Stockholm | Manga, Comics and Japan - international conference

Stockholm University hosts an international academic conference (6-8 September) on 'Manga, Comics and Japan'.

In 2018 Sweden and Japan celebrate the 150th anniversary of diplomatic relations. This occasion provides an exceptional opportunity to reconceptualize the study of Japanese culture in a way which meets the requirements of an increasingly networked and digitalized world. Our conference seeks to do that with a Media Studies approach that entwines the technological, social and aesthetic, and acknowledges the importance of everyday practices by non-elite actors. The objective is to revisit the potential and limitations of a privileged academic focus on “area,” in the sense of geopolitics (Japan) as well as subject matter (comics/manga), and to place greater emphasis on mediation in the broadest sense, including ways of how to operate Japan-related expertise as contemporary humanities-based research.

The conference will focus on three aspects:
(1) “Japan as Mangaesque,” related to the highly mediatized nature of contemporary Japanese culture, i.e. its media ecology, highlighting global and local mediations rather than national branding;
(2) “Manga Pedagogy,” applying the mediatic perspective to methodologies of Manga Studies within university programs and academic scholarship; and
(3) “Manga as Comics,” foregrounding media specifity in relation to comics and thereby extending the scope of Manga Studies beyond that of a primarily Japan-related field.

The conference language is English.

Attendance is free, but pre-registration is required for non-speakers. Please send an email with the heading “Manga conference, pre-registration” to either jberndt@su.seor ida.kirkegaard@su.se by 20 August 2018.