Professor of Japanese Literature & Visual Culture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, ADAM L. KERN (アダム•カーン) was raised in Rochester, Minnesota, spent a year and a half as a high-school exchange student near Tokyo, and received a BA in East Asian Studies from the University of Minnesota. He earned a PhD in East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University, where he was on the faculty for nearly a decade.

 

Kern’s notable experiences in Japan (apart from research affiliations with the University of Kyoto, the University of Tokyo, and the National Institute of Japanese Literature) include brief stints as a staff reporter for a large metropolitan Japanese-language newspaper and as an editorial intern in the comics (manga) division of a leading publisher (Kōdansha). Kern's engagement with teaching UW-Madison undergraduates about manga was profiled in a feature-length documentary on prime-time Japanese television.

 

Among his writings on things Japanese are: Manga from the Floating World: Comicbook Culture and the Kibyōshi of Edo Japan (Harvard University Asia Center, 2006); A Kamigata Anthology: Literature from Japan's Metropolitan Centers, 1600-1750, edited by Sumie Jones and Adam L. Kern (University of Hawai'i Press, in progress); and The Penguin Book of Haiku (Penguin Classics, 2018), which The Sunday Times counted among its Books of the Year.

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URLs

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Faculty homepage: https://alc.wisc.edu/about/faculty/adam-l-kern

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Wisconsin Public Radio interview on The Penguin Book of Haiku: https://www.wpr.org/shows/haiku-hour

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TV Ōsaka documentary for the national primetime “edutainment” show titled Wafū sōhonke 『和風総本家』 (Japan’s Cultural Foundations). The 90-minute special program served as the pilot episode for a new ongoing segment called Sekai no nippon sensei「世界のニッポン先生」 (Japanologists from Around the World). Filmed in Madison, Tokyo, and Kyoto, January-February 2017. First aired on March 9, 2017.

• Part 1: https://mediaspace.wisc.edu/media/%E5%92%8C%E9%A2%A8%E7%B7%8F%E6%9C%AC%E5%AE%B6%E3%82%B9%E3%83%98%E3%82%9A%E3%82%B7%E3%83%A3%E3%83%AB+2017%E5%B9%B43%E6%9C%889%E6%97%A5+%E2%80%94+Part+01/1_gkr321kp

• Part 2: https://mediaspace.wisc.edu/media/%E5%92%8C%E9%A2%A8%E7%B7%8F%E6%9C%AC%E5%AE%B6%E3%82%B9%E3%83%98%E3%82%9A%E3%82%B7%E3%83%A3%E3%83%AB+2017%E5%B9%B43%E6%9C%889%E6%97%A5+%E2%80%94+Part+02/1_atxox92f

• Part 3: https://mediaspace.wisc.edu/media/%E5%92%8C%E9%A2%A8%E7%B7%8F%E6%9C%AC%E5%AE%B6%E3%82%B9%E3%83%98%E3%82%9A%E3%82%B7%E3%83%A3%E3%83%AB+2017%E5%B9%B43%E6%9C%889%E6%97%A5+%E2%80%94+Part+03/1_g9q88wte

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UW-Madison news article on this documentary: http://news.wisc.edu/japanese-literature-course-leads-to-the-ultimate-fi...