After the success of the first Anime and Manga Studies Symposium at the 2011 Anime Expo, it was clear that the idea of academic presentations included in the program of a major American anime convention was something that fans were ready to welcome. So, in the spring of 2012, I began planning to repeat the Symposium at AX 2012, and when the convention opened its doors, was able to welcome a new group of scholars, representing institutions from around the U.S., as well as two European schools, to the Symposium.
AX 2012 Anime and Manga Studies Symposium – Schedule
Friday, June 29
Keynote Address: Jeffrey Dym (Professor, History, California State University, Sacramento)
Adventures in teaching ‘The History of Manga’
The Cutting Edge of Anime/Manga Studies
- “I want to be a Hero of Justice!”: Gen Urobuchi and the failed hero
– Andrew John Smith (Indiana University of Pennsylvania) - “All cities are destined to doom”: Apocalyptic destruction of Tokyo as representation of resilience
– Shiro Yoshioka (Newcastle University) - The state as a serial killer: Death in the name of prosperity and the necropolitics of citizenship in Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit
– Bo Luengsuraswat
Saturday, June 30
Special Guest Presentation: Northrop Davis (University of South Carolina)
- WeMakeManga.com – Education in art and creative writing using styles and technologies from Japanese sequential art
Building Bridges through Individual Texts
- Remixing history: The semiotics of race and nationality in Samurai Champloo
– Laurel Foote-Hudson ((University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) - Alienated from her emotions: Conveying interaction between character psychology and the science fictional in 7 Billion Needles
– Carl Li (Leiden University)
Sunday, July 1
What do anime fans do, why and how?
- Even a monkey can understand fan activism: Political speech, artistic expression, and a public for the Japanese dojin community
– Alexander Leavitt (University of Southern California
– Andrea Horbinski (University of California, Berkeley) - Artifacts of sound: Sound effects and their impact on fan and genre community
– Evan Jones
Supporting and expanding anime and manga studies
- “Save me!”: Practices of manga collection preservation
– Hannah Li (University of California, Los Angeles) - Young adult literature in the manga world: Inspecting the adaptations
– Ashley Poston