Associate Professor of
Anthropology and East Asian Studies +1
203 432-3795 tel (office)
Yale University +1
815 371-4029 fax (personal)
Department of Anthropology
10 Sachem Street karen.nakamura @ yale.edu
New Haven CT 06520-8277 USA http://www.disabilitystudies.jp
Higher Education
2001 Ph.D.
in Sociocultural Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, Yale University.
Dissertation title: Deaf Identities,
Sign Languages, and Minority Social Movement Politics in Modern Japan (1868-2000). Advisor: Professor William Kelly.
1998 M.Phil. in Sociocultural Anthropology,
Department of Anthropology, Yale University.
1993 B.A. magna cum laude. Cornell University.
Double major, College Scholar Program and Psychology with a concentration in
Women's Studies. Distinction in all subjects.
Monographs and Edited Volumes
Forthcoming A
Disability of the Soul: An Ethnography of Schizophrenia and Mental Illness in
Contemporary Japan. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Due early 2013.
Forthcoming クレージー・イン・ジャパン：べてるの家のエスノグラフィー
[Crazy
in Japan: An Ethnography of Bethel House]. A revised Japanese translation of A Disability of the Soul. Tokyo: Igaku
Shoin Publishing. Due March 2013.
2006 Deaf
in Japan: Signing and the Politics of Identity. Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press.
- Winner of 2008 John Whitney Hall Book Prize from
the Association of Asian Studies
2003 Co-Editor,
Many Ways to be Deaf: International
Linguistic and Sociocultural Variation. Ed. Leila Monaghan, Constanze Schmaling, Karen
Nakamura, and Graham Turner. Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University
Press.
- 2010
Best Short Film Media Award from the Society for Visual Anthropology
- 2011 David Plath Media Award from the Society for East Asian Anthropology
- 2011 University of British Columbia Ethnographic Film Festival – Jury Prize
Second Runner Up
2007 Bethel:
Community and Schizophrenia in Northern Japan. Color NTSC DVD and online
streaming. 41 minutes. Distributed by CreateSpace.
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles
2009 Disability,
Destitution, and Disaster: Surviving the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake in Japan.
Human Organization. Volume 68 Issue 1
(Spring): 73-81.
2006a Creating
and Contesting Signs in Contemporary Japan: Language Ideologies, Identity and
Community in Flux. Sign
Language Studies Volume 7 Number 1 (Fall 2006): 11-29.
2006b 抵抗と同化：全日本ろうあ連盟と政治権力の関係。社会科学研究、第５７巻き第３・４合併号。東京：東京大学社会科学研究所紀要。
[Resistance
and Assimilation: The Relationship between Japanese Federation and the Deaf and
Political Power. Shakai Kagaku Kenkyž Vol 57
(3-4). Tokyo: Tokyo University Institute for Social Science.]
2002 Resistance
and Co-optation: the Japanese Federation of the Deaf and its Relations with
State Power. Social Science Japan Journal. Vol. 5
(1): 17-35.
- Selected as one of the 100 seminal papers from
Oxford Journals (Oxford University Press Centennial)
Book Chapters and Other Journal Articles
2010 The
language politics of Japanese Sign Language (Nihon Shuwa). Deaf around the World The
Impact of Language. Ed. Gaurav
Mathur and Donna Jo Napoli. 316-332. New York: Oxford University
Press.
2009 障害学とろう者学をつなぐ立場から。障害学研究
2009(5): 52-60
[Connecting Disability Studies and Deaf Studies. Journal of Disability Studies (Japan) 2009 (5): 52-60. Tokyo: Japanese Society for Disability Studies]
2003a "Deaf
Shock," and the Hard-of-Hearing: Japanese Deaf identities at the
borderlands. Many Ways to be Deaf: International
Linguistic and Sociocultural Variation. Ed. Leila Monaghan, Constanze
Schmaling, Karen Nakamura, and Graham Turner. Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet
University Press.
2003b Female
masculinity and fantasy spaces: transcending genders in the Takarazuka theatre. With
Hisako Matsuo (co-author). Men and
Masculinities in Contemporary Japan: Dislocating the Salaryman Doxa. Edited
by James Roberson and Nobue Suzuki. 59-76. New York: Routledge.
1999a 日米のろう運動：比較研究の視点から。手話コミュニケーション研究。
日本手話研究所所報。1999.9
(33): 45-54。
[Deaf Movements in the United States and Japan
from a Comparative Analytical Perspective. Sign Language Communication Studies August (33): 45-54. Tokyo: Japanese Institute for Sign
Language Studies.]
1999b 言語・文化人類学から見た日米ろう社会と教育（講演会記録1998.11.14）。
トータルコミュニケーション研究会会報。No. 79 （冬号）：24-39。
[Deaf
education in Japan and the U.S.: a comparative approach from a linguistic and
sociocultural anthropology perspective (Lecture Transcript of November 14,
1998). Total Communications Research
Group Report No. 79. Winter, 1999. Tokyo: Total Communication Research
Group.]
1998a 民族としてのろう社会：ろう者のアイデンティティ・カルチャーと
手話言語コミュニティの形成。日本手話研究所所報, 1998.3 (27)。
[Ethnically
deaf: identity, culture, and the making of sign language communities. Sign Language Communication Studies.
April, 1998. Tokyo: Japanese Institute for Sign Language Studies.]
1998b Transitioning
on Campus: A Case Studies Approach. In Working
with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender College Students: A Handbook for
Faculty and Administrators. Ronni L. Sahlo, ed. 179-186. Westport, CT:
Greenwood Press.
1997 Narrating
Ourselves: Duped or duplicitous? In Gender
Blending. Bonnie Bullough, Vern Bullough, and James Elias, eds. 74-86. Buffalo:
Prometheus Press.
2011 Review
of Afflictions: Culture and Mental
Illness in Indonesia [The Bird Dancer,
40 min.; Family Victim, 38 min.; Shadows and Illuminations, 35 min.],
directed by Robert Lemelson (2010).
American Anthropologist, Vol. 113,
No. 4, pp. 655–656.
2008 Review
of Josee, the Tiger, and the Fish [Joze
to tora to sakana tachi], directed by Isshin Inudo (2003). Asian Educational Media Services News and
Reviews. Issue 31 (Winter): 3-4.
2007 The
Chrysanthemum and the Queer: Ethnographic and Historical Perspectives on
Sexuality in Japan. Journal of Homosexuality. Volume 52,
Issue ¾: 267-281.
2006a Two New Ogawa Shinsuke Films
(review).
Visual Anthropology. Volume 19, No. 3-4:
391-392.
2006b Review
of Jennifer Robertson, ed. A Companion to the Anthropology of Japan.
Pacific
Affairs. Volume 79, No. 1 (Spring): 129-130.
2006c Review
of Mizuko Ito, Daisuke Okabe, and Misa Matsuda, eds. Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life. Journal of Japanese Studies. Vol. 32
No. 2 (Summer): 459-462.
2004a Review
of Keiko Hirata's Civil Society in Japan.
Social
Science Japan Journal. Vol. 7, No. 2 (October): 318-320.
2004b Review
of Megan JennawayÕs Sisters and Lovers:
Women and Desire in Bali.
American
Ethnologist. Vol. 31, No. 1 (February).
2004c Review
of Jennifer RobertsonÕs Takarazuka:
Sexual Politics and Popular Culture in Modern Japan. Visual Anthropology 17: 205-207.
1998 Review
of Jennifer Terry and Jacqueline UrlaÕs Deviant
Bodies: Critical Perspectives on Difference in Science and Popular Culture. SOLGAN
Vol. 20, No. 3: 5-6.
2011 セクシュアリティと障害：文化人類学的してんから [Sexuality and Disability
– from an Anthropological Perspective]. Annual Report of the [University of Tokyo] Center for Barrier Free
Education. Vol. 1: 93-109.
2008 A
Case Against Giving Informants Cameras and Coming Back Weeks Later. Knowledge
Exchange. Anthropology News. Vol. 49,
No. 2: 20. Washington, D.C. American Anthropological Association.
2005 Severe Disabilities,
Liberalism, and Social Welfare Policy in Japan and the United States. Anthropology News. Vol. 46, No. 9: 58. Washington,
D.C.: American Anthropological Association.
2002a Eight
photographs of rural Malaysia in ÒMeeting Malaysia.Ó Text by Jan Shaw-Flamm. Macalester Today (Summer): 22-29.
2002b
"Deafness,
Ethnicity, and Minority Politics in Modern Malaysia." Macalester International Volume 12
(Autumn): 193-202. St.
Paul, MN: Macalester College.
2002c ９月１１日以降のアメリカ。季刊ミミ ９５号(春): 10-11。 東京:全日本ろうあ連盟。
[America after September 11th.
Quarterly Mimi No. 95 (Spring):
10-11. Tokyo: Japanese Federation of the Deaf.]
2002d Morals,
Sexuality, and Fieldwork. Ethical Currents. Anthropology News. Vol. 43 (3 [March]): 24. Washington,
D.C.: American Anthropological Association.
2002e Helpful
or Harmful: How Innovative Communication Technology Affect Survivors of
Intimate Violence. By Ann L. Kranz with Karen Nakamura. Minneapolis,
MN: Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse. http://www.mincava.umn.edu/
Forthcoming Trans/Japan,
Trans/Disability: Sexuality, Disability, and Eugenics. Manuscript in
preparation.
Forthcoming The
dysprosody of images. In A Visual
Anthropology Primer. Edited by Jonathan Marion and Jerome Crowder. In
review.
Forthcoming Barrier-Free Brothels: Sex Volunteers, Prostitutes
and People with Disabilities. In Capturing Contemporary Japan. Edited by
Glenda Roberts, Satsuki Kawano, and Susan Long. In review.
Forthcoming No
voice in the courtroom?: Deaf legal cases in Japan during the 1960s. In Going to Court to Change Japan: Social
Movements and the Law. Ed. Patricia Steinhoff. Chapter manuscript completed, book manuscript submitted to
the University of Michigan Center for Japanese Studies series.
Selected
Grants, Awards, and Scholarships
2011 Society
for East Asian Anthropology David Plath Media Award for A Japanese Funeral
2011 University
of British Columbia Ethnographic Film Festival Jury Prize (2nd
Runner up) for A Japanese Funeral
2011 Yale
University Senior Faculty Fellowship
2011 Association
for Asian Studies NEAC Short-Term Travel Fellowship
2011 Waseda
University / Yale University 125th Anniversary Asakawa Kanichi Fellowship
2010 Best
Short Film Media Award from the Society for Visual Anthropology awarded for
A Japanese Funeral (Manic Films
2010).
2008 John
Whitney Hall Book Prize from the Association for Asian Studies awarded to
Deaf in Japan: Signing and the Politics
of Identity (Cornell University Press 2006).
2007 Yale
University Junior Faculty Fellowship.
2006 Journal
article ÒResistance and Co-optationÓ selected as one of 100 Seminal Papers in
the Oxford University Press Centenary of Publishing.
2004-05 Abe Fellow, Social
Science Research Council and Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership.
Principal investigator. $83,000.
2004 East-West
Center China-U.S.A. Asian Studies Development Program.
2003 Tokyo
University Institute of Social Science / Oxford University Award for Modern
Japanese Studies.
2002-03 Macalester Faculty Research
and Teaching Grants (College Co-Mentoring Fellowship; Freeman Fund China Travel
Grant; Mellon Summer Research Fellowship; Bush Course Development Grant; International
Seminar, Penang, Malaysia)
1999-00 Yale
University Council on East Asian Studies Prize Fellowship.
1999 SSRC
Japan Dissertation Workshop Fellowship.
1997-9 Wenner-Gren Foundation
Small Grant for Dissertation Research. Principal Investigator.
1993 Cornell
University: Phi Beta Kappa & Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society
Exhibitions and Film Screenings
April 30, 2011 Film screening: A Japanese Funeral. University of
British Columbia Ethnographic Film Festival.
Nov 18, 2010 USA Premiere: A
Japanese Funeral. Society for Visual Anthropology Film and Interactive
Media Screenings at the American Anthropological Association, Annual Meeting,
New Orleans, LA.
Nov 14, 2010 International Premiere: A Japanese Funeral. Globians International Documentary Festival at
Stuttgart, Germany.
Feb 26, 2009 Film screening: Bethel: Community and Schizophrenia in Northern Japan. Oberlin
College (Oberlin, Ohio).
March
2, 2008 Japan Premiere: Bethel: Community and Schizophrenia in
Northern Japan. Feminist Active Documentary Video Festival Renren. Tokyo,
Japan.
Sept 7, 2007 International Premiere: Bethel: Community and
Schizophrenia in Northern Japan. Disabled PeopleÕs International World
Assembly. Seoul, Korea.
Nov 11,
2006 Film
screening: Bethel: Community and
Schizophrenia in Northern Japan (rough cut). Conference on Representing
Disability: Theory, Politics, Practice. Haverford College.
Oct
11, 2006 Film
screening: Bethel: Community and
Schizophrenia in Northern Japan (rough cut). Margaret Mead Ethnographic
Film Festival at Yale University, New Haven.
Oct
- Nov, 2006 Photography exhibition: Disability in Japan. Sterling Memorial
Library, Yale University.
Conference Presentations and Lecture Series (Past
5 Years)
Nov
20, 2011 Conference
paper. Call Girls and Crips:
Intersections of Disability and Sexuality In a Dark Japan. Panel on ÒCapturing
Japan after the lost decade.Ó Reviewed by the Society for East Asian
Anthropology. American Anthropological Association Annual
Meeting. Montreal, Canada.
Nov
17, 2011 Discussant.
Panel title: The deadly legacies of
neglect: deafness, disability, and HIV/AIDS discourses. American
Anthropological Association Annual Meeting.
March
15, 2010 Discussant.
Panel title: A Discourse-Centered
Approach to Japanese Culture. Japan Anthropology Workshop (JAWS).
University of Texas at Austin.
Dec
5, 2009 Chair,
AAA Presidential Session: Interconnected
anthropology: the end of the lone anthropologist. American Anthropological
Association Annual Meeting.
July
2, 2009 Conference
paper. A disability of the soul:
schizophrenia, mental illness, and community life in rural Japan. Society
for East Asian Anthropology Annual Meeting. Taipei, Taiwan.
Nov
14-15, 2008 Conference
co-organizer. Crazy in Japan: Ethnographic
Perspectives on Psychiatry and Mental Illness. Sponsored by the Yale Council
on East Asian Studies and the Yale Department of Anthropology. Co-organized
with Chikako Ozawa-de Silva, assistant professor of anthropology at Emory
University; and Ellen Rubinstein, a doctoral student at Yale.
Nov
23, 2008 Conference
paper. JSL, JS, NS, or N: Sign Language Politics
and Language Ideologies in Japan. American Anthropological Association
Annual Meeting.
Nov
18, 2008 Panel
Discussant. Ethnographic Film, Ethics,
and Emotion: Honoring the Work of
Karl G. Heider. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting.
Nov
15, 2008 Conference
paper. Crazy in Japan An Ethnography of
Mental Illness and Community in Hokkaido. Presented at the Crazy in Japan:
Ethnographic Perspectives on Psychiatry and Mental Illness Conference. Yale
University.
Sept.
23, 2008 Conference
Keynote Lecture: Changing Deaf
identities, Changing Deaf Communities, Changing Deaf Studies. Deaf And
Other Lives; Living In Multiple Cultures. University of Amsterdam, Netherlands.
June
19, 2008 Plenary
Lecture: ÒThese natives can speak for
themselves:Ó Cripping Anthropology and Anthropologizing Disability Studies. Society for Disability Studies
Annual Meeting.
March
1, 2008 Paper
presentation: Deaf in Japan: Signing and
the Politics of Identity. Around the Deaf World in Two Days (It's a Small
World): Sign Languages, Social Issues/Civil Rights, Creativity. Swarthmore
College.
Dec
1, 2007 Paper
presentation: Crazy in Japan:
schizophrenia, traumas of memory, and community storytelling in rural Japan.
Panel on Depressed Society and Disturbed Individuals?: The Varieties of
Suffering Experiences. American Anthropological Annual
Meeting. Washington, D.C.
Co-organizer:
Panel on Depressed Society and Disturbed Individuals?: The Varieties of
Suffering Experiences. American Anthropological Annual Meeting. Washington,
D.C.
March
31, 2007 Paper
presentation: Call Girls for Crips: The
growing movement for sexual and reproductive freedom for people with
disabilities. Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality. New York
University.
Feb
3, 2007 Paper
presentation: Narrative, Community
Memory, and Schizophrenia in Contemporary Japan. Time, Memory and Body in
Japan: An Interdisciplinary Symposium. Reischauer Institute of Japanese
Studies, Harvard University. Cambridge, MA.
Public and Guest Lectures and Presentations (Past
5 Years)
Jan
19, 2012 Open
Lecture:
トランス／ディサビリティー：
比較人類学の視点から見る障害、クィア、性同一性障害の現代的運動
Trans/Disability: Disability, Queer Sexualities, and
Transsexuality from a Comparative Ethnographic Perspective. Barrier Free Education Center Lecture Series, University of Tokyo.
Oct
21, 2011 Open
Lecture: The Identity Politics of
Disability. Department of Linguistics. International Christian University,
Tokyo Japan.
April
12, 2010 Lecture: A Disability of the Soul: Community-based
Mental Health Care in Japan. Yale Global Mental Health Program, Department
of Psychiatry. Yale University.
Feb
8, 2010 Lecture:
Call Girls for Crips: Intersections of
disability and sexuality. Diversity Week. Yale School of Forestry and
Environmental Sciences.
Nov
13, 2009 Lecture:
Deaf in Japan: Signing and the Politics
of Identity. Cornell University Disability Group. Cornell University
(Ithaca, New York).
Feb
26, 2009 Lecture:
Crazy in Japan: An Ethnography of Mental
Illness, Schizophrenia and Community. Oberlin College (Oberlin, Ohio).
Feb
26, 2009 Lecture:
Crazy in Japan: An Ethnography of Mental
Illness, Schizophrenia and Community. Oberlin College (Oberlin, Ohio).
March 6, 2008 Paper
presentation: Crazy in Japan:
Schizophrenia, Traumas of Memory and Community Storytelling In Rural Japan. Department
of Anthropology. New York University.
Oct
22, 2007 Lecture:
Participant Observation Fieldwork in the
Ethnographic Study of Mental Illness in Japan. Invited by Prof. Ikuyoshi
Mukaiyachi. Hokkaido Health Sciences University.
Feb
6, 2007 Guest
Lecturer: Fantastic futures and
remembered pasts: Japanese animation in late modernity. Architecture 752b:
Critical Imaginaries, a Contemporary Architectural Discourse Colloquium. School
of Art and Architecture, Yale University.
2011.7 ~ current Associate Professor of Anthropology and East
Asian Studies on Term, Yale University, New Haven, CT.
2005.8 ~ 2011.6 Assistant Professor of Anthropology and East
Asian Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT.
2001.8 ~ 2005.8 Assistant
Professor of Anthropology. Macalester College, St. Paul MN.
Volunteer
and Service Positions
2012 SVA Film Festival Czarista, Society for
Visual Anthropology Film and Media Festival.
2011 SVA Film Festival Czarista and
Co-Coordinator, Society for Visual Anthropology Film and Media Festival.
2009-2011 Elected board member, Society for Visual
Anthropology, American Anthropological Association.
2009-2011 Member, Yale University Human Subjects
Committee.
2008-2012 Editorial Board, American
Anthropologist, American Anthropological Association.
2008-2010 Co-Chair, SOLGA: The Society for Lesbian
and Gay Anthropology, American Anthropological Association.
2008-2009 Member, Yale College Course of Study
Committee.
2008-2009 Academic Mentor, Yale Mellon-Bouchet Undergraduate Fellowship
Program.
2005-2008 Elected member, Committee on Minority
Affairs in Anthropology, American Anthropological Association.
2004-2005 Nominated Member, American
Anthropological Association SOLGA /
2002-2005 Elected member (Minority Seat),
Long-Range Planning Committee, American Anthropological Association.
2002-2004 Academic Mentor. Mellon Minority
Undergraduate Fellowship Program. Macalester College.
2002-2004 Nominated member, American
Anthropological Association SOLGA Payne Student Research Prize Committee.
2000-2005 SOLGA Liaison (AAA Board nominated
position), Committee on Ethics, American Anthropological Association.
Professional
Memberships
American
Anthropological Association (Life Member)
Society
for Medical Anthropology Society
for Linguistic Anthropology
Association
for Asian Studies Association
for Queer Anthropology
Society
for Visual Anthropology
[2012.6.23]