Dear Friends and Colleagues,


We are pleased to announce the upcoming Abe Fellowship Colloquium, "Robo sapiens japanicus: Robots, Gender, Family, and the Japanese Nation," featuring speaker Dr. Jennifer Robertson from the University of Michigan.

It will be held at the International House of Japan, Friday June 7th, from 4 pm to 6 pm.


To register, please contact our staff at abetokyo[at]ssrc.org with your name, affiliation, telephone number, and email.


Thank you and we look forward to seeing you there.


Social Science Research Council

Abe Fellowship Program Tokyo Office

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ABE FELLOWSHIP COLLOQUIUM

"Robo sapiens japanicus: Robots, Gender, Family, and the Japanese Nation"

Notes: Admission is free. Japanese interpretation provided.

When: Friday, June 7, from 4 pm to 6 pm

Where: International House of Japan, Lecture Hall

（5-11-16 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032）

http://www.i-house.or.jp/eng/access.html


Speaker:

Jennifer Robertson, Ph.D.　

Professor, University of Michigan /Abe Fellow 2010


Jennifer Robertson is Professor of Anthropology and the History of Art at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She has appointments as Professor of Art & Design and Professor of Women's Studies. A former director and member of the Center for Japanese Studies, she is also an affiliate faculty of the Robotics Institute and the Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG). Robertson earned her Ph.D. in Anthropology from Cornell University in 1985, where she also earned a B.A. in the History of Art in 1975. The Japan Editor of Critical Asian Studies, Robertson's seven books and over eighty articles and chapters address a wide spectrum of subjects in Anthropology, History of Art, and Japan Studies ranging from the 17th century to the present. She is currently researching, writing, and editing articles on the cultural history of Japanese eugenics, bio-art and contemporary art, and human-robot interfaces in Japan and elsewhere.


Robertson is a 2010 Abe Fellow and her Abe project was entitled "Safety, Security, Convenience: The Political Economy of Service Robots in Japan".


For more information, please see her homepage: www.jenniferrobertson.info <http://www.jenniferrobertson.info>　


Outline:

Japan is arguably the first postindustrial society to embrace the prospect of human-robot coexistence. Over the past decade, Japanese humanoid robots designed for use in homes, hospitals, offices, and schools have become celebrated in mass and social media throughout the world. In Robo sapiens japanicus: Robots, Gender, Family, and the Japanese Nation (University of California Press, 2018), Jennifer Robertson casts a critical eye on press releases and public relations videos that misrepresent robots as being as versatile and agile as their science fiction counterparts. An ethnography and sociocultural history of governmental and academic discourse of human-robot relations in Japan, this book explores how actual robots--humanoids, androids, and animaloids--are "imagineered" in ways that reinforce the conventional sex/gender system and political-economic status quo. She traces the early 20th century and wartime backstories informing the images, applications, and receptions of robots today. In addition, Robertson interrogates the notion of human exceptionalism as she considers whether "civil rights" should be granted to robots. How robots and robotic exoskeletons reinforce a conception of the "normal body" (gotai manzoku 五体満足) is discussed together with a critique of Mori Masahiro's much-invoked but misconstrued concept of bukimi no tani (不気味の谷), or "uncanny valley".


*This event is jointly sponsored by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) Tokyo Office and the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership (CGP). ※Personal information provided will be collected and used for arrangements for the event and evaluation of the event, as well as providing information for future events.