Benjamin Lowell ALLEN
Ph.D., 1st Year
Monbukagakusho Research Fellow (University of Tokyo) 2008-2009
Japanese Fine Art, Wartime and Postwar Japanese Japanese History,
Japanese prisoners of the USSR, POW experiences

Dissertation Topic (Proposed):
Kazuki Yasuo and the Reception and Memorialization of the Japanese
Siberian POW Experience

Degrees Held:
M.A., East Asian Languages and Cultures (with distinction), UIUC 2007
B.A., Japanese Language and Literature, University of Florida, 2000

Ryan GLASNOVICH
M.A., 1st Year

Research Interests:
Sports and games in the Edo Period, law enforcement in the city of Edo.

Degree Held:
B.A., History, UIUC

Makiko ISHIZAWA
M.A., 1st year

Research Interests:
Pre-modern Japanese Publishing Industry and Reading Culture; Japanese Bibliography
Degrees Held:
M.S., Library and Information Science, UIUC
B.A., Psychology (with distinction), University of Wisconsin-Madison

Dunja JELESIJEVIC
Ph.D., 3rd Year

Research Interests:
Pre-modern Japanese religion; Buddhism/Shinto relationship; esoteric Buddhism; pre-modern Japanese literature and performing arts; noh

Degrees Held:
M.A., East Asian Languages and Cultures, UIUC
B.A., Japanese Language and Literature, Belgrade University, Serbia

Jung Sun KIM
Ph.D. 2nd Year

Research Interests:
Japanese Linguistics and Pedagogy, Second Language Acquisition

Degrees Held:
M.A., East Asian Languages and Cultures, UIUC
M.A., Division of English as an International Language, UIUC, 2006
B.A., Economics, Sookmyung Women's University, Seoul, 2001

Rika KINOSHITA
M.A., 1st year

Research Interests:
Japanese Language Pedagogy, Second Language Acquisition

Degrees Held:
M.A., Division of English as an International Language, UIUC 2008

Huang-Wen LAI
Ph.D., 1st year

Research Interests:
Modern Japanese Literature, Japanese Colonial Literature and Culture, Taiwanese Literature.
Dissertation Topic:
Japanese Colonial Literature

Degrees Held:
M.A., East Asian Languages and Literatures, University of Massachusetts Amherst
M.A., Japanese Language and Literature, Fu Jen Catholic University, Taiwan
B.A., Japanese, Fu Jen Catholic University, Taiwan

Publications: 
The Turtle Woman? Voices: Multilingual Strategies of Resistance and Assimilation in Taiwan under Japanese Colonial Rule, M.A. thesis, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 2007.
Hiso na, amari ni hiso na jinsei: sakuhin kara miru, jinko no tsubasa ni yoru hisho to tsuiraku (Heroically, too Heroically Tragic Life: the Hover and Tumble of the Artificial Wing; a study of the literature of Akutagawa Ryunosuke), M.A. thesis, Fu Jen Catholic University, 2001.

Rachel Charlow LENZ
Ph.D. 1st Year

Research Interests:
Modern Japanese literature, reading manga as literature, the adaptation of European mythologies for a Japanese audience, premodern Japanese lit., modern drama, Shakespeare in Japanese, translation, and English literature.

Degree Held:
B.A., English, Japanese Language and Literature (with honors), Vassar College
M.A., East Asian Languages and Cultures, UIUC

Publications:
"Visual Visionaries: The Artistic Style and Influence of Manga and Anime," presentation at the Asian Educational Media Service Anime Workshop, at Champaign Public Library, Champaign, Illinois, April 29, 2009.

?em>Densha Otoko: a review,?Asian Educational Media Service Newsletter, forthcoming winter 2008/early 2009.

Rebecca NICKERSON
Ph.D. Candidate
School of Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics Dissertation Completion Fellow, 2009-2010
Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities (IPRH) Fellow 2008-2009
Fulbright-Hays Fellow (University of Tokyo) 2007-2008

Research Interests:
Modern Japanese History, Gender and Colonialism, Feminist History, Imperial History, Body Theory

Dissertation Title:
Imperial Designs: Fashion, Cosmetics, and Physical Culture in Japan, 1931-1949

Degrees Held:
M.A., East Asian Languages and Cultures, UIUC, 2003
B.A., Sociology/Anthropology, Colgate University, 1998
Selected Publications and Presentations:

Publications:

Film Review:
"Women in Japan: Memories of the Past, Dreams for the Future." Asian Educational Media Service News and Reviews 6(3) (Fall 2003): 3.

Selected Presentations:

"Tanaka Chiyo, 'Ethnic Costumes,' and Fashion in Wartime Japan," paper presented at the Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs, St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota, October 10-12, 2008.

"Living the 'Double Life': Women, Fashion, and Colonial Modernity in Wartime Japan," Asian Studies Japan Conference, Rikkyo University, Tokyo, June 22, 2008.

"Imperial Makeover: Examining Shiseido's shashi as Historical Resource," invited paper presentation as part of the Japanese Company Histories (shashi) Group, Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, April 3-6, 2008, Atlanta, Georgia.

"Embodying Empire: Intersections of Gender and Race in Imperial Japan," Eighth Annual Graduate Symposium on Gender and Women's History, UIUC, March 8-10, 2007.

"Exercising Agency: Female Bodies and Physical Education in Imperial Japan," paper presented at the American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, January 4-7, 2007.
"Rooting for the Home Team: Nationalism, Regionalism, and International Sport in Asia," paper presented at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, San Jose, California, November 15-19, 2006.

"Flexible Bodies, National Bodies: Global Sport and the Cultural Nation in East Asia," paper presented at the Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs, Michigan State University, Lansing, Michigan, September 23-25, 2005.

"Training Imperial Bodies: Gender and Physical Education in Modern Japan," paper presented at the Graduate Student Conference on East Asia, Columbia University, New York, February 12, 2005.
"Baseball as a Medium of Cultural Identity in Modern Japan," paper presented at the Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs, Wittenburg University, Springfield, Ohio, September 27-29, 2002.

Yeon Joo PARK
Ph.D. Candidate

Research Interests:
Religions in medieval Japan, Shinto, Buddhism, Shamanistic rituals and practices, medieval Buddhist literature

Degrees Held:
M.A., Social Sciences, University of Chicago
B.A., History, Dongguk University, Seoul

Dissertation Title (proposed):
The Invention of the Kami Worship Tradition: Buddhist Construction of Kami-Buddha Discourse in Early Medieval Japan

Publications and Presentations:
Publication:
The Sacred Outcast: The Symbol of Alienated Divinity in Japanese Mythology and Its Historical Reflection (A Critical Application of Georges Dumezil's Trifunction System Theory to Japanese Mythology), M.A. thesis, University of Chicago, 2003.

Presentations:
"Buddhist Construction of Kami-Buddha Discourse in Early Medieval Japan: Thinking through the Symbolism of Kami in Keiranshuyoshu" paper to be presented at the Rethinking the Boundaries Between Religion and Culture in Pre-modern Japan symposium at UIUC, March 17-19, 2010.

"Taming Dragons: The Buddhist Mythmaking of Sacred Violence in the Konjaku monogatarishu" paper presented at the 58th Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs, at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, October 16-18, 2009.

"Sacred Violence: Dragon Characters in Medieval Japanese Buddhist Tales," paper presented at the Second Annual Religious Studies Student Symposium, UIUC, April 20, 2009.

"Hermaphrodite Shaman: Understanding Female-Male Shaman Combination in Japanese Shamanism," paper presented at the Eighth Annual Graduate Symposium on Women's and Gender History, UIUC, March 8-10, 2007; and at the Third Annual Loyola University Chicago History Graduate Student Conference, Chicago, April 28, 2007.

Kevin TAYLOR
M.A., 2nd year

Research Interests:
Medieval Japanese Buddhism; Kyoto School Philosophy; Buddhist Pedagogy; American Pragmatism in Cross-Cultural studies; Transmission of Buddhist Philosophy; Concepts of Personhood in the Religious Tradition; Nature, Environmental Ethics and Factory Farms; Ecology in Japan views on nature and ecology in Japanese Buddhist thought and how those thoughts affect policy in Japan from the individual to the global realm

Degrees Held:
M.A., Philosophy, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
B.A., Philosophy, Eastern Illinois University

Other Qualifications:
Certified instructor of shinkendo

Publications and Presentations:
Publications:
"Reflections of Nature: A Confucian Critique of China's Environmental Policies," Kinesis: A Graduate Journal in Philosophy, 35(2)
(Southern Illinois University, 2009): 37-48.

How the Buddha Taught: Exploring Pedagogical Aspects of the Buddha's Teaching, M.A. thesis, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, 2009.

Presentations:
"Reflections of Nature: A Confucian Critique of China's Environmental Policies," paper presented at the 11th annual Building Bridges Conference: Cross-Cultural Dialogue on Ethics at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, November 15, 2008.

"Bushido: Concepts of Personhood in Japanese Warrior Philosophy,"  presented as part of a panel on Asian Philosophy and Religion at SIUC for Asian Heritage Month, April 12, 2007.

Cindi TEXTOR
M.A., 2nd year

Research Interests:
Modern Japanese Literature, Modern Korean Literature, Diaspora, Translation
Degrees Held:
B.A., East Asian Studies, Princeton University

Presentations:
"Resistance Before and After: Reexamining Korean Films of the Colonial Period," paper presented at the 58th Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs, at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, October 16-18, 2009.

"Haunted by Words: Language and Identity in Kim Sok-Bom's Mandogi Yurei Kitan," paper presented at the Eighteenth Annual Columbia University Graduate Student Conference on East Asia, at Columbia University, New York, New York, February 6-7, 2009; and at the Twelfth Annual Harvard East Asia Society Graduate Student Conference, at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, February 27-March 1, 2009.