The NEH Summer Institute titled “Tokyo: High City and Low City” is a four-week worskhop designed to lead participants in an in-depth humanistic exploration of the literary, religious, and philosophical movements that have visibly—and invisibly—contributed to the construction of modern Japan. By providing a platform in each session for a focused yet flexible investigation into the markers of tradition and modernity in Japan’s capital city, the organizers will infuse college teachers with new critical knowledge of diverse local and global perspectives on Japanese identity.
The Co-Directors are Dr. Steven Heine, Professor of Religious Studies and History & Director of Asian Studies (Author of Sacred High City, Sacred Low City) and Dr. Hitomi Yoshio, Assistant Professor of Japanese Literature and Culture. Both are active scholars in cultural historical studies of Japan in global and comparative perspectives. The worskhop will also include outstanding guest speakers, Japanese films, and on-site visits to museums.
The Summer Institute will be held in the ultramodern campus of Florida International University located in the dynamic city-scape of Miami, near to such sites at the Everglades, Key West, Little Havana, South Beach, Orlando, and the prestigious Morikami Museum & Japanese Garden.
Participants will sharpen analytical skills and engage in interactive Socratic discussion of popular/peripheral and official/elite narratives of development, cultural character, and modernity—particularly as these relate to an Asian civilization creating ways to at once integrate and differentiate itself in a Western-dominated world. The Institute is meant to inspire new thought on what it means to understand world civilizations from diverse geo-cultural perspectives. It also aims to bolster the enrichment of course syllabi and professional research by injecting and inspiring an understanding of the interplay between traditional and modern, and global and local factors in the construction, deconstruction, and transformation of one city representing the multidimensional collective identity of Japan.
Now Receiving Applications: Deadline March 1, 2016
Includes: Free Tuition and $3,300 Stipend to defray housing and transportation expenses.
For questions, please contact us via email at asian@fiu.edu or by phone at 305-348-1914.
Website: http://asian.fiu.edu/neh
For questions, please contact the organizers via email at asian@fiu.edu or by phone at 305-348-1914.