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

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