Announcement & Call for Participation: 1st Kansai Sociolinguistics Colloquium for Young Researchers @ Doshisha University, Institute for the Liberal Arts

The Doshisha University Institute for the Liberal Arts in cooperation with the University of Bremen (Germany) is initiating the first colloquium for young researchers in the field of sociolinguistics. We invite graduate students, postdoctoral, and early-career researchers to participate in our colloquium and present their current work. The aim of the colloquium is to connect young scholars in the field of sociolinguistics (broadly imagined) and provide a supportive space to discuss their ongoing research. Our focus is to provide a forum for feedback for emerging academics and their unfinished research projects. The conference will be an in-person-only event, and the conference presentation language will be English (with support for Japanese, German, and Spanish during the Q&A and informal spaces). The colloquium will be held at Doshisha University (Imadegawa), on 12 July 2025. Depending on the interest of participants, we plan on several thematic sessions to group scholars of similar sub-fields together, to create an ideal working environment. Each participant will have 10 minutes to present, preparing the audience and the mentors for a 20-minute discussion guided by the presenter. This should leave ample room for feedback and productive criticism. As we are focusing on young researchers, we will refrain from charging a participation fee. We will reserve space for lunch at a local, reasonably-priced restaurant. We also plan to invite all participants for informal drinks in Kyoto after the Colloquium.

The guiding topic of the Colloquium is “Critical Sociolinguistics in a Modern World”, focusing on Japan, Japanese, or any other context worldwide. The invitation is open to any approach within sociolinguistics as well as researchers outside of linguistics interested in language. We welcome submissions from all areas of sociolinguistics, including but not limited to:

● Language and Power
● Language Ideologies
● Multilingualism and Linguistic Inequality
● Race, Ethnicity, and Linguistic Discrimination
● Gender, Sexuality, and Language
● Migration, Mobility, and Language
● Digital Communication
● Ethnography of Communication
● Pragmatics
● Postcolonial Language Studies, Indigenous Language Studies, and Decolonial Linguistics

Abstracts are to be submitted here, containing no more than 300 words, an area of study, and institutional affiliation, by 6 June 2025 (11 a.m. JST).

Timeline:

● Call for papers ends: 6 June 2025, 11 a.m. (JST)
● Notification of results: 13 June 2025
● Registration opens: 13 June 2025
● Registration closes: 4 July 2025, 11 a.m. (JST)

Questions and concerns can be addressed via email to lgrausam@uni-bremen.de Organizing committee:
● Greg Poole – Doshisha University, Institute for the Liberal Arts
● Leon Grausam – University of Bremen, Faculty for Linguistics and Literary Studies

For more information: https://sites.google.com/view/kansaisoclincolloc/home

Announcement: 「Reading Family Albums: Indian Immigrants in Tokyo, 1976 - 2010」 Presentation by Bakirathi Mani @ Sophia University

May 14, 2025 / 18:30-20:00
Room 301, 3F Building 10, Sophia University
In Person only / No registration required

Abstract: How do we enter into, look at, and make sense of family albums? In this talk, I examine archival practices that emerge out of working with a repository of albums that documents my own family's life as Indian immigrants in Japan between 1976 and 2010. These albums and the photographs they contain operate as material and ethnographic objects that decay over time. Writing about these albums demands that I occupy shifting positions: as a subject and critic of these images; as an archivist who preserves the albums; and a daughter inheriting the photographs, who has herself migrated. As the albums travel between Japan, India and the United States, I consider what it means to dwell within these familiar archives, reflecting on methods of reading and writing about images that are among the most intimate representations of selfhood and community that I have encountered.

For more info: https://www.icc-sophia.com/post/reading-family-albums-indian-immigrants-in-tokyo-1976-2010

2025年の桜の反射: Reflections of the 2025 cherry blossoms...

See also: https://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2025/04/2025-expected-beauty-and-awe-of-cherry.html

See also: https://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2025/04/2025-na-no-hana-relations.html

LGBTQとは わかりやすく活動家が解説│課題や支援事例も紹介

"An article I wrote myself in 2022, but it was delivered as an updated article incorporating 3 years worth of changes and more! I think it's very easy to understand." - Fuyumi Yamamoto

Link: https://www.asahi.com/sdgs/article/14564464

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A little addition to my door sign...

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/style/le-poisson-steve-tiktok.html

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/BlNOwq8IIPU

Announcement: KG＋ Photo Exhibition in Kyoto April 12 ~ May 11

“KG＋” is a public art festival that first started in 2013 with the aim of discovering and supporting upcoming photographers and curators with 2025 being the 13th anniversary of this festival. We strive to present the state-of-the-art skills of upcoming photographers widely enlisted here in Kyoto to around the globe. In cooperation with “KYOTOGRAPHIE Kyoto International Photography Festival”, we give upcoming photographers and curators participating in KG＋ opportunities to talk and collaborate with world-renowned curators and gallerists from Japan and around the world.

“KG＋ SELECT” is another exhibition, where 10 artists out of the participants of “KG＋” are selected to exhibit their work by judges working at an international degree. KG＋SELECT Award 2025 Winner is held between the selected 10 artists, with the winner given the invitation to exhibit their work in the official KYOTOGRAPHIE program next year in 2026.

For more information: https://kgplus.kyotographie.jp/

2025お花見菜の花の関係子と: Na no hana relations...

Three plamts behind the family of three, all enjoying the cherry blossoms...

See also: https://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2025/04/2025-expected-beauty-and-awe-of-cherry.html

2025のいつもの桜: the expected beauty and awe of the cherry blossoms...

Announcement: New JAWS Newsletter released (and check out the cover! AGAIN!)

Congratulations and many thanks to the co-editors, Jennifer McGuire and Christopher Tso, on putting together and releasing the Japan Anthropology Workshop Newsletter (#53) "...continuing with our refreshed newsletter design and second cover photo by visual anthropologist and JAWS member Steven C. Fedorowicz..."

Available at:

https://japananthropologyworkshop.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/JAWS-Newsletter-2023.pdf

「Push-Pulling the Danjiri」

Residents of Shirogaki-cho in Kadoma-shi, Osaka push and pull a large wooden cart called a danjiri through the district’s streets as a part of the annual Fall Festival (October) and Kadoma-shi 60th Anniversary Culture Festival (November) in 2023. Navigating the danjiri is hard work, because the cart is heavy and awkward to steer through the narrow and winding streets. Shirogaki-cho’s danjiri, parts of which were made in the Edo period, is over 7 meters long, 4 meters high at its tallest point and weighs over 3.2 tons. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, participation by neighbors in these events has been decreasing over the years because of demographic changes: Japan’s aging society, the falling birthrate, and gentrification as traditional homes are torn down and replaced with apartments making the area into a bed-town of strangers. But a core of diehard and friendly residents take part every year to parade the danjiri with the temporarily installed deity from the local shrine throughout the parish to bestow its blessings to the neighbors, encourage cooperation, and promote continued good community relations. Ihave been photographing, researching, and pushing in the fall festival for over 15 years.