Akiko Takeyama
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences - Women, Gender & Sexuality StudiesRoom 611
Akiko Takeyama is an associate professor of Anthropology and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Kansas. Her research and teaching interests lie in changing gender, sexuality, and class dynamics in the context of neoliberal globalization. Her first book, Staged Seduction: Selling Dreams in a Tokyo Host Club (2016 Stanford University Press), theorizes the commercialization of feelings, emotions, and intimate relationships among socially marginalized population —the youth and the female— in contemporary Japan's service-centered economy. Her book was shortlisted for 2017 Michelle Rosaldo Book Prize, Association of Feminist Anthropology in American Anthropological Association.
Her second book project, entitled "Japan's Adult Video Industry: Gender, Technology, and Labor in the Age of Internet and the Content Business," explores the interrelation among politico-legal systems, information technology, and the global economy. Specifically, she intends to bring human affect —hope, fear, and a sense of vulnerability— to the center of an analysis of 21st century capitalism, complicating such legal categories as human rights and individual consent especially when sexual and economic exploitation are carried out in the name of individual freedom of choice. Her research will shed light on the complex set of social, economic, and legal contexts wherein consent and coercion, pleasure and danger, and hopes and disparity coexist intimately.
Education
Ph.D., Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)
M.A., Asian Studies, University of Oregon (UO)
B.A., International Studies and Asian Studies, University of Oregon (UO)
A.A., English, Kansai Gaidai Junior College
Teaching
Her teaching explores human experience through which cultural meanings are created and negotiated in everyday lives. She also often uses gender, among other factors, as an analytical lens to critically analyze social structure and lived experiences in various socio-historical contexts, (post)colonial geopolitics, and global capitalism.
Teaching Interests
- Gender
- Sexuality
- Class
- Subjectivity
- The body and affect
- Labor and commodity
- Popular Culture
- Neoliberal globalization
- Trafficking in persons
- Human rights
- Feminist epistemology
- Critical theory
- Japan
- East Asia
Research
Her research interests, as well as teaching interests, lie in changing gender, sexuality, and class dynamics in the context of neoliberal globalization. She employs interdisciplinary informed theories and methods in her research.
Research Interests
- Gender
- Sexuality
- Class
- Subjectivity
- The body and affect
- Labor and commodity
- Popular Culture
- Neoliberal globalization
- Trafficking in persons
- Human rights
- Feminist epistemology
- Critical theory
- Japan
- East Asia
Service
She values service for the university, the community, and the profession as important part of her career and personal development.
Selected Publications
Takeyama, A. (in press). Possessive Individualism in the Age of Postfeminism and Neoliberalism: Self-Ownership, Consent, and Contractual Abuses in Japan’s Adult Video Industry . In , Advanced Undergraduate Theory Reader in Women’s/Gender/Feminist/LGBTQ+/Sexuality Studies, edited by L. Ayu Saraswati and Barbara L. Shaw, (forthcoming) . Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Takeyama, A. (2019). Opening the Box: An International Asian Woman Scholar’s Fight. In , Fight the Tower, eds. Kieu Linh Caroline Valverde and Wei Ming Dariotis (pp. 234-254). New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.
Takeyama, A. (2016). Staged Seduction: Gender Politics and Class Struggle in a Tokyo Host Club, Stanford University Press. https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=24190#extras
Takeyama, A. (2010). Intimacy for Sale: Masculinity, Entrepreneurship, and Commodity Self in Japan’s Neoliberal Situation. Japanese Studies, 30(2), 231-246.
Takeyama, A. McLelland, M. & Dasgupta, R. (2005). Commodified Romance in a Tokyo Host Club. In , Genders, Transgenders and Sexualities in Japan (pp. 200-215). New York: Routledge.
Selected Presentations
Takeyama, A. . (12/20/2017). 「誘惑の舞台：夢を売る仕事 ～東京ホストクラブ～」(Staged Seduction: Selling Dreams in a Tokyo Host Club). Book Talk at the Center for Gender Research and Social Sciences, Department of Cross-Cultural Studies, Kanagawa University. Kanagawa, Japan
Takeyama, A. . (11/06/2017). Staged Seduction: Selling Dreams in a Tokyo Host Club. Book Talk at the Japanese Studies in English Lecture Series 2017, Hitotsubashi University. Tokyo, Japan
Takeyama, A. . (04/20/2017). Staged Seduction: Selling Dreams in a Tokyo Host Club. Book Talk at the Department of Anthropology, San Diego Miramar College. San Diego, CA
Takeyama, A. . (03/18/2017). Ambivalent Possibilities of Adult Video Industry. Annual Meeting of Association of Asian Studies and International Convention of Asia Scholars. Toronto, Canada
Takeyama, A. . (02/10/2017). Staged Seduction: Selling Dreams in a Tokyo Host Club. Book Talk at the Department of Anthropology and Asian Studies Center, University of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh, PA
Takeyama, A. . (01/30/2017). Staged Seduction: Selling Dreams in a Tokyo Host Club. Book Talk at the Department of Humanities & Social Sciences Arts and Science Seminar, Clarkson University. Potsdam, NY
(11/10/2016). Staged Seduction: Selling Dreams in a Tokyo Host Club. Book Talk at the Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, MI
(09/22/2016). Staged Seduction: Selling Dreams in a Tokyo Host Club. Book Talk at the University of Kansas Bookstore. Lawrence, KS
(07/08/2016). Staged Seduction: Selling Dreams in a Tokyo Host Club. Book Talk at the Modern Japanese Studies Program, University of Hokkaido. Hokkaido, Japan
(07/06/2016). 「誘惑の舞台：夢を売る仕事 ～東京ホストクラブ～」(Staged Seduction: Selling Dreams in a Tokyo Host Club). Book Talk at the Center for Gender Research and Social Sciences, Hitotsubashi Universit. Tokyo, Japan
(06/29/2016). Staged Seduction: Selling Dreams in a Tokyo Host Club. Book Talk at the Institute of Comparative Culture Lecture Series, Sophia University. Tokyo, Japan
(06/16/2016). Staged Seduction: Selling Dreams in a Tokyo Host Club. Book Talk at the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University. Tokyo, Japan
(04/01/2016). Staged Seduction: Selling Dreams in a Tokyo Host Club. Book Talk at the Kinokuniya Bookstore. Seattle, WA
(03/02/2016). Staged Seduction: Selling Dreams in a Tokyo Host Club. Book Talk at the Department of Sociology & Anthropology, Washburn University. Topeka, KS
Selected Grants
Takeyama, Akiko, (Principal), 2017-18 Sabbatical Leave, . University (KU or KUMC). Status: Funded.
Takeyama, Akiko, (Principal), Fellowship, 2014-15 Japan Foundation Research Fellowship, $53,700 ({ }), Submitted 09/01/2013 (12/22/2014 - 12/21/2015). Not-for-Profit (not Foundation). Status: Funded.
Takeyama, Akiko, (Principal), , #2301772, 2013 General Research Fund, Center for Research, Inc., KU, $10,000, (05/01/2013 - 07/31/2014). University (KU or KUMC). Status: Funded.
Takeyama, Akiko, (Principal), Wenner-Gren Hunt Postdoctoral Fellowship, Wenner-Gren Foundation, New York, $40,000, (01/01/2010 - 12/31/2011). Foundation. Status: Funded.
Selected Awards & Honors
Sabbatical Leave
University of Kansas
2017 - 2018
Shortlisted for 2017 Michelle Rosaldo Book Prize
Association of Feminist Anthropology in American Anthropological Association
2017
