So I finally finished Watanabe’s shota essay. Yesterday I met my former Japanese tutor S, who helped me with some of the passages that I hadn’t understood properly. It feels great to be able to add this important work to the study diary – and to Zotero, which I have now chosen as my reference manager of choice. I’ve only added five items to it yet though – it takes time if you want to do it right.
Yesterday I also had a Skype talk with my master thesis supervisor. Since I haven’t started my thesis proposal yet, I felt ill-prepared, but it turned out to be very helpful and I felt very inspired afterwards. Maybe this meeting felt so good because we missed out on a proper meeting during in-house due to logistical circumstances. Deadline in one month (20 December 2019).

On Monday, S took me to the Archenhold Observatory where we watched Mercury pass in front of the sun – the transit of Mercury! A small black dot in front of the big yellow sun – amazing! A small group of dedicated amateur astronomers had gathered to enjoy this event, which will happen next time only in 2032.
Jobwise we launched a new service this week, so I was quite busy with that and therefore ill-prepared (again!) for the two courses I’m taking.
Tonight I proofread a PhD research proposal.
Readings
Artistic Practice in Transcultural Contexts
Unit 2: Converging Zones between Art and Anthropology
- Unit introduction.
- Schneider, A. & C. Wright (Eds.). 2010. “Between Art and Anthropology.” In Between Art and Anthropology: Contemporary Ethnographic Practice, pp. 1–21. Berg Publishers.
- Schneider, A. 2008. “Three modes of experimentation with art and ethnography.” In Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) 14, 171–94. Royal Anthropological Institute. (Only read 171–77 = the introduction and the first example of three, because not so relevant.)
Images, Race and Representation
Unit 4: Phenomenology of Blackness
- Fanon, Frantz. 1952. “The Fact of Blackness.” In Black Skin, White Masks, 257–65. Very touching.
Master thesis
- Watanabe, Yumiko. 1998. “Otaku no Sekushuariti 1: Shota no Kenkyuu.” In T. Okada (ed.): Kokusai Otaku Daigaku 1998-nen: Saizensen kara no Kenkyuu Houkoku: 31–55. Tokyo: Koubunsha.
- Barabantseva, Elena, and Andy Lawrence. 2015. “Encountering Vulnerabilities through ‘Filmmaking for Fieldwork.’” Millennium 43 (3): 911–30.
- Bataille, Georges, and Annette Michelson. 1986. “Nietzsche’s Madness.” October 36: 42–45.
Shota story
- 河本ひろし (Kawamoto Hiroshi). 2004. “ボクとヒロくん” (Boku to Hiro-kun). In 美少年の美学7: The 悪戯っ子, (Bishounen no Bigaku 7: The itazurakko). 松文館 (Shoubunkan).
Other
Anime
- 1995: Neon Genesis Evangelion. E8–9.
Film
- Traveling with Yoshitomo Nara (Toyoshima Hideki, 2009, 93 min)
- DET BLEV INGEN CD (Jonas Strandberg, 2019, 55 min)
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