Dr. Christopher T. Keaveney (PhD, Japanese and Comparative Literature 2000) reports that he will be promoted to Professor with Tenure at Rikkyo University in Tokyo from April 2024. Dr. Keaveney has published widely on Sino-Japanese cultural relations as well as on modern and contemporary Japanese literature and culture. His most recent publication, Western Rock Artists, Madame Butterfly, and the Allure of Japan: Dancing in an Eastern Dream (2020), uses the framework of Edward Said’s Orientalism to examine how Western rock and pop artists—particularly during the age of album rock from the 1970s through the 1990s—perpetuated long-held stereotypes of Japan in their direct encounters with the country and in songs and music videos with Japanese content. Prior to moving to Tokyo, Dr. Keaveney was Professor of Japanese and East Asian Studies in the Global Languages and Cultures Program at Linfield University in Oregon.
Dr. Lee Friederich (PhD, Japanese and Comparative Literature, 2009) has been promoted to professor at Akita International University. Dr. Friederich has established her career on exploring the works of Japanese and Asian American women poets, such as Ishigaki Rin, Tomioka Taeko, Itō Hiromi, and Theresa Hak Kyung Cha. Since joining the faculty of Akita International University in 2019, Dr. Friederich has taught classes in modern Japanese literature, literature in English, and writing. A poet herself, she has also been involved in community outreach in Akita City through Big Read programs and other literature-inspired events. She is currently exploring the relationship between Creativity and Wellbeing with colleagues at AIU and the University of Minnesota.
