JSA Workshops and Field Trips
JSA workshops are available to all existing end new members of JSA and serve as one of the primary means of networking between experts in the Japan studies. Events serve as encouragement to both deepen current understanding of Japan and introduce members to new areas of study.
U.S. MAINLAND WORKSHOPS
Workshops are aimed at developing key educators across the nation who wish to incorporate a deep understanding of Japan studies into their courses and curriculum.
The 2013 Wichita Workshop was held on October 16-19, 2013. It was open to all educators with an interest in incorporating Japanese history, themes, and ideas into their courses.An archive of the workshop will be appearing in this site.
The 2014 Belmont Workshop, titled Learning and (Re)Learning Japan: the Convergence of History, Fiction and Narrative, was hosted by Belmont University, in Nashville Tennessee, on April 2-5, 2014. It offered opportunities for professional development aimed primarily at Junior Faculty members who are not East Asian or Japan specialists, but who are committed to incorporating some element of Japan Studies into one or two of the courses they teach. As you will see on the workshop website, the line-up of speakers was impressive. Thanks to the Japan Foundation, we are able to supply funding for 3 nights lodging at the Hilton Garden Inn at Vanderbilt/Nashville for those selected as participants and residing more than 50 miles one-way distance from Nashville.
The 2018 Hendrix Workshop, titled Living with Godzilla: Challenge, Tribulation, Resilience, and Transformation in Heisei Japan, took place on April 12-14, 2018. It was hosted by Hendrix College in Conway, AR. Participants explored Heisei Japan with an eye towards identifying the key events, trends, changes and continuities of the reign of Emperor Akihito. Speakers addressed various topics including history, politics and culture. The workshop offered opportunities also to engage with the legacies of the Japanese American internment experience.
The 2018 Johnson County Community College Workshop took place on October 4-6, 2018. Its theme was History, Culture, and Society: Japan Moving into the 21st Century. The workshop included a visit to the Japan Gallery at the renowned Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and a day of cultural activities, performances, and lectures at the Kansas City Japan Festival.
The 2019 Philadelphia Workshop consisted of two main events: a pre-workshop was held on June 12-14, 2019, followed by a main workshop on June 18-22. Both engaged with the theme of "Japan's Cultural Pivots," with a special emphasis on the Genpei Civil War (1180-1185) and its ramifications for later cultural and historical developments. Workshop participants investigated two additional transition periods: the16th-century contacts with western missionaries and traders, leading to the Tokugawa Period by discussing Endo's Silence (1966) and its recent film adaptation; and Japan's more recent cultural and historical developments -- from colonizer to post-WWII relationships -- through literary texts that explore Korean-Japan relationships.
WORKSHOPS HELD IN JAPAN
2014 Kyoto Workshop and Study Tour
The Kyoto workshop -- held between June 23-28, 2014 -- was organized around the theme of: "Creating Kyoto: An Interdisciplinary Study of Pre-Modern Japanese History." It was followed by an optional three-day trip to Koya-san. Participants were able to experience the vibrant modern city, and learn from sites representing the Heian, Medieval, and Tokugawa Periods. This city allowed college faculty to develop syllabi about a dynamic Japan of earlier centuries, one that has been continually inventing and sustaining traditions. Teachers became more aware of how temples, shrines, gardens, palaces, and museums shape and reshape the past.
2015 Hiroshima-Nagasaki Workshop
This was a faculty development workshop held in Japan between June 28 and July 5, 2015. Our theme was "Remembering Hiroshima-Nagasaki 1945-2015." The workshop included four days in Hiroshima and three days in Nagasaki. Participants visited memorial sites and museums as well as learned from researchers, faculty, journalists and activists who work in both cities on issues related to the Asia-Pacific War, the atomic bombings, the search for peace, and current concerns about the environment in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
2017 Okinawa Workshop
Titled "Okinawa: Identity, History, and Culture," this workshop took place on June 9-18, 2018, on Okinawa's main island. By enabling the participants’ embodied, affective engagement with sites of historical and cultural significance in Okinawa, the workshop created 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 also utilized the pedagogical power of museum collections and site visits through Object-Based Learning (OBL): an on-site engagement with places, objects and artefacts that enabled the paring of experiential learning with subject-specific knowledge.
2020 Hokkaido Workshop
Titled “Hokkaido 2020: Diversity, Transformation, Renewal,” this workshop 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 June 1-12, 2020 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.
2014 Kyoto Workshop and Study Tour
The Kyoto workshop -- held between June 23-28, 2014 -- was organized around the theme of: "Creating Kyoto: An Interdisciplinary Study of Pre-Modern Japanese History." It was followed by an optional three-day trip to Koya-san. Participants were able to experience the vibrant modern city, and learn from sites representing the Heian, Medieval, and Tokugawa Periods. This city allowed college faculty to develop syllabi about a dynamic Japan of earlier centuries, one that has been continually inventing and sustaining traditions. Teachers became more aware of how temples, shrines, gardens, palaces, and museums shape and reshape the past.
2015 Hiroshima-Nagasaki Workshop
This was a faculty development workshop held in Japan between June 28 and July 5, 2015. Our theme was "Remembering Hiroshima-Nagasaki 1945-2015." The workshop included four days in Hiroshima and three days in Nagasaki. Participants visited memorial sites and museums as well as learned from researchers, faculty, journalists and activists who work in both cities on issues related to the Asia-Pacific War, the atomic bombings, the search for peace, and current concerns about the environment in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
2017 Okinawa Workshop
Titled "Okinawa: Identity, History, and Culture," this workshop took place on June 9-18, 2018, on Okinawa's main island. By enabling the participants’ embodied, affective engagement with sites of historical and cultural significance in Okinawa, the workshop created 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 also utilized the pedagogical power of museum collections and site visits through Object-Based Learning (OBL): an on-site engagement with places, objects and artefacts that enabled the paring of experiential learning with subject-specific knowledge.
2020 Hokkaido Workshop
Titled “Hokkaido 2020: Diversity, Transformation, Renewal,” this workshop 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 June 1-12, 2020 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.