japanese politics; pacifism, arms exports and human trafficking. A second dominant stream of talks explored Japan’s religious and spiritual traditions: relationships with Korean Buddhism, resonances in Japanese
literature, theatre and modern architecture; the associations between national parks and sacred sites. A significant body of presentations focused on Japanese aesthetics as reflected in pre-modern literature and culture and in the context of the country’s modernization; the latter served as an anchor for the plenary discussion of Tanizaki Jun’ichiro’s In Praise of Shadows, moderated by Andrea Stover and John Paine.
During the general business meeting, JSA’s President Dr. Joseph Overton presented his 2012 report and informed the membership about changes in the Executive Board: Dr. Fay Beauchamp stepped down as a Vice President in order to focus on securing funding through grant writing for JSA’s workshops and study tours during 2013-2016. JSA Treasurer Dr. Stacia Bensyl reported on the financial state of the Association, which is healthy. Dr. Thomas Campbell was voted JSA Vice President and Dr. Andrea Stover, a new Member at Large. In the context of the Association’s upcoming twentieth anniversary, Drs. Overton and Ivanova solicited suggestions for conference activities or themes which members would like to see in 2014. The Executive Board considered various new initiatives to reinvigorate the organization, including the possibility of holding a joint conference in Australia in 2015 in collaboration with the Canadian and Australian Japan Studies Associations.
At the closing traditional banquet at the New Otani Hotel, Dr. Ivanova announced the winner of the 2013 Paul Varley Award for best graduate student paper presented at the conference: Yuka Hasegawa, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, for “Discourses of Monozukuri in Japan’s Knowledge Economy.” The conference participants enjoyed a special shakuhachi musical presentation by renowned artist Christopher Yohmei Blasdel.
Announcing the 20th Annual Japan Studies Association Conference
2-4 January 2014, Honolulu, Hawai’i
At its annual conference in Honolulu, Hawai’i in 2014, the Japan Studies Association will celebrate its twentieth anniversary. 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 – in acquiring first-hand knowledge about Japan and infusing 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-focused or comparative research; members share their new insights through the Japan Studies Association Journal and its annual national conference.
Please join us at Hawai’i Tokai International College in Honolulu in January 2014 to celebrate twenty years of JSA’s achievements, reconnect with fellow workshop alumni and share your continuous and new pedagogical and research interests in Japan’s literary and cultural traditions, historical and economic developments, socio-political and religious practices past and present. We invite proposals for individual presentations, discipline-specific or interdisciplinary panels, roundtables on pedagogy and teaching innovation, and staged readings from both faculty and graduate students. The following ideas can serve as useful points of departure:
Pre-modern, modern or contemporary Japanese literature and culture, music, theatre, film;
Japanese aesthetics and material culture;
Historical, social, economic or political perspectives on Japan’s relationships with its national or regional self, minorities and neighbors in East Asia;
Japan’s religious traditions, sacred texts, art and architecture;
Youth and popular culture in Japan; manga and anime at home and abroad;
Imagining disaster – responding to war and adversity through political and religious narrative, art, literature and film; post-3.11 Japan – healing and continuous challenges;
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 and program development, faculty collaboration and ways to engage with institutional core goals;
New voices in Japanese Studies: graduate student research;
Suggestions for a Japanese literary, historical or theoretical text for a plenary discussion.
We encourage both east-west and inter-Asian comparative approaches and would particularly welcome contributions by alumni of JSA’s Freeman Foundation intensive workshops on Japan held between 2002 and 2013. 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 discussions. We would also welcome your suggestions for a Japanese literary, historical or theoretical text to provide the focus of the plenary discussion.
Send an abstract for an individual presentation of approximately 250 words or a 500-word proposal for a themed panel, roundtable or staged reading that contains the names, institutional affiliation and contact information of all presenters to Maggie Ivanova ([email protected]) and Tom Campbell ([email protected]).
The deadline for proposals is 30 September 2013.
Japan Studies Association Journal
JSAJ publishes one volume per year of essays and reviews intended to interest our members and others who are infusing Japanese material in their courses. This year’s call for papers appears below. We would especially invite review essays and reflections by former Freeman fellows on how the Freeman experience has affected their teaching and their thinking about Japan. These reflections should be both descriptive and analytical, and take into consideration that the audience is fellow infusers of Japanese material. Length of submissions of any kind is flexible.
JSAJ is a refereed journal indexed in EBSCO. We are in the process of archiving a searchable version of JSAJ on our publisher’s website. More news about this after it has been completed.
We hope all readers of this newsletter will take a look at the call for papers, and consider submitting an article to JSAJ. Share you insights with the rest of us! Please do not hesitate to email John Paine, [email protected], with any questions or ideas for articles you may have.
The Freeman Institute in Hawaii Leads to Study Abroad in Japan: A Brief Personal Reflection
In 2008, I knew very little about Japanese literature and culture, but I was curious. My acceptance into the Freeman Institute, a three-week seminar in Japanese culture held at Tokai University in Honolulu Hawaii changed everything for me. Not only was my time in Hawaii memorable because of exposure to new ideas, the Japanese language, and wonderful people who are still part of my life (to say nothing of the beach!), it also initiated opportunities in teaching, studying abroad in Japan, presenting papers at JSA conferences, and developing collegial relationships in JSA. I am still no expert in Japanese culture or literature, but I am a life-long appreciator who will continue to seek knowledge of a culture that fascinates me, and who will continue to pass on what I know and love about that culture to students in my classes.
Just briefly, let me tell you about the Freeman Institute:
In addition to the daily lessons in Japanese and lectures in Japanese culture by experts in political science, art, religion, theater, literature, and history, we also participated in local shrine visits, Taiko drumming, Ikebana (Japanese flower arranging), a Lantern Floating Ceremony at Ala Moana Beach to honor loved ones who have passed away, a traditional tea ceremony, fine dining Japanese style, and a mini-Noh play written and performed by Carol Davis, Janine Fujioka, and me! We learned by doing, not simply listening, thereby internalizing the knowledge and making it our own to keep for life. We also had free time to go to the beach, hike, shop and explore the island (or islands).That kind of learning leads to more engaged teaching. Since the Freeman institute, I have broadened my academic career by including Japanese women writers into my memoir courses, and by including Japanese poets into my poetry classes. But more than that, I have passed on a spark for appreciating Japanese literature to my students, who have had the pleasure of writing haiku, rengas, and zuihitsu.
Best of all, I was given the opportunity to co-lead a study abroad trip to Japan with my colleagues Jonathan Thorndike and John Paine. As anyone who travels or studies abroad knows, there is nothing like actually being in a place to appreciate it. I encourage anyone who is curious about Japan to apply to the Freeman Institute, and I encourage anyone who has already participated in the Institute to keep Japan studies alive in their careers, in JSA, and in their lives. –Andrea Stover
June 2013
During the past several years, The Japan Studies Association has undergone a series of remarkable developments: Our refereed journal has been expanded and deepened, and will soon be available online; the JSA Annual Conference will be celebrating its Twentieth Anniversary with a special program in Honolulu next January; the Freeman Foundation Summer Institute is currently hosting its Eleventh consecutive workshop on Japan; and, most importantly, JSA has received a substantial grant from the Japan Foundation which we hope will have a lasting impact on college teaching. The web-based distribution of a renewed JSA Newsletter will enable us to keep you updated on these and other initiatives as they develop. Click here for a PDF version of the Newsletter which can be downloaded and printed.
--Tom Campbell and Andrea Stover, editors
Prestigious Grant Announced for Japan Studies Association
The Japan Studies Association is happy to announce that it has received a substantial grant from the Japan Foundation’s Center for Global Partnership, entitled Creating the Next Generation of Leaders for U.S.– Japan Educational Outreach. The grant will enable JSA to sponsor workshops and study tours in Japan and three workshops in United States over a three year period. Fay Beauchamp and Joseph Overton are the Project Directors, with Fay taking the lead in the project’s implementation while Joe continues to direct JSA’s introductory Freeman Summer Institutes.
JSA has received funding for the first year of a three year project and will receive Japan Foundation guidance in reapplying for the second and third year. Our long-term goals are to build our Japan Studies Association, including our annual meetings, so that college faculty and their students expand research and experiential understanding of Japan and its many roles in the world.
A Site visit for Workshops in Kyoto (2014) and in Hiroshima (2015)
Our first activity is a June 2013 site visit to Kyoto and Hiroshima to plan for six-day workshops to be held in Kyoto and its environs in 2014 and in Hiroshima in 2015. The participation in this site visit of our JSA leadership, Tom Campbell, Stacia Bensyl, Jim Peoples and Maggie Ivanova, as well as Fay, will help us meet the first goal of the proposal: “To develop the capacity of American college faculty to initiate, plan and implement outreach activities, including workshops and study tours in Japan and in the mainland of United States.”
Each workshop in Japan centers on its location for its theme. The Kyoto Workshop planned for 2014 focuses on the art, architecture, gardens, religions and literature of early Japan as represented in the old capital. We will be considering themes such as how Chinese influence was transmitted and transformed by Japanese agency and creativity, and the interplay of Japanese aesthetics and political power. For our June 2013 site visit, Frank Chance, Associate Director of the University of Pennsylvania’s East Asia National Resource Center, is both our consultant and guide. A specialist in Japanese aesthetics, Frank has led many faculty and student groups to Japan. The 2015 Hiroshima Workshop will mark the 70th Anniversary of the Atomic bombings. We have support from the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation which helped us to organize the 2003 JSA workshop.
Workshops to be hosted by Wichita State University (October 16-19, 2013) and by Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee (Spring 2014)
Our first year’s goals also meet the Japan Foundation’s objective “To reach out to faculty in under-represented regions of the U.S. such as the Midwestern and Southern states.” Board member Robert Fellepa has been organizing a workshop for October 16-19, 2013 with the support of Wichita State University and of William M. Tsutsui, Dean of Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences at Southern Methodist University and a specialist in modern Japanese history. For Spring 2014, Ronnie Littlejohn has accepted the responsibility of creating a workshop in Nashville, Tennessee, and will be working with our JSA leaders John Paine and Andrea Stover who, with Ronnie, teach at Belmont University. Further information on these workshops, along with application procedures, will be distributed very soon. These are wonderful opportunities to learn about Japanese culture, and JSA is proud to be able to offer them to college faculty.
JSA’s 2013 Conference: A Summary Report
The 19th National Japan Studies Association Conference took place on 3-5 January 2013. Our host again was Hawai’i Tokai International College in Honolulu, Hawai’i. Following the example set during the conference’s 18th edition, the opening reception went parallel with a pre-conference event – a screening and discussion of Aloha Buddha: The Story of Japanese Buddhism in Hawai’i (2011). Directed by Bill Ferehawk and Dylan Robertson, the film garnered the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2011 Hawai’i International Film Festival. One of the experts interviewed in the film, Dr. George Tanabe, Professor Emeritus of Religion, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, moderated the post-screening discussion. In response to the keen interest expressed by conference participants, Dr. Tanabe offered to lead a 3-hour walking tour of active Japanese Buddhist temples in Honolulu in January 2014. A very extensive bibliography on the history of Japanese Buddhism in Hawai’i can be found at the film’s website: http://alohabuddhafilm.com/alohabuddhabibli.html
A strong stream of presentations at the 2013 JSA conference dealt with current affairs and contemporary politics: discussions of the territorial disputes among Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan – the topic also of the keynote address by Dr. Edward Shultz, Dean of the School of Pacific and Asian Studies, University of Hawai’i at Manoa; the realities of post-3.11 Japan – post disaster relief and impact on farming; populism in contemporary Japanese politics; pacifism, arms exports and human trafficking. A second dominant stream of talks explored Japan’s religious and spiritual traditions: relationships with Korean Buddhism, resonances in Japanese
literature, theatre and modern architecture; the associations between national parks and sacred sites. A significant body of presentations focused on Japanese aesthetics as reflected in pre-modern literature and culture and in the context of the country’s modernization; the latter served as an anchor for the plenary discussion of Tanizaki Jun’ichiro’s In Praise of Shadows, moderated by Andrea Stover and John Paine.
During the general business meeting, JSA’s President Dr. Joseph Overton presented his 2012 report and informed the membership about changes in the Executive Board: Dr. Fay Beauchamp stepped down as a Vice President in order to focus on securing funding through grant writing for JSA’s workshops and study tours during 2013-2016. JSA Treasurer Dr. Stacia Bensyl reported on the financial state of the Association, which is healthy. Dr. Thomas Campbell was voted JSA Vice President and Dr. Andrea Stover, a new Member at Large. In the context of the Association’s upcoming twentieth anniversary, Drs. Overton and Ivanova solicited suggestions for conference activities or themes which members would like to see in 2014. The Executive Board considered various new initiatives to reinvigorate the organization, including the possibility of holding a joint conference in Australia in 2015 in collaboration with the Canadian and Australian Japan Studies Associations.
At the closing traditional banquet at the New Otani Hotel, Dr. Ivanova announced the winner of the 2013 Paul Varley Award for best graduate student paper presented at the conference: Yuka Hasegawa, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, for “Discourses of Monozukuri in Japan’s Knowledge Economy.” The conference participants enjoyed a special shakuhachi musical presentation by renowned artist Christopher Yohmei Blasdel.
Announcing the 20th Annual Japan Studies Association Conference
2-4 January 2014, Honolulu, Hawai’i
At its annual conference in Honolulu, Hawai’i in 2014, the Japan Studies Association will celebrate its twentieth anniversary. 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 – in acquiring first-hand knowledge about Japan and infusing 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-focused or comparative research; members share their new insights through the Japan Studies Association Journal and its annual national conference.
Please join us at Hawai’i Tokai International College in Honolulu in January 2014 to celebrate twenty years of JSA’s achievements, reconnect with fellow workshop alumni and share your continuous and new pedagogical and research interests in Japan’s literary and cultural traditions, historical and economic developments, socio-political and religious practices past and present. We invite proposals for individual presentations, discipline-specific or interdisciplinary panels, roundtables on pedagogy and teaching innovation, and staged readings from both faculty and graduate students. The following ideas can serve as useful points of departure:
Pre-modern, modern or contemporary Japanese literature and culture, music, theatre, film;
Japanese aesthetics and material culture;
Historical, social, economic or political perspectives on Japan’s relationships with its national or regional self, minorities and neighbors in East Asia;
Japan’s religious traditions, sacred texts, art and architecture;
Youth and popular culture in Japan; manga and anime at home and abroad;
Imagining disaster – responding to war and adversity through political and religious narrative, art, literature and film; post-3.11 Japan – healing and continuous challenges;
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 and program development, faculty collaboration and ways to engage with institutional core goals;
New voices in Japanese Studies: graduate student research;
Suggestions for a Japanese literary, historical or theoretical text for a plenary discussion.
We encourage both east-west and inter-Asian comparative approaches and would particularly welcome contributions by alumni of JSA’s Freeman Foundation intensive workshops on Japan held between 2002 and 2013. 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 discussions. We would also welcome your suggestions for a Japanese literary, historical or theoretical text to provide the focus of the plenary discussion.
Send an abstract for an individual presentation of approximately 250 words or a 500-word proposal for a themed panel, roundtable or staged reading that contains the names, institutional affiliation and contact information of all presenters to Maggie Ivanova ([email protected]) and Tom Campbell ([email protected]).
The deadline for proposals is 30 September 2013.
Japan Studies Association Journal
JSAJ publishes one volume per year of essays and reviews intended to interest our members and others who are infusing Japanese material in their courses. This year’s call for papers appears below. We would especially invite review essays and reflections by former Freeman fellows on how the Freeman experience has affected their teaching and their thinking about Japan. These reflections should be both descriptive and analytical, and take into consideration that the audience is fellow infusers of Japanese material. Length of submissions of any kind is flexible.
JSAJ is a refereed journal indexed in EBSCO. We are in the process of archiving a searchable version of JSAJ on our publisher’s website. More news about this after it has been completed.
We hope all readers of this newsletter will take a look at the call for papers, and consider submitting an article to JSAJ. Share you insights with the rest of us! Please do not hesitate to email John Paine, [email protected], with any questions or ideas for articles you may have.
The Freeman Institute in Hawaii Leads to Study Abroad in Japan: A Brief Personal Reflection
In 2008, I knew very little about Japanese literature and culture, but I was curious. My acceptance into the Freeman Institute, a three-week seminar in Japanese culture held at Tokai University in Honolulu Hawaii changed everything for me. Not only was my time in Hawaii memorable because of exposure to new ideas, the Japanese language, and wonderful people who are still part of my life (to say nothing of the beach!), it also initiated opportunities in teaching, studying abroad in Japan, presenting papers at JSA conferences, and developing collegial relationships in JSA. I am still no expert in Japanese culture or literature, but I am a life-long appreciator who will continue to seek knowledge of a culture that fascinates me, and who will continue to pass on what I know and love about that culture to students in my classes.
Just briefly, let me tell you about the Freeman Institute:
In addition to the daily lessons in Japanese and lectures in Japanese culture by experts in political science, art, religion, theater, literature, and history, we also participated in local shrine visits, Taiko drumming, Ikebana (Japanese flower arranging), a Lantern Floating Ceremony at Ala Moana Beach to honor loved ones who have passed away, a traditional tea ceremony, fine dining Japanese style, and a mini-Noh play written and performed by Carol Davis, Janine Fujioka, and me! We learned by doing, not simply listening, thereby internalizing the knowledge and making it our own to keep for life. We also had free time to go to the beach, hike, shop and explore the island (or islands).That kind of learning leads to more engaged teaching. Since the Freeman institute, I have broadened my academic career by including Japanese women writers into my memoir courses, and by including Japanese poets into my poetry classes. But more than that, I have passed on a spark for appreciating Japanese literature to my students, who have had the pleasure of writing haiku, rengas, and zuihitsu.
Best of all, I was given the opportunity to co-lead a study abroad trip to Japan with my colleagues Jonathan Thorndike and John Paine. As anyone who travels or studies abroad knows, there is nothing like actually being in a place to appreciate it. I encourage anyone who is curious about Japan to apply to the Freeman Institute, and I encourage anyone who has already participated in the Institute to keep Japan studies alive in their careers, in JSA, and in their lives. –Andrea Stover