Sunday, June 16, 2019
Saturday, June 15, 2019
New Resource: Digital Humanities Japan
Announcement from Paula R. Curtis via H-Japan:
The Digital Humanities Japan initiative is pleased to formally announce the launch of our website and its associated content. This includes a mailing list and a resource wiki.
Our wiki contains (among other things):
Scholars Directory - A submission form where you can list yourself a DH Japan scholar, including your current projects, skill sets, and contact information. We hope this will enhance everyone's ability to find collaborators and find new and fascinating work in the field.
Publications - An open-access google doc where you can list your publications or the publications of others related to the intersection of DH/Japan, whether informational blog posts or peer-reviewed writing.
DH Tools - A list of Japan-specific digital tools, as well as a database of broader DH Tools, separated by category.
There is much more on the wiki, and we hope that the present resources will help facilitate more work on the intersection of Japan and Digital Studies. We encourage contributions from the community to help our resources grow. Contact information is available on the DHJ site for those with any questions.
Mission Statement (from the website): Digital Humanities Japan is an international and interdisciplinary community of scholars and professionals interested in working with digital methods, tools, and resources for Japanese Studies. As a collective, we aim to foster collaboration between those with similar interests by promoting scholarly dialogue, holding workshops to develop technical skills and project ideas, and creating a central platform for the sharing of resources related to digital methods.
URL: http://dhjapan.org/
The Digital Humanities Japan initiative is pleased to formally announce the launch of our website and its associated content. This includes a mailing list and a resource wiki.
Our wiki contains (among other things):
Scholars Directory - A submission form where you can list yourself a DH Japan scholar, including your current projects, skill sets, and contact information. We hope this will enhance everyone's ability to find collaborators and find new and fascinating work in the field.
Publications - An open-access google doc where you can list your publications or the publications of others related to the intersection of DH/Japan, whether informational blog posts or peer-reviewed writing.
DH Tools - A list of Japan-specific digital tools, as well as a database of broader DH Tools, separated by category.
There is much more on the wiki, and we hope that the present resources will help facilitate more work on the intersection of Japan and Digital Studies. We encourage contributions from the community to help our resources grow. Contact information is available on the DHJ site for those with any questions.
Mission Statement (from the website): Digital Humanities Japan is an international and interdisciplinary community of scholars and professionals interested in working with digital methods, tools, and resources for Japanese Studies. As a collective, we aim to foster collaboration between those with similar interests by promoting scholarly dialogue, holding workshops to develop technical skills and project ideas, and creating a central platform for the sharing of resources related to digital methods.
URL: http://dhjapan.org/
Friday, June 14, 2019
Thursday, June 13, 2019
Would you get on a tour bus with this Happy Angel?
Passing through Kyoto the other day we encountered this tour bus [ヒトミ観光バス] - the company is from Wakayama Prefecture. Looks more like Horrorman than a happy angel...
Horrorman at the Anpanman Children's Museum in Kobe.
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Saturday, June 8, 2019
More recent stuff that indicates my article is current and relevant...
Illustration borrowed from National Geographic.com.
Soya Mori recently posted about a National Geographic article published a few days ago about the so-called origins of sign language.
"How monks helped invent sign language. (subtitled) Vows of silence and humanist beliefs led European clerics to create new communication methods for the deaf 500 years ago." BY INÉS ANTÓN DAYAS. National Geographic.com. May 28, 2019.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/archaeology-and-history/magazine/2019/05-06/creation-of-sign-language/?fbclid=IwAR3pJg5dpANNRpRTZfaTj0t3wlFia5cz8T9411N1AtVIl-C-60tSxc2mV5M
The article, simply put, is strangely biased and greatly uninformed.
On the one hand: Bonet criticized some of the brutal methods that had been used to get deaf people to speak: “Sometimes they are put into casks in which the voice booms and reverberates. These violent measures are by no means to the purpose.”
And then in conclusion: Thanks to the development of formal sign languages, people with hearing impairment can access spoken language in all its variety.
The author confuses sign language with manual alphabets (fingerspelling) and signing system for educating the hearing impaired. Thank goodness there were early Europeans to invent these systems for the benefit of the deaf. There is no discussion about natural sign language or Deaf communities.
I hope more people read my article.
Fedorowicz, Steven C. 2019. "Performance, Sign Language, and Deaf Identity in Japan." Anthropology News website, June 5, 2019. DOI: 10.1111/AN.1182
http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2019/06/05/performance-sign-language-and-deaf-identity-in-japan/
Friday, June 7, 2019
Perfect Timing? It would seem my article is current and relevant...
On the day my article went live, members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Japan went to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) to present a proposal to help support deaf children (as reported in the following source):
難聴児のシームレスな支援を 自民党議連が文科相に提言 [The Liberal Democratic Party Parliamentarians propose to the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology the seamless support of deaf children] in 教育新聞 [Education Newspaper], June 6, 2019.
URL (article in Japanese): https://www.kyobun.co.jp/news/20190606_04/?fbclid=IwAR3eKSaqvaqXH-dZxOT3v6bqrBszCw-AwIbUAREU6gNqffHULlCG3gPYPIg
Thanks to Soya Mori via Facebook for the heads-up on this. https://www.facebook.com/1Language2Disability/
These LDP members make up a group which can be translated in English as the "National Federation for the Prevention of Deafness." Their proposal included improving neonatal and early childhood hearing testing for all children (early screening). And for deaf children the proposal promotes better medical treatment, early implantation of cochlear implants, better support and training for speech therapists, better placement at special needs schools and the like.
As Mori noted in his comments there was nothing about promoting Japanese Sign Language and the focus was on medical aspects. There seemed to be no Deaf participation in this proposal.
Here it is again (still?). Hearing people are making decisions for the deaf, what I refer to "small-d deaf" orientations in the article. In the article I did not have the time to get into the academic and social welfare models of disability and deafness, namely the deficit/medical model ("small-d deaf") and the cultural/social model ("capital-D Deaf"). For an excellent discussion of these models, especially in the Japanese context I suggest Carolyn Steven's Disability in Japan (2013, Routledge).
So why I am disappointed (although not surprised) by this political development, I am happy with the timing. It would seem my research is current and relevant. I hope more people read my article.
Fedorowicz, Steven C. 2019. "Performance, Sign Language, and Deaf Identity in Japan." Anthropology News website, June 5, 2019. DOI: 10.1111/AN.1182
http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2019/06/05/performance-sign-language-and-deaf-identity-in-japan/
難聴児のシームレスな支援を 自民党議連が文科相に提言 [The Liberal Democratic Party Parliamentarians propose to the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology the seamless support of deaf children] in 教育新聞 [Education Newspaper], June 6, 2019.
URL (article in Japanese): https://www.kyobun.co.jp/news/20190606_04/?fbclid=IwAR3eKSaqvaqXH-dZxOT3v6bqrBszCw-AwIbUAREU6gNqffHULlCG3gPYPIg
Thanks to Soya Mori via Facebook for the heads-up on this. https://www.facebook.com/1Language2Disability/
These LDP members make up a group which can be translated in English as the "National Federation for the Prevention of Deafness." Their proposal included improving neonatal and early childhood hearing testing for all children (early screening). And for deaf children the proposal promotes better medical treatment, early implantation of cochlear implants, better support and training for speech therapists, better placement at special needs schools and the like.
As Mori noted in his comments there was nothing about promoting Japanese Sign Language and the focus was on medical aspects. There seemed to be no Deaf participation in this proposal.
Here it is again (still?). Hearing people are making decisions for the deaf, what I refer to "small-d deaf" orientations in the article. In the article I did not have the time to get into the academic and social welfare models of disability and deafness, namely the deficit/medical model ("small-d deaf") and the cultural/social model ("capital-D Deaf"). For an excellent discussion of these models, especially in the Japanese context I suggest Carolyn Steven's Disability in Japan (2013, Routledge).
So why I am disappointed (although not surprised) by this political development, I am happy with the timing. It would seem my research is current and relevant. I hope more people read my article.
Fedorowicz, Steven C. 2019. "Performance, Sign Language, and Deaf Identity in Japan." Anthropology News website, June 5, 2019. DOI: 10.1111/AN.1182
http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2019/06/05/performance-sign-language-and-deaf-identity-in-japan/
Wednesday, June 5, 2019
"Performance, Sign Language, and Deaf Identity in Japan" has gone live on Anthropology News!
My photo collage from the article.
Caption: Members of Japanese Sign Language Atelier practice to
improve their performance of JSL and create greater Deaf identity.
My new article is now live and available on the Anthropology News website. It appears as part of a Society of East Asian Anthropology series called Cultural Consumption and Performance in Asia. The article is a little different from my usual style but I hope it will serve as an overview and introduction to deaf/sign language issues in Japan.
I would like to thank the SEAA column editors, Shuang Frost and Heidi Lam, for their patience and incredible editing endeavors. I would also like to to thank Elizabeth Kenney, my sensei and colleague, for her support throughout my career as well as her suggestions/editing of an early draft of the article. A shout out to my colleagues in the Asian Studies Program at KGU for their advising and encouragement. Lest I forget my wonderful students from Spring 2019 Deaf World Japan class who allowed me to read this paper as a part of their "midterm review" and gave me helpful constructive
I benefitted from so much mulitmodal collaborations... However, any errors of interpretation in the article are mine alone.
Please check it out!
Fedorowicz, Steven C. 2019. “Performance, Sign Language, and Deaf Identity in Japan.” Anthropology News website, June 5, 2019. DOI: 10.1111/AN.1182
http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2019/06/05/performance-sign-language-and-deaf-identity-in-japan/
Monday, June 3, 2019
Sunday, June 2, 2019
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