2025 Summer Research Program

Project title: 

More than Frills and Ribbons: Japanese Children’s Literature

Hours of engagement & delivery mode

24 hours per week, 13 Jan – 21 Feb 2025.

This project is offered on-site, with in-person meetings. Some of the work can be completed off-site.

Description:

This Summer Research project is part of the advisor’s ongoing work in Japanese literature and popular culture, with a particular focus on fairy tales and shōjo (girls’) cultures, and connections and flows between Japan and Australia via creative arts.

Fairy tales and other traditional stories shift continually across time, language, geography, culture, media, and genre. The overarching aim of this research is to identify what changes in the stories as they move, and what these changes tell us about the societies in which the stories are told and retold.

More concretely, the summer scholar’s work will be directed towards a new collection of English-language translations and critical commentary on the scholarship of pioneering Japanese scholar, Honda Masuko. Honda’s wide-ranging work has become incredibly influential in childhood studies, shōjo /girl studies, and Japanese popular culture and literary studies. The publication is co-edited by the adviser with another expert in these fields, with Australia-based girl studies scholars contributing. It will offer insight into these fields and strong theoretical foundations for ongoing research.

Expected learning outcomes and deliverables:

Depending on individual preferences and abilities, students will be expected to collaborate with the advisor on this project by doing some or all of the following:

• Researching and writing a literature review
• Copyediting and fact-checking for research writing
• Developing and editing a reference list based on a style guide
• Creating an index for a book manuscript

AND/OR

• Co-translating a (short) piece of criticism or research chronology

Students are also welcome to devise their own personal project related to the topic, to present at the end of the research period and receive detailed feedback from the advisor.

Students who take part in this project will receive detailed, progressive feedback, and in this way they can expect to:

• Improve their general research skills in the humanities
• Improve technical editing, proofreading, and referencing skills used in the humanities and humanities publishing
• Develop the ability to write succinctly and clearly
• Gain knowledge of the field of Childhood, Children’s Literature, and Popular Culture Studies in Japan and elsewhere
• Be acknowledged by name in any publications that their work contributes to

Students undertaking the optional translation task can expect to:

• Improve their translation ability and experience
• Have the chance to submit the work for publication as a co-translator

Suitable for:

Given the specifics of the project, this opportunity is suitable for:

This project is open to students who have achieved excellent results in one or more university courses in writing, editing, literature, film, television, popular culture, or similar humanities fields of study.

Students who are interested in these fields and who can read and write both Japanese and English at an advanced level are encouraged to apply for the translation project.

Primary Supervisor:

Dr Lucy Fraser

Further info: