Four weeks of WSU Associate English Professor Andrea Wood’s summer break were spent studying the history of Tokyo and developing a new film course.
Wood applied and was accepted to a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute at Florida International University, where she spent her time working on and learning more about how to use Japanese culture in her classes.
Wood’s film classes typically focus on popular genres and global cinema, integrating key works from Japanese cinema. Her courses often cover significant Japanese directors including Akira Kurosawa, Nagisa Ôshima, Yasujirô Ozu, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Satoshi Kon, Hayao Miyazaki, and Isao Takahata.
While at the NEH institute, Wood enhanced her knowledge of the history and culture of Tokyo, a frequent setting in Japanese cinema. She also gained insight into how other universities utilize Japanese culture in their classrooms.
Wood said she hopes to create a special topics course, “Imagining Tokyo in Global Cinema,” for WSU’s new Film Studies major. She also hopes to design a future WSU travel study to Tokyo in which students will learn about and visit famous locations depicted in Japanese films.
More information about Andrea Wood can be found at http://www.andreawoodphd.com or by contacting University Communications at 507-457-5024.
