MediAsia2018


Conference Theme: "Fearful Futures"

October 9-11, 2018 | Toshi Center, Tokyo, Japan

We have reached a moment in international history that is one of potential paradigm shift. It is a moment when a problematic, but at least blandly progressivist, pro-multiculturalist movement toward “cosmopolitanism” (as Kwame Anthony Appiah might use the term) is being threatened by a far more destructive and potentially genocidal ethno-nationalism, the ferocity of which is fuelled by economic disparity, religious intolerance and retrograde ideologies regarding gender, race and sexuality. The possible global futures we face are fearful, indeed, and in an era of information and disinformation, fake news, and hysterical polemic, are sometimes made out to be inevitable.

In this context, the arts, humanities, media and cultural studies play an important role in tracing the genealogy of the present moment, documenting it, and charting different paths forward, inviting such questions as how does culture replicate itself (or critically engage itself) in the classroom, in literature, in social media, in film, in the visual and theatrical arts, in the family, and among peer groups? How do we rise to the challenge of articulating a notion of human rights that also respects cultural difference? How do cultural representations of the environment abet or challenge the forces driving climate change? What are the roles and responsibilities of the individual activist as teacher, writer, artist, social scientist and community member? What are the responsibilities of both traditional and non-traditional media? How do we make sense of the ideologies driving hatred and intolerance, and posit different models of social engagement and organisation? Looking to the past, what do we learn about the challenges of today?

This international and interdisciplinary conference will bring together a range of academics, independent researchers, artists and activists to explore the challenges that we face in the twenty-first century. While we have every right to fear the future, we also have agency in creating that future. Can we commit to a cosmopolitanism that celebrates difference and that challenges social inequity? On our ability to answer to that question affirmatively likely hangs our very survival.

The Local Context: Tokyo and Japan

Japan is a country with a hugely rich and influential media tradition going back a thousand years and is characterised by constant and brilliant conversations between popular and high culture and media in various forms; from the popular themed romance and action of the world’s first novel (Tales of Genji) a thousand years ago, through the mass-produced works of Hokusai and Hiroshige, and to the manga which developed over many centuries to now become a globally popular phenomenon. From the page to the screen, anime such as Pokémon and Dragon Ball Z have been widely appreciated, and their creators and directors enjoy great respect; Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away remains Japan’s biggest box office hit; underlining its immense crossover appeal. Tokyo is also the home of a strong domestic film industry that has counted some of the world’s most important and influential directors, from Kurosawa, Ozu, Mizoguchi and Ichikawa, through to Yamada and more recently Kitano and Miike. The country also has a strong and eclectic music industry, often eclipsed in the international imagination by J-pop, manufactured groups, and the associated “tarento” and “idol” industries, which hint at the darker and exploitative side of show business.

While Japan has had a strong journalistic tradition, press and media freedom has been declining recently (according to various sources such as ‘Reporters Without Borders’), and censorship and self-censorship have been increasingly documented in a context of a rising domestic political nationalism. In a country where media and political powers have enjoyed a cosy and much-criticised relationship, there remain questions about the media’s ability to hold power to account, and uncomfortable comparisons with the past.

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Programme

  • Fearful Futures: Are we Awoke?
    Fearful Futures: Are we Awoke?
    Keynote Presentation: Keiko Bang
  • IAFOR Documentary Photography Award 2018
    IAFOR Documentary Photography Award 2018
    Winners Announcement
  • A Past Worth Saving: Reflections on a Lifetime of Cultural and Film Preservation in Hollywood and Japan
    A Past Worth Saving: Reflections on a Lifetime of Cultural and Film Preservation in Hollywood and Japan
    Featured Presentation: Stuart Galbraith IV
  • The State of Film Studies in Japan
    The State of Film Studies in Japan
    Featured Panel Presentation: Chie Niita, Tim W. Pollock & Yutaka Kubo
  • When All the Research Says Otherwise but Fear Remains: On the Role of Facts in Dealing with Future Fears
    When All the Research Says Otherwise but Fear Remains: On the Role of Facts in Dealing with Future Fears
    Keynote Presentation: Georg Adlmaier-Herbst
  • Indifferent Publics – The Challenge of Japanese Media Today
    Indifferent Publics – The Challenge of Japanese Media Today
    Keynote Presentation: Kaori Hayashi

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Speakers

  • Keiko Bang
    Keiko Bang
    Bang Singapore Pte Ltd
  • Chie Niita
    Chie Niita
    Waseda University, Japan
  • Yutaka Kubo
    Yutaka Kubo
    Waseda University, Japan
  • Stuart Galbraith IV
    Stuart Galbraith IV
    Film Historian
  • Georg Adlmaier-Herbst
    Georg Adlmaier-Herbst
    Berlin University of the Arts, Germany
  • Kaori Hayashi
    Kaori Hayashi
    The University of Tokyo, Japan
  • Timothy W. Pollock
    Timothy W. Pollock
    Osaka Kyoiku University & Hagoromo University of International Studies, Japan

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Organising Committee

The Conference Programme Committee is composed of distinguished academics who are experts in their fields. Conference Programme Committee members may also be members of IAFOR's International Academic Board. The Organising Committee is responsible for nominating and vetting Keynote and Featured Speakers; developing the conference programme, including special workshops, panels, targeted sessions, and so forth; event outreach and promotion; recommending and attracting future Conference Programme Committee members; working with IAFOR to select PhD students and early career academics for IAFOR-funded grants and scholarships; and overseeing the reviewing of abstracts submitted to the conference.

  • Joseph Haldane
    Joseph Haldane
    The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
  • Ana Adi
    Ana Adi
    Quadriga University, Germany
  • Eva Rose B. Washburn-Repollo
    Eva Rose B. Washburn-Repollo
    Chaminade University, USA
  • Virgil Hawkins
    Virgil Hawkins
    Osaka University, Japan
  • Timothy W. Pollock
    Timothy W. Pollock
    Osaka Kyoiku University & Hagoromo University of International Studies, Japan
  • Paul Spicer
    Paul Spicer
    Hiroshima Jougakuin University, Japan
  • Gary E. Swanson
    Gary E. Swanson
    University of Northern Colorado, USA (fmr.)
  • James Rowlins
    James Rowlins
    Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore

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Review Committee

  • Dr Alyaa Anter, Ajman University, United Arab Emirates
  • Professor Ying-Ying Chen, National United University, Taiwan
  • Dr Panida Jongsuksomsakul, Naresuan University, Thailand
  • Dr Alexander J. Klemm, Webster University, Thailand
  • Dr Gloria R. Montebruno Saller, Independent Scholar, United States
  • Dr Suranti Trisnawati, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia
  • Professor Ahmet Haluk Yuksel, University of Anadolu, Turkey

IAFOR's peer review process, which involves both reciprocal review and the use of Review Committees, is overseen by conference Organising Committee members under the guidance of the Academic Governing Board. Review Committee members are established academics who hold PhDs or other terminal degrees in their fields and who have previous peer review experience.

If you would like to apply to serve on the MediAsia2019 Review Committee, please visit our application page.

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Fearful Futures: Are we Awoke?
Keynote Presentation: Keiko Bang

The digital paradigm shift is creating disruption across numerous industries, and none so vividly and remarkably as that of media and its ubiquitous platforms of engagement and play. These rapid transformations may challenge many as the speed of change supersedes the ensuing critical questions we have about ethics, transparency and the infinitely sexy world of big data, and many others. But as we step back, pull out and take a wide pan of society today, it is clear that convergence is a two-edged sword: That for each compromise of our privacy and stormy debate on ethics, there is an equally harrowing story about those rescued from death; for each of our first world problems of digital obsession, there are thousands of communities transformed by knowledge and experience through their digital connections; and that for all the fear we exhibit in the West about robots and AI, the fear some Sith Lord lies awake in the darknet, we have given people a candle in that darkness, too. Tools to gather evidence of mass genocide live as it unfolds, voices of regimes that used to be silent, the unleashing of a creative syncopation onto a digital canvas that reinvents the concept of engagement and yet, in contrarian fashion, has given birth to a movement inspired by consciousness, wisdom and even paganism.

Read presenter biographies.

IAFOR Documentary Photography Award 2018
Winners Announcement

The IAFOR Documentary Photography Award was launched by The International Academic Forum (IAFOR) in 2015 as an international photography award that seeks to promote and assist in the professional development of emerging documentary photographers and photojournalists. The award has benefitted since the outset from the expertise of an outstanding panel of internationally renowned photographers, including Dr Paul Lowe as the Founding Judge, and Ed Kashi, Simon Roberts, Simon Norfolk, Emma Bowkett, Monica Allende and Jocelyn Bain Hogg as Guest Judges.

As an organisation, IAFOR’s mission is to promote international exchange, facilitate intercultural awareness, encourage interdisciplinary discussion, and generate and share new knowledge. In keeping with this mission, in appreciation of the great value of photography as a medium that can be shared across borders of language, culture and nation, and to influence and inform our academic work and programmes, the IAFOR Documentary Photography Award was launched as a competition that would help underline the importance of the organisation’s aims, and would promote and recognise best practice and excellence.

Now in its fourth year, the award has already been widely recognised by those in the industry and has been supported by World Press Photo, British Journal of Photography, Metro Imaging, MediaStorm, Think Tank Photo, University of the Arts London, RMIT University, The Centre for Documentary Practice, and the Medill School of Journalism.

Winners of this year's IAFOR Documentary Photography Award will be announced at The Asian Conference on Media, Communication & Film (MediAsia) in Tokyo, Japan. The award follows the theme of the conference, with 2018’s theme being “Fearful Futures”. In support of up-and-coming talent, the IAFOR Documentary Photography Award is free to enter.

Access to the Award Announcement is included in the conference registration fee.

Image from the series "Single Mothers of Afghanistan" by Kiana Hayeri, 2017 Grand Prize Winner

Visit Award Website
A Past Worth Saving: Reflections on a Lifetime of Cultural and Film Preservation in Hollywood and Japan
Featured Presentation: Stuart Galbraith IV

Mr Galbraith will join the conference by Skype from his beautiful renovated home in Kyoto to discuss Japan’s attitude towards its past, his efforts to shine a light on some of the lesser-known and less well-regarded areas of Japanese film history, and his work in Japan and abroad to preserve its cinematic and physical history.

Read presenter biographies.

The State of Film Studies in Japan
Featured Panel Presentation: Chie Niita, Tim W. Pollock & Yutaka Kubo

WJT Mitchell writes of the “pictorial turn” in Western culture and academia, which, broadly speaking, refers to the shift in Western culture from communicating by written text to communicating through images (or in more contemporary terms, communicating through a new multimodal format that features both written texts and images). The acknowledgment of this cultural shift took decades in academia, with the critical study of images finally entering the Western academy through the field of semiotics, and by the early 1970s, film studies.

In Japan, just like in America, the introduction of film in the first two decades of the 20th century led to criticism and calls for censorship, as film was seen as a degraded form of popular culture only suitable for the uneducated masses who made up the bulk of the audience. This panel will focus on the study of images and film in the Japanese academy, including the related theoretical frameworks of critical theory, semiotics and neoformalism. It is obvious that Japanese society as a whole has made the pictorial turn, this panel will discuss whether the Japanese academy has embraced this cultural shift as worthy of study.

Read presenter biographies.

When All the Research Says Otherwise but Fear Remains: On the Role of Facts in Dealing with Future Fears
Keynote Presentation: Georg Adlmaier-Herbst

The future was, is and always will be fear-filled for most of us, worrying about such things as climate change and intolerance for cultural differences. The pressing question for communication is how to portray such fears. One approach is to argue against certain fears with numbers, facts and statistics. But as we know from examples like the fear of flying or test-taking anxiety, it does little good: fears persist.

The reason is that fear is controlled by our unconscious while facts are processed in our critical mind; system 1 versus system 2 in the categorisation of Nobel laureate, Daniel Kahneman. The two systems work very differently and independently of one another. Reason, that is, system 2, evaluates and decides whether something makes sense and is logical and correct; the unconscious, system 1, decides whether we like something. Fears are thus guided by system 1. The challenge behind addressing fears is that system 1 functions unconsciously – consciousness does not process the information.

Studies show that good judgement and decisions occur when the two systems are synchronised: when people judge things objectively and critically, but also with regard to positive or negative consequences.

Communication must answer three important questions:

  1. How can we access system 1 and thereby the assessment of fears?
  2. How can we communicate with both systems?
  3. How can we synchronise both systems?

Read presenter biographies.

Indifferent Publics – The Challenge of Japanese Media Today
Keynote Presentation: Kaori Hayashi

Recent years have seen the growing diffusion of "fake news" via Facebook and other online channels. This disinformation is interfering with the citizens' ability to acquire accurate knowledge about politics, something essential for the functioning of democracy, and accelerates social divisions. But in Japan, the current state does not exhibit the same levels of polarisation of political opinion, as seen by the growing populistic protests of other nations or high level of distrust in the media. Rather, the Japanese challenge can be summarised as something constituting "disinterest", "apathy" and "inertia" in the public.

In Japan, unlike in most Western nations, media institutions generally avoid controversy and partisanship. This means that the major concern is not the public's distrust, but instead, indifference.

Read presenter biographies.

Keiko Bang
Bang Singapore Pte Ltd

Biography

Keiko Hagihara Bang is the founder and CEO of Bang Singapore Pte Ltd, a boutique media firm focused on fandom, influencers, branded content, e-commerce and technology-led storytelling. Her 35-year career spans time serving as a reporter for media such as CNN, NHK and what is today CNBC, and as a creator of critically-acclaimed independent documentaries for the world, from the Asia-Pacific region. She has produced more than 50 award-winning films including: Zheng He: Emperor of the Seas, Mysterious Hanging Coffins of China, Guge: The Lost Kingdom of Tibet, Jackie Chan, John Woo, Hip Korea, Secrets of the Samurai and many others.

In Japan, she successfully created a landmark co-production with PBS, TV Asahi and ZDF of the first non-Japanese documentary on the Battleship Yamato as seen from the Japanese point of view. Bang also worked for 5 years with the Ministry of Information and Communications (Somusho) on pioneering co-production schemes which engendered more than 40 hours of programming between rural Japanese broadcasters and other Asian countries, and culminated in Bang’s launch of Asian Side of the Doc (French) in Tokyo, the first ever major documentary conference to be held in Japan. Bang was also the first independent Asian production company to rank on Realscreen’s “World’s 100 Most Influential Documentary Companies”. In addition to her work on the creative side, Keiko is a serial entrepreneur and has worked with more than 150 companies, 7 governments and 50 media partners on co-productions, country branding and C-Level media strategy across twenty-four countries in Asia. Bang is a Member of the International Academy of Arts & Sciences, Chairperson of the New Media Taskforce and Advisor to the Documentary Committee of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, and to the VR Braintrust (IDFA). She is also a Member of the Asian Academy Awards, and Advisor to the Emerging Future Institute, The Rohingya Blockchain Project, and Teach North Korean Refugees. She is the Founder of The Beautiful Minds Global Girls’ Education Broadcaster Project with UNESCO.

Keynote Presentation (2018) | Fearful Futures: Are we Awoke?
Chie Niita
Waseda University, Japan

Biography

Chie Niita is a lecturer and adjunct researcher at Waseda University, Japan. Her research focuses on American cinema and media history, with particular interests in sound technology and performance in theatre, film, and radio. She has also worked on Japanese movie theatre and exhibition practices in the pre-war period. Before she received her PhD from Waseda University in 2012, she worked as a Visiting Assistant in Research at Yale University and a Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. She is currently teaching courses related to Film Studies, such as Film Theory and Hollywood Cinema and Japanese Cinema History, both in Japanese and in English at Waseda University (SILS), Hosei University (GIS), and the University of Tokyo.

Featured Panel Presentation (2018) | The State of Film Studies in Japan
Yutaka Kubo
Waseda University, Japan

Biography

Yutaka Kubo is currently an Assistant Professor at the Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum at Waseda University, Japan. He received his BA in English with a concentration in Film Studies from Framingham State College, USA, and his MA and PhD in Human and Environmental Studies from Kyoto University, Japan. His research focuses on the exploration of queer sensibility in post-war Japanese cinema and on the films and TV dramas of Keisuke Kinoshita in particular. His other research interests include the representation of queer aging in Japanese cinema, the role of mobility in post-3.11 mourning films, and private/public spheres in home movies.

Featured Panel Presentation (2018) | The State of Film Studies in Japan
Stuart Galbraith IV
Film Historian

Biography

Kyoto-based film historian Stuart Galbraith IV has had a long and varied career, but throughout it all he has demonstrated a great respect for the past and a strong conviction that it should be preserved for future generations. An archivist for Warner Bros. and a researcher at MGM, he worked as a “film detective” tracking down long-lost original camera negatives and sound elements, and earlier helped initiate film preservation projects and procedures for the USC-Warner Bros. Archives.

Mr Galbraith is the author of seven books, including the critically acclaimed The Emperor and The Wolf, a joint biography of Toshiro Mifune and Akira Kurosawa, which was used as the basis for the 2015 documentary Mifune: The Last Samurai from Academy Award–winning documentary maker Steven Okazaki. In addition to contributing to Blu-ray and DVD commentaries, essays, and documentaries for films as varied as Battles without Honor and Humanity and Tora-san Our Lovable Tramp, Mr Galbraith has continued to produce many, many Blu-ray and DVD reviews.

His latest preservation project has been more personal, renovating a traditional 200 year-old Japanese house in the mountains of northern Kyoto Prefecture, helping to preserve a minka built at a time when samurai still roamed the country.

Featured Presentation (2018) | A Past Worth Saving: Reflections on a Lifetime of Cultural and Film Preservation in Hollywood and Japan
Georg Adlmaier-Herbst
Berlin University of the Arts, Germany

Biography

Professor Georg Adlmaier-Herbst is an internationally recognised expert in communication. He is the Scientific Director at the Berlin Career College of the University of the Arts Berlin. He is also a guest professor at the Jiao Tong University in Shanghai and the Latvian Culture Academy in Riga, and lecturer in Communication Management in two executive MBA programmes at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. Dr Adlmaier-Herbst is a member of the Institute of Electronic Business’ "Council of Internet Sages", he has been voted a “Professor of the Year” (Social Sciences 2011), and has also written 22 books, many of which have been translated.

Keynote Presentation (2018) | When All the Research Says Otherwise but Fear Remains: On the Role of Facts in Dealing with Future Fears
Kaori Hayashi
The University of Tokyo, Japan

Biography

Kaori Hayashi is Professor of Media and Journalism Studies at the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, the University of Tokyo. She has also served as Managing Director of the University of Tokyo Newspaper as well as a member of Broadcasting Ethics and Program Improvement Organization (an independent self-regulatory organization of the broadcasting industry in Japan) and a board member of the Deutsches Institut für Japanstudien (German Institute for Japanese Studies).

Besides conducting research and education at the University of Tokyo, Kaori Hayashi also holds several academic as well as professional offices, such as membership of the Broadcasting Ethics and Program Improvement Organization (a third-party organization in the broadcasting industry), guest researcher at the Asahi Shimbun, and board member of the Deutsches Institut für Japanstudien (German Institute for Japanese Studies). She is also a member of the board of the Japan Society for Mass Communication and Journalism Studies.

She was a Visiting Scholar at Northwestern University, at Goldsmiths, University of London as well as at Freie Universität Berlin as a recipient of the SSRC/Abe Fellowship for the year 2016-17. Her most recent English publications include “A journalism of care”, In Rethinking Journalism Again. Societal Role and Public Relevance in a Digital Age. Edited by Chris Peters and Marcel Broersma, Routledge, 2016, 146–160. She has also published a book in Japanese titled "メディア不信 何が問われているのか"(Media Distrust: What are the real issues?)in 2017, in which she compares media distrust in the USA, the UK, Germany and Japan. For her publication list, please see: http://www.hayashik.iii.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Keynote Presentation (2018) | Indifferent Publics – The Challenge of Japanese Media Today
Timothy W. Pollock
Osaka Kyoiku University & Hagoromo University of International Studies, Japan

Biography

Timothy W. Pollock currently lectures on film and visual culture at Osaka Kyoiku University and at Hagoromo University of International Studies, Japan. He received his BA in Religious Studies from the College of William & Mary, USA, and an MA in Applied Linguistics from Monash University, Australia. His research is focused on the development of standards and practices in classic Japanese cinema in general, and on the later films of Ozu Yasujiro in particular. He has also presented papers in subjects as diverse as education and ethics, all of which were structured around the idea of dramatic visual narratives. A long-time resident of Japan, he also worked as an assistant editor on the second edition of the Genius Japanese-English Dictionary.

Featured Panel Presentation (2018) | The State of Film Studies in Japan
Joseph Haldane
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan

Biography

Joseph Haldane is the Chairman and CEO of IAFOR. He is responsible for devising strategy, setting policies, forging institutional partnerships, implementing projects, and overseeing the organisation’s business and academic operations, including research, publications and events.

Dr Haldane holds a PhD from the University of London in 19th-century French Studies, and has had full-time faculty positions at the University of Paris XII Paris-Est Créteil (France), Sciences Po Paris (France), and Nagoya University of Commerce and Business (Japan), as well as visiting positions at the French Press Institute in the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas (France), The School of Journalism at Sciences Po Paris (France), and the School of Journalism at Moscow State University (Russia).

Dr Haldane’s current research concentrates on post-war and contemporary politics and international affairs, and since 2015 he has been a Guest Professor at The Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Osaka University, where he teaches on the postgraduate Global Governance Course, and Co-Director of the OSIPP-IAFOR Research Centre, an interdisciplinary think tank situated within Osaka University.

He is also a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade, a Member of the International Advisory Council of the Department of Educational Foundations at the College of Education of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and a Member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network for Global Governance.

From 2012 to 2014, Dr Haldane served as Treasurer of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (Chubu Region) and he is currently a Trustee of the HOPE International Development Agency (Japan). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society in 2012, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2015.

A black belt in judo, he is married with two children, and lives in Japan.

Ana Adi
Quadriga University, Germany

Biography

Dr Ana Adi is Professor of Public Relations/Corporate Communications at Quadriga University of Applied Sciences in Berlin, Germany and the chair of the Digital Communication Awards.

Dr Adi defines herself as a digital humanist, her research, teaching and consultancy on the strategic uses of digital and social media in a variety of communication fields including public relations, political communication and corporate social responsibility. More recently her research and consultancy have focused storytelling, protest communication and evaluation of communication.

Dr Adi is a member of the core research team of the Asia-Pacific Communication Monitor, a bi-annual survey launched in 2015/2016, and part of the global Communication Monitor series, which provides valuable insight into the communication industry and its future, assessing the impact of digital technologies, social media, mobile communications, and the need for strategic focus to align communication outcomes to organisational goals.

She is also the editor of the upcoming Protest Public Relations: Communicating dissent and activism (Taylor & Francis, edited by Ana Adi) and the co-editor of #rezist – Romania’s 2017 anti-corruption protests: causes, development and implications and Corporate Social Responsibility in the Digital Age (2015, Emerald).

Originally from Romania, Dr Adi obtained her PhD from the University of the West of Scotland, UK having investigated from a framing perspective the discourses about China, the Olympics and human rights during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games of activist groups, Olympic organisers, international media and online public. Prior to her studies in the UK, Dr Adi has graduated from institutions in Romania and the United States, the latter as a Fulbright Scholar.

Eva Rose B. Washburn-Repollo
Chaminade University, USA

Biography

Dr Eva Rose B. Washburn-Repollo is an Associate Professor at Chaminade University in the Communications Department. Dr Washburn received her Bachelor’s Degree in Speech and Theater Arts from Silliman University of the Philippines, and went on to earn her Masters in Literature from the same institution, under the tutelage of Dr Edilberto and Philippine National Artist, Dr Edith Tiempo.

She left her native Philippines for Connecticut in the USA where she finished her Master of Science in Reading at Southern Connecticut State University. Her passion for her native culture subsequently took her back to the Philippines where she started The Spotted Deer, an arts and language program to benefit the street children of Dumaguete, while also teaching at her alma mater, Silliman University. In 2004 she moved to Hawaii where she earned a doctorate at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She also explored and spoke at communication and multilingual conferences at Oxford University in England, Auckland University in New Zealand and other international academic gatherings. She recently received the Excellence in Education award from the United Filipino Council of Hawaii, in recognition for the many different community groups she volunteers for.

Dr Washburn wrote and directed three documentaries focused on the values of multicultural selves in a diverse learning environment. The latest was Among Gitukod, We Built It, a documentary on accountability and trust in donating to the Typhoon Haiyan disaster relief efforts. Her dissertation focused on the use of cultural interpretation in remedial English classrooms with diverse students from immigrant households, arguing that the discourses from home cultures offer new perspectives that bring into society other ways of being.

She contributed a chapter on multilingualism, whiteness and anxieties of whiteness, and the sociological and environmental dimension of development, to the book Whiteness Interrogated. She has three children’s books awaiting publication and a book of poems on Visayan culture. She has also been a speaker for workshops on Culture and Competence for Filipino Priests relocating to the Pacific. She has held teaching positions at The Foote School of New Haven Connecticut, Silliman University, Dumaguete City, Philippines, and serves as a Commissioner on the Hawai’i States Foundation on Culture and the Arts.

Virgil Hawkins
Osaka University, Japan

Biography

Dr Virgil Hawkins holds a PhD in International Public Policy from the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), Osaka University, where he currently serves as associate professor. He is also a research associate with the University of the Free State, South Africa.

Before joining OSIPP, Virgil Hawkins was an assistant professor at the Global Collaboration Center, Osaka University (2007-2010), and has also served with the Association of Medical Doctors of Asia (AMDA) in Cambodia (technical advisor, 2002-2004), and in Zambia (country director, 2004-2007).

Virgil Hawkins is also a co-founder of the Southern African Centre for Collaboration on Peace and Security (SACCPS). His prime research interest is in the media coverage of conflict (and the lack thereof), most notably in Africa. His most recent book is Communication and Peace: Mapping an Emerging Field, edited with Julia Hoffmann (Routledge, 2015).

Featured Presentation (2019) | Climate Coverage: Getting More and Getting it Done Right

Previous MediAsia Presentations

Featured Presentation (2017) | Introduction of Osaka University’s Global News View Database
Timothy W. Pollock
Osaka Kyoiku University & Hagoromo University of International Studies, Japan

Biography

Timothy W. Pollock currently lectures on film and visual culture at Osaka Kyoiku University and at Hagoromo University of International Studies, Japan. He received his BA in Religious Studies from the College of William & Mary, USA, and an MA in Applied Linguistics from Monash University, Australia. His research is focused on the development of standards and practices in classic Japanese cinema in general, and on the later films of Ozu Yasujiro in particular. He has also presented papers in subjects as diverse as education and ethics, all of which were structured around the idea of dramatic visual narratives. A long-time resident of Japan, he also worked as an assistant editor on the second edition of the Genius Japanese-English Dictionary.

Featured Panel Presentation (2018) | The State of Film Studies in Japan
Paul Spicer
Hiroshima Jougakuin University, Japan

Biography

Dr Paul Spicer is currently an Associate Professor at Hiroshima Jougakuin University in the beautiful city of Hiroshima. He was previously employed by the University of Portsmouth as a lecturer within the School of Creative Arts, Film and Media, where he co-ordinated the courses Japanese Cinema and Culture, and East Asian Cinema. In 2001 he decided to return to education, and began a degree programme at Portsmouth. He successfully graduated in 2005 with a BSc (1st Class Hons) in Entertainment Technology. In 2007 he began work on his doctoral thesis entitled ‘The Films of Kenji Mizoguchi: Authorship and Vernacular Style’. He completed his thesis in August 2011, and successfully sat his Viva Voce at the University of Portsmouth the same year. Dr Spicer’s research lies primarily in the area of film and cultural studies, and his current work focuses upon the relationship between film and Japanese socio/political issues between 1965 and 1975.

Gary E. Swanson
University of Northern Colorado, USA (fmr.)

Biography

Gary E. Swanson is the former Mildred S. Hansen Endowed Chair and Distinguished Journalist-in-Residence at the University of Northern Colorado, USA. From 2005-2007 Professor Swanson was a Fulbright scholar to China and lectured at Tsinghua University and the Communication University of China. In summer 2008 he was Commentator for China Central Television International (CCTV-9) and their live coverage of the Beijing Olympic Games. Swanson repeated his assignment covering the London Olympics for CCTV-4 in the summer of 2012. Previously, he was professor and director of television for nine years at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University where he taught mostly graduate broadcast students. He has been an educator for 26 years; 20 years spent teaching at the university level. Swanson is an internationally recognized and highly acclaimed documentary producer, director, editor, photojournalist, consultant and educator. He has given keynote speeches, presented workshopsretd and lectured at embassies, conferences, festivals, and universities throughout China, South Africa, India, Papua New Guinea, Japan, The Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Singapore, Greece, Germany, Jordan, Spain, Portugal, Peru, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Swanson has compiled a distinguished professional broadcast career spanning 13 years: From 1978 to 1991, Swanson worked for the National Broadcasting Company where he was honored with national EMMYs for producing and editing: The Silent Shame, a prime-time investigative documentary; Military Medicine, a two-part investigative series on NBC News; and Hotel Crime, an investigative news magazine piece. Swanson was an editor for "breaking news and features" for NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, the Today Show, Sunrise, Sunday Today, NBC Overnight, A Closer Look, Monitor, and other prime time news magazines. Swanson covered "breaking news" in 26 states and Canada for the network including trips and campaigns of presidents Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and Bill Clinton. Swanson was the Fulbright distinguished lecturer and consultant in television news to the government of Portugal in 1989. In 1992, he covered the XXV Olympics in Barcelona, Spain for NBC News as field producer and cameraman. Swanson has earned more than 75 awards for broadcast excellence and photojournalism including three national EMMYs, the duPont Columbia Award, two CINE 'Golden Eagles,' 16 TELLYs, the Monte Carlo International Award, the Hamburg International Media Festival's Globe Award, the Videographer Award, The Communicator Award, the Ohio State Award, the CINDY Award, the 2011 Communitas Outstanding Professor and Educator award, the 2013 Professor of the Year award, and many others. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana with a Bachelor's degree in Education in 1974, and a Master's degree in Journalism in 1993.

Professor Gary E. Swanson is a member of IAFOR’s Academic Governing Board. He is Chair of the Media & Film section of the International Academic Advisory Board.

Roundtable/Panel Presentation (2019) | Deepfake

Previous MediAsia Presentations

Keynote Presentation (2017) | Fake News and the Attack on America’s Freedom of the Press
James Rowlins
Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore

Biography

James Rowlins left his native England for Paris, France, where he studied for a BA (Hons) and MA specialising in French cinema. His passion for visual culture subsequently took him to Los Angeles, where he earned a doctorate at the University of Southern California, USA. In addition to exploring literature and film through a theoretical lens, as well as dabbling in filmmaking, his dissertation focused on the crossover between post-war American film noir and the French New Wave, arguing that the subversive manipulation of the Hollywood genre formula by the auteurs constitutes a political aesthetic. He has published articles on contemporary French fiction, film and existentialism, cinematic phenomenology and new perspectives on the New Wave. He has held teaching positions in Europe, America and Japan, and is currently a Lecturer in the Humanities and the Arts Department at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore established in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.