Syllabus
Week 9
Tuesday, 3/8 - Introduction to the (mini) Course
No reading due
Wednesday, 3/9
Discussion Questions due by 12 midnight to Canvas
Opening Survey due by 12 midnight
Thursday, 3/10 - Feminism and Backlash
Ayako Kano. 2016. "Debates? Feminist? Japanese?" In Japanese Feminist Debates: A Century of Contention on Sex, Love, and Labor. The University of Hawai'i Press. Pages: 1-28.
Week 10
Monday, 3/14
Discussion Questions due by 12 midnight to Canvas
Tuesday, 3/15 - Gendered Activism
Aya Hirata Kimura. 2016. Radiation Brain Moms and Citizen Scientists: The Gender Politics of Food Contamination after Fukushima. Duke University Press.
Preface, Introduction, and Chapter 1 "Moms with Radiation Brain," pages: xi-54.
Wednesday, 3/16
Discussion Questions due by 12 midnight to Canvas
Thursday, 3/17 - Citizenship
Aya Hirata Kimura. 2016. Radiation Brain Moms and Citizen Scientists: The Gender Politics of Food Contamination after Fukushima. Duke University Press.
Chapter 2 "Engineering Citizens" and Chapter 3 "School Lunches," pages: 55-103.
Week 11
Monday, 3/21
Discussion Questions due by 12 midnight to Canvas
Tuesday, 3/22 - Sexuality and Labor
Romit Dasgupta. 2017. "Acting Straight? Non-heterosexual Salarymen Working with Heteronormativity in the Japanese Workplace." In East Asian Men: Masculinity, Sexuality, Desire. Palgrave. Pages: 31-50.
Please note - The add / drop deadline is 3/22 by midnight.
Wednesday, 3/23
Discussion Questions due by 12 midnight to Canvas
Thursday, 3/24 - Legal Structures
Of Love and Law. 2017. Hikaru Toda, dir. 94 min.
The film is available on Canvas / Media Gallery.
Week 12
Monday, 3/28
Discussion Questions due by 12 midnight to Canvas
Tuesday, 3/29 - Women's Language
Miyako Inoue. 2006. Vicarious Language: Gender and Linguistic Modernity in Japan. Stanford University Press.
Please read part of the Introduction and part of Chapter 6. Pages: 1-17 and 252-266.
If you don't already know about "women's language" in Japanese, check out either this short introduction or this one.
Wednesday, 3/30
Discussion Questions due by 12 midnight to Canvas
Thursday, 3/31 - Queen's Language
Claire Maree. 2008. "Grrl-Queens: Onē-kotoba and the Negotiation of Heterosexist Gender Language Norms and Lesbo(homo)phobic Stereotypes in Japanese." In AsiaPacifiQueer: Rethinking Genders and Sexualities, edited by Fran Martin, Peter A. Jackson, Mark McLelland, and Audrey Yue. University of Illinois Press. Pages: 67-84.
Week 13
Monday, 4/4
Discussion Questions due by 12 midnight to Canvas
Tuesday, 4/5 - Intimacies
Allison Alexy. 2019. "Introduction: The Stakes of Intimacy in Contemporary Japan." Please read ONLY pages: 1-5; and "What Can Be Said? Communicating Intimacy in Millennial Japan." Pages: 91-111. From Intimate Japan: Ethnographies of Closeness and Conflict, edited by Allison Alexy and Emma Cook. University of Hawai'i Press.
If you are interested, the entire book is available as a free download through open access.
Wednesday, 4/6
Discussion Questions due by 12 midnight to Canvas
Thursday, 4/7 - Desires
S. P. F. Dale. 2019. "Gender Identity, Desire, and Intimacy: Sexual Scripts and X-Gender." From Intimate Japan. Pages: 164-180.
Week 14
Monday, 4/11
Discussion Questions due by 12 midnight to Canvas
Tuesday, 4/12 - Gender in Video Games
Patrick Galbraith. 2011. "Bishōjo Games: ‘Techno-Intimacy’ and the Virtually Human in Japan." Game Studies 11(2).
Wednesday, 4/13
Discussion Questions due by 12 midnight to Canvas
Thursday, 4/14 - Otome Games ON ZOOM
Ceciel Zhong. 2022. "Playing Romance: An Exploration of Fantasy, Agency, and Imagination through Otome Games." Honors thesis project.
Please skim to page 30 and read the rest. If you're not already familiar with otome games, the first 30 pages give a helpful introduction.
Ceciel has generously agreed to join us for the second hour of this session! We will meet on zoom to make that possible and the link is here.
Week 15
Tuesday, 4/19 - Final Thoughts and Future Questions
No new reading due.