Centre for Japanese Studies E-Newsletter Spring 2017 Welcome to the UEA Centre for Japanese Studies autumn e-newsletter. Please forward this on to anyone you think may be interested and let us know about any events or news you think would be of interest to the Japanese studies community in Norwich. The deadline for the next issue is 31 March 2017. How to connect with Japan-related teaching, research and events through the Centre for Japanese Studies? It’s simple: Keep an eye on the website (www.uea.ac.uk/cjs) for full details of Japan-related teaching and research, and details of the members of CJS. CJS Office is located in the Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts (the mezzanine floor). Our phone number is 591819. You can also reach us through email (cjs@uea.ac.uk). FROM THE DIRECTOR Happy New Year of the Cockerel! And it promises to be a good year for Japanese Studies at UEA. As this issue of our enewsletter shows, we are seeing increasing levels of Japan-related activity across the campus – with many opportunities to get involved, or example with CareersCentral once again running their Global Opportunities week with a special Japan Day on 13 February). We also have details of various funding schemes – including the Sasakawa Postgraduate Studentships and the Japan Orientation Summer School. We are busy planning for the Vice-Chancellor’s next visit to Japan in May, developing a research agenda for CJS and plans for new Japanrelated postgraduate programmes. Simon Kaner FORTHCOMING OPPORTUNITIES Japan Orientation International Summer School: CJS is delighted to again offer our ‘Japan Orientation’ programme as part of the UEA International Summer School. The programme will run from 24 June – 21 July and is accredited for 20 UK undergraduate credits for students who wish to transfer credit back to their home degree. The course is being offered for the fourth year, and in 2017 will be convened by Mami Mizutori, Special Adviser for Japanese Studies at UEA with CJS Director Simon Kaner. The course focuses upon the latest approaches to Japanese studies and offers more than 40 taught hours combined with academic fieldtrips, guest lectures and experiential learning. The programme is generously
supported by the Toshiba International Foundation (TIFO) with 12 fully funded places on offer for students from the Visegrad Group (V4) countries, and 3 additional scholarships offered for UK and EU students by the Sainsbury Institute. The programme is also supported and promoted by the Japan Foundation. Scholarship applications close on 31 March, and we require interested students to also submit an online application for the programme by this date. See www.uea.ac.uk/summerstudyabroad/japan for more information or contact the International Summer School team at summerstudyabroad@uea.ac.uk. UEA Study Abroad Office is looking forward to continuing the very positive collaboration with our existing Study Abroad exchange partners in Japan. New developments include the widening of the agreement with Akita International University. This will hopefully lead to more students going from across a variety of Schools of Study at UEA. Negotiations between UEA and Osaka University are taking place for a potential future Study Abroad partnership. Sainsbury Institute – University of Tokyo Winter Programmes in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage: For the second year students from across Europe will take part in the Winter Programme this February, organised by Dr Sam Nixon, Senior Researcher at the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures in conjunction with Faculty of Letters at the University of Tokyo. The students will spend two weeks in East Anglia and elsewhere in the UK. The programme includes an extensive programme of visits to heritage sites and museums. UEA CareerCentral will be running Global Opportunities week again this year, 13-17 February, kicking off with a Japan Day on 13 February. If you would like to hear from UEA alumni who have lived and worked in Japan/ been a Daiwa scholar or want to find out more about the JET programme or Interac then make sure you sign up on MyCareerCentral and remember places are limited! Also on 2 February, UEA CareerCentral, Study Abroad, Student Support Services and the Students Union will be jointly organising a free event in the LCR from 17.30 – 19.00 called UEA Global: Europe, America & Asia. This event will include international student society performances, food and cultural stalls from these parts of the world, including Japan. Sign up for this on the Students Union website. Audiovisual Translation as Cultural Mediation International Poster Competition Organised in conjunction with the AHRC-funded Tapping the Power of Foreign Films research network project. This competition is open to audiovisual translation/film/media research students and reflective audiovisual translation professionals, as an opportunity to explore, and account visually for, the capacity of subtitled and dubbed foreign films to promote intercultural literacy for the benefit of the general public. It is sponsored by CJS with a special prize for the best entry showcasing Japanese language and culture. Deadline 15 March 2017; full details on www.filmsintranslation.org (Dr Marie-Noelle Guillot, PPL) The second UEA Japanese Language Speech Contest: Following the success last year, the 5th Nikkei Telecom Speech Contest (the 2nd at UEA) will be held at Council Chamber on Friday 28 April 2017 at 10:30. The final year students of Japanese at UEA have been working on creating a speech using Nikkei Telecom Database. Students have studied the wide range of news articles written in Japanese, selected the topic of their interest, and created a speech in Japanese. The finalists will compete on the day of contest. This is an open event, so please come along and show your support! Organised by Dr Umezawa Kaoru, PPL.
Sasakawa Postgraduate Studentships in Japanese Studies: The University has once again been invited to put forward good candidates for these studentships. Each studentship is worth £10,000 towards tuition fees and living costs. Any field is eligible, as long as the research/studies to be undertaken relate to Japan. Contact CJS for an informal discussion. cjs@uea.ac.uk. Applications must be submitted through CJS – and the deadline is 28 February 2017. These studentships, funded by the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, are designed to encourage new generations of MA students working on Japan. JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship (Long Term): This fellowship provides the opportunity for UK and EU researchers based outside of Japan to conduct collaborative research activities in the fields of the natural sciences, including physics, chemistry, mathematics, computer science, engineering science, agricultural and medical research (non-clinical only) with leading research groups at Japanese universities and research institutions for visits of between 12 to 24 months. Application Deadline: Tuesday, 7 March 2017 and the Fellowships must be started between 1 September to 30 November 2017. https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemesawards/grants/jsps-postdoctoral DATES FOR YOUR DIARY: EXHIBITION: Masters of Japanese Photography : 11 November 2016 – 19 March 2017 at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts (SCVA), on UEA campus. SCVA is presenting an exhibition, Masters of Japanese Photography exploring the work of three of the most prominent Japanese photographers of the second half of the 20th century: Nobuyoshi Araki, Eikoh Hosoe and Kikuji Kawada. Please see below for related events at SCVA. TAIKO DRUM PERFORMANCE: Yamato: The Drummers of Japan are at the Peacock Theatre in London 14-25 March. Alice-Kemp Welch (Taiko East): ‘They are bucket loads of fun to watch, a really high octane show!’ THURSDAY 2 FEBRUARY: UEA Global: Europe, America & Asia. 17.30 – 19.00 at LCR. Sign up for this on the SU website. MONDAY 13 FEBRUARY: UEA Global Opportunities Week, Japan Day. See above for further information and sign up at MyCareerCentral. THURSDAY 16 FEBRUARY: ‘On Some Characteristics of Japanese Traditional Portraits Known as ‘Nise-e’ (Likeness Picture)’, by Tsuda Tetsuei (Head of Archive Section, Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties). Third Thursday Lecture. 18.00 Norwich Cathedral Hostry. Entry free. All welcome. http://sainsbury-institute.org/news-events/thirdthursday-lectures/. TUESDAY 21 FEBRUARY: SCVA Special lecture on photography practice in post-war Japan by Jelena Stojkovic. 18.00 SCVA Gallery Reception. Find out more FRIDAY 24 FEBRUARY: SCVA Last Friday Art for Lunch. Two Japanese Ceramics Jomon Pots in the Sainsbury Collection. 13.15 Gallery Reception. http://scva.ac.uk/whatson/events/category/talks-and-tours/last-friday-art-for-lunch1?utm_source=Sainsbury+Centre+Email+Newsletter&utm_campaign=eb70972581-
Spring_Programme-2017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1c0522437a-eb7097258153576657. MONDAY 27 FEBRUARY: Japan Now: Publication launch of the KEISHIKI Series of 8 short stories showcasing some of the most exciting writers working in Japan today. 19.00 Norwich Cathedral Hostry. Entry free. All welcome. http://sainsbury-institute.org/newsevents/keshiki/. THURSDAY 9 MARCH: Special lecture on the significance and meaning of the kimono,‘Seductive Folds: Kimono in the Floating World’, by Anna Jackson (Keeper of the Asian Department at the V&A Museum). 18.00 SCVA Lecture Theatre Find out more THURSDAY 16 MARCH: Special lecture on photographic works in post-war Japan by Dr Maki Fukuoka. 18.00 SCVA Lecture Theatre Find out more THURSDAY 16 MARCH: ‘In a Lively Place: Spaces of Japanese Scriptwriting’, by Dr Lauri Kitsnik (Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Fellow). Third Thursday Lecture. 18.00 Norwich Cathedral Hostry. Entry free. All welcome. http://sainsbury-institute.org/news-events/thirdthursday-lectures/. FRIDAY 28 APRIL: The second UEA Japanese Language Speech Contest. All welcome. Council Chamber at 10:30. See above for further information. PEOPLE: Dr Simon Kaner (CJS/SISJAC): During the autumn semester, Simon spent a few days in Japan with Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science, Professor Phil Gilmartin. We visited the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Headquarters in Tokyo and explored links in science with Tohoku University and Yokohama National University. We are planning to do more with UEA Science in Japan during the Vice-Chancellor’s forthcoming visit in May. Simon spent the winter vacation in Kyoto as a Visiting Researcher at the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, where he is a member of a project on Small Scale Economies in prehistory and the contemporary world, flying out the day after giving the SISJAC December Third Thursday Lecture, to take part in a public discussion on the international significance of Japanese archaeology, in particular the prehistoric Jomon period, in Morioka, Iwate prefecture. He spent new Year’s Eve at the Fushimi Inari Shrine amid the innumerable torii gates that the shrine is famous for, and the equally innumerable crowds who wanted to make sure they were among the first to pay their respects at this shrine dedicated to the Fox God. This was preceded by a few days visiting Korea as the guest of Professor Woo Jae-Pyoung of Chungnam National University, researching sites belonging the the Kingdom of Baekje (18 BC – 660 AD), from where Buddhism was transmitted to Japan in the 6th century AD, giving a lecture at the Chungnam University Museum. While in Kyoto he hosted a visit by Professor Roland Fletcher of the University of Sydney, who is currently working at Angkor Wat in Cambodia and the history of low-density urbanism. We had a lively seminar on these topics chaired by Professor Yano Kenichi at Ritsumeikan University, and visited the early Japanese capital sites of Asuka and Fujiwara south of the historic city of Nara, guided by the Deputy Director of the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Sugiyama Hiroshi,
who also works at Angkor. We will welcome a delegation from Nabunken to Norwich late in February, and continue to develop our connections there through SISJACs Academic Associate Dr Shoda Shinya. A brief visit to Tokyo allowed Simon to put the finishing touches on the world’s first twinning of archaeological sites, referred to in previous e-newsletters, with Mayor Hata Kenichiro of Nagawa-machi in Nagano signing the agreement formally linking the Grimes Graves Neolithic Flint Mines with the Hoshikuso Prehistoric Obsidian Mines in Nagano. Continuing in a prehistoric vein, Simon also gave a lecture at the Jomon World Heritage Forum in Tokyo, and spent a few days in the Izumo region researching the links between cultural heritage and tourism. Dr Geoff Hinchcliffe (Honorary Lecturer, School of Education): Geoff recently travelled to Japan (Jan 5-14) to speak at a conference in Tokyo on citizenship and citizenship education. His main contact was Jiro Hasumi, Associate Professor of Politics and Citizenship Education, Kyushu University. At the conference there were academics from across a range of disciplines including Politics and Social Studies from a range of universities. The Japanese government is gradually introducing a citizen education programme for schools and both the government and academics are keen to find out about international experiences. UEA may be visited by Japanese academics and students relating to this in the future. Professor Saigo Yasuyuki (Social Science, Taisho University) writes: ‘I was very pleased to carry out research at UEA on my study leave in autumn 2016. During my three months’ stay in Norwich, I was able to collect information on social services with Children and Families and interview a number of practitioners. Special thanks to my host Professor June Thoburn and her colleagues at the Centre for Research on Children and Families (CRCF). I hope to stay in touch with them and look forward to our future collaborative research.’ http://acoffice.jp/tsuhp/KgApp?kyoinId=ymkegboeggy (Japanese only) USEFUL LINKS AND OPPORTUNITIES: Embassy of Japan and webmagazine: http://www.uk.emb-japan.go.jp/ Japan Foundation: http://www.jpf.org.uk/ JSPS: http://www.jsps.go.jp/english/ Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation: http://www.dajf.org.uk/ Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation: http://www.gbsf.org.uk/ Japan Society: http://www.japansociety.org.uk/ Ishibashi Foundation: http://www.ishibashi-foundation.or.jp/english/ EU-Japan Centre: http://www.eu-japan.eu/ SIN Japan Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/bOR4y9 Canon Foundation: www.canonfoundation.org Applications for JET Programme: http://www.jetprogramme.org/
Japanese Language Proficiency Exam: http://www.jlpt.jp/e/index.html UEA Japan Society (Meetings on Monday evenings): ueajapansociety@gmail.com Taiko Centre East: http://www.taikocentre.org.uk/ Career Forums: http://www.careerforum.net/event/?lang=E
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