Hey critical thinkers, a little update to the main conference schedule that should be perfect for challenging us as thinkers and practitioners and people. We have a new plenary speaker - Professor Gerry Yokota of Osaka University. See all the details below. Should be fascinating!! Gerry Yokota: Beyond the Binary: Anime, Gender and the Multicultural Subject Plenary address: Sunday, Nov. 23, 10:25 am - 11:25 am, Main Hall Workshop: Saturday, Nov 22, 5:40 pm - 6:40 pm, Room 300 Japanese anime and manga are fertile sources of material for prompting classroom discussion. But educators are justly concerned about their frequently problematic representations of gender, sexuality and violence. In this plenary talk, I will introduce recent examples from three prominent subgenres (mechas, cyborgs and beautiful fighting girls) and invite you to join me in a border-crossing adventure. Together we will explore how metaphors and symbols in anime are embodied, and often gendered, but not universal, and contemplate the advantage of cultivating a multicultural, multilingual subjectivity as a valuable asset for venturing into borderlands. Gerry Yokota is Professor of English and Contemporary Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies at Osaka University, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Gender Studies as well as courses on Contemporary Japan for the G30 program. She is also an affiliate of GLOCOL, the Global Collaboration Center at Osaka University, where she is involved in the Community Services Project, focusing especially on the mixed roots community in Japan. Taking the concept of tradition as a bridge between premodern and modern culture, she has recently begun expanding her early work on the representation of women in the medieval noh drama of Japan (as author of The Formation of the Canon of Noh: The Literary Tradition of Divine Authority, 1997, and as editor ofGender and Japanese History, 2 vols., 2000, both published by Osaka University Press) to explore the meaning of tradition in Japanese popular culture. On another note: We will have a copy or two of our new journal at out table during JALT. Drop by, say "hi", and check out the journal. We will also be giving out copies to the first 10 or so non-members who come to the CT SIG Forum. If you have a friend who is interested in CT, then encourage them to attend! See you in a few weeks!
Update on JALT National 2014
