Japanese Noh Subject of Next Presentation in Williams Annual Faculty Lecture Series
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - Associate Professor of Japanese Shinko Kagaya will deliver the fourth lecture in the Williams College Annual Faculty Lecture Series on Thursday, March 5, at 4 p.m. in Wege Auditorium in the Science Center. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is titled "Japanese Noh in Busan, Korea 1905 to 2005." A short reception will follow.Kagaya will illustrate how traditional theatre forms remain relevant in the contemporary world, beginning with an overview of the history of Noh theatre, a traditional Japanese form of musical drama. She will also focus on a particular performance of newly created Noh play, "Bokonka," as it appeared at the International Performing Arts festival in Korea in 2005, and compare it to Noh performances during the Japanese colonial occupation of Korea, 100 years earlier.
Kagaya specializes in Japanese literature and performance and comparative performance studies, and teaches Japanese language. Her research focuses on Noh theatre and its cross-cultural reception.
She is a contributing author to "Japanese Theatre and the International Stage, Realms of Translation: Culture, Colonies, and Identity," and her work has appeared in several journals. She also adapts Japanese-English plays and frequently appears in amateur theatre performances in Japan.
Kagaya has received several grants and awards, among them the 1997 Chaplin Memorial Award and ones from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science and the U.S. Department of Education.
Before coming to Williams in 1999, Kagaya taught at Hope College. She received her B.A. from Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo, Japan in 1989 and her Ph.D. in East Asian languages and literature from Ohio State University in 1999.
The Faculty Lecture Series was founded in 1911 by a faculty wife, who wished "to relieve the tedium of long New England winters with an opportunity to hear Williams professors talk about issues that really mattered to them."
Following in this tradition, members of the faculty are invited to present public lectures each spring and to convey the substance of their special fields in a way that will be of general interest to non-specialists.
The series will continue on Thursday, March 12. Jennifer French, associate professor of Spanish, will share her research in her lecture "Vindicated: The Triple Alliance War in Paraguayan Literature."
To conclude the lecture series on Thursday, March 19, Manuel Morales, associate professor of biology, will discuss "The Role of Communication in Cooperation Between Species."
Karen Kwitter, the Ebenezer Fitch Professor of Astronomy, is chair of the Faculty Lecture Committee.
