2019/20 John Howes Lecture in Japanese Studies
With Guest Speaker Professor James E. Ketelaar
(Professor in the Departments of History and East Asian Languages & Civilizations, and Divinity School, University of Chicago)
What Aborigines Sang: Aynu, Yukar and Some Problems in Japanese Studies
Thank you to everyone who attended! The recording can be viewed via this link here and see some photos from the evening here. (Videographer: Taher Hashemi and Photographer: Colby Brochu)
Monday, February 10, 2020
6:30pm Lecture
7:30pm Reception with light refreshments
Location:
Asian Centre Auditorium, 1871 West Mall, Vancouver
Free & open to the public.
Lecture abstract:
Professor Ketelaar will draw on his most recent research into the concepts of the barbarian and the frontier in the construction of Japanese national identity and history; coupled with this he will examine something of the roles and meanings of emotion in the construction of the historical imagination in Japan. All of which will be used in a critical approach to the area known as Japan Studies.
About the speaker:
Professor James E. Ketelaar has lived in Japan off and on for fifteen of the last thirty-five years, mostly in Kyoto, but also in Tokyo, Hokkaidô (mostly during the summer), and Kyûshû (mostly during the winter). He did some of his undergraduate work at Waseda University and some of his graduate and dissertation work at Kyoto University.
He has taught in Japan as a study-trip leader for the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Chicago Alumni Association. He was an undergraduate educator for the Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies (KCJS) on three separate occasions, and in 2012, he led a group of University of Chicago undergraduates to Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka after a month studying Japanese history and culture with them at the university’s Center in Beijing.
Professor Ketelaar was a member of the KCJS Governing Board for fifteen years and currently serves as the chair of the Executive Committee and the Governing Board of the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies (IUC) based in Yokohama, Japan.
About the John Howes Lecture in Japanese Studies:
John Howes was a founding member of UBC’s Department of Asian Studies, which he joined in 1961 after earning his doctorate from Columbia University. During his 30 years of active teaching and research, Professor Howes was at the forefront of Canada-Japan cultural, educational and people-to-people relations and inspired countless young Canadians to dedicate their careers and lives to the Canada-Japan relationship in one way or another. In 2012, a number of UBC faculty, staff, and Professor Howes’ devoted former students came together to launch an endowment in his honour. The fund supports the John Howes Lecture in Japanese Studies, an annual public lecture for prominent scholars from around the world to speak to the university community and alumni on topics in Japanese Studies with a focus on Humanities. Dr. Howes passed away peacefully on February 4th, 2017, at the age of 92.
