Teaching Japanese Popular Culture - (Asia Past & Present) by Chris McMorran & Deborah Shamoon (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Interest in Japanese popular culture is high among students at all levels, driving enrollment in Japanese Studies programs. However, there has been little reflection on the pedagogy of teaching Japanese popular culture. Now is the time for critical reflection on teaching practices related to teaching about and with Japanese popular culture. This volume encompasses theoretical engagement with pedagogy of popular culture as well as practical considerations of curriculum design, lesson planning, assessment, and student outcomes. While the main focus is undergraduate teaching, there is also discussion of K-12 teaching, with authors discussing their experiences teaching Japanese popular culture not only in North America, but also in Australia, Germany, Singapore, and Japan, both in Japanese-language and English-language institutions.

About the Author

DEBORAH SHAMOON is Associate Professor of Japanese Studies at the National University of Singapore, where she teaches courses in modern Japanese literature and popular culture. She is the author of Passionate Friendship: The Aesthetics of Girls' Culture in Japan (University of Hawai'i Press, 2012), as well as several articles on manga, anime, and film. From 2006 to 2011 she was Assistant Professor at the University of Notre Dame in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures.

CHRIS MCMORRAN is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Japanese Studies at the National University of Singapore. A cultural geographer by training, he teaches courses related to Japan's environment-society relations and political economy, as well as an annual field studies course in Kyushu. He has won multiple teaching awards and published research articles on heritage tourism, labor mobility, Japanese feminism, and fieldbased learning. He is currently writing a book based on a year of fieldwork conducted in a traditional Japanese inn, Last Resort: Labor, Tourism, and Identity in Japan.