I'm very pleased to be able to announce that my book Deaf in Japan (Cornell University Press) was awarded the 2008 John Whitney Hall Prize at the Association for Asian Studies 2008 Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.
Below is a photo of me with my wonderful editor, Roger Haydon, of Cornell University Press at the conference.
Note: The AAS website hasn't updated their 2008 award list yet.
New!: You can sign in using your Facebook, Google, OpenID, mixi, Yahoo, MovableType, or other third-party authentication system.
This page contains a single entry by Karen Nakamura published on April 10, 2008 11:21 AM.
Info: ASL Camp for Deaf, Hearing, Kids & Interpreters was the previous entry in this blog.
Meta: Blog upgraded to MT4.1 is the next entry in this blog.
Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| 31 |
From the AAS website:
John Whitney Hall Book Prize 2008
Karen Nakamura: Deaf in Japan: Signing and the Politics of Identity (Cornell University Press, 2006)
Deaf in Japan: Signing and the Politics of Identity by Karen Nakamura introduces readers to the largely unknown world of the marginalized minority of the hearing impaired in Japan. Offering a succinct historical overview and an exploration of the internal friction among the deaf and the inner workings of disability activism, Deaf in Japan draws attention to the great socio-historical changes that have taken place in this area in Japan since the early twentieth century.
Of vital importance as a substantial contribution to the neglected field of disability studies and to the study of social movements in Japan, it is a work of undisputable originality, distinguished by the application of a successful fieldwork method and highly readable, accessible writing. Competent in both JSL (Japanese sign language) and ASL (American sign language), Nakamura embeds actual life stories within her study and in this way succeeds very well in conveying the realities of deaf identity in Japan beyond ideological theorizing.
Relatively concise as it is, this thoughtful study also stimulates a greater awareness of issues of identity formation, ethnicity, and culture in general, and of the intercultural dynamics of discourses that go beyond national borders in the process of globalization. For this reason, Deaf in Japan is equally relevant to an understanding of the problematics of disability elsewhere, thus contributing to the integration of Asian Studies in general academic discourse.
Selection Committee: Boudewijn Walraven, Chair; Rebecca Copeland; Sonia Ryang; Robert Uriu.