Women in Japanese studies : memoirs from a trailblazing generation / Alisa Freedman, editor.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Freedman, Alisa, editor.

Series:

Asia past & present ; no. 17.

Asia past & present ; number 17

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Japanologists--United States.

Japanologists.

Women scholars--United States.

Women scholars.

Japan--Study and teaching--United States.

Japan.

Physical Description:

601 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor, MI : Association for Asian Studies, Inc., [2024]

Summary:

"Women in Japanese Studies: Memoirs from a Trailblazing Generation brings together trailblazing women scholars from diverse disciplines in Japanese Studies to reflect on their careers and offer advice to colleagues. Most books present research and pedagogies. We do something different: We share lives-personal stories of how women scholars earned graduate degrees and began careers bridging Japan and North America between the 1950s and 1980 and balanced professional and personal responsibilities. We challenge the common narrative that Japanese Studies was established by men who worked for the US military after World War II or were from missionary families in Japan. This is only part of the story-the field was also created by women who took advantage of postwar opportunities for studying Japan. Women of this generation were among the first scholars to use Japanese source materials in research published in English and the first foreigners to study at Japanese universities. Their careers benefitted from fellowships, educational developments, activist movements to include the study of women and Asia in university curricula, and measures to prevent gender discrimination. Yet there were instances when, due to their gender, women received smaller salaries, faced hurdles to tenure, and were excluded from, or ignored, at conferences. Our book pioneers a genre of academic memoirs, capturing emotional and intellectual experiences omitted from institutional histories. We offer lively, engaging, thoughtful, brave, empowering stories that start larger conversations about gender and inclusion in the academy and in Japan-American educational exchange"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction, or blazing trails is always personal / Alisa Freedman

The implausible origins of becoming an Asian art historian / Ellen P. Conant

An Asian attachment / Joyce Chapman Lebra, curated by Andrew Violet

"In search of flowers yet unseen" / Barbara Ruch

Against the odds, persisting . . . / Marlene J. Mayo

Becoming a medical anthropologist / Margaret Lock

Life on two tracks / Takako Lento

A record of puzzlement / Phyllis I. Lyons

An accidental pioneer / Susan B. Hanley

"Another girl studying Japanese!" / Susan Matisoff

Becoming a historian / Mary Elizabeth Berry

Serendipity and sociology / Patricia G. Steinhof

I came, I saw, I stayed / Sumie Jones

Mae as a professional acholar / Richard Smethurst

Margins / Amy V. Heinrich

The presence of the past in life and scholarship / Sonja Arntzen

Two children . . . And a PhD / Christine M. E. Guth

Memories of becoming a Japanese studies librarian / Maureen Donovan

The open gate / Janine Beichman

Confessions of a biographer / Phyllis Birnbaum

Backwards and in high heels / Merry White

Night train to Tokyo / Susan J. Pharr

From Chushingura to commons / Margaret McKean

Encounters / Kate Wildman Nakai

I owe my career to men / Anne Walthall

Embracing the unexpected and weaving a life / Anne E. Imamura

My life in translation / Juliet Winters Carpenter

Still on the way / Eleanor Kerkham

Growing up, or how I learned to be a Japanese studies librarian / Kristina Kade Troost

With a lot of help from my friends / Helen Hardacreh

Being an outsider-insider / Barbara Sato

Japanese literature as refuge / Esperanza Ramirez-Christensen

Historical periods and major events in Japanese studies.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781952636387

1952636388

OCLC:

1416012941

Publisher Number:

99995332310