Group items tagged

"Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC) is an international, peer-reviewed journal published by the Organization for Transformative Works. TWC publishes articles about transformative works, broadly conceived; articles about media studies; and articles about the fan community. We invite papers in all areas, including fan fiction, fan vids, film, TV, anime, comic books, fan community, video games, and machinima. We encourage a variety of critical approaches, including feminism, gender studies, queer theory, postcolonial theory, audience theory, reader-response theory, literary criticism, film studies, and posthumanism. We also encourage authors to consider writing personal essays integrated with scholarship; hyperlinked articles; or other forms that test the limits of the genre of academic writing."

This online journal is opened to work on anime and manga fandom, so I thought this would be of interest to this group!

AnimeResearch.com is your starting point for academic research about anime, manga and other aspects of Japanese popular culture. In addition to original content, you will find links to articles and news reports that can be found on the web, as well as an extensive bibliography of books, journals and articles that are potential sources for academic or journalistic writing.

I'm not sure if it is already listed in the Let's Manga Diigo list, but I have just realized that the AnimeResearch.com website has undergone a complete revamp and has been updated too.

ASIAN JOURNAL OF LITERATURE, CULTURE AND SOCIETY is an international peer-reviewed academic periodical which provides a forum for interdisciplinary discussion of issues related to East, South and Southeast Asian arts, cultures and societies, inviting contributions from the disciplines of literature, literary/art criticism, language, philosophy, anthropology, social studies, cultural studies, semiotics, gender studies, film, media and communication arts, architecture and design, and contemporary critical theory. The journal publishes original research articles concerned with Asian texts and contexts, as well as a variety of creative forms of writing, while its interview/event/review section offers an analysis of related recent literature and a commentary on relevant cultural events.

"Ten years ago, the first SGMS had to be delayed because of the tragic event of 9/11, but two months later, seven academics from a variety of disciplines spoke on manga and anime to a crowd of 150 eager fans, academics, and students from junior high to college-aged. Since then, on the last weekend of every September, the expanding community of SGMS artists, actors, teachers, and students have gotten together to celebrate manga, anime and Japanese popular culture. Join us for the SGMS Masquerade Bash on Friday night with the Full Fashion Panic Fashion Show, music, food and costumed frivolities will prevail! Even the guests will be in costume! On Saturday and Sunday, there will be talks by guests Marc Hairston, Crispin Freeman, Thomas LaMarre, Christopher Bolton, Gilles Poitras and Frenchy Lunning. Classes in manga creation by Robert Ten Pas and Dennis Lo, Lolita Fashion creation by Samantha Rei, and more will be held. Watch for the announcement of our VERY SPECIAL GUEST soon!"

"'BL' (Boys' Love), a genre of male homosexual narratives (consisting of manga, novels, animations, games, films, and so forth) written by and for women, has recently been acknowledged, by Japanese and non-Japanese scholars alike, as a significant component of Japanese popular culture. The aesthetic and style of Japanese BL have also been assumed, deployed and transformed by female fans transnationally. The current thrust of transnational BL practices raises a number of important issues relating to socio/cultural constructs of BL localization and globalization. Scholarly endeavors in relation to BL can be enriched by further research concerning the activities of transnational BL fans, fan communities, fandom, and the production of fan fiction. Most previous BL fan studies have remained circumscribed to Japan and North America. Therefore, in order to further develop transnational BL fan studies, we are seeking contributors who are engaged in the exploration of non-Japanese and non-North American contexts (e.g. Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, Africa, and others). Transnational BL fan studies may also be incorporated into the broader socio/political critical frameworks offered by studies in economics, gender/sexuality, race/class, and other areas. "

For those who are studying fandom and Boy's Love, this might be an opportunity to share your researches!

Connecting the dots between popular media and social culture.

This is an excellent blog by an anime fan who turned his passion into a subject of academic inquiry. His aim is, as he says, to "connect the dots between popular media and social culture". Of course, animes and mangas are particularly suitable for this kind of research!

This is the blog of the Workers' Educational Association anime evening class. The first class is currently running in Central London from Tuesday 27 October to Tuesday 15 December 2009. Helen McCarthy is leading the class and will moderate the blog. The weekly handouts with notes, reading lists, viewing lists and links will be posted here on their own pages - see the right hand sidebar. There is also an expanded reading list - class members are welcome to add their own suggestions for further reading about anime, either on the reading list page or in their own posts.

AccessAsia is a specialized search engine that focuses on experts in the field of contemporary Asian affairs, including economics, health, politics, security, and trade. Enter any search term. Search results will list websites of experts from around the world who focus on Asian affairs.

This is not directly related to manga or even Japanese audiovisual entertainment industry, but it seems to be a useful tool for people working on these subjects if they need analysis of asian societies in general.

This is Web essay archives on mangas and animes and everything japanese popular entertainment that has been existing for years now. I'm not sure if it has already been listed in this group, but it is definitely a must-have bookmark.

Diverse depictions of the WWII German army exist in Japanese popular culture. This essay will explore the origins of the Japanese fandom devoted to German military technology and also the way that authors have (re)produced stereotypes related to German culture and traditions in their portrayals of wartime Germany. Finally, using examples by authors Tezuka Osamu and Aramaki Yoshio, this essay will identify the representation of both Japanese and German war crimes in Japanese manga and popular fiction as a significant discursive trend that calls into question assumptions about anti-war thought in contemporary Japan.