Dear colleagues,

As part of University of Colorado Boulder's Introduction to the Anthropology of Japan course, the public is invited to attend a curated series of remote lectures exploring diverse aspects of Japanese culture over the Spring 2022 semester.

Below is information for our next three events! All Mountain Time 12:20-1:10pm, Momoko Usami (Friday, 2/25), ann-elise lewallen (MONDAY, 2/28), and Jason Danely (Friday, 3/11). Please note the separate Zoom registration links.

Best,

Kate

***

"The Bust of Harry S Truman"
Momoko Usami, Ceramicist
Fri, Feb 25, 12:20 PM - 01:10 PM MT

Registration Link:
https://cuboulder.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcpdOCtrz4pHtJrZo5W0RNSKTdRXOTqq0KE

Abstract:
In 2020, the 75th year anniversary of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japanese ceramic artist Momoko Usami was given a public commission to create a bust of Harry S. Truman for Hotel Kansas City. Truman may have advocated for civil rights domestically, but he also authorized the dropping of atomic bombs on Usami's native country. For Usami, who now lives in the American Midwest with her family, having mixed-race children in a period of civil unrest helped shape the complexity of her depiction of Truman. Her key motivation in her depiction was a fear of repeating the worst of history. Usami hopes that her art increases public awareness so we will not make the same mistakes again, and that we will find better paths for the future.

***


"Engaged Scholarship and Academic Colonialism"
Dr. ann-elise lewallen
Associate Professor, Pacific & Asian Studies, University of Victoria, B.C., Canada
MONDAY, Feb 28, 12:20 PM - 01:10 PM MT

Registration Link:
https://cuboulder.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUof--srTkiHtyVcdNgdleXDcWvICT5ZpTk

Abstract:
Can research be meaningfully "decolonized"? Is it possible to craft ethnographic approaches that are empowering to (Indigenous and racialized) communities? How does research conducted by Indigenous peoples counter the approach of "majority researchers"? Through centering these questions, I will provide examples of how I have sought to address these questions through work that I have done with Indigenous communities in Japan and India.

***

"Fragility and Loss in Japan's Aging Society"
Dr. Jason Danely, Reader in Anthropology, Oxford Brookes University
Fri, Mar 11, 12:20 PM - 01:10 PM MT

Registration Link:
https://cuboulder.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMqceuopj4oGNY1ik5b8sPe0ytfsvATHY2W

Abstract:
While later life in Japan remains strongly framed by western-style biomedical and social care institutions, recent years have seen a renewed interest in alternative approaches to aging, that incorporate the processes of both aging and dying. In this talk, I will discuss how Japan's aging population has given rise to a new sensibility concerning the processual fluidity between aging, illness, death, and the afterlife, in ways that challenge dominant gerontological paradigms based on notions of resilience and independence. This rethinking of the process of aging and dying involves an ordinary aesthetics of fragility and loss, that draws upon broader reconsiderations of the relationships between person, society, and nature. I show that this new aesthetic sensibility also draws upon cultural narratives of interdependence, mutuality, ecology and spirituality. On the anniversary of the 3.11 disaster and with the pandemic still impacting us, this talk offers a reflection on what it means to grow older, to mourn, and to be in the world with others.

--

*Kathryn E. Goldfarb
*Assistant Professor of Anthropology*
*University of Colorado at Boulder*
1350 Pleasant St.
Boulder, CO 80309
Hale Science 350 | Campus Box 233 UCB
Office: Hale Science 466
Office phone: 303.492.1589
kathryn.goldfarb@colorado.edu