![[Karen Nakamura - kanji]](images/nakamura-karen-kanji-jp.gif){kind=small}
Karen Nakamura
Karen Nakamura |
Introduction: I am a cultural and visual anthropologist whose research focuses on disability, sexuality, and minority social movements in contemporary Japan. My first book, Deaf in Japan, was on sign language, identity, and deaf social movements. I recently finished my second book, which is on schizophrenia and mental illness in Japan and is titled, A Disability of the Soul. For the past year, I've been working on my third project which explores the intersections of disability, gender, and sexuality. Self-identity: I was born in Indonesia and grew up in Australia, Japan, and the United States. However, I'm a bit uncomfortable with the term "Asian-American" as I'm not quite Asian and not really American, but Returnee -Japanese -Born-Indonesian - Bred-Australian- Quasi-American is a mouthful most people don't want to handle. Research interests: Minority social movements and identity politics, disability, and gender and sexuality. Fellowships and Awards: I received a Yale Junior Faculty Fellowship (2007-2008) to conduct research on psychiatric and physical disabilities in Japan and a Yale Senior Faculty Fellowship (2011-2012) to do work on non-mainstream sexualities in Japan. Several years ago, I was granted an Abe Fellowship from the Social Science Research Council and Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership to pursue my research on comparative disability politics in Japan and the United States during the 2004-2005 academic year. And even further back, one of my journal articles won the 2003 ISS/Oxford University Press Prize for Modern Japanese Studies. It was later selected to be one of Oxford University Press' 100 seminal papers celebrating their centennial of academic publishing. My first monograph, Deaf in Japan, was awarded the 2008 John Whitney Hall Book Prize by the Association for Asian Studies. My second film, A Japanese Funeral, was awarded the SVA Short Film Award in 2010 and the Society for East Asian Anthropology David Plath Media Award in 2011. National Service: I currently serve on the Executive Board of the American Anthropological Association and on the Northeast Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies. I am also on the Board for the Society for Visual Anthropology (2009-2012; 2012-2015) and have organized the SVA Film Festival for the past two years. I have previously served as the co-chair of the Association for Queer Anthropology (AQA, née SOLGA) as well as on the AAA on the Long Range Planning Committee, AAA Minority Issues in Anthropology Commission (2005.11-2008.11), as well as the COLGIA liaison to the Committee on Ethics. I also sat on the editorial board of the American Anthropologist (2008-2012). Prospective Graduate Students: Students interested in pursuing a Ph.D. in Anthropology and/or Japan Studies at Yale University should feel free to contact me either by e-mail or telephone. The photograph below shows some of the Japan anthropologists that have studied at Yale with Professor Kelly and myself. As you can see, we have had quite a number of doctoral students studying Japan anthropology here, which has made for a vibrant and exciting program. My senior Japan colleague at Yale, Professor William Kelly, has an extensive description of what the Yale anthropology department is looking for in applicants, prospective doctoral students are strongly advised to read this as our program is quite selective. I've also written some blog entries about graduate programs in Japan Anthropology and doctoral/MA programs in Visual Anthropology and Deaf Studies/Disability Studies. Affiliated Campus Programs: Yale Council on East Asian Studies; Yale Film Studies; and Yale Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Curriculum Vitae: PDF - HTML (updated 2012.06.22) Teaching Philosophy: A short piece on my philosophy of teaching and mentoring. Also see the "careers" section of my blog. Public Anthropology: Please see this page regarding interviews and public speaking. |
Monographs and Edited VolumesIn Press A Disability of the Soul: An Ethnography of Schizophrenia
Journal Articles, Reviews, and Other Academic PublicationsIn Press The dysprosody of images. In Visual Research: A Concise Introduction to Thinking Visually. Forthcoming Academic Publications 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 (working title).
Ed. Patricia Steinhoff. Chapter manuscript completed. Book manuscript to be submitted to
University of Michigan Center for Japanese Studies.
Other Publications 2002 Eight photographs in "Meeting Malaysia." Text by Jan Shaw-Flamm.
Macalester Today (Summer): 22-29.
2002 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.]
2002 "Morals, Sexuality, and Fieldwork." Ethical Currents.
Anthropology News. Vol. 43, No. 3 (March): 24.
Washington, D.C.: American Anthropological Association.
[View Article (GIF); Subscribe (AAA)]
2002 "Helpful or Harmful: How Innovative Communication Technology Affects
Survivors of Intimate Violence." By Ann L. Kranz with Karen Nakamura.
Minneapolis, MN: Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse.
[View online: http://www.mincava.umn.edu]
If you see nonsense characters in the bibliography above, it is because you are using a web browswer without Japanese character support (UTF-8). | ||||
Extracurricular interests: Photography, beagles, electric vehicle design, woodworking, hiking, alpine skiing, snowboarding, and motorcycles.
In my copious spare time, I maintain the Deaf Resource Library as well as Photoethnography.com and also tinker with global positioning systems technology.
![[Bethel Film]](publications/2007-BethelFilm/DVD%20Jacket.jpg)
![[Book Cover]](images/MW2BD.jpg)