Brief CV
Education
Stanford University. Ph.D. in Japanese. 1998.
Harvard University. A.B. in Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering. 1989.
Teaching
Williams College
Chair of the Program in Comparative Literature and the Program in Arabic. 2011 - present.
Associate Professor of Comparative and Japanese Literature. Program in Comparative Literature. 2009 - present.
Assistant Professor of Japanese. Department of Asian Studies. 2003 - 2009.
University of California, Riverside
Assistant Professor of Japanese. Department of Comparative Literature and Foreign Languages. 1998 - 2003.
Book Projects
- Sublime Voices: The Fictional Science and Scientific Fiction of Abe Kōbō(Harvard Asia Center, 2009).
- Associate Editor. Mechademia, an annual forum for academic criticism of anime, manga, and fan arts (University of Minnesota Press, 2006-present).
- Co-Editor, with Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr.and Tatsumi Takayuki, of Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams: Japanese Science Fiction from Origins to Anime (University of Minnesota Press, 2007).
Please see my Book Projects Page for a more detailed description of these volumes.
Articles and Book Chapters
-
「分裂あるいは流入としての言語――3.11後の安部公房論」増田まもる訳『3・11の未来――日本・SF・創造力』笠井潔・巽孝之監修 作品社 ["Language as Fission or Flow: Reading Abe Kōbō after the Earthquake. Translated into Japanese by Masuda Mamoru. In The Future After 3/11: Japan, Science Fiction, Creativity. Supervising eds. Kasai Kiyoshi and Tatsumi Takayuki. Ed. Ebihara Yutaka and Fujita Naoya. Sakuhinsha] 2011.
-
"A Cosplay Photography Sampler." Coauthored with Eron Rauch. Mechademia 5 (2010): 176-90.
-
"Virtual Creation, Simulated Destruction, and Manufactured Memory at the Art Mecho Museum in Second Life." Mechademia 4 (2009): 198-210.
- 「コンテキストが完全に変わっても、それどころか変わったときに新し意味が次々と出てくるものは？アメリカで読む笙野頼子」『論座』[New meanings keep unfolding, even in new contexts, especially in new contexts: Reading Shōno Yoriko in America," Ronza] 157 (June 2008): 212-213.
- "The Quick and the Undead: Visual and Political Dynamics in Blood: The Last Vampire." Mechademia 2 (2007): 125-42.
- 「歌い合う機械たちーー安部公房とサイエンス・フィクション」内藤由直・友田義行共訳 岩波「文学」["Machinic chorus: Abe Kōbō and science fiction." Translated into Japanese by Naitō Yoshitada and Tomoda Yoshiyuki. Iwanami Bungaku] 8.4 (July-August 2007): 33-49.
- "Anime Horror and its Audience: 3x3 Eyes and Vampire Princess Miyu." In Japanese Horror Cinema. Ed. Jay McRoy. Edinburgh University Press, 2005. 66-76.
- "Abe Kōbō." The Columbia Companion to Modern East Asian Literature. Ed. Joshua Mostow. Columbia University Press, 2003. 193-97.
- "The Mecha's Blind Spot: Patlabor 2 and the Phenomenology of Anime." Science Fiction Studies 29.3 (November 2002): 453-74. Reprinted in Bolton, Csicsery-Ronay, and Tatsumi, Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams, 123-47. Abstract available on the SFS web site.
- "From Wooden Cyborgs to Celluloid Souls: Mechanical Bodies in Anime and Japanese Puppet Theater." positions: east asia cultures critique 10.3 (Winter 2002): 729-71.
- "The Dialog of Styles and the Dance of Fiction in Abe Kōbō's The Face of Another." In Bakhtinian Theory in Japanese Studies. Ed. Jeffrey Johnson. Edwin Mellen Press, 2001. 153-85.
- "Abe Kōbō." In Modern Japanese Authors. Ed. Jay Rubin. Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001. 1-18.
- 「科学とフィクション、そしてポストモダン—安部公房『第四間氷期』論」『昭和文学研究』 [Fiction, Science, and the Postmodern: Abe Kōbō's Inter Ice Age 4]." In Shōwa Literary Studies: 34 (February 1997): 91-102.
Selected Translations
- "Gundam and the Future of Japanoid Art," by Takayuki Tatsumi. Translation with response. Mechademia 3 (2008): 191-98.
- Saitō Tamaki. "Otaku Sexuality," from 「博士の奇妙な思春期」[The Doctor's Strange Adolescence]. Introduced by Kotani Mari. In Bolton, Csicsery-Ronay, and Tatsumi, Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams, 222-49.
- "Mori Minoru's Day of Resurrection." Early manga art of Komatsu Sakyō with an introduction by Tatsumi Takayuki. Mechademia 1 (2006): 87-89.
- Abe Kōbō. "The Boom in Science Fiction." Translation with introduction. Science Fiction Studies 29:3 (November 2002): 340-49. Full text on SFS web site.
- Susan Napier, Tatsumi Takayuki, et. al. "An Interview with Komatsu Sakyō." Science Fiction Studies 29:3 (November 2002): 323-39. Full text on SFS web site.
Recent Presentations
- "From Ground Zero to Degree Zero: Akira as Origin and Oblivion." Beyond the Body Seminar. Washington University, St. Louis. March 30, 2012. Related paper delivered for the East Asian Colloquium Series at Indiana University, Bloomington. December 2, 2011.
- "Reading and Other Dead Technologies." Schoolgirls and Mobilesuits / Mechademia Conference. November 1, 2011.
- 国際安部公房ワーク・ショップ 崇高な声が聞こえる——安部公房文学の現在 [International Abe Kôbô Workshop. Sublime Voices: The Literature of Abe Kôbô Today.] Ritsumeikan University. Kyoto, Japan. March 7, 2011. (PDF of workshop poster)
- "Immediacy, Abstraction, Animation." Why Images? Roundtable. Jackman Humanities Institute at the University of Toronto. November 4, 2010.
Time in Japan
I first went to Japan in 1984, when I spent a summer in Kyūshu as a YFU exchange student. After that I worked as a software developer in Osaka (1991), and studied language at International Christian University in Tokyo (1987) and the Inter-University Center in Yokohama (1993-94). In 1996, I conducted doctoral research as a Japan Foundation Fellow at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto. Now I go back regularly for research, and to visit my wife's family in Osaka. In spring of 2011 I taught at the Associated Kyoto Program.
