[Recorded 9th December 2020] Recent years have seen an increased focus on global cultural histories of HIV/AIDS of the 1980s and 1990s. However these have tended to focus on the transnational circulation of cultural products, activist networks

Ascetic Ressentiment: Historical Consciousness and Mountain Politics in Northeastern Japan

Nov 30th, 2020 1h 11m

[Recorded 18th November 2020] In this talk, I will discuss competing streams of historical consciousness in Mount Haguro, a sacred mountain in northeastern Japan known for its mountain ascetic traditions. Applying the notion of ressentiment (hi

Still life: Scarecrow sociality, economic abandonment, and public curiosity in rural Japan

Nov 16th, 2020 1h 11m

[Recorded 4th November 2020] In Nagoro, in the middle of Shikoku, close to two hundred scarecrows stand in the farm fields where nothing but weeds now grow; they wait at the bus stop past which busses no longer run; and they sit in an elementar

Transnational Kinship in the Margins of Citizenship: The Case of Nikkei Brazilians in Japan

Nov 16th, 2020 1h 1m

[Recorded 14th October 2020] Kinship is a restrictive and yet mutable logic by which many nation-states in East Asia nationalize transnational mobility today. This talk elucidates the seemingly paradoxical but deeply systemic stratification of

Producing People Who Have No One: Child Welfare and Well-Being in Japan

Nov 16th, 2020 1h 10m

[Recorded 21st October 2020] Child welfare and well-being are fragile kin to each other. Such is the case in Japan, where the ethnographic data for this paper originate, but also across the world, as policy makers, caregivers, and people with e

Interaction between Ezra Pound and Japanese artists: mainly Yone Noguchi, a poet

Nov 15th, 2020 1h 5m

[Recorded 4 December 2019] Ezra Pound had meaningful interactions with his contemporary Japanese artists. This paper argues that his rivalry with Yone Noguchi, a poet who wrote hokku (Japanese traditional short poems) in English, was significan

“Making Something from Nothing”: Building a life in music from the margins of Japan

Nov 15th, 2020 53m 33s

[Recorded 20 November 2019] Based upon anthropological fieldwork conducted in the Koenji neighbourhood of Tokyo, I examine the lives of street-based amateur musicians newly arrived in the metropolis. In many cases, initial aspirations of progre

Inside, Outside, In-between: Elderly ex-offenders and the politics of exclusion

Nov 15th, 2020 56m 41s

[Recorded 6 November 2019] Following decades of low fertility and long average lifespans, Japan's aging society is currently undergoing a social and demographic transformation on a scale never before seen in human history. Concerns about the ca

Japanese Mermaid’s in Darwin’s West

Nov 15th, 2020 1h 3m

[Recorded 16 October 2019] In the mid-nineteenth century, showmen like P. T. Barnum were earning big money by displaying Japanese mummified mermaids to their British and US audiences. At the same time, naturalists were inspecting these specimen

Kore-eda Hirokazu Mini-Symposium

Nov 15th, 2020 1h 8m

[Recorded 27 March 2019] Anticipating a major retrospective of Koreeda Hirokazu’s films at the British Film Insitute in London during April and May, this mini-symposium brings together two researchers currently working on the director’s cinema

Monks, Monasteries and Mental Institutions On the Intriguing Connections Between Buddhism and the Care for the Insane in Pre-Modern and Modern Japan

Nov 15th, 2020 1h 7m

[Recorded 20 March 2019] This talk explores the intersections between Buddhism/Buddhist institutions and madness/mental institutions. After a general discussion of the place of madness within the Buddhist tradition I will move to the intriguing

Sekaigo - the international languages of Meiji Japan

Nov 15th, 2020 40m 7s

[Recorded 26 February 2020] Our understanding of language in Meiji Japan is chiefly focused upon the changes to the Japanese language itself: the creation of a central standardised Japanese and the relegation of regional variants to the status

Writing and Sound in Old Japanese

Nov 15th, 2020 1h 3m

[Recorded 27 February 2019] Old Japanese is the name given to the stage of the Japanese language as it was spoken during the eighth century CE. The corpus of written text that is understood to encode this language is small but of considerable q

Fantastic Empire Science Writing and Science Fiction in Modern Japan, 1900-1937

Nov 15th, 2020 1h 1m

[Recorded 21 February 2019] Science fiction existed in Japanese since the early years after the Meiji Restoration (1868), but primarily as translations of Western canonical works. Between 1890 and 1910, new stories were written by Japanese auth

From the Stage to the Bookshelves Writing Comedians in Twenty-First-Century Japan

Nov 15th, 2020 1h 1m

[Recorded 13 February 2019] For a number of years, Japanese stand-up comedians have also been successful with publications on the domestic book market. Benefiting from their high popularity and constant presence in the media, publications by co

High Speed Icons of Japan: Planes, Trains and Understanding Japanese Society

Nov 15th, 2020 44m 51s

[Recorded 28 November 2018] For over fifty years the shinkansen has been transporting people across Japan punctually, quickly, comfortably and safely. When it began services on 1 October 1964, in time for the Tōkyō Olympics, it heralded a new a

“But now Japan and America are partners”: A further look into the 1964 special issue of Life magazine about Japan

Nov 15th, 2020 1h 20m

[Recorded 21 November 2018] September 1964, when the Tokyo Olympics were about to start, the reputed American middle-class- oriented Life magazine published a large special issue on Japan, teeming with superb photography and acutely written chr

What is IDOL in Japan? From a viewpoint of sociology of fan culture

Nov 15th, 2020 1h 1m

[Recorded 17 October 2018] Ordinary, Japanese idol means young boys/girls groups which is constructed by singers, actors and TV talents. In these days, it is said that idol is one of the typical Japanese pop culture. They look really good-looki

Thrive or Merely Survive? The Kimono Retail Industry in the 21st Century

Nov 15th, 2020 1h 4m

[Recorded 10 October 2018] The Japanese kimono is iconic – an instantly recognisable marker of Japanese aesthetics and nationhood throughout the world. Little is known however about the industry that makes and sells the kimono. How is the indus

#12: LGBTQ

Sep 18th, 2020 12m 4s

Dr Patrick Merricks (Oxford Brookes University) in conversation with Prof Marius Turda (Oxford Brookes University) about eugenics, queer bodies and LGBTQ.

#11: Sports

Sep 11th, 2020 11m 36s

Dr Patrick Merricks (Oxford Brookes University) in conversation with Prof Marius Turda (Oxford Brookes University) about eugenics, physical culture and sports.

#10: At the Movies

Sep 2nd, 2020 12m 23s

Dr Patrick Merricks (Oxford Brookes University) in conversation with Prof Marius Turda (Oxford Brookes University) about eugenics and visual culture. Part II: films.

#9: Images and Visions

Sep 2nd, 2020 13m 20s

Dr Patrick Merricks (Oxford Brookes University) in conversation with Prof Marius Turda (Oxford Brookes University) about eugenics and visual culture. Part I: photography.

#8: Pre-Marital Certificates

Aug 24th, 2020 12m 12s

Dr Patrick Merricks (Oxford Brookes University) in conversation with Prof Marius Turda (Oxford Brookes University) about pre-marital and eugenic certificates.

#7: Indigenous Populations

Aug 24th, 2020 12m 8s

Dr Patrick Merricks (Oxford Brookes University) in conversation with Prof Marius Turda (Oxford Brookes University) about the impact of eugenics on indigenous populations.