Conference description:

The role of popular culture in the modern world has been increasing constantly. It is not an exaggeration to state that pop culture has become an integral part of our reality. Therefore, it is not surprising that popular culture has become a subject of intensified scientific interest.

Especially worth investigating is the rise in global popularity of Japanese pop culture, with its diversity and richness. With an ever increasing wave of manga, anime, games, and dramas produced every year, Japan has been one of the most culturally productive countries in the world, which makes it a perfect subject of study.

The importance of Japanese popular culture was also noted by the Japanese government, which has adopted the brand of „Cool Japan” as a tool to use the potential of popular culture as soft power.

Now more than ever there is an emerging need to study this phenomenon from different perspectives and give the answers to the following questions:

·       how do Japanese perceive their own pop culture

·       how do Japanese use their pop culture as soft power

·       how do representatives of other countries understand and deal with / approach Japanese pop culture

·       how and why does Japanese pop culture arouse interest around the world

The Pop-real 2017 Conference is an attempt to bring together experts from a wide variety of fields to spark an interdisciplinary discussion on Japanese popular culture. We hope this meeting will serve as an opportunity to interact with globally distinguished scholars and trigger compelling research collaborations in the future. The Conference will start with a special presentation by the Keynote speaker, Professor Chida Hiroyuki from Tōkyō Gakugei University.

The conference: „Pop-reality: Japan through the Eyes of Japanese, Japan through the Eyes of the World” (Pop-real 2017) welcomes submissions of presentations and papers from various fields of expertise related to the topic of Japanese popular culture: researchers, scholars, teachers, professional artists, and graduate students are strongly encouraged to apply. Student submissions must be co-authored by their academic supervisors.

The Conference will be organized by Section of Japanese Studies: Politics, Culture and Language at the Institute of the Middle and Far East of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, which is one of the oldest Universities in Europe. The venue of the Conference will be central Krakow, the former capital of Poland and contemporary center of Polish science and culture. Its old town was one of the first Polish sites chosen for the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Along with the submission please send us a completed submission form (to be downloaded from the conference home page: http://www.uj.edu.pl/web/pop-real2017/ or directly from HERE: http://www.uj.edu.pl/documents/136400709/0/registration+form/a90c22fc-493d-49f7-bed1-e4305fba2609).

We also provide limited possibilities for online presentations, in exceptional cases.

The conference language will be primarily English, but presentations in Japanese will also be accepted. 

Important dates:

Abstract submission:  31 August 2017

Acceptance / rejection decision: 10 September 2017

Registration deadline:  20 September 2017

Conference: 16-17 October 2017

Paper submission: 15 November 2017