Assistant Professor of
Anthropology and East Asian Studies +1
203 432-3795 tel (office)
Yale University +1
815 371-4029 fax (personal)
10 Sachem Street karen.nakamura @ yale.edu
New Haven CT 06520-8277 USA http://www.disabilitystudies.jp
Higher Education
2001 Ph.D.
in Sociocultural Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, Yale University.
Dissertation title: Deaf Identities,
Sign Languages, and Minority Social Movement Politics in Modern Japan
(1868-2000). Advisor:
Professor William Kelly.
1998 M.Phil. in Sociocultural Anthropology,
Department of Anthropology, Yale University.
1993 B.A. magna cum laude. Cornell University.
Double major, College Scholar Program and Psychology with a concentration in
Women's Studies. Distinction in all subjects.
2005.8 ~ current Assistant Professor of Anthropology and East
Asian Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT.
2001.8 ~ 2005.8 Assistant
Professor of Anthropology. Macalester College, St. Paul MN.
Selected
Grants, Awards, and Scholarships
2007-08 Yale University Junior
Faculty Fellowship.
2006 Journal
article “Resistance and Co-optation” selected as one of 100 Seminal Papers in
the Oxford University Press Centenary of Publishing.
2004-05 Abe Fellow, Social Science
Research Council and Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership. Principal
investigator. $83,000.
2004 East-West
Center China-U.S.A. Asian Studies Development Program.
2003 Tokyo
University Institute of Social Science / Oxford University Award for Modern
Japanese Studies.
2002-03 Macalester Faculty Research
and Teaching Grants (College Co-Mentoring Fellowship; Freeman Fund China Travel Grant; Mellon
Summer Research Fellowship; Bush Course Development Grant; International
Seminar, Penang, Malaysia)
1999-00 Yale
University Council on East Asian Studies Prize Fellowship.
1999 SSRC
Japan Dissertation Workshop Fellowship.
1997-9 Wenner-Gren Foundation
Small Grant for Dissertation Research. Principal Investigator.
1993 Cornell
University: Phi Beta Kappa & Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society.
Monographs and Edited Volumes
2006 Deaf
in Japan: Signing and the Politics of Identity. Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press.
- Winner
of 2008 John Whitney Hall Book Prize from the Association of Asian Studies
2003 Co-Editor,
Many Ways to be Deaf: International
Linguistic and Sociocultural Variation. Ed. Leila Monaghan, Constanze Schmaling, Karen
Nakamura, and Graham Turner. Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University
Press.
Forthcoming A
Japanese Funeral. High-definition color. 15 minutes.
2007 Bethel:
Community and Schizophrenia in Northern Japan. High-definition color. 41
minutes.
Journal Articles and Book Chapters
2009 Disability,
Destitution, and Disaster: Surviving the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake in Japan.
Human Organization. Volume 68 Issue 1
(Spring): 73-81.
2006a Creating
and Contesting Signs in Contemporary Japan: Language Ideologies, Identity and
Community in Flux. Sign
Language Studies Volume 7 Number 1 (Fall 2006): 11-29.
2006b 抵抗と同化：全日本ろうあ連盟と政治権力の関係。社会科学研究、第５７巻き第３・４合併号。東京：東京大学社会科学研究所紀要。
[Resistance
and Assimilation: The Relationship between Japanese Federation and the Deaf and
Political Power. Shakai Kagaku Kenkyû Vol 57
(3-4). Tokyo: Tokyo University Institute for Social Science.]
2003a "Deaf
Shock," and the Hard-of-Hearing: Japanese Deaf identities at the
borderlands. Many Ways to be Deaf: International
Linguistic and Sociocultural Variation. Ed. Leila Monaghan, Constanze
Schmaling, Karen Nakamura, and Graham Turner. Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet
University Press.
2003b
Female masculinity and fantasy spaces:
transcending genders in the Takarazuka theatre. With
Hisako Matsuo (co-author). Men and
Masculinities in Contemporary Japan: Dislocating the Salaryman Doxa. Edited
by James Roberson and Nobue Suzuki. 59-76. New York: Routledge.
2002 Resistance
and Co-optation: the Japanese Federation of the Deaf and its Relations with
State Power. Social Science Japan Journal. Vol. 5
(1): 17-35.
- Selected as one of the 100 seminal papers from
Oxford Journals (Oxford University Press Centennial)
1999a 日米のろう運動：比較研究の視点から。手話コミュニケーション研究。
日本手話研究所所報。1999.9
(33): 45-54。
[Deaf Movements in the United States and Japan
from a Comparative Analytical Perspective. Sign Language Communication Studies August (33): 45-54. Tokyo: Japanese Institute for Sign
Language Studies.]
1999b 言語・文化人類学から見た日米ろう社会と教育（講演会記録1998.11.14）。
トータルコミュニケーション研究会会報。No. 79 （冬号）：24-39。
[Deaf
education in Japan and the U.S.: a comparative approach from a linguistic and
sociocultural anthropology perspective (Lecture Transcript of November 14, 1998).
Total Communications Research Group
Report No. 79. Winter, 1999. Tokyo: Total Communication Research Group.]
1998a 民族としてのろう社会：ろう者のアイデンティティ・カルチャーと 手話言語コミュニティの形成。日本手話研究所所報, 1998.3 (27)。
[Ethnically
deaf: identity, culture, and the making of sign language communities. Sign Language Communication Studies.
April, 1998. Tokyo: Japanese Institute for Sign Language Studies.]
1998b Transitioning
on Campus: A Case Studies Approach. In Working
with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender College Students: A Handbook for
Faculty and Administrators. Ronni L. Sahlo, ed. 179-186. Westport, CT:
Greenwood Press.
1997
Narrating Ourselves: Duped or duplicitous? In Gender Blending. Bonnie Bullough, Vern
Bullough, and James Elias, eds. 74-86. Buffalo: Prometheus Press.
In
Press Review
of Amy Borovoy’s The Too-Good Wife:
Alcohol, Codependency, and the Politics of Nurturance in Postwar Japan (UC
Press 2005). Medical Anthropology
Quarterly. Volume 23, No. 2: 184-185.
2008 Film
review of Josee, the Tiger, and the Fish
[Joze to tora to sakana tachi], directed by Isshin Inudo (2003). Asian Educational Media Services News and
Reviews. Issue 31 (Winter): 3-4.
2007 The
Chrysanthemum and the Queer: Ethnographic and Historical Perspectives on
Sexuality in Japan. Journal of Homosexuality. Volume 52,
Issue ¾: 267-281.
2006a Two New Ogawa Shinsuke Films
(review).
Visual Anthropology. Volume 19, No. 3-4:
391-392.
2006b Review
of Jennifer Robertson, ed. A Companion to the Anthropology of Japan.
Pacific
Affairs. Volume 79, No. 1 (Spring): 129-130.
2006c Review
of Mizuko Ito, Daisuke Okabe, and Misa Matsuda, eds. Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life. Journal of Japanese Studies. Vol. 32
No. 2 (Summer): 459-462.
2004a Review
of Keiko Hirata's Civil Society in Japan.
Social
Science Japan Journal. Vol. 7, No. 2 (October): 318-320.
2004b Review
of Megan Jennaway’s Sisters and Lovers:
Women and Desire in Bali.
American
Ethnologist. Vol. 31, No. 1 (February).
2004c Review
of Jennifer Robertson’s Takarazuka:
Sexual Politics and Popular Culture in Modern Japan. Visual Anthropology 17: 205-207.
1998 Review
of Jennifer Terry and Jacqueline Urla’s Deviant
Bodies: Critical Perspectives on Difference in Science and Popular Culture. SOLGAN
Vol. 20, No. 3: 5-6..
2005 Severe Disabilities,
Liberalism, and Social Welfare Policy in Japan and the United States. Anthropology News. Vol. 46, No. 9: 58. Washington,
D.C.: American Anthropological Association.
2002a Eight
photographs of rural Malaysia in “Meeting Malaysia.” Text by Jan Shaw-Flamm. Macalester Today (Summer): 22-29.
2002b
"Deafness,
Ethnicity, and Minority Politics in Modern Malaysia." Macalester International Volume 12
(Autumn): 193-202. St.
Paul, MN: Macalester College.
2002c ９月１１日以降のアメリカ。季刊ミミ ９５号(春): 10-11。 東京:全日本ろうあ連盟。 [America after
September 11th. Quarterly Mimi No. 95 (Spring): 10-11. Tokyo: Japanese
Federation of the Deaf.]
2002d Morals,
Sexuality, and Fieldwork. Ethical Currents. Anthropology News. Vol. 43 (3 [March]): 24. Washington,
D.C.: American Anthropological Association.
2002e Helpful
or Harmful: How Innovative Communication Technology Affect Survivors of
Intimate Violence. By Ann L. Kranz with Karen Nakamura. Minneapolis,
MN: Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse. http://www.mincava.umn.edu/
In review Challenging
Disabilities: An Overview of the 2004-2005 Japanese Disability Protest Movement.
Submitted to Disability Studies
Quarterly. Currently in peer review.
Forthcoming Disability, Destitution, and
Disaster: Surviving the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake in Japan. Submitted to Human Organization (Journal of the
Society for Applied Anthropology).
Forthcoming No voice in the courtroom?:
Deaf legal cases in Japan during the 1960s. In Going to Court to Change Japan: Social Movements and the Law. Ed.
Patricia Steinhoff. Chapter manuscript completed, book manuscript submitted to
the University of Michigan Center for Japanese Studies series. Scheduled to be
published in 2009.
Volunteer
and Service Positions
2008.11~ Co-Chair, SOLGA: The Society for Lesbian
and Gay Anthropology, American Anthropological Association.
2008~ Editorial Board, American
Anthropologist, American Anthropological Association.
2008~ Member, Yale College Course of Study
Committee.
2008~ Academic Mentor, Yale Mellon-Bouchet Undergraduate Fellowship
Program.
2005.11-2008.11 Elected member, Committee on Minority
Affairs in Anthropology, American Anthropological Association.
2004-2005 Nominated Member, American
Anthropological Association SOLGA Benedict Prize Committee.
2002-2005 Elected member (Minority Seat),
Long-Range Planning Committee, American Anthropological Association.
2002-2004 Academic Mentor. Mellon Minority
Undergraduate Fellowship Program. Macalester College.
2002-2004 Nominated member, American
Anthropological Association SOLGA Payne Student Research Prize Committee.
2000-2005 SOLGA Liaison (AAA Board nominated
position), Committee on Ethics, American Anthropological Association.
Exhibitions and Film Screenings
Feb
26, 2009 Film
screening: Bethel: Community and
Schizophrenia in Northern Japan. Oberlin College (Oberlin, Ohio).
March
2, 2008 Japan
Premiere: Bethel: Community and
Schizophrenia in Northern Japan. Feminist Active Documentary Video Festival
Renren. Tokyo, Japan.
Sept
7, 2007 International
Premiere: Bethel:
Community and Schizophrenia in Northern Japan. Disabled People’s
International World Assembly. Seoul, Korea.
Nov
11, 2006 Film
screening: Bethel: Community and
Schizophrenia in Northern Japan (rough cut). Conference on Representing
Disability: Theory, Politics, Practice. Haverford College.
Oct
11, 2006 Film
screening: Bethel: Community and
Schizophrenia in Northern Japan (rough cut). Margaret Mead Ethnographic
Film Festival at Yale University, New Haven.
Oct
- Nov 9, 2006 Photography
exhibition. Disability in Japan. Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University.
Conference Presentations and Lecture Series (Past
5 Years)
Nov
14-15, 2008 Conference
co-organizer. Crazy in Japan: Ethnographic
Perspectives on Psychiatry and Mental Illness. Sponsored by the Yale Council
on East Asian Studies and the Yale Department of Anthropology. Co-organized
with Chikako Ozawa-de Silva, assistant professor of anthropology at Emory
University; and Ellen Rubinstein, a doctoral student at Yale.
Nov
23, 2008 Conference
paper. JSL, JS, NS, or N: Sign Language
Politics and Language Ideologies in Japan. American Anthropological
Association Annual Meeting.
Nov
18, 2008 Panel
Discussant. Ethnographic Film, Ethics,
and Emotion: Honoring the Work of
Karl G. Heider. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting.
Nov
15, 2008 Conference
paper. Crazy in Japan An Ethnography of
Mental Illness and Community in Hokkaido. Presented at the Crazy in Japan:
Ethnographic Perspectives on Psychiatry and Mental Illness Conference. Yale
University.
Sept.
23, 2008 Conference
Keynote Lecture: Changing Deaf
identities, Changing Deaf Communities, Changing Deaf Studies. Deaf And
Other Lives; Living In Multiple Cultures. University of Amsterdam, Netherlands.
June
19, 2008 Plenary
Lecture: “These natives can speak for
themselves:” Cripping Anthropology and Anthropologizing Disability Studies. Society for Disability Studies
Annual Meeting.
March
1, 2008 Paper
presentation: Deaf in Japan: Signing and
the Politics of Identity. Around the Deaf World in Two Days (It's a Small
World): Sign Languages, Social Issues/Civil Rights, Creativity. Swarthmore
College.
Dec
1, 2007 Paper
presentation: Crazy in Japan:
schizophrenia, traumas of memory, and community storytelling in rural Japan.
Panel on Depressed Society and Disturbed Individuals?: The Varieties of
Suffering Experiences. American Anthropological Annual
Meeting. Washington, D.C.
Co-organizer:
Panel on Depressed Society and Disturbed Individuals?: The Varieties of
Suffering Experiences. American Anthropological Annual Meeting. Washington,
D.C.
March
31, 2007 Paper
presentation: Call Girls for Crips: The
growing movement for sexual and reproductive freedom for people with
disabilities. Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality. New York
University.
Feb
3, 2007 Paper
presentation: Narrative, Community
Memory, and Schizophrenia in Contemporary Japan. Time, Memory and Body in
Japan: An Interdisciplinary Symposium. Reischauer Institute of Japanese
Studies, Harvard University. Cambridge, MA.
Nov
15, 2006 Paper
presentation: Performing Disability,
Class, and Gender in Contemporary Japan. Panel
on Critical Intersections of Disability and Culture in Asia. American Anthropological
Association Annual Meeting. San Diego, CA.
Panel
Organizer. Panel on Critical Intersections of Disability and Culture in Asia. American
Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. San Diego, CA.
Discussant.
Panel on Teaching about race from the sub-fields of anthropology. AAA Committee
on Minority Issues in Anthropology Invited Session. American Anthropological Association
Annual Meeting. San Diego, CA.
Nov
11, 2006 Paper
presentation: Deaf Politics in Japan and the United States. Panel on Global
Perspectives: Poverty, Economic Development, and Disability. Conference on Representing Disabilities: Theory, Politics,
Practice. Haverford College.
Oct
31, 2006 Seminar
series: Deaf in Japan: Signing and the
Politics of Identity. Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, Harvard University
Weatherhead Center for Intl. Affairs.
April
28, 2006 Paper
presentation: Challenging Disabilities in
Japan and the United States. Dickinson College Symposium on Health, Law and
Justice in Asia.
April
21, 2006 Paper
presentation: Rethinking Disability and
Social Welfare Policy in Japan and the United States. Columbia University
Seminar on Japan.
April
11, 2006 Discussant:
Panel on Culture and the Wiring of the
Brain. Speaker: Bruce Wexler, organized by the Law & Biotechnology
Society. Yale University Law School.
March
31, 2006 Paper
presentation: Disability, Destitution,
and Disaster: Surviving the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake in Japan. Panel
on Who Lives? Who Dies? Disaster, Bioethics, and Disability Part II (SMA),
organized by Lakshmi Fjord. Society for Applied Anthropology / Society for
Medical Anthropology 2006 Annual Meeting. Vancouver, British Columbia.
Feb.
25, 2006 Paper
presentation: Sign Language
Interpretation as Gendered Labor in Japan. Workshop on Work, Gender, and
Identity in Modern Japan. Organized by Christopher Gerteis, Council on East
Asian Studies: Yale University.
Dec.
2, 2005 Panel
Chair and Organizer: Social Change in
East Asia: Grassroots Mobilization and Small-scale Political Activism.
American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. Washington, D.C.
Paper
presentation: It’s not Welfare if it’s
not Enjoyable: Rethinking Grassroots Disability Activism in Japan.
Anthropological Association Annual Meeting.
Apr.
23-24, 2005 Paper
presentation: Radical Disability Politics
at the Grassroots: The Growth of Centers for Independent Living in Japan. Anthropology
of Japan in Japan Regional Workshop. Osaka Gakuin University, Osaka Japan.
Nov.
13-14, 2004 Chair: Discourses of Love and
Romance. Anthropology of Japan in Japan (AJJ) Annual Meeting, Sophia
University, Tokyo Japan.
March
24-27, 2004 Paper presentation: Images of Women, Imaginations of Women in Japanese Animation and
Popular Culture. European Social Science History Conference, Berlin,
Germany.
Public and Guest Lectures and Presentations (Past
5 Years)
Feb
26, 2009 Lecture:
Crazy in Japan: An Ethnography of Mental
Illness, Schizophrenia and Community. Oberlin College (Oberlin, Ohio).
March 6, 2008 Paper
presentation: Crazy in Japan:
Schizophrenia, Traumas of Memory and Community Storytelling In Rural Japan. Department
of Anthropology. New York University.
Oct
22, 2007 Lecture:
Participant Observation Fieldwork in the
Ethnographic Study of Mental Illness in Japan. Invited by Prof. Ikuyoshi
Mukaiyachi. Hokkaido Health Sciences University.
Feb
6, 2007 Guest
Lecturer: Fantastic futures and
remembered pasts: Japanese animation in late modernity. Architecture 752b:
Critical Imaginaries, a Contemporary Architectural Discourse Colloquium. School
of Art and Architecture, Yale University.
June
16, 2006 Lecture:
Mental Health Care in the United States.
Bethel House, Urakawa City, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan.
Mar
23, 2006 Guest
Lecturer: From Atom to Evangelion -
Teaching Japanese Culture and History through Japanese Animation and
Manga Comics. Yale PIER Lecture Series.
Nov
8, 2004 Guest
Lecturer: Disabilities in the U.S. and
Japan. Invited by Professor Tom Gill, Meiji Gakuin University.
July
27, 2004 Guest
Lecturer: Disability as a New Civil
Society Movement. Invited by Professor Yutaka Tsujinaka, Tsukuba National
University, Japan.
April
3, 2004 Guest
Speaker: Understanding ‘9 Months in
America’ by Wing Young Huie. Invited by Professor Anita Gonzalez, Minnesota
Museum of American Art.
Feb 13,
2004 Lecture:
Contesting Abilities: Disability and
Deafness as Emerging Minority Social and Political Movements in Contemporary
Japan. Jackson School for International Studies, University of Washington.
July
1, 2003 Guest
Speaker: From Atom to Evangelion:
Japanese Culture and History through Anime and Manga. Invited by Prof.
Thomas Gill, Meiji Gakuin University.
April
25, 2003 Invited
Speaker: Native and Halfie Anthropology
in Japan. Invited by Professor Sonia Ryang. Johns Hopkins University.
Professional
Memberships
American
Anthropological Association Society
of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists
Society
for Medical Anthropology Society
for Linguistic Anthropology
Association
for Asian Studies
[2009.4.20]