Researcher Database

（Last updated : 2024-08-01 12:06:41）　

MATSUSHIMA Aya

Department / Course College of Social Sciences Department of Social Sciences

Title / Position Professor

Other Affiliations
1.	Graduate School of Sociology
2.	Kinugasa Research Organization Creative Media Research Center

Academic background
1.	2008/08 Degree Acquisition	│ University of Iowa Ph.D
2.	1999/07 Degree Acquisition	│ University of New Mexico M.A.
3.	～2008/08	Doctorial Course │ Department of Communication Studies │ University of Iowa │ Completed
4.	～1999/07	Master Course │ Department of Communication and Journalism │ University of New Mexico │ Completed
5.	～1994/03	Department of English │ College of Literature │ Aoyama Gakuin University │ Graduated
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Business career
1.	2020/04/01 ～	Professor │ College of Social Sciences, │ Ritsumeikan University
2.	2017/04/01 ～ 2020/03/31	Associate Professor │ College of Social Sciences, │ Ritsumeikan University
3.	2014/04/01 ～ 2017/03/31	Associate Professor │ Faculty of Foreign Studies Department of English, │ Kumamoto Gakuen University
4.	2006/01 ～ 2014/01	Lecturer │ Department of East Asian Studies, │ New York University
5.	2004/09 ～ 2005/12	Lecturer │ Departmentof Film and Media Studies, │ University of California Santa Barbara
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Committee and society
1.	2020/06 ～ 2024/06/02	Japan Communication Associtaion Secretary General
2.	2019/04	National Communication Association International and Intercultural Communication Division Reviewer
3.	2019/03	National Communication Association Great Ideas for Teaching Students Division Reviewer
4.	2015/06 ～ 2020/05	Japan Communication Association Deputy Secretary General

Research activities
1.		National Communication Association
2.		Japan Communication Association
3.		Association for Asian Studies

Subject of research
1.	East Asian Geopolitics and Japanese National Identity
2.	Memory and National Identity
3.	Visual Rhetoric

Research summary
My research has focused on the relationship among Japan, U.S., and East Asia. I examined representations of Japanese popular culture in the United States (namely films, television programs and graphic novels) that suggest both attraction and repulsion to Japanese-ness. Simultaneously, such representations position Japanese-ness as part of Asian-ness to construct a post-colonial relationship between Japan and the U.S. Such representations work further to foster a cultural hegemony in which Japan’s self-representation satisfies the U.S. perspective of Japan. As a result, Japan is always already positioned outside of the U.S. cultural paradigm, a periphery, from which no threat is posed to the U.S. culture and society. Currently, I have been examining the ways in which national identity is constructed by turning a subject invisible. By attending to Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, for instance, I analyze the formation of dichotomy between the museum visitors and the objects displayed and unpack the rhetoric of space that positions the visitors as the subjects of being seen rather than seeing subjects. The performative role given by the museum places the visitors behind the objects that “retell” the story of the war. However, this very invisibility of the visitors plays a critical role in constructing Japanese national identity as the museum space is organized in such a way as to equate the invisibility and victimhood of Japan. In terms of future research, I am interested in interrogating the relationship between the notion of “race” and nationalism. As the Western understanding of the notion of “race” is insufficient to analyze the complex relationship we currently face in Japan, the need for a new insight into the dynamics is eminent. Analyzing the hate speech discourses and their representations of others observed in Japan, I attempt not only to contribute to a theoretical paradigm of race and nationalism in relation to neoliberalism but also to shed light on the ways in which we can achieve multicultural coexistence both domestically and internationally.

Present specialized field
Area studies, Sociology, Communication Studies (Keyword：Rhetorical Studies, Communication Studies, Culture and Representation)

Books
1.	2014	Children and Cultural Memory in Texts of Childhood ("A Japanese History Textbook and the Construction of World War II Memory" 担当) │ ,pp.67-85

Papers
1.	2017/03	Who is Silenced?: Anti-Korean Wave in Japan and Japanese National Identity │ 海外事情研究 │ 44 (1･2),pp.27-52
2.	2010/11	Book Reviews：Cultural Migrants from Japan: Youth, Media, and Migration in New York and Tokyo. By Fujita Yuiko │ Journal of Asian Studies │ 69 (4),pp.1242-1244

Academic conference presentation
1.	2019/11/14	Media, Social Media, and Representation: Cultural Mechanisms of Image Construction
2.	2018/11/11	The Rhetoric of Ritsumeikan University's Peace Museum: Can A Higher Educational Institution Speak for A Community?
3.	2018/11/10	The Intersection of Racism and Nationalism in Japan: A Case Study on Hate Speech Against Korean Residents in Japan
4.	2018/05/28	IN but OUT of Asia: Japan's Complex Self at the Conjunction of Nationalism and Racism
5.	2016/11/12	Remembering and Enacting the Atomic Bomb Blast at Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum
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Other research achievements
1.	2023/04/30 ～	Global Media and China (Sage Journal) Reviewer