Category: Announcement

Job Posting: Visiting Assistant Professor in the EALCS Department

Posted on | by Natalie Juarez

The Department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, invites applications for the position of Visiting Assistant Professor for the 2019-2020 academic year.

We seek applicants with expertise in Japanese literature from the Meiji Period to the present and Japanese film from a cultural studies perspective. We seek candidates with active research agendas who will participate in research activities in the department and be available to graduate students with relevant topics. The candidate will be expected to teach five courses related to their expertise and to advanced language training: Survey of Modern Japanese Literature, Topics in Modern Japanese Literature (topics to be chosen by the candidate), Japanese Cinema, and two classes of advanced Japanese readings (readings to be chosen by the candidate) or one class of advanced Japanese readings plus a second class to be determined. The candidate would also be asked to contribute to department programs by planning events related to their expertise, such as film showings and visiting speakers.

Minimum requirements include a Ph.D. in a relevant field, specialization in modern and contemporary Japanese literature and cinema, and high-level Japanese language ability. Salary is based on UC salary scales and depends on qualifications. To ensure full consideration, please submit a cover letter, curriculum vitae, a statement of research, a statement of teaching experience, and arrange for three letters of recommendation sent to UC Recruit https://recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/JPF01499 . The position will remain open until filled, but complete applications received by May 13, 2019 will receive full review.

The Department is especially interested in candidates who can contribute to the diversity and excellence of the academic community through research, teaching, and service as appropriate to the position. Inquiries may be directed to Katherine Saltzman-Li, Chair of the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies, at ksaltzli@eastasian.ucsb.edu. For more information on the department, please visit our website at: https://www.eastasian.ucsb.edu.

The University of California is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

World Literatures in Chinese: Transnational Perspectives of East Asian Cultures

Posted on | by Tony Chabolla

Date: January 24-26
Place: HSSB, 6020 (6th floor)

The Center for Taiwan Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, will host a conference in collaboration with the BK21 Plus Education & Research Group for Chinese & Japanese Language and Culture, Korea University, to be held on January 24-26, 2019, at UCSB. The conference will explore literatures written in Chinese that have developed in East Asia and under the influences of the Chinese cultural sphere in the past as well as widely spread over the world today since the last century.

Diaspora Memoria: Performance art viewing and talk

Posted on | by Tony Chabolla

Speaker: Kondo Aisuke
Date: Thursday, January 31
Time: 5:00 pm
Place: HSSB 1151

Please join the Department of Theater and Dance for a viewing of work by Japanese artist Kondo Aisuke, followed by a Q&A with the artist.

Born and raised in Japan and currently based in Germany, Kondo explores questions of belonging, identity, memory, and history across a variety of media, from collage and gallery installation to video and performance. In his current Matter and Memory series (2017-present), Kondo retraces his great grandfather’s life as an immigrant in the US from his arrival in the early 1900s until his incarceration in the Topaz internment camp during World War II.

For more information, click here.

The Media Region: Transnational Adaptations

Posted on | by Tony Chabolla

Speaker: Professor Thomas Lamarre (McGill University)
Date: Friday, January 25
Time: 5:00-6:30 pm
Place: Mosher Alumni House, Alumni Hall

In the course of adaptation across media forms and platforms, a series that initially appears ‘excessively obvious’ (Bordwell) may transform into something ‘excessively enigmatic’ (Elsaesser). Tracking the serialization of Hana yori dango or Hanadan across manga, music, animation, and cinema in the 1990s, Lamarre will explore how a relatively straightforward manga series turns into something like a puzzle or a mind game. While the study of production (creative industries) and narration (patterns of storytelling) sheds some light on the formal features of this transformation, Lamarre argues that the transmedial serialization is best seen in terms of the formation of a social technology or subjective technology. It transforms interpretive practices into game-like procedures, or rules of the game. Looking at trans-medial serialization as subjective technology also allows for a better understanding of the power formations that coalesce around it in the context of transnational serialization. This is especially important in the case of Hanadan in the 2000s. Hanadan has been touted as the most remade series in the East Asia region, with Japanese, Taiwanese, Chinese, Korean, Philippine, and Indian versions. As such, this series offers insights in the emergence of new ways of understanding “Asia” as a media region.