CJS Newsletter 2020.Pdf
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THE CENTER FOR JAPANESE STUDIES University of Michigan | 2020 Newsletter From the faced by marginalized populations across other regions and faculty members eras. For my part, I am committed to a diverse, equitable, Allison Alexy, Erin and inclusive culture here at Michigan and within the field of Brightwell, and Director IN THIS ISSUE Japanese Studies more broadly. Cynical, superficial claims of Christopher Hill have support now sprout like dandelions, but we also recognize the all published books residues of past injustice in present-day suffering. Alongside this year and will be anti-blackness, anti-Chinese discrimination has resurfaced with sharing their work as 2 From the Director h, what a difference a year makes. 2020 has been a vehemence that reminds us that enduring bigotry is not inci- part of our revamped surreal and I’ve attempted to write this message dental, but routinely constitutive of the disciplines, institutions, Noon Lecture Series. 4 News from the several times, having revisited outgoing Direc- and nations in which we work and live. And this is true both in Publications Program Another upshot is our Otor Professor Kiyo Tsutsui’s upbeat greetings from years the United States and Japan (as NHK’s racist BLM animation relatively untapped past with a mix of admiration and dismay: admiration for his displayed). Therefore it seems worthwhile to interrogate these 5 News from the U-M Museum of Art ability to connect with generous, adept stewardship, which we’ll miss tremendously; interlaced histories so as to redress the exclusionary practices people virtually like dismay at how disorienting life has become since autumn of that have defined for too long our sense of what’s possible. News from the Asia Library never before. We can 6 2019. The world feels like an altogether altered place now, The notion of a CJS community seems especially necessary to no longer take for and even that seems like an understatement. A year ago News from the cultivate at this moment. The pervasive ideological and social granted our capacity 7 CJS had the pleasure of welcoming Toyota Visiting Profes- Japanese Language Program fractures underscored across the last several months speak to to engage with each sor Levi McLaughlin to campus and hosting his “Bridging the the need for better—more rigorous, authentic, but also more other in person, or Methodological Divide” conference; experiencing kabuki actor Ann Arbor and Hikone: Celebrating humane—ways to share knowledge, beyond the habituated with Japan through research travel and study abroad. This limi- 8 Kyōzō Nakamura and artist Mari Katayama as facilitated by divides that haunt how we make sense of the world. No one is tation holds great promise for spurring exchange and outreach 50 Years as Sister-cities UMMA’s Natsu Oyobe; co-sponsoring the “Art of the Camera” swooping to save us. Yet despite the unrelenting obstacles we both locally and globally as CJS attempts to foster inclusive series in partnership with the Michigan Theater; celebrating now face, the time nonetheless seems ripe to reimagine how intellectual community in new ways. Along these lines, Profes- 10 Professor William Malm Receives the 50th anniversary of the Hikone-Ann Arbor relationship; we want to learn, live, and relate to one another. For example, sor Robert Platt is organizing a new series called “Interstices: Order of the Rising Sun holding an anime screening, with sponsorship support from my short time as CJS Director has already been enriched by Mind the Gap.” Inhabiting the off-weeks left by gaps in our the Japan Business Society of Detroit Foundation, to kick off conversations with the International Institute’s Inclusive Cul- normal NLS schedule, this new experimental series embraces 11 2020 Malm Award Recipients our sixth annual Ann Arbor Japan Week; and, from a slew of ture Liaisons. These ongoing conversations will continue over our need to pursue old or new endeavors amidst this alienating imaginative entries, selecting our new CJS mascot, Yumishi, the coming year as I develop Japanese Studies and Antiracist time of quarantine and social distance. Partly focused on those 2 12 From the Toyota Visiting Professor designed by Bokai Zhang. All of these events involved the co- 3 Pedagogy as a generative theme for research and teaching activities adjacent to our business as usual, this series explores operation of many people within and beyond U-M, attesting that engages an increasingly diverse audience. “guilty pleasures” and “how-to” sessions that might provide a 14 Yuru-chara Design Contest to the wonderful ways in which we customarily come together different register in which to cope, commune, and build skills in to craft memorable experiences. On the one hand, the university-wide austerity measures Noon Lecture Series a non-intimidating context. Working in this register ideally lets 16 under which we’re now forced to operate mean that much But the global pandemic, economic fallout, and months of us leverage our constraints, not just lament them, since they of the funding we rely on to sponsor programming and sup- Jobs 101 Workshop protests in the wake of violence against people including also fuel creative collaborative ways of thinking, making, and 16 port members of our scholarly community has been frozen. I Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Aubery, George Floyd, and Domi- learning often unaddressed by lectures alone. don’t believe in “doing more with less”—even though many of nique Fells, threaten to overshadow these fond memories, 17 Student Interns “Abroad” ...via Zoom us have had to do so throughout our lives. I oppose this glib All to say, we at CJS are doing our best to navigate this ever- foregrounding discord and injustice to a spectacular de- maxim because it can often require us to overwork to fill gaps shifting terrain as resourcefully and gracefully as possible. In gree. Although the pandemic has for many brought these 18 New CJS Podcast: “Michigan Talks that shouldn’t exist to begin with, such as when organizations’ pursuing this goal, we invite all of our constituents to contrib- lethal asymmetries to light for the first time, it has for others Japan” mismanagement of priorities or resources demands those ute to a culture of mutual thriving—even in cramped quarters. merely reemphasized how precarious everyday life truly is harmed by such decisions to scramble and pick up the slack. Our amazing staff members have been a joy to work with and when one cannot expect full rights, respect, safety—or even 19 Faculty Updates By necessity, we’ll need to do less with less: travel, hosting, continue to support our initiatives with inspiring wherewithal governmental competence. Throughout this pandemic, lots outside speakers, in-person receptions, etc., are unfortunately and good humor. I genuinely appreciate the opportunity to di- of lessons emerge about the endurance of xenophobia, fas- 21 Alumni Updates all halted for now. rect CJS, and value constructive input from all members of the cism, and repressive policing, but so too have new styles of CJS community. So feel free to reach out with suggestions you A “Virtual” solidarity arisen in the aftermath of anti-Asian discrimination, However, on the other hand, “less” doesn’t have to mean 23 Ann Arbor Japan Week believe will enhance our collective efforts. Although I’m unsure anti-Black violence, and various overlapping forms of institu- “worse.” Despite a reduced volume of activities or financial what the future holds, I’m positive that sharing our best ideas tional neglect at local and international scales. outlay we can still find ways to do good work and fulfill CJS’s 24 Faculty Publications will make CJS better. mission. We will continue to adjust to various cuts, but some Given the difficulty of working through these complex issues, key aspects of what we do can continue more or less un- Please take care, and wishing everyone a safe, successful year 25 Film Series Updates we’re lucky to have Professor Hwaji Shin, whose research scathed: the Undergraduate Advisory Board, Japanese Studies ahead, deals with race and ethnicity in Japan, joining us this year Interdisciplinary Colloquium, Ann Arbor Japan Week, and finan- 26 Toyota Visiting Professor and as Toyota Visiting Professor. Professor Shin’s work on social cial support for students among them. Moreover, even without Visiting Scholar Updates movements and the colonial legacies of ethno-racial inequal- cheery catered receptions, there are upshots to this scenario ity in Japanese society has much to teach us not just about Cover photo by Mark Gjukich. Courtesy of the University of Michigan that buoy my optimism. One of them is a welcome turn more Reginald Jackson the plight of zainichi Koreans, but also kindred struggles Museum of Art toward local resources for event programming. For example, News from the News from the Publications Program University of Michigan Museum of Art Coeds Ruining the Nation: Women, Education, and Social This book will MMA closed its doors in the middle of March Change in Postwar Japanese Media interest scholars 2020 following the university-wide lockdown of Japanese his- in response to the pandemic, and as of early Volume 87 tory and culture August we do not have a clear plan to reopen. During this dif- Julia C. Bullock and, more broadly, Uficult time we are trying to connect with our audiences through In the late 1800s, Japan introduced a new, sex-segregated scholars of media, a weekly email newsletter, Art in Your Inbox, that highlights educational system. Boys would be prepared to enter a rapidly education, and topical artworks from UMMA’s collection and presents virtual modernizing public sphere, while girls trained to become “good gender and sexual- exhibitions and educational resources created by UMMA staff.