[csaa-forum] CFP--International Workshop on BL (Boys Love) Studies

[Katsuhiko Suganuma]

Dear all,

I'd be grateful if you could forward this CFP to your friends and 
colleagues.

Best regards,
Katsu

Katsuhiko Suganuma

　Assistant Professor
　Center for International Education and Research 
　Oita University, Japan 

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Glocal Polemics of ‘BL’ (Boys Love): Production, Circulation, and 
Censorship
Place: Oita University (Japan, Oita city near Fukuoka)
Date: 22nd & 23rd January 2011

The genre of male homosexual narratives written by and for women, 
commonly called ‘BL’ (Boys’ Love), has recently been acknowledged as a 
significant component of Japanese popular culture by Japanese and non-
Japanese scholars alike. This workshop investigates the different ways 
in which BL genres, aesthetics and styles have been taken up, deployed 
and transformed by female fans transnationally. The way in which 
Japanese products, styles and images are received in different cultures 
as well as the (sub)cultural ends to which they are deployed will be 
investigated, as will the impact of the fandom on the changing nature of 
consumerism, participatory fan culture and particularly gender in the 
Asia-Pacific region and beyond.

In particular the workshop will focus on:

• Censorship, as exemplified by anti-BL discourses in areas as diverse 
as Japan, China, Canada, the US, and Australia

• The problematic representation of ‘gay men’ in female-oriented sexual 
fantasies 

• Social and media responses to BL and its female fans (e.g. the over-
popularised concept of fujoshi)

• Local ethnographies of BL production, distribution and use 

• The integration of research on BL subcultures into a wider discussion 
of social theory, discourses, and globalisation.  

Confirmed keynote speakers: 

Dr. Mark McLelland (University of Wollongong)
Mark McLelland is Associate Professor in the Sociology program at the 
University of Wollongong and was the 2007/08 Toyota Visiting Professor 
of Japanese at the University of Michigan. He is well known for his work 
on sexual minority history and culture in Japan and has recently 
published on problematic social and legal issues occasioned by the 
spread of BL and other sexualized manga and anime genres to Australia 
and the West.

Dr. Kazumi Nagaike (Oita University)
Kazumi Nagaike is an Associate Professor at the Center for International 
Education and Research at Oita University, Japan. She has published 
articles on female acts of fantasising male-male eroticism, both in 
literary works and in popular culture. Her most recent research interest 
is the semiotic analysis of male homosexual bodies, as represented in 
live-action BL films for female audiences. 

Confirmed discussant: 

Professor Vera Mackie (University of Wollongong). 
Professor Vera Mackie is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow in 
the Faculty of Arts at the University of Wollongong, Australia. Well 
known for her pioneering work into feminist history in Japan, Vera's 
current research focuses on Human Rights in the Asia-Pacific region.


Please submit a 250-word abstract, a short C.V. and a statement 
outlining what you hope to gain from the workshop and how it articulates 
with your research plans to Dr. Kazumi Nagaike (nagaike at cc.oita-u.ac.jp) 
and Dr. Katsuhiko Suganuma (suganuma at cc.oita-u.ac.jp) by 30 June 2010. 
Registration at the event is free. A limited number of partial bursaries 
covering accommodation at the event will be available. 

Selected papers from this workshop will be considered for publication in 
an edited volume or a themed journal issue.  

Attendance at this event is by invitation only. Each presenter is 
expected to submit their workshop papers for circulation among the 
participants by the end of November 2010. 

This event is sponsored by the Center for International Education and 
Research at Oita University http://www.isc.oita-u.ac.jp/ and The Centre 
for Asia-Pacific Social Transformation Studies (CAPSTRANS) http://www.
capstrans.edu.au/index.html at the University of Wollongong.