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.
"Visualizing Cultures was launched at MIT in 2002 to explore the potential of the Web for developing innovative image-driven scholarship and learning. The VC mission is to use new technology and hitherto inaccessible visual materials to reconstruct the past as people of the time visualized the world (or imagined it to be).
Topical units to date focus on Japan in the modern world and early-modern China. The thrust of these explorations extends beyond Asia per se, however, to address "culture" in much broader ways-cultures of modernization, war and peace, consumerism, images of "Self" and "Others," and so on."
In French: Announcement of a new study of manga readers in France, which has been entrusted to the Humanities Department of the Ecole Normale Supérieure of Lyon and the consulting company Tosca Consultants by the Book National Centre. The fieldwork will take place during the coming up Angoulême Comic Festival, which has been including a whole section devoted to manga for several years. If you are in France January 29-February 1, then, try to attend it. I believe it is worthwhile.
Mimi Ito is a cultural anthropologist, specialising in new media uses among young people in the US and Japan. Although her interests aren't focused solely on Japanese popular culture (anime, manga, video games, etc.), she definitely include these elements in her researches.
"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!"