Before entering the PhD program at UO, I received my MA in English and BA in Creative Media from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. I worked on the production end of the media spectrum for my undergraduate work, specializing in animation and game design, which in turn led me to a two-year art internship at Tetris Online. Shortly after, I spent a year at Waseda University in Tokyo, where I became interested in Japanese visual culture, especially as how it pertains to the formation of alternative gender identities. Combining my studies in media and the visual, my current research revolves around the body, especially in the presentation of male-female-likenesses in Visual Kei music videos from its inception in the 80s to the present, and its influence on other popular Japanese real life and digital performance genres. I am also interested in the auditory performance of gender by ryouseirui utaite—amateur singers who sing in both male- and female-like voices—in the Vocaloid fandom.
I discovered the New Media Culture Certificate through my Media Aesthetics seminar in the English Department last Fall. As my research extends toward new media, the transdiciplinary nature of NMCC provides a complementary framework by which I can incorporate other media forms into my research while also providing me with opportunities to make connections with scholars in other departments outside my own.
Most of my media texts are sourced from YouTube. However, its country-specific streaming restrictions have prevented me from viewing videos for my work in Japanese popular culture, so I have also relied on Nico Nico Douga. NND is a great resource for Japanese, Korean, and Chinese media and I’ve found its user interface particularly useful in relation to those who are interested in fan culture.
Book recommendations:
Galbraith, Patrick W. and Jason G. Karlin, Eds. Idols and Celebrity in Japanese Media Culture. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. Print.
McLelland, Mark and Romit Dasgupta, Eds. Genders, Transgenders and Sexualities in Japan. New York: Routledge, 2005. Print.
Mezur, Katherine. Beautiful Boys/Outlaw Bodies: Devising Kabuki Female-Likeness. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Print.
Robertson, Jennifer. Takarazuka: Sexual Politics and Popular Culture in Modern Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. Print.
Welker, James. “Lilies of the Margin: Beautiful Boys and Queer Female Identities in Japan.” AsiaPacifiQueer: Rethinking Genders and Sexualities.Eds. Fran Martin, Peter A. Jackson, Mark McLelland, and Audrey Yue. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008. 46-66. Print.
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