Exploring Popular Culture in Japan

An Assistant Professor of Japanese at Kalamazoo College, Dr. Brian White teaches courses on Japanese language, literature, and popular culture. In his research, he has examined the history of science fiction in Japan, asking how authors in the 1960s used the fledgling genre as a tool to navigate the complicated political conditions of the Cold War. His current research on Japanese analog games examines how board games and tabletop role-playing games have shaped the genre of high fantasy in Japan and thus have served as a crucial, but often overlooked, influence on the much larger industries of video games and anime, from Final Fantasy to isekai. Guiding all of these concerns is an abiding interest in the ways that our popular media help us articulate — and even create — our identities on the personal, national, and trans-national levels.

Admission to the KIA’s September 23 screening of Mirai is free for all who attend this talk! For details, check in at the front desk when you arrive for the talk.