Ayako Kano

Research Interests:

My research focuses on the intersection of gender, performance, and politics, as well as on Japanese cultural history of the late 19th to early 20th century. My first book focused on the first generation of actresses in modern Japanese theater. I am currently writing a book about Japanese feminist debates from the 1890s to present. Future projects include a cross-cultural analysis of the medieval Japanese noh theater, as well as a book on film actresses and female spectatorship.

Selected Publications:

Acting Like a Woman in Modern Japan: Theater, Gender, and Nationalism (New York: Palgrave, 2001).

“Towards a Critique of Transhistorical Femininity,” Gendering Modern Japanese History, ed.Barbara Molony and Kathleeen Uno (Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, Harvard University Press, 2005): pp. 520-554.

“Women? Art? Gender? Chino Kaori and the Feminist Art History Debates,” in Review of Japanese Culture and Society, vol. 15 (December 2003): pp. 25-38.

“Visuality and Gender in Modern Japanese Theater: Looking at Salome,” in Japan Forum, special issue on modern Japanese visual culture, vol. 11 no. 1 (1999): pp. 43-55.

“Japanese Theater and Imperialism: Romance and Resistance,” in U.S.-Japan Women’s Journal, English version, no. 12 (1997): pp. 17-47.

“Nihon no 1970nendai-90nendai feminizumu”[Japanese feminism in the 1970s-1990s], Feminizumu no meicho 50 [Fifty feminist masterpieces], ed. Ehara Yumiko and Kanai Yoshiko (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 2002): pp. 501-518.

“Nihon Feminizumu Ronsoshi 1: Bosei to Sekushuariti” [Japanese feminist debates 1: motherhood and sexuality], in Wadomappu Feminizumu [Wordmap feminism], ed. Ehara Yumiko and Kanai Yoshiko (Tokyo: Shinyosha, 1997): pp. 196-221.

Affiliations:

Faculty Advisory Board for Women's Studies Program; Theater Arts Program.
Graduate Groups in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory; Folklore and Folklife; History.

Prizes/Awards/Fellowships:

Course Development Grant, Center for East Asian Studies, University of Pennsylvania, 2005.
Research Foundation Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania, 1998-1999.
School of Arts and Sciences Faculty Research Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania, 1998-99.
Center for East Asian Studies Faculty Research Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania, 1998.
Trustees Council of Penn Women Research Grant, University of Pennsylvania, 1997.
Mellon Dissertation Grant, Cornell University, 1994.
Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Fellowship, Cornell University, 1990-1994.
A. D. White Fellowship, Cornell University, 1989-1991.

Courses:

Japanese Theater; Modern Japanese Literature; Contemporary Japanese Literature; Literary Theory and Criticism in Japan; Graduate Seminar on Modern Japanese Literature and Culture; Gender and Sexuality in Japan; Gender and Sexuality in East Asia; Advanced Japanese; Readings in Modern Japanese.

Fall 2008
Office Hours

TBA

Faculty

Location & Directions

Center for East Asian Studies

Chinese Language Program

Japanese Language Program

Penn Language Center

Van Pelt Library