EVENTS

For a long time Japan has been perceived largely as a homogenous society, with its people sharing a common history, culture and language. However, since the turn of the twenty-first century, its ageing population and the decline in its birth rate, has brought about a noticeable increase in the scholarship on 'multicultural' Japan. Interestingly, even as this shift is underway, the concept of multiculturalism and how it is approached in Japan is a contested topic within and outside Japan. Locating the problem of multicultural Japan in a historical context, this Wednesday Seminar presentation will engage with the contemporary challenges and pertinent issues arising from dominant historical narratives, especially since the Meiji period, that shaped political discourses, educational frameworks and popular understanding of Japan as a nation.

Speaker

Dharitri Narzary Chakravartty is Associate Professor and Director at Centre for Research Methods, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University New Delhi (AUD). Dr. Chakravatty received her PhD degree in Japanese Studies from the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Delhi. She has been teaching history to UG/PG students since 2011 at AUD. Previously, she worked at the Yomiuri Shimbun (Japanese newspaper) in its India Bureau at New Delhi. Her interest areas include centre-periphery relations, multiculturalism, indigeneity, material culture, popular culture, education, society and religion among others. She was also part of the International Institute for Asian Studies, IIAS (Leiden) project titled Humanities Across Border to develop a curriculum on ‘Rice’ as a method. Currently, Dr. Chakravatty has been engaging with the study of North East of India. Some of her publications are – Concept of Place Making and the Dhubri Town (2024), Buranji and the Asian History Writing Tradition (2021), The Abors of NEFA: A Historical Perspective (2023), Weaving Material Culture: An Act of Identity Construction (2015), Myths of Japanese Homogeneity (2004).

Chair

Srabani Roy Choudhury is Professor of Japanese Studies Centre for East Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, with over three decades of professional engagement with Japan . She was awarded the “Commendation for Promotion of Japanese Studies” by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tokyo, Japan in 2024. She has been visiting scholar at Policy Research Institute (2011), Kobe University (2014), Nagoya University (2019), Keio University (2022) and University of Navarra (2024). She has to her credit six edited volumes. They are Japan- SAARC Partnership: A Way Ahead (2014), India-Japan Relations @70: Building Beyond the Bilateral (Co-edited) ( 2022). The Indo-Pacific Theatre: Strategic Visions and Frameworks (2023), Japan and its Partners in the Indo-Pacific: Engagements and Alignment (2023), India Japan Partnership: Abe the Game Changer (2024), India Japan and Beyond (Co-edited) (2024). She is currently a research fellow of Japan Foundation Indo-Pacific Fellowship (2024-25).

Please register for the lecture here