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Dr. Kimberly Hassel

@kimberly-hassel.bsky.social
920 followers 439 following 50 posts

Dominican New Yorker. Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Duke University. Anthropologist specializing in digital culture, youth culture, Japan, & Afro-Asia. Princeton PhD | Dartmouth, MMUF, & IRT alum

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Dr. Kimberly Hassel @kimberly-hassel.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
We had so much fun moderating! Thanks to everyone who joined us, and HUGE thanks to the amazing panelists for their compelling presentations!
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Dr. Aurélie Petit 👩🏻‍💻✨ @aurelievpetit.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
It’s happening tonight!! ⬇️⬇️⬇️ join us for a conversation with @colleensmangarecs.bsky.social about content creation in the manga/anime space ☺️☺️☺️
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Dr. Aurélie Petit 👩🏻‍💻✨ @aurelievpetit.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
✨Page for the event is up on @jppinfo.bsky.social! japanpastandpresent.org/en/global-ev...
japanpastandpresent.org
Queer and Feminist Perspectives on Japanese Popular Cultures Symposium 2026 | Japan Past & Present
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Dr. Aurélie Petit 👩🏻‍💻✨ @aurelievpetit.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Also I will give a talk about my thesis (“Of Tentacles and Men: How anime shaped the Internet as we know it”) followed by a discussion with @kimberly-hassel.bsky.social 🥹🥹✌️🐙🐙 come hear about the early days of online anime fandom and SEXISM
static.klipy.com
Ebichu Hamtaro Chops Carrot with Cleaver
ALT: Ebichu Hamtaro Chops Carrot with Cleaver
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Dr. Aurélie Petit 👩🏻‍💻✨ @aurelievpetit.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
✨ Take your ticket (free!) for the Queer and Feminist Perspectives on Japanese Popular Cultures Symposium 2026 🌈🥹⬇️⬇️ join us online from September 14 to 17 and listen to talks on fashion, manga, anime, video games, idols, etc by scholars from around the world!! events.humanitix.com/queer-and-fe...
events.humanitix.com
Queer and Feminist Perspectives on Japanese Popular Cultures Symposium 2026
A platform for critical discussions about gender and Japanese animation, fashion, video games, literature and digital cultures
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Dr. Kimberly Hassel @kimberly-hassel.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Thrilled to be co-organizing this event featuring Yuichiro Onishi, which is also the first talk in the Black Pacific series hosted by the Triangle Korea-Japan Forum and the Asian/Pacific Studies Institute. Please join us if you are in the Triangle area!
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Kiana Mai @kianamai.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
NEXT MONTH!
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Jonathan E. Abel @jonabel.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Looking forward to this: ONLINE ROUNDTABLE Modern Japanese Literary Studies Hosted by Il Giappone. Studi e Ricerche REGISTRATION forms.cloud.microsoft/e/5cSq6CFDqs
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Durba Mitra @durba.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
there are so many grifters and violent men in positions of power in the academy who are committing serious crimes, sexually harassing students, producing false research for fascists, and aiding and funding genocide. they feel no shame, they face no consequence, and no one is hounding them to death.
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Dr. Kimberly Hassel @kimberly-hassel.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Absolutely tragic. And yet white academics who are abusers, assailants, and thieves aren’t hounded by colleagues, academia, and/or the media.
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Dr. Kimberly Hassel @kimberly-hassel.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Mark your calendars and consider submitting an abstract for this AMAZING transnational symposium! So grateful that a space like this exists!
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NCC (北米日本研究資料調整協議会) @nccjapaninfo.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Researching East Asian medical history? Dr. Matthew Hayes recently announced the digitization of Duke Library’s late Edo period medical manuscripts! The collection shows the diversity of medical knowledge in the early 19th c. Explore 63 volumes: archives.lib.duke.edu/catalog/japa... #NCCSpecialist
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Kjell Ericson @kjelldericson.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
**Postdoc positions** Kyoto University has opened up applications for the Hakubi Project, due May 17, 2026. This is a cream of the crop postdoc ("all fields, from basic to applied"), 5 (FIVE!) years, great research budget. Please apply or let others know! www.hakubi.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/recruitme...
hakubi.kyoto-u.ac.jp
採用情報 | Kyoto University|The Hakubi Project
次世代を担う、優秀な若手研究者の育成プロジェクト
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Dr. Kimberly Hassel @kimberly-hassel.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
Ellen’s workshop had a tremendous impact on my book project and writing practices. I highly recommend her workshop to folks who are working on a book, especially if it is their first! Thanks to Ellen's guidance, I was able to finish a full draft of my book a few months after the workshop. ✨
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Dr. Kimberly Hassel @kimberly-hassel.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Honored to be moderating this important conversation. Please join us over Zoom tonight at 7 PM (9 AM JST)!
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Dr. Kimberly Hassel @kimberly-hassel.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
Thrilled to be featured in the January 2026 issue of @thenation.com with my colleague David Landes! I argue “no” & draw attention to how the loneliness crisis is a symptom of late-stage capitalism & a society unable to support its youth. I also share insights on digital & youth culture in Japan. 📱
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 20/12/2025
“But that praise usually masks the reality that we’re absorbing stress the system refuses to hold. We become the buffer, the translator, the proof of concept, the person who makes things work without ever being asked what it costs us.” open.substack.com/pub/blckgirl...
open.substack.com
I Don’t Want a Seat at Every Table That Costs Me My Nervous System
On Discernment, Power, and What Access Is Actually Asking of Us
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Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
Interested in data centers? In critical data center studies? Here's an open biblio -- anyone can add or borrow from it. Please do add anything that's missing. Enjoy! docs.google.com/document/d/1...
docs.google.com
Critical Data Center Studies
Critical Data Center Studies Books Amoore, Louise. 2020. Ethics Algorithms and the Attributes of Ourselves and Others Duke https://www.dukeupress.edu/cloud-ethics Bedir, M; Groen. L; Kuijpers. M; Sa...
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Dr. Kimberly Hassel @kimberly-hassel.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
Returned to my PhD alma mater to speak with alumni, faculty, and current Princeton EAS PhD students about career pathways in academia! And in a full circle moment, I finished the first full draft of my book manuscript (!!) in the same cafe where I wrote my dissertation. 🥳 Excited for next steps!!
Professor Kimberly Hassel posing in front of a banner that says: “Next Chapters: Conversations with East Asian Studies Alumni.” She is pointing to her own image on the banner. Photograph of a cafe table with an open laptop, cookie, iced coffee, and water bottle. The laptop has a document with the tentative name of Hassel’s book: “Intimate Solitudes and Solidarities: Digital Sociality and Pandemic Times in Japan.”
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Dr. Kimberly Hassel @kimberly-hassel.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
I’m on the ballot for the Diversity and Equity Committee! As an Afro-Latina scholar in Asian Studies, advocacy for scholars of underrepresented identities has been central to my service. If elected, I will work with AAS in aiding these scholars to thrive—not just survive—in the field.
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Dr. Kimberly Hassel @kimberly-hassel.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
Dream sale from my dream press!
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Dr. Akil Fletcher @theblackblackmage.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
Hey folks, I was lucky enough to be invited onto Ashley ML Guajardo (Brown)'s stream/podcast, The Work Left Behind. If you're free Thursday night at 9 pm EST, feel free to stop by! Twitch twitch.tv/professor_ashley YouTube www.youtube.com/@TheResearch... Spotify open.spotify.com/show/6pATELL...
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Jennifer C. Nash @jennifercnash.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Year 5 of the Black Feminist Theory Summer Institute: Applications are open, more info on our website. Please spread the word.
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Japan Past & Present @jppinfo.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
Japan Past & Present is pleased to announce that online registration is now open for Japan Past & Present’s symposium, "Humanistic Approaches to the Study of Premodern Japanese Law," to be held at UCLA with virtual streaming from September 26–27, 2025. ⚖️ japanpastandpresent.org/en/jpp-event...
A poster for the symposium "Humanistic Approaches to the Study of Premodern Japanese Law" Sept 26-27, 2025, UCLA. It features horizontal excerpts of a Japanese painting showing three men in kimono of various colors sitting on the left, some pine trees and clouds in the middle, and a man kneeling reading from a piece of paper on the right.
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amy brown 👻 @amybrown.xyz · 22/08/2025
this iconic advertising copywriter named Kathy Hepinstall Parks died over the weekend and I wanted to share something from her website I thought Bluesky would like
Why should I write better when a machine can do it for me?
Because actually no one can do it for you, because your voice is unique among all the people on earth. Siri never petted a horse's neck. Alexa has never been ghosted by the captain of the football team. But you have lived, your heart is beating, you have suffered, and you have something important to say. It's a human's job, to use words, and whatever job you give to a machine, that part of your brain goes dark. Maybe it's worth it when it comes to remembering phone numbers and directions, but when that part of your brain that uses words goes dark, that's a vast area that's very close to your soul. Don't let some internet platform convince you that what you have to say and create isn't worthwhile. Words are the echo of your soul. Honing that echo matters.
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Nate Ledbetter @nhledbetter.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
First day (night) has been worth staying up until almost 4 AM @kimberly-hassel.bsky.social @paularcurtis.bsky.social Great stuff, provocative discussion. And Prof. Schmidt-Hori taking on internet trolls (and winning). Good stuff!!
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wells @wells.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
omg??? @kimberly-hassel.bsky.social otaku hot girls rise up!!!
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Lindsay Nelson-Santos @newsfromnihon.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
Check this out online or in person! On Friday I'll be presenting on teaching Japanese Studies in Japanese universities alongside Junxiao Leng and Alexandra Hambleton.
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Dr. Kimberly Hassel @kimberly-hassel.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
Excited to be back in Tokyo to present at this inaugural symposium! Please drop by/tune into our panel on 05/29: “Whose Japan Is It Anyway?: Navigating the Competing Desires and Crossed Thresholds as Japan Studies Scholars and More.” I’ll be presenting with Junnan Chen and Sachi Schmidt-Hori! ✨
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Lindsay Nelson-Santos @newsfromnihon.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
Come work with me! My dept. at Meiji U. has an opening for a full-time, permanent faculty position (専任). Candidate must have native or near-native fluency in Japanese and be able to teach in both Japanese and English. App deadline: July 4. More info: (#7 on list): www.meiji.ac.jp/seikei/koubo...
meiji.ac.jp
政治経済学部教員の公募について | 明治大学
明治大学のオフィシャルサイトです。大学案内、受験生向けの入学案内、在学生向けコンテンツ、また一般の方向けの公開講座情報など、明治大学に関する情報をご覧頂けます。
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Sarah @wadadlifeminist.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Just listened to an *incredible* keynote today by Dr. @kimberly-hassel.bsky.social, titled “Mediating Afro-Japanese Encounters from Yasuke to Megan Thee Stallion.” Dr. Hassel’s neologism #OtakuHotGirlStudies promises some exciting transnational feminist scholarship! 🤩 👏🏽
events.humanitix.com
Queer and Feminist Perspectives on Japanese Popular Cultures Symposium 2025
A platform for critical discussions about gender and Japanese animation, fashion, video games, literature and digital cultures
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Debra Occhi is @debraocchi.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Great keynote and so much more going on here ✨💖
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Rainy Studios (٭°̧̧̧ω°̧̧̧٭)–🛍️BL Shop Open!🛍️–Got Laid Off (+=ω=) @samaburime.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
I'm sitting in on this for the Queer and Feminist Perspectives on Japanese Popular Cultures Symposium 2025 and it's fascinatingly wonderful! You should follow Kimberly! Especially if you're interested in Black focused feminist perspectives on Japanese media!💯🙌🏼
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wells @wells.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
"can the otaku hot girl speak?" - @kimberly-hassel.bsky.social phewww i need that book/paper *now*
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wells @wells.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
all this to say, dr. hassel's keynote on "Mediating Afro-Japanese Encounters from Yasuke to Megan Thee Stallion" is incredible!!
Mediating Afro-Japanese Encounters from Yasuke to Megan Thee Stallion by Kimberly Hassel
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Dr. Kimberly Hassel @kimberly-hassel.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
I actually DM'ed Megan Thee Stallion and invited her to my keynote tomorrow, which is titled: "Mediating Afro-Japanese Encounters from Yasuke to Megan Thee Stallion." 😛🔥 Might be a long shot, but if she attends my soul WILL leave my body. #OtakuHotGirlStudies
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Dr. Aurélie Petit 👩🏻‍💻✨ @aurelievpetit.bsky.social · 17/05/2025
Starting Monday!!!!! I’m so excited!! We are finalizing some details and it’s gonna be so so so good 😍 We sold out so quickly (300 tickets in 10 days) but we released a few more tickets to let people in from the waiting list 🌸🌸🌸🌸
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Dr. Kimberly Hassel @kimberly-hassel.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
Had a full circle moment this month: I delivered my presentation for the 2025 meeting of AJLS in the SAME ROOM as my undergrad senior honors thesis defense in 2016! I was high-key emotional to be back at Dartmouth as a Duke professor. Grateful for those who helped me get here. 🥹
Kimberly Hassel defending her senior honors thesis in 2016. She has short curly black hair and is wearing a pink scarf. She is standing behind a podium.Kimberly Hassel standing in front of a projector with a presentation slide: "Translating Encounter: Digital Mediations of Afro-Japan from Yasuke to Megan Thee Stallion." She has curly brown hair reaching up to her shoulders. She is wearing glasses and smiling. She is wearing a patterned long dress.
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Meg Rose @meganrose.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
Excited to be giving a public lecture at Kanagawa University, 21st of May about my research for my book on Harajuku (currently in the works)💫💫 “Hyperfeminine Harajuku: Exploring Queer KAWAII Practices in a Tokyo Subcultural District” It’s both online and in person- details on the flyer 🌈💕
Abstract:
In this talk I explore the creative practices of Harajuku’s subcultures. Harajuku is a town in Tokyo that is a safe space for women, men and gender diverse people as early as the 1970s. Over recent decades, numerous KAWAII fashion subcultures have emerged in this district, each with their own specific conventions, aesthetics, purposes and intents including lolita fashion, decora fashion, yume kawaii, fairy kei, menhera. KAWAII is a significant cultural site for marginalized people to find collective safety and creatively work through their experiences and find a place of belonging. In the increasingly fractured social landscape of Tokyo, an eclectic group of artists, photographers, musicians, and designers come together in a constellation of spectacular bodies to play with KAWAII fashion. Their efforts are supported by underground queer feminist movements of Tokyo that protest, disrupt, and agitate through art, talk, and zine collectives in a blaze of shimmering hot pink.
The talk considers the differing ways KAWAII is queered by these groups as an expression of dis/affection, in/dependence and a/sexuality. Queering KAWAII refers to a process of estrangement and de- familiarisation of cuteness as a form of hyperfemininity. As part of global queer femme cultures, hyperfemininity contaminates gender binaries, and exaggerates and pushes the parameters of patriarchal femininity as a form of disruption, experimentation, and reflection. Centred on the affective stories, fashion objects and garments and texts that KAWAII fashion practitioners create, this talk explores the social motivations, politics and ideologies of this subcultural movement. The talk traverses themes of marginality, vulnerability, and women and gender diverse people’s defiance in facing structural sexism, sexual violence, queerphobia, and ableism.

To Attend Online (Zoom):
Access the Zoom Meeting via the following Meeting ID and Passcode. Preregistration is NOT required to attend via Zoom.
Me…
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Asian/Pacific Studies Institute at Duke University @apsi-duke.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
We're looking forward to your keynote talk (and to the presentation by our own Lilia Yan!) 🎉
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Dr. Kimberly Hassel @kimberly-hassel.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
Absolutely thrilled to be delivering a keynote for the Queer and Feminist Perspectives in Japanese Popular Cultures Symposium 2025. Please register if you haven’t already! Can’t wait to think with everyone on digital mediations of Afro-Japanese encounters and #otakuhotgirlstudies. ✨
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Dr. Akil Fletcher @theblackblackmage.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Since I will be playing Assassin's Creed Shadows for the first time tonight, I figured it would be a good time to reshare this article I co-authored with Kimberly Hassel and John G Russel! If there is interest, I may consider streaming my playthrough! criticalasianstudies.org/commentary/2...
criticalasianstudies.org
Commentary | Kimberly Hassel, Akil Fletcher, and John G. Russell, Stranger Than Fiction?: Yasuke and the Assassin’s Creed: Shadows Controversy — Critical Asian Studies
Introduction “Nothing is true; everything is permitted.” — Assassin’s maxim, Assassin’s Creed On May 15th, 2024, video game publisher Ubisoft released the trailer for the anticipated next in...
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Dr. Kimberly Hassel @kimberly-hassel.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
An inspiring and important read!
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Dr. Kimberly Hassel @kimberly-hassel.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
Tomorrow! So excited to be in conversation with everyone. Also realizing that this is coinciding with the release of Assassin’s Creed: Shadows!
Poster advertising a talk at Penn State on Thursday, March 20 from 3:30-5 PM in 124 Sparks Building. The talk is delivered by Dr. Kimberly Hassel and is titled: “Samurai, Blerds, and Otaku Hot Girls: Mediating Afro-Japanese Encounters from Yasuke to Megan Thee Stallion.”
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Dr. Kimberly Hassel @kimberly-hassel.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
Friends and colleagues at/near Penn State! I'll be giving a public talk hosted by the Humanities Institute on Thursday, March 20th from 3:30-5:00 PM. Would love to see some familiar faces in the crowd as I present some new and ongoing research! events.la.psu.edu/event/mediat...
events.la.psu.edu
“Samurai, Blerds, and Otaku Hot Girls: Mediating Afro-Japanese Encounters from Yasuke to Megan Thee Stallion” | Liberal Arts Events
In this talk, I discuss the representations of Afro-Japanese encounters in digital culture using the case studies of Yasuke and Megan Thee Stallion. Yasuke, a historical figure and Black African samur...
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Tao Leigh Goffe | 道 | PhD @taoleighgoffe.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Publication day for my first book - DARK LABORATORY!! Released today. So happy to be in London with family. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
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Dr. Paula R. Curtis @paularcurtis.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
Teaching tomorrow with this great @criticasianstds.bsky.social piece by @kimberly-hassel.bsky.social, @theblackblackmage.bsky.social, & John G. Russell on the Yasuke/Assassin's Creed controversy in tandem with my lecture on Nobunaga & modern Sengoku legacies. criticalasianstudies.org/commentary/2...
Screencap of a lecture slide with a dark gray background featuring on the left the title of the article "Stranger Than Fiction?: Yasuke and the Assassin’s Creed: Shadows Controversy" with screencaps of the black samurai character and female shinobi character from the video game and on the right three portraits of the authors, Kimberly Hassel, Akil Fletcher, and John G. Russell.
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Dr. Kimberly Hassel @kimberly-hassel.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
So excited to be a part of this! Check out our panel: "Reimagining Japanese Studies & Global Asias: Positionality, Perspectives, Possibilities." sites.psu.edu/vergeglobala...
sites.psu.edu
Global Asias 7 Conference Program | Global Asias Initiative
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Dr. Kimberly Hassel @kimberly-hassel.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
Please consider submitting an abstract for this fantastic symposium!
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Dr. Kimberly Hassel @kimberly-hassel.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
I HIGHLY recommend Ellen's workshop for anyone working on a book project (especially a first book)! I participated in Ellen's workshop last summer and emerged with a solid book narrative, cohesive chapter flow, more confidence in my project, and new friends! Feel free to message me with questions!
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