Representations of the Feminine in Japanese Literary and Popular Culture Grant uri icon

abstract

  • The proposal requests funding of $5,000.00 from the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership in support of a faculty development workshop for middle and high school social studies teachers in the Pitt Country, NC area. The funds will cover honoraria for 12 middle and high school social studies teachers who will be participating in the workshop, as well as an honorarium and expenses for the featured speaker, Dr. Jan Bardsley, a specialist in Japanese feminism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Pitt County teachers will also receive teaching materials purchased through the grant. The objective of this proposal is to fund a faculty development workshop, featuring Dr. Jan Bardsley of UNC-Chapel Hill, along with a multidisciplinary team of ECU faculty, for 12 Pitt County, NC middle and high school social studies teachers. The objective of the workshop is to enrich the teachers' understanding of women in Japanese history and culture. The viewing of a documentary film, Women in Japan: Memories of the Past, Dreams of the Future (2002), produced by Dr. Bardsley, will be preceded by an introductory lecture, followed by a second lecture, "Representations of the Feminine in Japanese Literary and Popular Culture," by Dr. Bardsley. Discussion featuring the ECU faculty in dialogue with Pitt middle and high school social studies teachers will follow. Methodologically, the project involves an interpretive examination of documentary film, Women in Japan, produced by Dr. Jan Bardsley, and discussion of a follow-up lecture, "Representations of the Feminine in Japanese Literary and Popular Culture." ECU faculty representing an array of disciplines, including history, classics, foreign languages, sociology, communications, and education, will offer their insights on the documentary, especially as relevant to understandings of women in Japanese history and culture. The workshop forum is well-suited to the interpretive project proposed. Given the increasing importance of women's studies in the U.S., and in Japanese studies as well, the workshop should be especially valuable to middle and high school teachers of social studies seeking a more appealing pedagogical strategy for communicating the sociological essentials of Japanese history and culture.

date/time interval

  • August 2006 - November 2006