Toshio Miyake "When History Becomes Sexy: Nation, Parody and Moe in Japanese Media Convergence"

 Dear all,

The Birkbeck Centre for Media, Culture and Creative Practice in partnership with the London Asia Pacific Cultural Studies Forum is pleased to invite you to a talk by Dr Toshio Miyake (University of Venice).

"When History Becomes Sexy: Nation, Parody and Moe in Japanese Media Convergence" 

Monday 28th of April 2014, 6:30pm
Birkbeck, University of London

Clore Management Centre - Room G01

Torrington Square

London WC1 7HX

Following Q&A session and a wine reception.

Everybody is invited. Please, book your ticket here.

The increasing intermingling in contemporary Japan between historical revisionism, youth subcultures and the nation branding of Cool Japan have contributed to raise popular cultures as a strategic site in the hegemonic re-definition of the past, present, and future of the nation. 

This paper addresses the ongoing transformation among younger generations towards a post-ideological and post-modern experience of their national ‘imagined comunity,’ described as 'pop nationalism' (Sakamoto 2008) or 'cynical romanticism' (Kitada 2005). Through the case study of the multiple media platform originated by the historical web-manga Axis Powers Hetalia (2006-present) and its worldwide success among female fandom, this paper aims to shed lights on the biopolitical mobilisation of moe ('burning passion') as a combination of polymorphous pleasure and sexualised parody shaping emergent memories of national history and identity.

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I look forward to welcoming you to this event!

Kind regards,
Dario Lolli

Toshio MIYAKE (PhD) is adjunct lecturer in Japanese social and cultural studies at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Italy). He is author of a monograph on the Japanese representations of the 'West' (Occidentalismi, Cafoscarina 2010) and has been recipient of a Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship for a research project on Occidentalism, Orientalism and self-Orientalism in Italy-Japan relations.

Hafu - London premiere followed by Q&A with producer Lara Perez Takagi

The Logic of the De-cinematic, or, Origins of Japanese Cinema:

From the Magic Lantern through Avant-Garde Cinema to Anime.

A Talk by Professor Kitano Keisuke (Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto)

Time and Venue:
Tuesday 30 April 2013, 6:30pm
Birkbeck College, Room 417
Malet Street, Bloomsbury,
London WC1E 7HX
(Birkbeck College`s interactive map)

The Birkbeck Centre for Media, Culture and Creative Practice and the London Asia Pacific Cultural Studies Forum are delighted to invite you to a talk by distinguished Japanese film scholar Kitano Keisuke.

In his talk, professor Kitano will outline an alternative trajectory of the engines that have been mobilised during the history of Japanese cinema. He will conduct this attempt firstly by examining the pre-cinematic devices and their relationship with the import of cinema in Japan, and, secondly, by offering a theorization of the process of “Japanese cinema” as an embodiment of its differentiation from its own preceding cultural forms as well as from Western cinema. Finally, he will consider how many Japanese film productions have been driven by the expressive engines that had been formulated in that earlier self-formation process.

Kitano Keisuke is professor at the College of Image Arts and Science, Ritsumeikan University (Kyoto), of which he has been vice-dean from 2009 to 2012. In addition to his numerous books and essays, including Eizoron-Jyosetu [Introduction to the Theories of Visual Image] (Jinbunshoin, 2009), Professor Kitano has participated in many international conferences and events. These include 'Contemporary Japanese Cinema: Outside, Elsewhere, In the World' (University of Southern California); ‘International Meeting for Film Experts’ (Berlin Film Festival, 2007); ‘Creative Industry Conference’ (Berlin, 2007); and ‘Cairo International Experimental Theatre Festival’ (2007). His forthcoming book will reconsider Gilles Deleuze’s concept of the ‘Societies of Control’ following the digitalisation of society through a rethinking of the power of expressive medium in the fine arts.

The event is free and open to all. Please, book your ticket in advance from:
http://de-cinematic.eventbrite.co.uk

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Manga Studies: From Architecture to Female Otaku

Speakers: Dr. Ryuichi Tanigawa, Dr. Chie Yamanaka, Mr. Yu Ito, and Dr. Sonoko Azuma
Discussant: Mr. Simon Turner
Chair: Dr. Mariko Murata

Date: 28 January 2013, 18:00-20:15

Venue: Room B33, Birkebeck, Malet Street, WC1E 7HX, London. http://goo.gl/maps/BKcXF

Organized by the Centre for Media, Culture and Creative Practice (Birkbeck, University of London) and LAPCSF, supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research 2012 (Challenging Exploratory Research, Ryuichi TANIGAWA, Grant No.24656343) MEXT, Japan.

LAPCSF is organizing a session devoted to Manga Studies with researchers and professionals visiting from Japan.

The global circulation of manga has attracted increased attention and Manga Studies has now developed as an international, multidisciplinary field that attracts researchers from a wide area of study from the visual arts to the social sciences. This session is expected to be a multidisciplinary event that invites scholars from a range of fields to observe the diversity of manga consumption as popular culture, worldwide.
*The talks will be in English and the discussion will be interpreted.

Program

18:00-18:10 A Welcome from the Organizers (Dr Shinji Oyama and Dr. Mariko Murata)

18:10-18:30 Manga, Architecture, and Cities: Interpreting Space in JOJO's Bizarre Adventure (Dr. Ryuichi Tanigawa)

18:30-18:50 The Reception of Manga in the Republic of Korea: A Case Study on NARUTO (Dr. Chie Yamanaka)

18:50-19:10 Barefoot Gen in Japan: War and Boys’ Comics (Mr. Yu Ito)

Short break

19:20-19:40 How to Enjoy 'Yaoi' Texts: Manga Consumption of Female Otaku in Japan (Dr. Sonoko Azuma)

19:40-20:10 Discussion (Discussant: Mr. Simon Turner)

Dr Ryuichi Tanigawa is an Assistant Professor at the Center for Integrated Area Studies, Kyoto University. He specializes in Modern Asian Architectural and Urban History, Architectural Theory.

Dr Chie Yamanaka is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Human Studies, Jin-ai University. She specializes in Sociology, Manga Comics Studies, and Korean Studies.

Mr Yu Ito is a Researcher/ curator of Kyoto Seika University International Manga Research Center, Kyoto International Manga Museum. He has organized many manga exhibitions and workshops over the past years. He specializes in Manga Comics Studies and Folklore.

Dr Sonoko Azuma is an Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University. She specializes in Sociology of Culture and Gender Studies.

Mr Simon Turner is a Ph.D student at Birkbeck College, University of London. His main research interest lies in the field of Japanese Cultural Studies and New Media Studies.

Dr Shinji Oyama  is a Sasakawa Research and Teaching Associate in Japanese Creative Industries Studies head of Japanese cultural studies at Department of Media and Cultural Studies, Birkbeck College.

Dr Mariko Murata is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Sociology, Kansai University, Japan. She is currently a Visiting Scholar at Birkbeck.

Attendance is free, please book your seat here:  http://mangastudies.eventbrite.co.uk 

Manga Museums and Their Audiences: a Case Study on the Consumption of Popular Culture in Museums

A talk by Dr Mariko Murata

Discussant: Dr Lorraine Lim (Birkbeck)

23 November 2012, 6.30 pm
Birkbeck College, Room G01 – Clore Management Centre, Torrington Square, London WC1 7HX
http://goo.gl/maps/VIozV

Organized by the Centre for Media, Culture and Creative Practice (Birkbeck, University of London) and LAPCSF

In recent years the number of museums and exhibitions dedicated to manga has been on the rise. Throughout Japan fifty to sixty institutions that can be said to fall under this category have been established. This is a typical case in which popular culture such as anime and manga, films and music, finds itself within the museum
context. However, a closer look into the institutions will tell us that they deal with manga in very different ways. For example, there are ‘manga art galleries’ which conceptualise manga as an art form, and equate it with original artwork; ‘manga museums’ which deal with manga related materials as historical artefacts; and ‘manga artist memorial halls’ which focus on a single artist as a celebrated local figure. Yet it remains true that in our everyday lives, manga as a medium takes the format of a book, and so these institutions can be conceived of as ‘manga libraries.’ Such combination of museums and popular culture, often referred to as the ‘high and low’ of the cultural axes, is not a phenomenon a priori. It arouses interesting questions on the consumption of popular culture.
What kind of a medium is manga when we see them in museums? How are manga generally consumed in Japan, and why should we have them in museums anyway? What do visitors do there? Looking into the results of the audience research that our research group has conducted over the past years, I would like to discuss on what the blend of popular culture and museums can bring to our society today.

Mariko Murata, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Sociology, Kansai University, Japan. She is currently a Visiting Scholar at Birkbeck from September 2012. Her research is on ‘museums as media’, or media and cultural studies on museums. She is interested in the differences and the negotiations between Japanese museums and Western museums in the age of globalization and popular culture. One of her latest topics is about ‘manga’ (Japanese comics) museums, which she will be presenting at the meeting.

Admission is free, but seats are limited. Please book your seat at: http://mangamuseums.eventbrite.co.uk

Public Symposium: Creative Industries in East and Southeast Asia

Birkbeck College, University of London and the Japan Foundation are pleased to present a public symposium on the subject of Creative Industries in East and Southeast Asia, which provides an opportunity to hear the results of an academic conference held the day before. Spurred, but no longer led by Japan, countries in this region have endeavoured to catch-up with Western economies and are now competing against each other. Audiences in East and Southeast Asia are increasingly attracted to the cultures of other countries from within the region in an on-going interplay with globalised popular culture. This symposium will provide a fresh look at these dynamics, looking at how creative industries in these countries are moving up the global value chain, as well as examining growing regionalisation and the unexpected trajectory and localisation of the idea of ‘creative industries’ itself.

This event will feature a panel of academics from across the region, includingProf Yoshitaka Mouri from the Tokyo University of Arts, Prof Anthony Fung from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Dr Kim Yeran from Kwangwoon University. The timetable for the day will be:

DATE: 30 June, 2012  12noon to 3pm

VENUE: Richmix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, London, E1 6LA

12:00 - 13:00 

Focus on Fashion - Keynote presentation by Prof Hiroshi Narumi, Kyoto University of Art & Design, on A New Era of Tokyo Fashion with Dr Wessie Ling, Senior Lecturer at the London College of Fashion, as discussant.

13:00 - 13:30
Lunch Break

13:30 - 14:15
Panel - ‘Government and the Creative Industries: what is the right balance?’  - including Jenny White the British Council's Head of Art in its Tokyo Office and response from Dr Kim Yeran, Kwangwoon University.

14:15 - 15:00
Panel - ‘From Importer to Exporter: how can new generations of Creative Industry professionals form distinctive national identities? - including Ryo Sanada from The SRK, a production studio based in London & Jakarta.

This event is free to attend but booking is essential. To reserve a place, please e-mail your name and the title of the event you would like to attend to event@jpf.org.uk.

Symposium: Creative Industries in East and Southeast Asia

The Japan Foundation & Birkbeck College’s Centre for Media, Culture and Creative Practices present

CREATIVE INDUSTRIES IN EAST AND SOUTHEAST ASIA

This symposium will bring together some of the world’s foremost experts to examine creative industries in East and Southeast Asia and how it is shaped by and shaping the global relation of power which is rapidly tilting towards the East. Spurred but no longer led by Japan, countries in East Asia have endeavored to catch-up with Western economies and increasingly compete against each other. The focus is no longer exclusively on manufacturing and productivity but has shifted to nurturing creativity and culture and becoming a branded cool nation. In this historical conjuncture, this symposium provides a fresh look at East Asia’s move up the global value chain, growing regional cooperation and competition, and unexpected trajectory and localization of the idea of creative industries, which originated in the UK.

This event is free but booking is essential. To reserve a place, please visit our event page <http://www.eventbrite.com/event/3666087366>.

Date: (Fri) 29 June 2012 from 10:30 to 18:00
Venue: The Japan Foundation, London, 10-12 Russell Square, London WC1B 5EH

Speakers include
Professor Anthony Fung (The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Professor Yoshitaka Mouri (Tokyo University of the Arts)
Professor Eunmee Kim (Seoul National University, South Korea)
Dr Yeran Kim (Kwangwoon University, South Korea)
Dr Lorraine Lim (Birkbeck)

For more information contact the organiser <s.oyama@bbk.ac.uk>
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Birkbeck’s Centre for Media, Culture and Creative Practices and London Asia Pacific Cultural Studies Forum Presents

Symposium: Global Japan
presenters: Oliver Dew, Dario Lolli, Simon Turner & Lyle De Souza
chairs: Dr. Jonathan Mackintosh and Dr. Shinji Oyama

REGISTER here: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/3500579327

Foreword
The aim of this symposium is to present some of the very latest research being produced by Birkbeck PhD students on the general theme of ‘Global Japan’ to encourage dialogue on and an understanding of a Japan de-centred from its geographical location. The presenters range from those just beginning their PhD to those who have been doing their PhD for several years and are near completion. The topics use different, innovative cultural studies methodological approaches and encompass a number of mediums including music, literature, manga and film. Global Japan is a complex and dynamic subject, so it is hoped that after these presentations and a panel discussion a clearer idea of it evolves and the audience will have had a glimpse of the exciting directions that the scholars of the future are taking in the study of Japan and its international reach.

Beyond Indignation: New Media, Anti-Nuclear Activism, and the ‘Abandoned People of Fukushima’

London Asia Pacific Cultural Studies Forum Special Talk:

Beyond Indignation: New Media, Anti-Nuclear Activism, and the ‘Abandoned People of Fukushima’

Dr Nicola Liscutin

Date: 1 March 2012, 6 - 7.30pm

Venue: Keynes Library (Room 114)

School of Arts,

43 Gordon Square

London WC1H 0PD

When in 12 March 2011 images of the explosions in the Fukushima Daiichi reactors filled TV screens accompanied by official assurances that all was under control and no harm would come to the population, many people in Fukushima and the Kantō region experienced what media scholar Manuel Castells has called ‘an extraordinary level of cognitive dissonance,’ which is to say, a huge gap between the fear-triggering force of the images and the framing of official statements. Alarmed citizens then turned in ever growing numbers to independent Internet-based media in search for reliable, ‘truthful’ information. Over the course of the past year, the importance and usage of these alternative media in Japan has increased dramatically. They have accelerated the development of ‘mass self-communication’ (Castells) and contributed significantly to the formation of (global) networks of solidarity and anti-nuclear activism in Japan.

In an article published last November in the Asia-Pacific Journal (http://www.japanfocus.org/-Nicola-Liscutin/3649), I examined these developments in some detail. Taking stock of more recent events and trends, this paper offers an update on the changed Japanese mediascape with regards to participatory journalism and citizens’ communication networks. By way of an example, I shall focus specifically on the mediation (and remediation) through alternative TV/Ustream and social media of the fight against silence by, and for, ‘the abandoned people of Fukushima.’

Nicola Liscutin, PhD, is a researcher of Japanese Cultural Studies affiliated until end of February with the Graduate School of Arts & Science of Tokyo University. From April 2012, she will be a Visiting Professor at the Institute for the Study of Global Issues of Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo

Birkbeck College, University of London and LAPCSF (London Asia Pacific Cultural Studies Forum) present

International Symposium

HUMANITIES AFTER FUKUSHIMA: DIALOGUES BETWEEN CULTURAL STUDIES AND PHILOSOPHY IN THE POST-NUCLEAR AGE OF CRITICAL JUNCTURE

Friday, 28 October 2011 – Sunday, 30 October 2011

Birkbeck College, 43 Gordon Square, WC1H, London

Birkbeck College, Main Building, Malet Street, WC1E 7HX, London

Discussion Themes and Focus

Inspired by Nishiyama Yuji’s documentary film “The Right to Philosophy”, comprised of his interviews with those associated with “International College of Philosophy” founded in Paris by Jaques Derrida and Francois Chatelet in 1983, this small-scale international symposium, will try to address issues surrounding the past, present and future of Humanities education and research in the age of crisis. This “crisis” particularly resonates with the natural disasters on March 11, 2011 in Japan, and the following calamitous events centered on the nuclear power-plant’s meltdown at Fukushima.

What could be the roles and responsibilities of Humanities scholars facing this crisis? Can University education stand up to the multiple challenges posed by the now increasingly technologically sophisticated neoliberal/capitalist politics? What could be the viable relationship between Cultural Studies and Philosophy education? And is it too vulgar to talk about Art and Literature after “Fukushima”?

This gathering will tackle these questions from various and broad perspectives in a kind of intellectual exchange particularly among those who are concerned with the relevant issues in the present geopolitical contexts in Japan and Britain. Although the Symposium is based on the traditional format consisting of several panels with keynote speeches and commentaries, its atmosphere will be definitely friendly, non-hierarchical and improvisational, and we hope that the participants will enjoy the intellectual exchanges at their very best forms during the three days.

Schedule and Guest Speakers

*Keynote speech is 30~45 minutes, commentary 15~20 minutes.

*Participation in the symposium is free of charge, but please pay £20 for food and drinks if you would like to attend the Reception on Friday 28th and the Farewell Party on Sunday 30th (£10 for attending only one of the two; the Keynote speakers and Commentators are free)

Friday 28th October

17:00~20:00 Panel 1: “Cultural Studies and Philosophy Education in Asia” (Room G16, Malet St)

Keynote 1: Koichi Iwabuchi (Waseda University)

Keynote 2: Fabian Schäfer (Leipzig University)

Comment1: Angus Lockyer (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London)

Comment 2: Ted Motohashi (Birkbeck College, University of London)

Discussion

20:00~21:00 Reception (Room G16, Malet St)

Saturday 29th October

11:00~14:00 Film showing: “The Right to Philosophy” (Birkbeck Cinema, Gordon Sq)

Keynote: Yuji Nishiyama (Tokyo Metropolitan University)

Comment: Yusuke Miyazaki (University of Niigata)

Discussion

15:00~18:00 Panel 2: “Roles and Responsibilities of Intellectuals in the Age of Neoliberal Politics” (Room 416, Malet St)
Keynote1: Sabu Kohso (New York, Artist/Activist)

Keynote 2: Jun Hirose (Ryukoku University)

Comment 1: Angela McRobbie (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

Comment 2: Jeremy Gilbert (University of East London)

Discussion

Sunday 30th October

10:00~13:00 Panel 3: “Humanities After Crisis” (Room B04, Gordon Sq)

Keynote 1: Ryuta Imafuku (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies)

Keynote 2: Chih-Ming Wang (Institute of European and American Studies, Academia Sinica, Taiwan)

Comment 1: Esther Leslie (Birkbeck College, University of London)

Comment 2: Michael Gardiner (University of Warwick)

Discussion

14:00~17:00 Panel 4: “The Present Conditions and Future Prospects of Humanities Education in Universities” (Room B04, Gordon Sq)

Keynote 1: Naoki Sakai (Cornell University)

Keynote 2: Gauri Viswanathan (Columbia University)

Comment 1: Costas Douzinas (Birkbeck College, University of London)

Comment 2: John Hutnyk (Goldsmiths College, University of London)　　　　　　

Discussion

17:00~18:30 Summary Panel (Room B04, Gordon Sq)

All the Keynote Speakers’ and Commentators’ final remarks (5 minutes each)

19:00~21:00 Farewell Party (Room B03, Gordon Sq)

Register to this event: http://lapcsf.eventbrite.com/?ref=ebtn

With Financial Help from Japan Foundation

Moderated by Ted Motohashi and Shinji Oyama

With Lyle De Souza, Maria Filisch, Simon Turner, Oliver Dew, Novella Gremigni and Dario Lolli as Executive Committee Members

SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies Seminar TODAY: Framing Sociology in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore

Framing Sociology in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore: Geopolitics, State and its Practitioners

Albert Tzeng (University of Warwick)


Date: 13 April 2011

Time: 6:00-7:30 PM

Venue: Russell Square: College Buildings Room: 116


Abstract:
This project aims to map and compare how sociology as an institutionalized discipline of teaching and research had been developed in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore since its introduction in 1950s-60s, and to interpret the observed trajectories and patterns in light of social-historical contexts. The three cases share some similarities in their colonial past, Chinese-populated demography, and development trajectories as ‘Asian tigers,’ but demonstrate sharp contrast in post-war politics (geopolitics, state- politics, and identity politics). Three levels of analytical categories are involved in the analysis: regional geopolitical, state-institutional, and (collective) practitioner-level. On the one hand, this project attempt to look beyond the national container and bring various trans-border factors (e.g. scholarly migration, foreign funding and knowledge flow) into analytical scope under the conceptual framework ‘world system of knowledge network.’ On the other hand, the explanation sought is to be grounded on a sympathetic understanding of the actors from their psychological perspective. The analyze comparatively how sociology were institutionalized in the three places, the outlook of their scholarship, their negotiation with the Western paradigm, the interface with the public, and the varied consequence and responses in face of the recent managerialist higher education reform. Data used include literature and archive material, bibliographic and demographic dataset, interview with sociologists stratified by bibliographical factors, and some ethnographic observation in the field study.


About Albert Tzeng

Albert Tzeng is currently sociology PhD student in University of Warwick. He studied chemistry and psychology in National Taiwan University and holds MSc in sociology from LSE. Prior to academic pursuit, he had worked as book editor, marketing professional, parliamentary assistant and election campaign manager in Taiwan. He had published a book about his earlier journeys in Western China.

http://www.soas.ac.uk/taiwanstudies/events/

NEW ROOM NUMBER FOR Prof Yomota and Dr Kinsella on Kawaii and Aging

PLEASE NOTE THE NEW ROOM NUMBER FOR THE EVENT "Matureness and Unmatureness in Contemporary Japanese Art and Culture: Aging and Kawaii":

Room 541
Birkbeck College Main Building
Torrington Square (Malet Street)
London WC1E 7HX
Building number 1 on this map

6pm Friday 25th March

[NEW VENUE] Prof. Inuhiko Yomota and Dr. Sharon Kinsella on Aging and Kawaii

Matureness and Unmatureness in Contemporary Japanese Art and Culture: Aging and Kawaii
A talk by Prof. Inuhiko Yomota
Respondent: Dr. Sharon Kinsella

6pm Friday 25th March

[PLEASE NOTE THE NEW ROOM NUMBER]
Room 541
Birkbeck College Main Building
Torrington Square (Malet Street)
London WC1E 7HX
Building number 1 on this map

FREE AND OPEN TO ALL
but booking is essential, please email lapcsf@gmail.com


In this special event for LAPCSF, celebrated critic Inuhiko Yomota will contrast the culture of kawaii—so prevalent in manga, anime, and East Asian pop culture in general—with the aesthetics of aging within Butoh dance and other performing arts. Traversing from the figure of the girl warrior in the anime Sailor Moon and Henry Darger’s Vivian Girls, to the “immortality” of legendary Butoh performer Kazuo Ohno, this talk promises to be a tour de force from a unique voice in cultural criticism.

Prof. Inuhiko Yomota’s publications range over film history, literature, manga, and even food culture. His One Hundred Years of Japanese Cinema has been translated into German, Italian, Korean, and Chinese, while his books on kawaii and manga have been published in Chinese and Korean translations. Among the prizes he has been awarded for his writing are the Kodansha Essay Prize, the Kuwabara Prize, and the Saito Ryoku’u prize. He has also translated works by Paul Bowles, Edward Said, Pier Paulo Pasolini, and Mahmoud Darwish into Japanese. He is Professor of Motion Picture History and Comparative Literature at Meiji Gakuin University, and he has been a visiting professor at Konguk University, Columbia University, the University of Bologna, and Tel Aviv University, among others.

Dr. Sharon Kinsella is author of Adult Manga: Culture and power in postwar Japanese society and Girls as Energy: Fantasies of rejuvenation in contemporary Japan. She is lecturer in Japanese Visual Culture at the University of Manchester, and has previously held positions at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, MIT, and Yale.

Dr Lisa Leung on East Asian Media Circulation

We are pleased to announce the latest meeting of the London Asia Pacific Cultural Studies Forum with Dr Lisa Leung from Lingnan University in Hong Kong. In this informal meeting, Dr Leung will initiate the discussion by sharing some of her most recent thoughts, yet to be published in a full paper, on East Asian Pop Culture. She will talk about the ‘different layers of appropriation' that complicate the critical rethinking of East Asian media circulation, between Hong Kong, China, Korea and Japan. She will also combine this with the challenges of doing audience consumption research on the internet, something which is more current to her research. Please let us know (lapcsf@gmail.com) if you would like to attend. Drinks afterwards, as always!
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Whither is the transnational? Some tentative thoughts about the challenges of East Asian TV dramas reception studies

Lisa Leung, Department of Cultural Studies, Lingnan University

Date: Friday March 18th (6:00 to 8:00 PM)

Room 629, Birkbeck Main Building (Torrington Square) 

(http://www.bbk.ac.uk/maps/centrallondon.pdf)

Scholarship around the transnational reception of East Asian media and cultural products has epitomized the challenges of popular culture research, which has been attempting to capture the interplay between globalized consumerist culture, cultural negotiations as well as geo-political tensions in the region. After a decade of research and publications on the topic, Dr Lisa Leung shares about her critical evaluations of the contributions of, as well as the challenges, facing East Asian media reception studies, in terms of its conceptualizations as well as methodologies. How will the ‘layers of appropriation’ of transnational audience to the media products interplay with the shifting geo-political dynamics in the East Asian region? How can the internet, which has transformed (transnational) viewing landscape pose new challenges to the research methodologies surrounding reception studies?

Bio: Dr Lisa Leung has researched and published extensively on the transnational circulation of Japanese and Korean media and cultural products. While her specialty is in audience studies, she has also researched and published on the interplay between (global) popular culture and social movements. Her more recent interests include creative industries, ethnic minorities and multiculturalism, as well as community media.

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Second LAPCSF seminar on "Cultural Studies and the Questions of 'Race' in the Postimperial Era"

Date:  Wednesday 8th September, 6:00~9:00pm

Chair: Oliver Dew (Birkbeck)

6:00~6:45  A keynote from Paul Gilroy (LSE)
Shameful history: postimperial melancholia and contested cosmopolitanism

6:45~7:15  Comments from Toshiya Ueno (Wako), followed by discussion
7:15~7:45  Paper 1: Masayoshi Kosugi (Goldsmiths), 
Cultural Studies, Multiplicity and the Question of 'Race'

7:45~8:15  Paper 2: Seigo Kayanoki (Kobe)
"Seasick, yet still docked”: reconsidering the recent domestic revival of Kani Kosen in Japan"

8:15~8:30  Comments from Ueno Toshiya
8:30~9:00  General discussion

The venue: Room 415 (Birkbeck College's main building at Malet Street)

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(1)  Masayoshi Kosugi, "Cultural Studies, Multiplicity and the Question of 'Race'"

Abstract:
Entering into the discussion through Prof. Stuart Hall's 'The West and The Rest: Discourses and Power' (1992) among other seminal Cultural Studies texts, I would like to critically examine the political, socio-cultural and ethical utility of the so-called 'non-Dualist' dialectics developed by Henri Bergson and the surrounding cultural critiques that are influenced by it.  In particular, the discussion will be explicitly framed in order to relate to the question of temporality under the schema of neo-liberal capital, and its impact upon the contemporary politics of culture induced by technological and economic variables. Most importantly, I would like to move the discussion towards a debate over 'race' and its construction through the above clues and elements.

(2) Seigo Kayanoki, “Seasick, yet still docked”: reconsidering the recent domestic revival of Kani Kosen in Japan"

In 2008, Japanese society witnessed an utterly (un)anticipated revival of the classic of prewar proletarian literature. Kani Kosen (Crab Cannery Boat), written by Kobayashi Takiji in 1929, deals with the harsh working condition of crews on board a ship catching and processing crab off the Hokkaido coast and their failed attempt to strike against capitalist exploitation. The founding that the hardships depicted in the near 80 years old proletarian novella has the anachronistic similarity with precarious lives of today’s working poor has generated the widespread readership. Fueled by the boom, many scholars have revaluated the actuality of the work in today’s Japanese context. However, it seems that there are many important issues left unquestioned. It is this problem space in which this paper will attempt to intervene. Firstly, it will be pointed out that the resurgence of interest in Kani Kosen has not been sufficiently connected with the ongoing debate on Japanese imperial past. Secondly, the paper will discuss that enough importance has not been placed on why the novel characterized by Takiji as “a page of history of capitalist intrusion in colony” was set in a boat at sea. In a manner reminiscent of Foucault’s thought on heterotopia, Takiji represents a ship as an autonomous space both of violence and resistance. In sum, what this paper will try to do is to “seajack” this boom as an opportunity for rethinking Japanese (post)colonial modernity, instead of diminishing it as being manufactured by a few trend-settlers and media’s commercial appetite.

What is LAPCSF

London Asia Pacific Cultural Studies Forum 



Contextual Histories
In June 1997, Ted Motohashi, then a visiting fellow at University of Essex, organized a postgraduate conference at Essex on the theme of “Pacific Asia Cultural Studies”, with the help from people like Stuart Hall, Catherine Hall, Peter Hulme, Paul Gilroy, Kuan-hsing Chen and Naoki Sakai.  After that conference, in which a number of postgraduate students coming to London from Asian countries or those researching subjects related to Asia who are interested in Cultural Studies in various ways participated, there arose a voluntary network of students/lecturers who thought that a continuation of the “bottom-up” initiatives materialized in that conference would be vital in reinvigorating cultural studies in London.  Since then, several postgraduate students took leads in organizing regular, biweekly or monthly, seminars and annual international conferences mostly at Goldsmiths College.  That network was later succeeded and developed by Chris Berry of Goldsmiths and then by Shinji Oyama at Birkbeck from 2010 onward.  


Institutional Basis
"London Asia Pacific Cultural Studies Forum (LAPCSF)" is now housed at the Centre for Media, Culture and Creative Practice, Birkbeck College, London with the support from Birkbeck’s Media and Cultural Studies Department, although this forum by definition being a cross London network of people who share common interests and incentives could occasionally have seminars/meetings at some other venues.


Overall Aims and Themes 

We aim to provide those postgraduate students across London who are interested in Cultural Studies with opportunities of developing their own research topics and working their fellow students in a friendly and cooperative environment through presenting their own papers and attending the workshops.


Contact

Dr. Shinji Oyama (Director, Centre for Media, Culture and Creative Practices, Birkbeck)

s.oyama(at)bbk(dot)ac(dot)uk

1st Meeting

London Asia Pacific Cultural Studies Forum (LAPCSF) the First Meeting


Monday, July 26th, 
17:30~20:00, Room 633, Malet Street, Birkbeck College, University of  London


After several years of collective endeavours, cultural studies in London with a focus on Asia and Pacific seem to have met new challenges.  Can cultural studies and their practitioners based in London, particularly those from Asian countries, and those whose main research interests are related to Asia, still be vibrant and vital forces and sources of inspiration?  What can they offer to those whose main areas of studies are not Asia Pacific?  What kind of relationships can we envisage between Cultural Studies and Area Studies in general after the transformations of cultural studies over the years?  What are the inherent issues and practical problems those graduate students from Asian countries facing who have been the lynchpin of internationalised cultural studies in London?   In order to address these questions among others through regular meetings which will consist of seminars on various themes organised by graduate students, we are setting up a network called "London Asia Pacific Cultural Studies Forum" (LAPCSF), based on Birkbeck College, University of London. We aim to build up personal and practical network of people through these meetings starting from September 2010, which should culminate in an international conference in November 2011, also at Birkbeck.


The first preparatory meeting on 26th July will be an important opportunity to meet one another who share common concerns, and to exchange our views on our future directions.  We have two main speakers, Hiroki and Chris, who have been behind among others the development of Asian cultural studies in London.  


We would invite all those postgraduate students and teachers across London who work and research in various cross-cultural fields to come to this joyful and important occasion.


Chair: Ted Motohashi (Tokyo University of Economics; Birkbeck College)


1) Hiroki Ogasawara (Kobe University, Japan), "Studying Cultural Studies in London: Trajectories of PACSF in the 21st Century"


2) Chris Berry (Goldsmiths College), "The Perils and Pitfalls of Promoting Asian Cultural Studies in London”             


3) Discussion


4) Reception



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2011 Conference

A provisional proposal for Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies Conference at Birkbeck College, London


1. Organising Committee:
LAPCSF Graduate Students Conference Organising Committee


2. Dates:
Friday 25th to Sunday 27th, November 2011


3. Title and Overall Theme:
“Transition and Transformation of Cultural Studies in Asia Pacific: Crossroads of Philosophy, Literature and Economics”


4. Basic Schedule:
1) Friday evening  -  Plenary Symposium I “Crises of Humanities and Institutionalisation of Cultural Studies”  followed by a welcome reception
2) Saturday morning  -  Plenary Symposium II “Translation and Comparatism in Cultural Studies”
3) Saturday afternoon  -  Parallel paper panels
4) Saturday evening  -  Plenary Symposium III “Archipelagic Imagination in Asia Pacific”
5) Sunday morning  -  Plenary Symposium IV “Cultural Studies and New Social Economy”
6) Sunday afternoon  -  Parallel paper panels and a final plenary discussion
7) Sunday evening  -  Farewell party


5. Plenary speakers to be invited will include (to be confirmed):
Gayatri Spivak (Columbia University)
Naoki Sakai (Cornell University)
Rey Chow (Brown University)
Toshiya Ueno (Wako University, Tokyo)
Ryuta Imafuku (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies)
Kwan-Hsing Chen (National Chiao Yung University)
Tessa Morris-Suzuki (Australian National University)
Paul Gilroy (London School of Economics)
Peter Hulme (Essex University)


6. Finance:
To be discussed.