Academic interests
I am a research fellow working on the Religious Festivals in Asia: Power, Aspirations, and Play project.
Title of My Project & Summary:
Mountain Worship and Revitalization: the Effects of Depopulation on Preserving Festivals in Rural Japan
This project is a multi-site case study of 3 religious festivals representative of the mountain worship practices of Japan’s Akita prefecture. The 3 festivals are Niida village’s Hiburi Kamakura festival, Yamaya village’s Bangaku festival, and Miyoshi shrine’s Bonden-sai. These festivals are performed by residents of villages around the Taiheizan mountain range. Severe depopulation in the region, however, is placing these festivals at high-risk of disappearing in the near future unless more robust steps to revitalize the region are not taken.
Prior revitalization efforts made by the local government provided some short-term economic relief and infrastructural improvements, but they fall short of adequately addressing long term issues regarding cultural preservation and local identity. Christopher Ray’s culture economy theory may provide long term solutions to revitalizing the region and rescuing these communities and their festivals, but commodifying local culture can bring unintended, negative consequences.
The goals of this research are to:
・add to the understanding of Akita’s mountain-worship tradition and its role in the greater network of Japanese mountain worship;
・examine the effects of population decline on rural communities’ intangible folk religious traditions; and
・learn the extent to which residents of these shrinking communities have changed or altered the ways that they currently interact with their local festivals and each other.
Background
2022–present University of Oslo
Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages (Japan Studies)—Doctoral Research Fellow
2023–2024 Tohoku University, Japan
Graduate School of Arts and Letters, Faculty of Arts and Letters—Research Student (October 2023–April 2024)
2017 Akita University, Japan
promoted to Lecturer (June 2017–September 2022)
2012 Akita University, Japan
Center for Promotion of Educational Research and Affairs—Assistant Professor
Autonomous Language Learning Rooms (ALL Rooms)—Co-Director
Akita City, Akita, Japan (June 2012–2017)
2009 Rausu-chō Board of Education
Assistant Language Teacher (through The JET Programme)
Rausu, Hokkaidō, Japan (August 2009–June 2012)
2004 Monsignor Bonner High School
English & Language Arts Department Faculty
Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, USA (September 2004–July 2006)
EDUCATION
University of Colorado at Boulder
M.A., Asian Languages & Civilizations (Japanese Language & Literature)
Thesis title: “Dramatic Accounts of Saitō Musashibō Benkei from Three Kōwakamai: Shikoku-ochi, Togashi, and Oi-sagashi”
Boulder, Colorado
Susquehanna University
B.A., English
Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania
Regent’s College
Study Abroad
London, UK
Latest Research Activities
2024
March 2024
Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT), Akita Chapter Guest Speaker
Akita, Japan
presented a paper titled "Language in the Fieldsite: Producing Qualitative Research Data from Local Poetry"
2023
December 2023
Anthropology of Japan in Japan (AJJ) Presenter
Meiji Gakuin University, Tokyo
presented a paper titled "Yamaya Bangaku: a Case Study in Rural and Cultural Identity (Notes from the Field)"
November 2023
Tohoku University, Graduate School of Arts and Letters Guest Speaker
Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
presented a paper titled "Vanishing Shinto Temporalities in Underpopulated Areas"
August 2023
Lifetimes Conference Presenter
University of Oslo, Norway
presented a paper titled "Vanishing Temporalities in Rural Japan"
European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS) PhD Workshop Fellow
KU Leuven, Belgium
European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS) 2023 Conference Presenter
University of Ghent, Belgium
presented a paper titled "Mountain Worship & Resilience: Preserving Religious Festivals in Rural Japan" as part of the panel on Religion and Religious Thought titled "Matsuri in depopulating Japan: what is keeping so many of them alive?"
June 2023
Consuming Asia NNC 2023 PhD Workshop Fellow
University of Bergen
presented a paper on the topic "Is population decline really a “crisis,” and what does it mean for Japan?"
Consuming Asia NNC 2023 Presenter
University of Bergen, Norway
presented a paper on the topic "Japan's Population Crisis"