Dear SSJ Forum members,

Please find below the call for participation in a conference that we are organizing in Singapore later this year. Besides presentations on teaching Japanese culture per se we are also interested in presentations that deal with using elements of Japanese popular culture to teach other issues.

Best wishes from Singapore

Hendrik Meyer-Ohle
Associate Professor
Head, Department of Japanese Studies
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
National University of Singapore

Teaching Japanese Popular Culture Conference

National University of Singapore

Department of Japanese Studies

11-12 November 2012

The Department of Japanese Studies at the National University of Singapore invites proposals for a conference titled Teaching Japanese Popular Culture to be held on 11 and 12 November, 2012. The conference coincides with Anime Festival Asia, the largest Japanese pop culture convention in the Southeast Asia, which will be held in Singapore 9-11 November, 2012.

Interest in popular culture is one of the main factors driving enrollment in Japanese studies at universities worldwide. However, few models exist for teaching popular culture, and students are sometimes more knowledgeable than faculty about current trends. For these reasons, it is to our advantage as instructors to reflect on the ways in which we can most effectively teach popular culture and include popular culture topics in the curriculum. The purpose of this conference is to share pedagogical approaches to teaching Japanese popular culture and strategies for incorporating topics related to Japanese popular culture into courses of all kinds and across all disciplines.

We invite proposals from faculty and graduate students in Japanese studies across the humanities and social sciences who have experience with teaching, creating course materials, or developing curricula. Scholars whose research area covers some aspect of popular culture are welcome, as well as those whose research is in other areas but who include popular culture in their teaching. We also encourage proposals from faculty who incorporate popular culture in Japanese language courses. Topics may include but are not limited to:

. using popular culture materials in content-based language instruction

. using popular culture as a topic in experiential or on-site learning (for example, study abroad, short trips, or internships)

. new pedagogical approaches to designing and teaching courses on manga, anime, television, or video games at the undergraduate level

. strategies for making visual materials or other media available to students for classroom purposes, including negotiating copyright restrictions

. creation of on-line material or databases for instructional purposes

. innovative strategies for including units related to Japanese film, television, music, sports, video games, or fashion in courses not specific to popular culture, or courses not specific to Japanese studies

Please send proposals of 250 words for a 20 minute presentation to jps2012@nus.edu.sg. Please also include the following:

1. Paper title

2. Presenter's name

3. Affiliation and title

4. Email, telephone, and mailing address

The deadline for proposals is 25 May, 2012.

Registration fee will be S$150, which covers two lunches and one dinner.

Following the conference, some papers may be selected for inclusion in an edited volume.

This conference is partially funded by the Japan Foundation and the National University of Singapore.

For more information and updates, see
http://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/jps/research/jps2012.htm

Steering Committee:

Deborah Shamoon, Assistant Professor

Chris McMorran, Lecturer

Kam Thiam Huat, Teaching Assistant

Department of Japanese Studies

National University of Singapore