Assistant Professor of Anthropology and East Asian Studies
Department of Anthropology
Yale University
10 Sachem Street
New Haven CT 06520-8277

Office Location: 10 Sachem Street Room 213
Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 2:30 - 4:00 and by appt.

Office Tel: 203-432-3795
Office Fax: 203-432-3669

E-mail: karen.nakamura @ yale. edu

Introduction: I am a cultural and visual anthropologist whose research focuses on disability and minority social movements in contemporary Japan. My ethnography about sign language, identity, and deaf social movements was published by Cornell University Press in 2006. More recently, I have been engaged in a new project on the comparative politics of severe physical and psychiatric disabilities in the United States and Japan. While my main focus is disabilities and minorities, I also work on issues surrounding gender and sexuality.

Self-identity: I was born in Indonesia and grew up in Australia, Japan, and the United States. However, I'm a bit uncomfortable with the term "Asian-American" as I'm not quite Asian and not really American, but Returnee -Japanese -Born-Indonesian - Bred-Australian- Quasi-American is a mouthful most people don't want to handle.

Research interests: Minority social movements and identity politics, disability, and gender and sexuality.

Fellowships and Awards: I was on a Yale Junior Faculty Fellowship (2007-2008) to conduct research on psychiatric and physical disabilities in Japan. I was previously granted an Abe Fellowship from the Social Science Research Council and Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership to pursue my research on comparative disability politics in Japan and the United States during the 2004-2005 academic year. A little while back, one of my journal articles won the 2003 ISS/Oxford University Press Prize for Modern Japanese Studies. It was later selected to be one of Oxford University Press' 100 seminal papers celebrating their centennial of academic publishing. More recently, my monograph Deaf in Japan was awarded the 2008 John Whitney Hall Book Prize by the Association for Asian Studies.

National Service: I am on the editorial board of the American Anthropologist and was elected co-chair of the Society for Lesbian and Gay Anthropology (SOLGA). I am also on the Board for the Society for Visual Anthropology (2009-2012) and have previously served for the AAA on the Long Range Planning Committee, AAA Minority Issues in Anthropology Commission (2005.11-2008.11), as well as a liaison to the Committee on Ethics. If you have any thoughts or concerns relating to minority issues within the AAA, please do not hesitate to contact me by e-mail or telephone.

Prospective Graduate Students: Students interested in pursuing a Ph.D. in Anthropology and/or Japan Studies at Yale University should feel free to contact me either by e-mail or telephone. The photograph to the right is the current and past cohorts of Japan anthropologists at Yale (and some guests). As you can see, we have quite a number of doctoral students studying Japan anthropology, which makes for a very vibrant and exciting program.

My senior Japan colleague at Yale, Professor William Kelly, has an extensive description of what the Yale anthropology department is looking for in applicants, prospective doctoral students are strongly advised to read this as our program is quite selective. I've also posted blog entries about graduate programs in Japan Anthropology and doctoral/MA programs in Deaf Studies and Disability Studies.

Affiliated Campus Programs: Yale Council on East Asian Studies; Yale Film Studies; and Yale Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

Curriculum Vitae: PDF - HTML (updated 2009.4.19)

Teaching Philosophy: A short piece on my philosophy of teaching and mentoring. Also see the "careers" section of my blog.

Public Anthropology: Please see this page regarding interviews and public speaking.

Monographs and Edited Volumes

   2006        Deaf in Japan: Signing and the Politics of Identity.
                Simultaneous paperback and hardcover versions.
                [Cornell University Press; Library of Congress (LoC) Record; Order this book (Amazon or Barnes & Noble)]
                - Winner of the 2008 AAS John Whitney Hall Book Prize

 
   2003        Many Ways to be Deaf: International Variation in Deaf Communities. 
                Ed. Leila Monaghan, Constanze Schmaling, Karen Nakamura, and Graham Turner.
                Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press. 
                [Gallaudet University Press; Order this book (Amazon or Barnes & Noble)]

Ethnographic Films 2010 A Japanese Funeral. Japanese subtitled in English. 14 min. Color Region 0 NTSC DVD. Distributed by Amazon.com. [Official web site]
2007 Bethel: Community and Schizophrenia in Northern Japan. Japanese subtitled in English. Japanese language subtitles available. 41 min. Color Region 0 NTSC DVD. Distributed by Amazon.com. [Official web site; IMDb entry]

Journal Articles, Reviews, and Other Academic Publications

    2009　　　　　Review of Amy Borovoy’s The Too-Good Wife: Alcohol, Codependency, and the Politics of Nurturance in Postwar Japan (UC Press 2005).
                Medical Anthropology Quarterly. Volume 23, No. 2: 184-185.
                [Read online; Website for Medical Anthropology Quarterly ]
                
    2009　　　　　Disability, Destitution, and Disaster: Surviving the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake in Japan. 
                Human Organization. Volume 68 Issue 1 (Spring): 73-81.
                [Read online; Website for Human Organization ]
                
    2008　　　　　Film 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.
                [Read online; Access via AEMS]
    2008　　　　　A Case against Giving Informants Cameras and Coming Back Weeks Later (Knowledge Exchange). 
                Anthropology News. Vol. 49, No. 2: 20. Washington, D.C.: American Anthropological Association.
                [Read online; Access via Anthrosource]

    2007       "The Chrysanthemum and the Queer: Ethnographic and Historical Perspectives on Sexuality in Japan" (review essay)
                Journal of Homosexuality. Volume 52 Issue 3/4: 267-281.
                [Subscribe to Journal of Homosexuality]

    2006       "Creating and Contesting Signs in Contemporary Japan: Language Ideologies, Identity and Community in Flux."
                Sign Language Studies 7:1 (Fall), pp. 11-29.   Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press.
                [Read abstract; Subscribe to Sign Language Studies]

    2006        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 the Japanese Federation and the Deaf and Political Power.  
                Shakai Kagaku Kenkyû Vol 57 (3-4). Tokyo: Tokyo University Institute for Social Science.]
				
    2006        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
                [About Journal of Japanese Studies; About the book (MIT Press); Order the book (Amazon)]

    2006        Two New Ogawa Shinsuke Films (review).
                Visual Anthropology Volume 19 Issue 3-4: 391-392.
                [About Visual Anthropology (online contents)]

    2006        Review of Jennifer Robertson, ed. A Companion to the Anthropology of Japan.
                Pacific Affairs. Vol. 79, No. 1 (Spring): 129-130.
                [About Pacific Affairs; Table of Contents]

    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.
                [Read online; Access via Anthrosource]

    2004        Review of Keiko Hirata's Civil Society in Japan. 
                Social Science Japan Journal. Vol. 7, No. 2 (October): 318-20.  Oxford: Oxford University Press.
                [Download PDF from Oxford UP; Subscribe to SSJJ; Order the book (Amazon)]
 
    2004        Review of Megan Jennaway's Sisters and Lovers: Women and Desire in Bali. 
                American Ethnologist. Vol. 31, No 1 (February).
                [Read the review online (HTML); Subscribe (American Ethnologist); Order the book (Amazon)]

    2004        Review of Jennifer Robertson's Takarazuka: Sexual Politics and Popular Culture in Modern Japan
                Visual Anthropology Vol. 17, No. 2: 205-207. New York: Taylor and Francis
                [Download PDF; Subscribe (Visual Anthropology); About the book (UC Press)]

    2003       "U-Turns, 'Deaf Shock,' and the Hard-Of-Hearing: Japanese Deaf Identities at the Borderlands" 
                In Many Ways to be Deaf: International Linguistic and Sociocultural Variation. 
                Ed. Leila Monaghan, Constanze Schmaling, Karen Nakamura, and Graham Turner. 
                pp. 211-229. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.  
                [View Page 1; Gallaudet University Press; Order this book (Amazon)]

    2003       "Female masculinity and fantasy spaces: transcending genders in the Takarazuka theatre." 
                With Hisako Matsuo (co-author). In Men and Masculinities in Modern Japan: Dislocating the Salaryman Doxa. 
                Edited by James Roberson and Nobue Suzuki. 59-76. New York: Routledge.
                [View Page 1; Routledge Press; Order this book (Amazon)]

    2002       "Resistance and Co-optation: the Japanese Federation of the Deaf and its Relations with State Power." 
                Social Science Japan Journal. Vol. 5, No. 1 (April), pp 17-35.  Oxford: Oxford University Press.
                [View Page 1; Download PDF from Oxford UP; Subscribe to SSJJ]
                  - Winner of the 2003 ISS/Oxford Prize for Modern Japanese Studies
                  - Selected as one of the 100 seminal papers from Oxford Journals (Oxford University Press Centennial)

    2002       "Deafness, Ethnicity, and Minority Politics in Modern Malaysia"
                Macalester International Volume 12 (Autumn): 193-202. St. Paul: Macalester College. 

    1999        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.]
                [View Page 1; Subscribe to SLCS (Japanese)]

    1999        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.]

    1998        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. 27 (April): 51-58. 1998. 
                Tokyo: Japanese Institute for Sign Language Studies.]
                [View Page 1; Subscribe to SLCS (Japanese)]

    1998       "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. Educators' Reference Collection.
                Westport, CT: The Greenwood Press. 
                [View Page 1; Order this book (Amazon)]

    1997       "Narrating Ourselves: Duped or duplicitous?" 
                In Gender Blending. Bonnie Bullough, Vern Bullough, and James Elias, eds. pp 74-86.
                Buffalo: Prometheus Press. 
                [View Page 1; Order this book (Amazon)]

Forthcoming Academic Publications

    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 (working title). 
                Ed. Patricia Steinhoff.  Chapter manuscript completed. Book manuscript to be submitted to 
                University of Michigan Center for Japanese Studies.
 

Other Publications

    2002        Eight photographs in "Meeting Malaysia." Text by Jan Shaw-Flamm. 
                Macalester Today (Summer): 22-29.
                
    2002        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.] 

    2002       "Morals, Sexuality, and Fieldwork." Ethical Currents. 
                Anthropology News. Vol. 43, No. 3 (March): 24. 
                Washington, D.C.: American Anthropological Association. 
                [View Article (GIF); Subscribe (AAA)]

    2002       "Helpful or Harmful: How Innovative Communication Technology Affects
                Survivors of Intimate Violence." By Ann L. Kranz with Karen Nakamura.
                Minneapolis, MN: Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse.
                [View online: http://www.mincava.umn.edu]

If you see nonsense characters in the bibliography above, it is because you are using a web browswer without Japanese character support (UTF-8).