#vivalarevolucíon: New Millennium Political Protests

Robert Dujarric Announcement
Location
Japan
Subject Fields
Political History / Studies, Race Studies, Immigration & Migration History / Studies, Law and Legal History, Women's & Gender History / Studies

 

Date:  Wednesday, April 5
Time: 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Venue: Temple University, Japan Campus, Azabu Hall 1F Parliament Lounge (ACCESS)
Capacity: 120 (first come, first serve basis)
Cost: Free and open to the public. Registration required.  Click link below to register.
Details and Registration: http://www.tuj.ac.jp/law/events/2017/0223.html
 

OVERVIEW:

The recent wave of protests around the world reflect this generation's struggles for economic, social, and political justice. Protests are changing from unstructured acts of civic demonstration to organized movements demanding social and political revolution through outcries of "Hands Up, Don't Shoot," "We Are All Muslim," and "We Are The 99%," by way of examples. While these traditional forms of street protests have an enduring place in our societies, the advent of the internet and social media takes these movements from being isolated incidents to uniting the world on human rights issues that affect us all. These burgeoning social movements have some immediate impact; however, systemic transformation takes time and requires clear mandates for future action. The key question then becomes—how to take social and political activism from the streets to affect real change? This lecture examines these issues and analyzes the unique characteristics of social movements in the 21st century, their effectiveness, and the influence of technology to further or hinder a movement's capability to ignite change.

 

SPEAKERS:

David H. Slater, Professor of Cultural Anthropology and Japanese Studies and Director of the Institute of Comparative Culture
Sophia University

David H. Slater is a Professor of Cultural Anthropology and Japanese Studies and the Director of the Institute of Comparative Culture at Sophia University, Tokyo. His related publications include 3.11 POLITICS IN DISASTER JAPAN: FEAR AND ANGER, POSSIBILITY AND HOPE, MICRO-POLITICS OF RADIATION, an edited online collection for Cultural Anthropology (2011); Japan Copes with Calamity (edited volume with Gill Steger 2013); "Young Mothers Looking for a Voice in Post–3.11 Fukushima" in Critical Asian Studies, with Morioka and Danzuka (2014); "SEALDs (Students Emergency Action for Liberal Democracy): Research Note on Contemporary Youth Politics in Japan", The Asia-Pacific Journal 2015 (with O'Day, Kindstrand, Uno and Takano); "Social Media, Information and Political Activism in Japan's 3.11 Crisis" with Kindstrand and Nishimura (2016).


John Russell, Professor of Anthropology
Gifu University

John G. Russell, Professor of Anthropology at Gifu University's Faculty of Regional Studies, received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from Harvard University. His research is focused on representations of race and difference in Japanese and American popular culture and mass media. He is the author of two books, Nihonjin no kokujin-kan [Japanese Perceptions of Blacks] (Shinhyoron, 1991) and Henken to sabetsu wa dono yo ni tsukurareru ka [How are Prejudice and Discrimination Produced?] (Akashi Shoten, 1995). His articles have appeared in Cultural Anthropology, positions: east asian cultures critique, The Journal of Popular Culture, CR: The New Centennial Review, The Japan Quarterly and The Japan Times. He is currently researching "whitewashing," "blackwashing," xenoface, and other substitutional racial practices in American popular culture, and the discourse of black masculinities in Japan.


William Andrews

William Andrews is a writer and translator in Tokyo. He studied at King's College London and moved to Japan in 2004. His research focuses on postwar Japanese counterculture and protest movements, particularly on the left. He is the author of Dissenting Japan: A History of Japanese Radicalism and Counterculture, from 1945 to Fukushima (2016, Hurst Publishers). His articles have appeared in Jacobin, CounterPunch, The Japan Times, The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, ArtAsiaPacific, CounterFire and more. He is currently writing a biography of the film-maker and activist Adachi Masao.


Noriko Manabe, Associate Professor of Music Studies
Temple University, Philadelphia

Noriko Manabe is an associate professor of music studies at Temple University in Philadelphia. Her articles on Japanese rap, DJs, social movements, children's songs, online media, and the music business appear in Ethnomusicology, Asian Music, Popular Music, Asia-Pacific Journal, Cambridge Companion to Hip-Hop, The Oxford Handbook of Children's Musical Cultures, The Oxford Handbook of Mobile Music and other publications. She is writing a second monograph, Revolution Remixed: Intertextuality in Protest Songs (Oxford, under contract), co-editing The Oxford Handbook of Protest Music (with Eric Drott) and Sonic Contestations of Nuclear Power (with Jessica Schwartz), and serving as series editor for 33-1/3 Japan, a new book series on Japanese popular music.
 

Sarajean Rossito, Nonprofit NGO Consultant

Sarajean Rossitto has worked with nonprofit NGOs in Japan for 20 years. She has conducted trainings on specific skill sets such as project development and management, fundraising, grant proposal writing and volunteer management and taught university classes on the roles and functions of NGOs, NGO management, the Japanese nonprofit sector and international development issues. Sarajean has coordinated programs including experts in humanitarian response and HIV/AIDS in Japan. She has taught at TUJ in the Conted school as part of the NGO mgt program since 2003. She has taught courses on NGOs, nonprofit management and international development at TUJ in Continuing Education dept since 2003, at Tsuda International Training Program since 2007 and at Sophia University since 2013.
Sarajean has also assisted corporations develop effective community engagement, CSR and philanthropy programs. Before 2005, when she began working as an independent consultant, Sarajean spent four years coordinating the bilateral exchange of nonprofit professionals between the US and Japan for Japan-US Community Education & Exchange (JUCEE). She worked for 6 years with the Tokyo YMCA before completing her Graduate studies. Sarajean holds a Columbia University Masters of International Affairs degree with a focus on human rights in East Asia and an undergraduate degree in Sociology.

 

MODERATOR:

Tina Saunders, Director and Associate Professor of Instruction in Law
Temple University School of Law, Japan Campus

Tina Saunders is an Associate Professor of Instruction in Law and Director of Temple Law School's Tokyo program. She teaches courses on civil procedure, torts, and conflict of laws. Professor Saunders has a broad range of international experience practicing law in the U.S. and working in Japan. Following law school, she served as a law clerk for Judge Lynne A. Battaglia at the Maryland Court of Appeals (highest state court). Professor Saunders then entered private practice focusing on complex, multi-district commercial and product liability litigation. She is a member of the Maryland State Bar.

Contact Email
icas@tuj.temple.edu