Christina Laffin
Office hours: 12:30-1:30 Tuesdays and Thursdays
Bilingual list of publications and presentations.
Japanese CV (PDF)
English CV (PDF)
Research Interests
Medieval travel diaries; women's education and socialization before 1600; poetic practices and waka culture; theories of travel, gender, and autobiography; noh theatre; and comparative approaches to medieval literature.
Courses Taught at UBC
(More detailed course information)
JAPN 408 Readings in Modern Japanese Literature
ASIA 364 Modern Japanese Literature in Translation
ASIA 453 Japanese Travel Literature
ASIA 464 Japanese Women's Self-Writing
ASIA 532A & 532B Topics in Traditional Japanese Literature
Socialization, Education, and the Life Cycle of a Medieval Court Woman (2011)
Court Women in Ancient and Medieval Japan: Gender, Status, and Literary Production (2007)
Kiroku, Nikki, and Nikki Bungaku: Gender and Genre in Premodern Japan (2006)
Journeys and Journals: Japanese Women’s Travel Writing from Nara to Nanbokuchō (2005)
Selected Publications
Rewriting Medieval Women: Politics, Personality, and Literary Production in the Life of Nun Abutsu. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, forthcoming, 2012.
(Contributor) Ekkyō suru Nihon bungaku kenkyū: Kanon keisei, jendā, media (New Horizons in Japanese Literary Studies: Canon Formation, Gender, and Media). Tokyo: Bensei Shuppan, 2009.
(Contributor) Teishinkōki: What Did a Regent Do? The Year 939 in the Journal of Regent Fujiwara no Tadahira, edited by Joan R. Piggott and Yoshida Sanae. Ithaca: East Asian Program, Cornell University, 2008.
(Contributor) Traditional Japanese Literature, An Anthology, Beginnings to 1600, edited by Haruo Shirane. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.
(Co-editor) The Noh Ominameshi: A Flower Viewed From Many Directions. Ithaca: East Asia Program, Cornell University, 2003.
(Managing Editor, Contributor, Translator) Gender and Japanese History. Vols. 1 & 2, edited by Wakita Haruko, Anne Bouchy, Ueno Chizuko. Osaka University Press, 1999.
Past Events
Women of Talent in Times of Trouble: Creative Personalities in the Late Heian/Early Kamakura Period (Co-organizer, Tallinn University, 2009)
Gatherings Beneath the Dai: Seasonal Topics in Hyakushu and Utaawase (Co-organizer, Columbia University, 2008)
Dressing Up Japanese History: Gender, Class, and Clothing from Premodern to Present (Organizer, UBC, 2007)
Uzawa Noh Troupe, Lady Aoi Performance and Noh Theatre Workshop [PDF press release] [article] (Co-organizer, UBC, 2007)
New Perspectives on Waka Culture: Women, Patronage, and Genre in Medieval Japan (Co-organizer, UBC, 2006)
Early-Modern Komonjo and Kuzushiji Workshop (Co-organizer, UBC, 2006)
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