Yutaka Nakamura (Ph.D, Cultural Anthropology)
-Associate Professor, Tama Art University
-Contributing Researcher, Transtechnology Research at University of Plymouth, UK
-Organizer, Ningengaku-kobo [Atelier Anthropology]
Ph.D, Hitotsubashi University, 2008.
M.A., Hitotsubashi University, 2001.
y-nakamura@tamabi.ac.jp
Profile
Brief Bio
Yutaka Nakamura is a tenured associate professor at Tama Art University in Japan. He is also a contributing researcher at Transtechnology Research at University of Plymouth, UK, and an organizer of Ningengaku-kobo [Atelier Anrhtopology]. Trained in the field of cultural anthropology, he has conducted his fieldwork among African-American Muslim communities in Harlem, New York. More recently he started his new project that engages in the cultural expressions and movements in the socio-cultural “margins” both in the US and Japan. His research topics include violence, social pain and suffering, cultural expressions and movements, modes of communication and discommunication, mechanisms of discrimination and conflicts.
Recent Research Interests
In 2015, Yutaka published an ethnography, Zankyo no Harlem [Reverberated Harlem: Voices of Muslims on the Street] (Editorial Republica), based on his fieldwork in Harlem, NY, which began almost a year after 9.11, when the socio-political atmosphere in the city was still tense. The book focused on the frustration and anger among African-American Muslim communities and explored historical as well as socio-cultural contexts surrounding their often strong and emotional language. In doing so, the book dealt with such topics as the position of archive in their historiography, the force of gentrification in the redevelopment and the Columbia University’s campus expansion, and the conflicts and discommunication with other Muslims and non-Muslims, as well as among themselves.
In 2016, Yutaka collaborated with other creators from various genres – artist, designer, poet, film director, photographer etc. – and published an edited book on art, design, and creativity, Geijyutsu no Jyugyou [Lectures on Art: Behind Creativity] (Koubundou). Ever since he started teaching at Tama Art University in 2008, his exploration into the field of art and design has begun. The book is his first attempt to investigate what is behind creativity and explore the selective creators’ way of seeing and being in the world in the contemporary society in Japan.
Yutaka has also been collaborating with a New York based photographer, Makoto Matsuo, and conducting fieldwork in the socio-cultural “margins” of the U.S. In this project, his focus is on the cultural expressions and movements especially by the Native Americans and other cultural creatives in relation to violence and social pain and suffering. Over the last four years, Yutaka and Makoto have visited the communities of Seminole in Florida, Chickasaw in Oklahoma, Pueblo in New Mexico, Native Hawaiian in Hawaii, and indigenous peoples in Alaska. His travel writings together with Makoto’s photographs are published in the form of booklet called Lost and Found (Ningengaku-kobo [Atelier Anthropology]). The booklet is a collaborative effort by Yutaka and other students and graduates from Tama Art University as well as other universities.
Publications
Books
2016. Editor, Lectures on Art and Design], Koubundou, Tokyo [in Japanese].
2015. Reverberated Harlem: Voices of Muslims on the Street], Editorial Republica, Tokyo, 2015 [in Japanese].
Chapters in Anthologies
2017. “Journey to New Mexico: Walking the Margins of America (4)” “In Conclusion: About This Booklet”Lost and Found vol.4: Travelling the Contemporary (Edited by Yutaka Nakamura et.al.), Ningengaku-kobo, 2017, pp.105-150 and pp.151-156 [in Japanese].
2016. “Introduction: About this Booklet,” “Journey to Alaska: Walking the ‘Margins’ of America (3) [Photos by Makoto Matsuo],” Lost and Found vol. 3: Reliving the Contemporary (Edited by Yutaka Nakamura et.al.), Ningengaku-kobo, pp.105-148 [in Japanese].
2016. Contributor, “Epilogue,” “Dialogic Elaboration in the Field (co-author with Michinobu Niihara and Tetsutada Suzuki),” Michinobu Niihara ed. Being Involved with the Field: Reflexive Research into a Nascent Community, Chuo University Press, pp.457-466 and pp.523-546 [in Japanese].
2014. “Yet Another Elysium, Or on Sensibility and Art of Creating Alien Being: Columbia University’s Campus Expansion and the Redrawing of Harlem’s Boundary” in Fieldwork on “the Liminal Territories” (Michinobu Niihara ed.), Chuo University Press, pp.229-283 [in Japanese].
2014. “Introduction: About this Booklet,” “Journey to Molokai/Big Island: Walking the ‘Margins’ of America (2) [Photos by Makoto Matsuo],” Lost and Found vol.2: Individual + Individual = The Contemporary (Edited by Yutaka Nakamura et.al.), Ningengaku-kobo [in Japanese].
2013. “Introduction: About this Booklet,” “Journey to Kewa: Walking the ‘Margins’ of America [Photos by Makoto Matsuo]” Lost and Found: Reconnecting Art and the Contemporary (Edited by Yutaka Nakamura et.al.), Ningengaku-kobo [in Japanese].
Refereed Journal Articles
2015. “Going back and forth between English and Japanese in the Tide of Globalization” Japanese Journal of Cultural Anthropology, 80(2): pp.288-289 [in Japanese] [Refereed].
2013. “Archive and Its Discontents: Identity Struggle among African-American Muslims” in Japanese Journal of Cultural Anthropology, 78(2): pp.225-244 [in Japanese] [Refereed].
Translations
2010. The Uptown Kids: New York Harlem no Koueidanchi to Street Bunka, [Japanese translation of The Uptown Kids: Struggle and Hope in the Project, an ethnography written by two New York based American sociologists, Terry Williams and William Kornblum], Otsukishoten [in Japanese].
2005. Translations of Each Statement, “Rashid Rana” “Bani Abidi” “Shilpa Gupta,” the 3rd Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum.
Other Articles and Papers
Forthcoming, “Civil Rights Movements,” Encyclopedia of History of Social Thoughts, Maruzen Publishing [in Japanese].
Forthcoming, “Outside of America, H(/h)istories/C(/c)ultures, and Language: Epistemological Notes on Fieldwork in Harlem” Studies of American History, (40), 2017, The Japanese Association for American History [in Japanese].
Forthcoming, “Thinking through the Margins of America (working title),” Synodos [in Japanese].
2017. “The Phenomenon Called Muhammad Ali: Street Gesture, Islamic Soul, Black Body,” Rikkyo American Studies 39, 2017, pp.143-161 [in Japanese].
2016. “Art, Magic, and Religious Cult: Allegorical Correspondence Regarding Tatsuya Mori’s Documentary Film A,” Bulletin of the National Art Center, Tokyo, vol.3, pp.214-231 [in Japanese].
2016. “Catastrophe, Sense of Crisis, Cultural Responses: Exploration into the Location of Violence in the post-3.11 Japan” Off the Lip Conference – Transdisciplinary Approaches to Cognitive Innovation. Conference Proceedings, Sue Denham, Michael Punt and Edith Doove eds., Plymouth University, CogNovo and Transtechnology Research: Plymouth, Devon, UK, pp.181-191 [in English].
2016. “Notes on Mediators Workshop,” News Letter (vol.6), Mediators, p.2 [in Japanese].
2014. “Community of Discommunication: Constitution and Deconstitution of an African-American Islamic Organization in Harlem” Journal of the Faculty of Letters, (24): pp.221-249 [in Japanese].
2014. “Introduction: About Exhibition Shikaku to Shikaku and This Booklet,” Shikaku to Shikaku (A booklet put together after the exhibition), edited by Yutaka Nakamura, pp.4-10 [in Japanese].
2013. “Dynamism in Differentiation of “Others”: Ethnographic Sketches of Muslims in Harlem” in the Annual Bulletin of the Institute of Social Sciences Chuo University, (17): pp.52-78 [in Japanese].
2013. “The Harlem Writers Crew as a Cultural Movement: An Exploration into a Shared Realm between Anthropology and Art” in Tama Art University Bulletin, (27): pp.141.-155 [in Japanese].
2013. “Abernathy, Ralf David, Sr.,” “Obama, Barack Hussein,” “Giuliani, Rudolph William Louis III,” “Parks, Rosa Louise McCauley,” “Powell, Colin Luther,” “Muhammad, Elijah,” “Young, Andrew Jackson, Jr.,” “Rice, Condoleeza,” “Rankin, Jeannette Pickering,” “Randolph, Asa Philip,” “Robeson, Paul Leroy Bustill,” Iwanami Shoten Publishers ed., Iwanami Biographical Dictionary, Iwanami Shoten, Publishers [in Japanese].
2012. “Ethnography,” “Masao Yamaguchi,” in Encyclopedia of Contemporary Sociology (Munesuke Mita, Masachi Osawa, Shunya Yoshimi, Kiyokazu Washida eds.) Koubundou [in Japanese].
2010. “Thinking about Violence and Language in the Current America,” Impaction, (May): pp.135-142 [in Japanese].
2009. “Racial Problems,” Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology, edited by Japanese Society for Cultural Anthropology, Maruzen, pp.576-577 [in Japanese].
2008. Community in Crisis: Language and Action among African-American Muslims in Harlem (Doctoral Dissertation Submitted to Graduate School of Social Sciences, Hitotsubashi University) [in English].
2007. “Violence, Language, and Culture in ‘Socio-cultural Islands’ of Harlem, New York,” Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (1) Final Research Report (Principal Investigator: Michinobu Niihara) “Islands” for the Purpose of Constructing the 21st Century “Codevelopment” System, pp.134-196 [in Japanese].
2007. “Of Various Forms of Violence: Sketches of the Contemporary New York City,” Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) Final Research Report (Principal Investigator: Michinobu Niihara) A Study Regarding the Foreseeing of Unborn Incidents such as “the Second Great Kanto Earthquake and the Subsequent Massacre of Koreans, pp.76-110 [in Japanese].
2006. “Rudolph Giuliani” “Hurricane Katrina and FEMA” Yujin Yaguchi and Mari Yoshihara eds., Keywords for the Contemporary America, Chuo Kouron Shin-sha, pp.108-110, pp.182-185 [in Japanese].
2002. “Islam in America,” “the Nation of Islam” Motoko Katakura et. al. eds., Encyclopedia of Islam World, Akashi Shoten Publishing, pp.60-61, pp.298-299.
2001. Islamic Movements by Blacks in America: Preliminary Thoughts and Examination of Methods (MA Thesis: Graduate School of Social Sciences, Hitotsubashi University) [in Japanese].
Reviews
2017. “The Pride of Those Have Been Denied: A Book Review on America: The Pride of Diverse Minorities by Jun Kamata,” Kyodo News [in Japanese].
2016. “Book Review on Blacks and Christianity in America: History of Struggle and Modes of Spirituality by Makoto Kurosaki, Kanda University of International Studies Press, 2015” The American Studies Newsletter, No.191, July, 2016, p.7 [in Japanese].
2002. “Reading and Receiving ‘Muhammad Ali and his Era’: Book Review on Yasumasa Fujinaga’s Japanese Translation of Redemtion Song: Muhammad Ali and the Spirit of the Sixties by Mike Marqusee, Mirai (425): pp.1-7 [in Japanese].
2001. “Changes in Black Nationalism (Review on the Paper read by Judith Stein)” Newsletter 2-1, Center for Pacific and American Studies, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo: p.7 [in Japanese].
Read Papers
2016. “Migration and the Location of Violence: Reflections on the Narratives of African-American Muslim,” Paper read at the 50th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Association for American Studies, Workshop B, Framing the “American Century”: Migration across a Globalizing World II, June 5th, 2016 at Tokyo Woman’s Christian University [in English].
2015. “Catastrophe, Sense of Crisis, Cultural Responses: Exploration into the Location of Violence in the post-3.11 Japan,” Paper read at Off the Lip Conference, September 9th, 2015 at Plymouth University, CogNovo and Transtechnology Research [in English].
2015. Comment Given at the Roundtable “The Impact of Internationalization/Globalization and Cultural Anthropology: At a Critical Moment for Plurality,” The Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology 49th Annual Meeting, May 30th 2015 [in Japanese].
2010. “Ethnographic Sketches of ‘Boundaries’: Harlem Community and the Columbia University’s Campus Expansion,” Oral Presentation at the 7th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Association for American History, Symposium B: Contending/Contended Urban Space, Tokyo Women’s College, September 19th, 2010 [in Japanese].
2008. “Community in Crisis: Language and Action among African-American Muslims in Harlem,” Oral Presentation at Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology Kanto District Meeting, Seijo University, March 22nd, 2008 [in Japanese].
2008. “How to Touch upon the Past: History, Testimony and Archive among African-American Muslims in Harlem,” Oral Presentation at Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology, 42nd Annual Meeting, Kyoto University, March 31st, 2008 [in Japanese].
2007. “The Present of Histories/Histories of the Present: Narrative and Archive of History among African-American Muslims in Harlem, New York,” Oral Presentation at Contemporary Anthropology Workshop, University of Tokyo, July 7th, 2007 [in Japanese].
2007. “Frustrated Past: History and Archive among African-American Muslim Community in Harlem, New York,” Oral Presentation at Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology, 41st Annual Meeting, Nagoya University, June 3rd, 2007 [in Japanese].
2007. “Different Boundaries, Different Contexts: ‘Redevelopment’ in Harlem New York,” Oral Presentation at Japan Association of Regional and Community Studies, 32nd Annual Meeting, Kinjo Gakuin University, May 13th, 2007 [in Japanese].
2006. “How to Confront the Conflicts: Ethnographic Sketches of ‘Muslim Community’ in Harlem, New York,” Oral Presentation at Japan Association of Regional and Community Studies, 31st Annual Meeting, Bukkyo University, May 13th, 2006 [in Japanese].
2003. “Touching upon the Contemporary: For Those Learning Japanese Language” Lecture given in the advanced Japanese class at Columbia University, November 25th, 2003 [in Japanese].
Lectures and Invited Talks
2017. “Acknowledging the Impossibility of Dialogue: Towards Transdisciplinary Engagement in the Problem of Violence” Panel Discussion in 20th Anniversary Symposium by Institute for the Study of Global Issues at Hitotsubashi University, Does Global Studies Open New Dimensions in Social Sciences? Challenges to Research and Higher Education, held at Sano Shoin Hall, June 18th, 2017 [in English].
2017. “Charlie Chaplin and Michel Foucault: Structure and Power” Lecture at Graduate School of Fashion and Living Environment Studies at Bunka Gakuen University, held on April 24th 2017 [in English].
2017. “The Phenomenon Called Muhammad Ali: Street Gesture, Islamic Soul, Black Body, Lecture at The Ethyle R. Wolfe Institute for the Humanities at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, held on March 27th 2017 [in English].
Workshops and Other Research Output
2017. “New York of Jazz: The Relationship to the Contemporary Art Culture” in a part of lecture series Understanding Art: Looking at Masterpieces, Feeling Art, held on May 14th and 28th 2017, Tamagawa Takashimaya S.C Community Club Tamagawa Collaboration Lectures [in Japanese].
2017. With Emiko Kasahara and Haruo Kobayashi, “The Era of Populism and the Aesthetic: Thinking from the Wound called America,” Talk and Comments in the Research Workshop at blanClass, April 8th, 2017.
2016. Fieldwork Workshop Seminar at Shoudoshima and other islands, Kagawa, Japan, September 2-4, 2016 [in Japanese].
2016. With Emiko Kasahara and Haruo Kobayashi, “Native Americans, Transcontinental Railroads and American Contemporary Arts,” Research Workshop at blanClass, December 4th and 11th, 2016.
2016. Jazz and City: Reverberation under Gentrification, A Book-talk with Gen Hirai by Editorial Republica on Reverberated Harlem: Voices of Muslims on the Street and Gunyari Tokyo [Gentrified Spineless Tokyo] at Café Lavanderia, April 15th, 2016 [in Japanese].
2016. Art, Tacit Knowledge, Taboo, A Book-talk with Naoki Sato and Takashi Ishida on Lectures on Art and Design: Behind Creativity, May 11th, 2016 [in Japanese].
2016. Jazz and Art: Exploring the Sounds of the Soul, Public Lecture, May 8th and May 22nd, 2016 [in Japanese].
2015. Fieldwork Workshop Seminar at Ueda, Nagano, Japan, September 15-17, 2015 [in Japanese].
2015. Fieldwork – Encountering and Thinking Together: Journey to the Opposite Side of the Planet and to Where I Stand, Public Lecture with Michinobu Niihara and Noboru Nakamura at BUN Café, Chuo University, October 1st, 2015 [in Japanese].
2013. Collaborated work with others, Hajime no Hanashi [Story of Hajime] (Picture Book co-authored by selected members of Ningengaku-kobo), Ningengaku-kobo [in Japanese].
2013. Fieldwork Workshop Seminar at Ueda, Nagano, Japan, September 17-19, 2013 [in Japanese].
2012. Fieldwork Workshop Seminar at Osaka, Japan, September 9-11, 2012 [in Japanese].
Exhibitions
2014. Exhibition of Picture Book Story of Hajime and Lost and Found vol.1 & 2, Café & Gallery Patina, March 17th – 23rd, 2014.
2013. Shikaku to Shikaku, Organized with Keisuke Sunagawa, Nanami Ishihara, Yusuke Sagara, Tatsuhito Horikoshi, M&W, Fuyuta Matsuya, Kousuke Nakamura, Machiko Sawabe, Keisuke Mori, Machi Ebizuka, at Akiba Tamabi, Arts Chiyoda 3331, November 2nd – December 8th, 2013.
Research Grants
Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientist (B), Research Project Number 23720430
・Period:FY2011-FY2014 (Currently Final Year)
・Principle Investigator
・Eligible costs of research :2,300,000 yen
・Title of the research project:Cultural Anthropological Study on Violence and Pain in the Socio-Cultural “Margins” in the United States:
・The research achievement:This research project is currently at the last stage. I along with Research Collaborator have conducted fieldwork in selective locations, mostly Native American and Native Hawaiian communities, in Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Molokai and Big Island. A portion of the research accomplishments are put together in Ningengaku-kobo’s publication, Lost and Found. It is through this fieldwork experience that made me conceive of this research project on post 3.11 Japan.
Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (Start-up), Research Project Number 20820037
・Period:FY2008-FY2009
・Principle Investigator
・Eligible costs of research:1,200,000 yen
・Title of the research project:Everyday Practice of African-American Muslims : A Cultural Anthropological Approach:
・The research achievement:Through this research project I conducted fieldwork in the Muslim communities in Detroit, New York and Los Angeles. I try to elucidate how a certain Muslim community tries to build network and relationship with other Muslim community and non-Muslim community. It is this research that I came to realize that research needs to be done in regards to Muslim and non-Muslim relationship. At the same time, it made me focus more on the “marginality” of any given phenomenon that is often hard to capture and overlooked.
Scientific Research B (Oversea Academic Research), Research Project Number 19402037
・Period:FY2007-FY2009
・Co-Investigator
・Eligible costs of reserch:11,600,000 yen
・Title of the research project: Comparative Research on “Metamorphosis of the liminal territories” in the Italian borderlands and insular regions
・The research achievement:As Co-Investigator, I have contributed to this research project my knowledge and understanding of the concept of liminality and geographical as well as cultural boundaries from my fieldwork experience in Harlem, New York. The Principle Investigator of this research, Michinobu Niihara, has been my mentor and his ideas on such concepts as liminality, boundary, socio-cultural island as well as his reading of Italian sociologist and thinker Alberto Melucci have greatly influenced my thinking.
Ph.D Supervision
Lei Kou (Current)
Ryo Kajitani (Current)
Ph.D Examining
Jonathan Winston (2017)
Daisuke Kashiwa (2017)
Kaori Nagata (2017)
Miya Kaneko (2017)