Associate Professor of Anthropology and East Asian Studies +1 203 432-3795 tel (office)
Yale University +1 815 371-4029 fax (personal)
Department of Anthropology
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.
Selected Grants, Awards, and Scholarships
2011 Society for East Asian Anthropology David Plath Media Award for A Japanese Funeral
2011 Yale University Senior Faculty Fellowship
2011 Association for Asian Studies NEAC Short-Term Travel Fellowship
2011 Waseda University / Yale University 125th Anniversary Asakawa Kanichi Fellowship
2010 Best
Short Film Media Award from the Society for Visual Anthropology awarded for
A Japanese Funeral (Manic Films 2010).
2008 John
Whitney Hall Book Prize from the Association for Asian Studies awarded to
Deaf in Japan: Signing and the Politics of Identity (Cornell University
Press 2006).
2007 Yale University Junior Faculty Fellowship.
2006 Journal article ÒResistance and Co-optationÓ 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.
- 2010 Best Short Film Media Award from the Society for
Visual Anthropology
- 2011 David Plath Media Award from the Society for East Asian Anthropology
2007 Bethel: Community and Schizophrenia in Northern Japan. Color NTSC DVD and online streaming. 41 minutes. Distributed by CreateSpace.
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles
2010 The language politics of Japanese Sign Language (Nihon Shuwa). Deaf around the World The Impact of Language. Ed. Gaurav Mathur and Donna Jo Napoli. 316-332. New York: Oxford University Press.
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 Kenkyž Vol 57 (3-4). Tokyo: Tokyo
University Institute for Social Science.]
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)
Book Chapters and Other Journal Articles
2009 障害学とろう者学をつなぐ立場から
障害学研究
2009(5):
52-60
[Connecting
Disability Studies and Deaf Studies. Journal of Disability Studies (Japan) 2009
(5): 52-60. Tokyo: Japanese Society for Disability Studies]
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.
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.
2011 Review
of Afflictions: Culture and Mental Illness in Indonesia [The Bird
Dancer, 40 min.; Family Victim, 38 min.; Shadows and
Illuminations, 35 min.], directed by Robert Lemelson (2010).
American Anthropologist, Vol. 113, No. 4, pp. 655–656.
2008 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 JennawayÕs Sisters
and Lovers: Women and Desire in Bali.
American Ethnologist. Vol.
31, No. 1 (February).
2004c Review of Jennifer RobertsonÕs Takarazuka: Sexual Politics and Popular Culture in Modern Japan. Visual Anthropology 17: 205-207.
1998 Review of Jennifer Terry and Jacqueline UrlaÕs 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 ÒMeeting Malaysia.Ó 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/
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.
Exhibitions and Film Screenings
Nov 18, 2010 USA Premiere: A Japanese Funeral. Society for Visual Anthropology Film and Interactive Media Screenings at the American Anthropological Association, Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA.
Nov 14, 2010 International Premiere: A Japanese Funeral. Globians International Documentary Festival at Stuttgart, Germany.
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 PeopleÕs 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)
March 15, 2010 Discussant. Panel title: A Discourse-Centered Approach to Japanese Culture. Japan Anthropology Workshop (JAWS). University of Texas at Austin.
July 2, 2009 Conference paper. A disability of the soul: schizophrenia, mental illness, and community life in rural Japan. Society for East Asian Anthropology Annual Meeting. Taipei, Taiwan.
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: ÒThese natives can speak for themselves:Ó 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: ItÕs not Welfare if itÕs 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.
Public and Guest Lectures and Presentations (Past 5 Years)
April 12, 2010 Lecture: A Disability of the Soul: Community-based Mental Health Care in Japan. Yale Global Mental Health Program, Department of Psychiatry. Yale University.
Feb 8, 2010 Lecture: Call Girls for Crips: Intersections of disability and sexuality. Diversity Week. Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Sciences.
Nov 13, 2009 Lecture: Deaf in Japan: Signing and the Politics of Identity. Cornell University Disability Group. Cornell University (Ithaca, New York).
Feb 26, 2009 Lecture: Crazy in Japan: An Ethnography of Mental Illness, Schizophrenia and Community. Oberlin College (Oberlin, Ohio).
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.
2011.7 ~ current Associate Professor of Anthropology and East Asian Studies on Term, Yale University, New Haven, CT.
2005.8 ~ 2011.6 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.
Volunteer and Service Positions
2011 SVA Film Festival Czarista and Co-Coordiantor, Society for Visual Anthropology Film and Media Festival.
2009-2011 Elected board member, Society for Visual Anthropology, American Anthropological Association.
2009-2011 Member, Yale University Human Subjects Committee.
2008-2011 Editorial Board, American Anthropologist, American Anthropological Association.
2008-2010 Co-Chair, SOLGA: The Society for Lesbian and Gay Anthropology, American Anthropological Association.
2008-2009 Member, Yale College Course of Study Committee.
2008-2009 Academic Mentor, Yale Mellon-Bouchet Undergraduate Fellowship Program.
2005-2008 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.
Professional Memberships
American Anthropological Association (Life Member)
Society for Medical Anthropology Society for Linguistic Anthropology
Association for Asian Studies Association for Queer Anthropology
Society for Visual Anthropology
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