Dear list members,

(apologies for cross-posting)

We would like to announce the publication of Teaching Japan: A Handbook. This should be an ideal reference book for university libraries, and everyone teaching a course related to Japan and looking to enhance their undergraduate teaching pedagogies.

Amsterdam University Press website 

Japan Documents website (MHM Limited)

TOC and Introduction

The basic premise taken by the authors begins with a question: What if stereotypes surrounding Japan were not pushed to the margins in teaching but took center stage and were exposed for the multiple ways that they can be used to learn not only about "Japan" but of various scholarly disciplines? The task then becomes constructing ways to challenge essentialist notions that do not seek merely to deny, but to shift the conversation constructively by encouraging engagement with a theoretical field from which to acquire tools to critically and effectively evaluate stereotypes of Japan or other societies. The result is a collection of carefully crafted case studies of syllabi that showcase pedagogies aimed at the deconstruction of concepts such as "Japan," "Japanese," or "Japanese society" while at the same time offering skills of inquiry that transcend the topics being deconstructed. This handbook is not meant to be a manual, but a source of ideas by colleagues who right now, in a variety of disciplinary and institutional settings, are tackling the same issues as you, the current or future teacher who plans to use case studies from Japan in your lectures.

Sincerely,

The editors

Ioannis Gaitanidis & Gregory S. Poole