Events
about cool japan
Since January 2006, Professor Ian Condry has organized the Cool Japan: Media, Culture, Technology Research Project at MIT and Harvard. The project presents colloquia, international conferences, and arts events to examine the cultural connections, dangerous distortions, and critical potential of popular culture. The goal is to encourage scholarly debate, research, and networking in the Boston area for faculty and students interested in media and globalization related to Japan. The project is sponsored by the MIT Japan Program, the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University, and MIT Foreign Languages & Literatures.
organizer:
Ian Condry, MIT Foreign Languages & Literatures
condry@mit.edu
theme 2008-2009:
virtual worlds, real politics
The MIT/Harvard Cool Japan research project is planning four events for the current academic year. This year’s theme is “Virtual Worlds, Real Politics,” in which we explore various ways in which popular culture and media related to Japan are intertwined with contemporary political issues. Too often the scholarship that examines popular culture reinforces the impression that media representations exist in their own closed off worlds, for example in illuminating the specialized activities of fans or the curious worlds of entertainment producers, while doing little to clarify the stakes for all of us in connecting such virtual worlds with real politics. The selection of events this year is meant to explore and analyze some ways that the worlds of popular culture are intertwined with political issues, including the portrayals of youth violence, the workings of election campaigns, the impact of digital/mobile media on youth politics, and the linkages of gender, animation and robotics design in Japan.