Tuesday, March 16, 2010

In Japan today more than ever before, women are making life-changing decisions—whether or not to marry, work outside the home, have children, or stay home with their children. Social, economic, and urban challenges are transforming the traditional patterns of Japanese households. The changing dynamic between men and women, wives and husbands is creating new patterns in family relationships across Japan. Our panel of Japan scholars—Dr. Susan D. Holloway and Dr. Allison Alexy—will explore changing roles and relationships in Japan and the way Japanese society is reacting to these changes.

Dr. Susan D. Holloway is an Adjunct Professor in UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education Department. Dr. Holloway is interested in families and schooling in the United States and Japan. She was a Spencer Fellow of the National Academy of Education and a Fulbright Research Scholar in Kobe, Japan. Her most recent book, Women and Family in Contemporary Japan, is to be published by Cambridge University Press in 2010. The book focuses on women’s experience of parenting in Japan, exploring the ways in which current social conditions shape women’s perceptions of their role and support—or undermine—their sense of competence.

Light hors d’oeuvres will be served prior to the discussion; no host bar.

Dr. Allison Alexy is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. She is a cultural anthropologist focusing on contemporary Japan, with interest in ideals and experiences of family lives, constructions of intimacy, and romantic failures. Dr. Alexy is co-editor of the forthcoming Home and Family in Japan: Continuity and Transformation. Her book manuscript, “Intimate Separations: Divorce and its Reverberations in Contemporary Japan,” considers divorce as an idea and lived reality in Japan. Her newer research considers the intersections of intimacy and citizenship in transnational relationships, particularly international child custody disputes.

Location:
Omni San Francisco Hotel
500 California Street
Union Square Room
San Francisco, CA
Map

Time:
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
6:00 pm Registration & Reception
6:30 pm Program

Cost:
Free for Japan Society members, members of cosponsoring organizations, and students with valid ID
$5 General Admission

The Japan Society kindly thanks Union Bank for their generous support for this event. This program is co-sponsored by the USF Center for the Pacific Rim.

This is a lecture event hosted by the Japan Society of Northern California. Guest passes issued by the Japan Society will be accepted. Advanced registration is strongly recommended. The deadline to RSVP for this event is Thursday, March 11, 2010; refunds will not be made after this date.