Co-instructed by Andrew Gordon of Harvard (left)
and John Dower of MIT (right), the course looks at Japanese history and the skills and questions involved in reading history through images now accessible in digital formats.
| MOOC: “Visualizing Japan (1850s–1930s): Westernization, Protest, Modernity” In 2014, Visualizing Cultures' content and image-driven approach was made into a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) in a first-time collaboration between MITx and HarvardX: "Visualizing Japan (1850s–1930s): Westernization, Protest, Modernity,” or VJx. The course ran Sept. 3 to Oct. 22 with discussions, polls, and word clouds. Detailed scripting by Professors John W. Dower (MIT) and Andrew Gordon (Harvard), with lead content developer Ellen Sebring (MIT), gave an image-driven structure to the online lectures and courseware. This co-taught course looks at Japanese history and the skills and questions involved in reading history through images now accessible in digital formats. The introductory module considers methodologies historians use to “visualize” the past, and is followed by three modules that explore the themes of Westernization (in Commodore Perry’s 1853–54 expedition to Japan), social protest (in Tokyo’s 1905 Hibiya Riot), and modernity (as seen in the archives of the major Japanese cosmetics company, Shiseido). This is a past/archived course, but an archived version of VJx can be taken at any time (click here). Certain features may not be active, but many people enjoy watching the videos and working with the materials. At this time you can only explore the course in a self-paced fashion, but make sure to check for reruns of VJx. “Visualizing Asia in the Modern World” Visualizing Asia is a series of content-driven conferences, in association with MIT Visualizing Cultures, in which scholars from diverse institutions and disciplines discuss the theory and practice of image-driven scholarship, and present topics based on the visual record of 19th- and 20th-century East and Southeast Asia. Conferences have been held at Yale University in 2010, 2013, and 2015; Harvard University in 2011; and Princeton University in 2012. 2015 Yale Conference, “Visualizing Asia: Images | History | Digital” 2013 Yale Conference, “Visualizing Asia in the Modern World” 2012 Princeton Conference Program 2011 Harvard Conference Program 2010 Yale Conference Program 2015 Christopher Capozzola John Dower Fabian Drixler Allen Hockley Trip Kirkpatrick Peter Leonard Lillian M. Li Samson Lim Shigeru Miyagawa Peter C. Perdue Bill Rankin Ellen Sebring Julia Adeney Thomas Laura Wexler Shirley Ye
2012 2011 Harvard University May 20–21 From the conference website: The Visualizing Cultures project at M.I.T. and the following programs at Harvard: Asia Center, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Korea Institute, and the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies are pleased to announce an academic conference focused on the relationship between visual imagery and social change in modern Asia entitled, “Visualizing Asia in the Modern World.” This will be the second in a series of academic conferences devoted to “image-driven scholarship” and teaching about Asia in the modern world. We have selected scholars of history, art history, history of photography, and history of technology specializing in China, Korea, Japan, United States, and Europe to discuss how to integrate visual and textual media in research and teaching, using to the fullest the opportunities presented by the new technologies and the use of the internet as a publishing platform. Visualizing Asia in the Modern World: A Conference on Image-Driven Scholarship--All conference sessions are free and open to public Friday, May 20 9:00 Welcoming Remarks 9:15-10:45 Panel: Photographing Asia Chair: MARK C. ELLIOTT, Harvard University Claire Roberts (Australian National University/Harvard Yenching Institute) “China exposed: Hedda Hammer Morrison at Harvard” Sakura Christmas (Harvard University) “Cameras on Camel: Owen Lattimore’s Photography and the Inner Asian Frontier” Aurélie Champ (Bibliothèque nationale) “Discover Indochina with a Civil Servant: the photographs of Firmin-André Salles” 11:15-12:45 Panel: Bodies/Oppression/Protest Chair: THEODORE C. BESTOR, Harvard University R. Kenji Tierney (Skidmore College) “Sumo Bodies in the Modern World” Kristin E. Stapleton (University of Buffalo) “Mingfeng’s Tale: Slavery and Servitude in Revolutionary China” Ann Sherif and Wendy Kozol (Oberlin College) “Visualizing Paradise and the Sea of Sorrow” 2:30-4:00 Panel: Visualizing Seoul and Colonial Korea (Part I) Chair: CARTER ECKERT, Harvard University Jina Kim (Smith College) “Consuming Colonial Seoul: Department Stores and Competing Modernities” Se-Mi Oh (New York University) “Honmachi and Chongno: Architecture, Sign, Language” Hyung Gu Lynn (University of British Columbia) “Moving Pictures: Postcards of Colonial Korea” 4:15-5:15 Panel: Visualizing Seoul and Colonial Korea (Part II) Chair: DAVID MCCANN, Harvard University Ellie Choi (Smith College) “Colonial Seoul: Space, Alterity and Empire from 1910-45” Baek Yung Kim (Kwangwoon University) “Changes of Urban Structures and Architecture of Seoul Since 1876” Saturday, May 21 9:00-11:00 Panel: Visualizing Japan’s Empire Chair: YOSHIHISA TAK MATSUSAKA, Harvard University Helen Hardacre (Harvard University) “State Shinto in Manchukuo” Jie Li (Harvard University) “Phantasmagoric Manchukuo: Documentaries Produced by the South Manchurian Railway Company, 1932-1940” Paul D. Barclay (Lafayette College) “The Empires of Japan: Colonial Postcards as Sources of History” Chinghsin Wu (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) “Embedded Messages: Wartime Images in Colonial Taiwan” 11:30-12:30 Panel: Visualizing and Marketing China Chair: Peter C. Perdue, Yale University Li Chen (University of Toronto) “Visual Representation, Imperial Subjectivity, and Intercultural Politics in the Nineteenth Century” Lenore S. Metrick-Chen (Drake University) “Advertisement as Transcultural Negotiation: China in the 19th Century American Trade Card” 2:00-3:00 Panel: Japanese Visions of Self and Other (Part I) Chair: ANNE NISHIMURA MORSE, Boston Museum of Fine Arts James T. Ulak (Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery) François Lachaud (École française d’Extrême Orient) Xiaojin Wu (Princeton University Art Museum) Lee Glazer (Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery) “Kobayashi Kiyochika: Master of the Night” 3:15-4:15 Panel: Japanese Visions of Self and Other (Part II) Chair: ANDREW GORDON, Harvard University Fabian Drixler (Yale University) “Infanticide Images and the New Boundaries of Humanity in Nineteenth-Century Japan” Robert Goree (Harvard University) “Imagining China for the Popular Reader in Early Nineteenth-century Japan: the Case of Morokoshi Meishō Zue” 4:15-5:00 Wrap-up Discussion 2010 Conference Program at Yale University April 30-May 1, 2010 Friday, April 30 9:00 AM Panel 1: Imperialism Sucheta Mazumdar, Duke University, "Opium and Asia: One Drug, Many Histories" Lillian Li, Swarthmore College, "The Summer Palace" Peter C. Perdue, Yale University, "Graphic representation of the Boxers around the world" Robert Bickers, University of Bristol, "Graphic representation of the Boxers around the world" Ellen Sebring, MIT Visualizing Cultures, "The Boxer Uprising Media Storm" 1:30 PM Panel 2: Selves and Others: Interactions Chang Tan, Harvey Mudd College, "Panasianism in Art" Lisa Claypool, Reed College, "China in the 1903 Osaka Exposition" Jack Tchen, New York University, "Asian Americans and the Yellow Peril" Hyung-il Pai, UC-Santa Barbara, "Visualizing 'Antiquity' and Marketing Archaeological Tourism in Colonial Korea (1910-1945)" Panel 3: Photography and Power Christopher Capozzola, MIT, "Photography and Power in the Philippines" David Hogge, Smithsonian Institution, "Photography and the Empress Dowager" Wen-shing Chou, UC-Berkeley, "The Empirical and the Visionary in the Life of the 13th Dalai Lama" Saturday, May 1 9:00 AM Panel 4, Urban Modernity II: Shanghai and the Modern Woman Jeffrey Wasserstrom, UC-Irvine, "Shanghai" Rebecca Nedostup, Boston College, "Shanghai" John A. Crespi, Colgate University, "The Graphic Imagination of Shanghai’s Modern Sketch (Shidai Manhua), (1934-1937)" Anne Kerlan-Stephens, CNRS, France, "Death of a Woman, Birth of a Movie Star — Ruan Lingyu (1910-1935)" Li Danke, Fairfield University, "Women and physical culture in the Qing and Republican periods" 1:30 PM Panel 5, Urban Modernity I: Tokyo: Labor and the Modern City Theodore Bestor, Harvard University, "Edo/Tokyo" Samuel Morse, Amherst College, "Tokyo" Christopher Gerteis, London SOAS, "The Ohara Institute and post-1945 labor protests" Andrew Gordon, Harvard University, "Labor movements before 1945" 5:00 PM Closing Remarks Visualizing Cultures Scholars Meeting In January 2007 a colloquium of Visualizing Cultures scholars and advisors took place in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where scholars shared ideas and research related to the project and their contributions. Short List of Visualizing Cultures Educational Outreach Events • NCTA Visualizing Cultures Teachers Workshop, spring 2007 • AAS Visualizing Cultures Teachers Workshop, early 2007 • NERC NCSS, March 2007 • iCampus event, December 2006 • NCSS Conference, December 2006 • Primary Source Teachers Workshop, July 2006 • TEA Workshop, July 2006 MIT Visualizing Cultures/Five College Center for East Asian Studies conference On May 6, 2006, Visualizing Cultures and the Five College Center for East Asian Studies held a teachers conference in MIT’s Stada Center. This day-long workshop, attended by more then 90 area teachers, was a collaboration of Visualizing Cultures and Kathleen Woods-Masalaski, director of the Five College Center for East Asian Studies at Smith College. The focus of the workshop was Visualizing Cultures and the curriculum, but it also included presentations by other teacher resource groups working with VC including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Primary Source; and, from Yale, PIER. John Dower presented a pedagogical overview of Visualizing Cultures and spoke to the myriad of resources available to teachers on the website including the VCID database and VCTV video resources. The afternoon sessions included concurrent workshops featuring the Visualizing Cultures curriculum where all teachers were able to work hands-on with the new VC curriculum. Exit surveys were conducted asking the teachers their thoughts regarding the content and if they felt they could include the curriculum in their lesson plans. Of the 90 surveys collected there were 89 positive responses. NCSS Teachers Conference On November 17–20, 2005, the National Council for the Social Studies held its annual conference in Kansas City, Missouri. This yearly gathering brings together over 5000 social science teachers from the United States for four days of peer exchange, workshops, and seminars. Each year the NCSS receives as many as 1000 proposals for inclusion in the conference program. Visualizing Cultures and the Black Ships & Samurai curriculum, developed in collaboration with Lynn Parisi, director of the Teaching East Asia (TEA) program at the University of Colorado, were selected as part of the NCSS program. Lynn and several teachers in her TEA program presented the Visualizing Cultures curriculum for the Black Ships & Samurai unit in a two-hour workshop. Teachers took part in actual lessons and classroom exercises. Afterwards, they discussed how they would employ Visualizing Cultures in their lesson plans, and how the curriculum addressed national standards. Scott Shunk, Program Director for Visualizing Cultures, presented an overview of the project and discussed with teachers what types of content, technology, and additional curriculum would be available from Visualizing Cultures in the coming months. Over 40 teachers attended the workshop and had an overwhelmingly positive response when asked about the content and the curriculum’s application in their classrooms. Three of the teachers who attended the workshop have become field testers for the project. Additionally, TEA will keep in contact with these teachers and many others they work with in similar workshops and provide periodic updates as Visualizing Cultures introduces new content and curriculum. Visualizing Cultures has been nominated to do a half-day workshop for the 2006 NCSS conference to be held in Washington, DC, in December, elevating it to a featured presentation. NERC NCSS Conference In May 2005 the New England regional conference of the National Council for the Social Studies held its annual event. John Dower and Scott Shunk presented the Ground Zero 1945 unit as a keynote seminar to over 150 teachers in attendance. Visualizing Cultures was featured again as part of the NERC event held in March 2007 bringing together over 500 regional social science teachers. About VC | VC Scholars | Partner Institutions | Outreach | Conferences & Events |
