Abstract: This talk explores the manifestation of what I call the logic of repetition and recovery in post 3.11 Japan. Specifically, it looks at how the triple disasters of March 2011 have been transformed from markers of limit in the nation’s pursuit of a twentieth century paradigm of economic growth and thus an urgent force of change into an instantiation of a limit in the nation’s ability to change.

About the Lecturer： Michael Fisch is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago. His research is situated at the intersection of Sociocultural Anthropology, Science and Technology Studies, and Media Studies. He is the author of Anthropology of the Machine: Tokyo’s Commuter Train Network (Forthcoming June 2018, University of Chicago Press), which explores the relationship between human and machines within Tokyo’s Commuter Train Network. He is currently on a ten-month research fellowship from JSPS to explore the development of experimental ecologies in areas affected by the 3.11 disasters.

Organizer: The Global Japan Studies Network (GJS)
Co-organizer: Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, the University of Tokyo
Contact： gjs[at]ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp