Information on researchers - James Welker

(Last updated : 2026-08-24 16:13:04)

James Welker
Kanagawa University Cross-Cultural and Japanese Studies Department of Cross-Cultural Studies

Professor

■ Works

■ Present specialized field

Modern and Contemporary Japanese Cultural History, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Globalization

■ Book and Papers

1.	Book	Transfiguring Women in Late Twentieth Century Japan: Feminists, Lesbians, and Girls' Comics Artists and Fans (Single) 2024/07
2.	Book	Afterword: Boys Love as a World-Shaping Genre (Single) 2022/05
3.	Book	Introduction: Boys Love Media in Its Asian Transfigurations (Single) 2022/05
4.	Book	Queer Transfigurations: Boys Love Media in Asia (Collaboration) 2022/05
5.	Book	BL studies: An introduction (Collaboration) 2020/07
6.	Book	Japanese Media and Popular Culture: An Open-Access Digital Initiative of the University of Tokyo (Collaboration) 2020
7.	Book	Queer(ing) (special issue) (Collaboration) 2020
8.	Book	BL Opening Doors: Sexuality and Gender Transfigured in Asia (Collaboration) 2019/10
9.	Book	BL Opening Doors: Sexuality and Gender Transfigured in Asia (Collaboration) 2019/10
10.	Book	Global Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer History (Collaboration) 2019
11.	Book	Rethinking Japanese Feminisms (Single) 2018
12.	Book	Rethinking Japanese Feminisms (Collaboration) 2018
13.	Book	Rethinking Japanese Feminisms (Collaboration) 2018
14.	Book	Boys Love Manga and Beyond: History, Culture, and Community in Japan (Collaboration) 2015
15.	Book	Boys Love Manga and Beyond: History, Culture, and Community in Japan (Collaboration) 2015
16.	Book	Boys Love Manga and Beyond: History, Culture, and Community in Japan (Single) 2015
17.	Book	Multiple Translation Communities in Contemporary Japan (Collaboration) 2015
18.	Book	Girl Reading Girl in Japan (Collaboration) 2010
19.	Book	AsiaPacifiQueer: Rethinking Genders and Sexualities (Collaboration) 2008
20.	Book	Queer Voices from Japan: First-Person Narratives from Japan's Sexual Minorities 2007
21.	Book	Queer Voices from Japan: First-Person Narratives from Japan's Sexual Minorities (Collaboration) 2007
22.	Book	Queer Voices from Japan: First-Person Narratives from Japan's Sexual Minorities 2007
23.	Book	Queer Voices from Japan: First-Person Narratives from Japan's Sexual Minorities 2007
24.	Book	Queer Voices from Japan: First-Person Narratives from Japan's Sexual Minorities 2007
25.	Book	Queer Voices from Japan: First-Person Narratives from Japan's Sexual Minorities 2007
26.	Book	Queer Voices from Japan: First-Person Narratives from Japan's Sexual Minorities 2007
27.	Book	Lesbian Voices: Canada and the World: Theory, Literature, Cinema (Collaboration) 2006
28.	Book	Genders, Transgenders and Sexualities in Japan (Collaboration) 2005
29.	Papers	Mark McLelland and Queer Careers in Japan Studies (Single) 2021/12
30.	Papers	Queering our Worlds: Remembering Mark McLelland (special issue) (Collaboration) 2021/12
31.	Papers	Introduction: Queer(ing) Japanese Popular Culture (Single) 2020
32.	Papers	Review of Pasfield-Neotifou, Sarah, and Cathy Sell, eds. with Queenie Chan. Manga Vision: Cultural and Communicative Perspectives (Clayton, Australia: Monash University Publishing, 2016). (Single) 2018/03
33.	Papers	Gender and sexuality and globalization (Collaboration) 2017/11
34.	Papers	Toward a History of "Lesbian History" in Japan (Single) 2017/04
35.	Papers	Bright Lights, Big Dreams: Global Gayness and Privilege in Manila--Review of Bobby Benedicto, Under Bright Lights: Gay Manila and the Global Scene (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014) (Single) 2016/03
36.	Papers	Thoughts on the representation of yuri fandom in Kurata Uso's Yuri danshi (Single) 2014/12
37.	Papers	(Re)Positioning (Asian) Queer Studies (Single) 2014
38.	Papers	Review, Homosexuality and Manliness in Postwar Japan, by Jonathan D. Mackintosh (Routledge, 2010) (Single) 2013
39.	Papers	Review, Tokyo Cyberpunk, by Steven T. Brown (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) (Single) 2013
40.	Papers	Review, Straight from the Heart: Gender, Intimacy, and the Cultural Production of Shojo Manga, by Jennifer S.Prough (University of Hawai'i Press, 2011) (Single) 2012
41.	Papers	Flower Tribes and Female Desire: Complicating Early Female Consumption of Male Homosexuality in Shojo Manga (Collaboration) 2011
42.	Papers	Review, Boys' Love Manga: Essays on the Sexual Ambiguity and Cross-Cultural Fandom of the Genre, Antonia Levi, Mark McHarry, Dru Pagliosotti, eds. (MacFarland, 2010) (Single) 2011
43.	Papers	Telling Her Story: Narrating a Japanese Lesbian Community (Single) 2010
44.	Papers	Transfiguring the Female: Women and Girls Engaging the Transnational in Late Twentieth Century Japan (Single) 2010
45.	Papers	Review, Barbara Summerhawk and Kimberley Hughes, eds., Sparkling Rain and Other Fiction from Japan of Women Who Love Women (Chicago: New Victoria, 2008). (Single) 2009/04
46.	Papers	Review, Jim Reichert, In the Company of Men:Representations of Male-Male Sexuality in Meiji Literature (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008) (Single) 2008
47.	Papers	Of Queer Import(s): Sexualities, Genders and Rights in Asia (special issue) (Collaboration) 2006/11
48.	Papers	Celebrating Lesbian Sexuality: An Interview with Inoue Meimy, Editor of Japanese Lesbian Erotic Lifestyle Magazine Carmilla 2006/01
49.	Papers	Clandestine Wandering in the World of Women: An Interview with Freelance Journalist "Y" 2006/01
50.	Papers	Lesbian/Gay Studies 2006/01
51.	Papers	Beautiful, Borrowed, and Bent: Boys' Love as Girls' Love in Shojo Manga (Single) 2006
52.	Papers	Introduction: Of Queer Import(s) in Asia (Collaboration) 2006
53.	Papers	Telling Her Story: Narrating a Japanese Lesbian Community (Single) 2004
54.	Papers	Review of Sharon Chalmers, Emerging Lesbian Voices from Japan (London: Routledge, 2002) (Single) 2003/08
55.	Papers	Toward a Pedagogy of Women's Liberation: Freire, the Patriarchy and the Foreign Language Classroom (Single) 2003
56.	Papers	Telling Herstory: The Japanese Lesbian Community 1971-2001: Selections From "Komyuniti no rekishi 1971-2001: Nenpyo to intabyu de furikaeru" (Community history 1971-2001: Reflecting back with timelines and interviews) [annotated translation] (Single) 2002
57.	Papers	Dramatizing Classroom Activities to Energize and Motivate Students (Single) 2000/03
58.	Papers	A Thematic Week at a Small School (Collaboration) 1999/02
59.	Papers	Lights Up-Drama in the ESL Classroom (Single) 1999
60.	Papers	Easy English Communication at the Secondary Level: Easy Ways Teachers Who Are Non-Native Speakers Can Use More English in Class (reprint) (Single) 1996/11
61.	Papers	Easy English Communication at the Secondary Level: Easy Ways Teachers Who Are Non-Native Speakers Can Use More English in Class (Single) 1996/07
62.	Papers	The Idea of a Usage Checker: Theoretical and Pedagogical Implications of Usage Checking Technology (Single) 1994
63.	Other	Review, Hagio Moto, Heart of Thomas, trans. Matt Thorn (1974; Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2012) (Single) 2015/05
5 display
All display(63)

■ Academic conference presentation

1.	2026/05	Boys Love at Fan Events in Southeast Asia: Reading the Room (Mechademia 2026)
2.	2025/06	Global Queer Asias: New Directions (AAS-in-Asia)
3.	2023/11	Overseas Trans* Fans of BL, Yuri, and Trans Media (LGBTQ Issues and the Globalization of "BL")
4.	2022/03	Boys Love and Yuri as Trans-Formative: Overseas Consumption of BL and Yuri Media and Gender Identity (Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference)
5.	2022/03	From Cool Japan to Cruel Japan: A Roundtable on The Multilayered Effects of Japan's Extreme Border Restrictions on Japanese Studies (Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference)
6.	2021/06	The Yuri Genre in Its Transnational Permutations (Mechademia 2021)
7.	2019/07	Looking Outward, Looking Inward: Kiyooka Sumiko's Transnational, Transhistoric Lesbian Engagements (AAS-in-Asia)
8.	2019/06	Kiyooka Sumiko and the Possibility of a Lesbian Gaze in Late 1960s Japan (Queer History Conference 2019)
9.	2017/06	Was the Women's Liberation Movement Hostile to or Fertile Ground for Lesbian Feminism in Japan? (Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Genders, and Sexualities)
10.	2017/03	Lesbian Studies Avant la Lettre: Resituating Photographer Kiyooka Sumiko (Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting)
11.	2016/03	From Vicarious Voyages to Jumbo Jets: Shojo Manga Artists and Fans Head Abroad in the 1970s and 1980s (Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association National Conference)
12.	2016/03	Reading the Liberatory Promise of a Third Gender in(to) Manga (Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting)
13.	2016/02	Is Rezubian to Lesbian as Rajio Is to Radio? Tracing an Alternative "Lesbian" Continuum in Japan (What Is & How to Do LGBT History: Approaches, Methods and Subjects)
14.	2015/06	(Mis)Representing Japan to Western Audiences (roundtable (Asian Studies Conference Japan)
15.	2015/03	Inclusion and Diversity among Fans of Yuri Media in Japan (Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting)
16.	2015/01	Defining Yuri Manga Fandom in Japan: Women and Men Reading and Writing About Girl-Girl Romance Media (15th Annual International Conference on Japanese Studies/the 6th Women's Manga Conference)
17.	2014/11	From Women's Liberation to Lesbian Feminism in Japan: Thinking About Same-Sex Desire Within and Beyond the Uman Ribu Movement (Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting)
18.	2013/04	From Women's Liberation to Lesbian Feminism: Thinking About Same-Sex Desire Within and Beyond the Uman Ribu Movement (Sex, Gender, and Society: Rethinking Japanese Feminisms)
19.	2012/03	Feminist, Lesbian-Feminist, and Commercial Transfigurations of The Hite Report in Japan (Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting)
20.	2011/01	The Revolution Cannot Be Translated: Translation's (Limited) Influence on Discourse of Women's Liberation in 1970s Japan (American Historical Association Annual Meeting)
21.	2010/11	Feminism in Transit(ion): International Travel and Feminist Activism in 1970s Japan (American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting)
22.	2009/05	Key Words: Unlocking Histories of Women's Gender and Sexual Liberation in Late Showa Japan (Revisiting Postwar Japan as History: A Twenty Year Check-Up on the State of the Field)
23.	2008/04	Crossing the Line: The (Homo)Eroticized Male and Queer Female Identifications in Japan (Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting)
24.	2007/06	Thinking Globally, Identifying Locally: Japanese Lesbian Community and Identify Formation in a Global Frame (National Women's Studies Association Annual Meeting)
25.	2006/03	Japanese Colonial Queer: "Perversion" and the Use of Colonial Space (Sexuality Out of Place)
26.	2005/07	Reaching Out from the Margins: Queer Community Formation in an "Aesthete" Magazine for Teenage Girls in Japan (Sexualities, Genders, and Rights in Asia: 1st International Conference of Asian Queer Studies)
27.	2004/07	From The Well of Loneliness to the akarui rezubian: Western Translations and Lesbian Identities (Asian Studies Association of Australia Bi-Annual Meeting)
28.	2003/08	Beautiful, Borrowed, and Bent: Boys' Love as Girls' Love in Shojo Manga (Third International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS3))
29.	2001/12	From The Cherry Orchard to Sakura no sono: Translating Sexual Identities (AsiaPacifiQueer 3)
5 display
All display(29)

■ Activity in society

1.	2024/12	"Transfiguring the Female in Late Twentieth-Century Japan: Feminists, Lesbians, and Girls' Comics Artists and Fans," book interview by Jingyi Li
2.	2024/12	What Do BL, Radical Feminism, and the Lesbian Community in Japan Have in Common?
3.	2024/08	On the Interwoven Histories of the Feminist Movement, the Lesbian Communities, and Boys Love in Japan (fan convention talk)
4.	2023/12	"BL in Academia" or "Academia in BL" (fan convention panel)
5.	2023/11	My Notes and Pics from BL, Yuri, and Other Queer Fan Events around the World (fan convention panel)
6.	2023/11	The History of Boys Love: Love between Beautiful Men (Mostly) for Female Fans in Japan (fan convention panel)
7.	2023/08	BL Studies: Academic Perspectives & Your Questions (online fan convention panel)
8.	2023/07	Queer Transfigurations: Boys Love Media in Asia
9.	2023/06	An Intro to BL Scholarship with Special Guest: Dr. James Welker
10.	2023	Program Note, BL Metamorphosis (film)
11.	2022/12	BL, Yuri, and Trans* Identities Overseas (fan convention panel)
12.	2022/12	Researching BL and Yuri: A Conversation (online fan convention panel)
13.	2022/08	"Queer Transfigurations: Boys Love Media in Asia" book interview by Linshan Jiang
14.	2022/06	Meet the Editor of and (a Few) Contributors to Queer Transfigurations
15.	2022/06	Overseas Trans* Fans of BL and Yuri (online fan convention panel)
16.	2022/02	"Effects of novel corona [virus] border policy," by Sasaki Kazato
17.	2022	Foreword
18.	2021/12	How BL and Yuri Has Grown over the Decades (online fan convention panel)
19.	2021/12	"Scholars Launch Effort to Assist Peers outside Japan" by Rochelle Kopp
20.	2021/06	BL Gets Around: Notes from My Research Travels (online fan convention panel)
21.	2020/12	Toward a History of BL (online fan convention panel)
22.	2020/01	"Exploring the Sociocultural Impact of Boys' Love in Asia with James Welker" by Rhys Ureta
23.	2019/09	Boys Love (BL) Manga and Beyond: Tracing the History of a Very Queer Genre (fan convention panel)
24.	2019/08	History of Queer Manga (fan convention panel)
25.	2019/07	On the Circulation and Transformation of Boys Love Media around Asia (fan event panel)
26.	2019/05	Queer Manga: History and Cultural Context (fan convention panel)
27.	2018/12	"Boys Love" in Japan: Manga and So Much More
28.	2018/08	"Are fujoshi exploiting male homosexuality? Probing the pluses and minuses of BL in the LGBT era" by Anraku Yukiko
29.	2015/09	"Japan's Trans-Friendly Comic Book Revolution" by Britt Peterson
30.	2015/08	"Why an Anime Character Can Be Openly Gay in Japan, but You Can't" by Naomi Gingold
5件表示
全件表示(30件)

■ Research topic, funded research, and department laboratory expense

1.	2017～2022	Queer Transfigurations: Boys Love Media in Asia
2.	2011/07～2011/08	Thinking Globally, Identifying Locally: Re-Envisioning "Women" in Late Twentieth-Century Japan

■ Lecturer and lecture

1.	2026/04	Boys Love Media from Its Japanese (?) Origins to Its Transnational and Transmedia Present to Its AI Future (?) (Taipei (online))
2.	2026/04	A Contextualized History of Boys Love (BL) Manga: A Peek into Transfiguring Women in Late Twentieth-Century Japan (Venice (Online))
3.	2026/03	A Brief History of Boys Love (San Francisco, CA)
4.	2025/11	Trains and boats and planes ... and shōjo manga: Artists and fans traveling abroad in the 1970s and 1980s (Tokyo)
5.	2025/11	Leaving Home to Find Lesbian Selves: Overseas Travel and the (Re)Crafting of Lesbian Identities in 1970s Japan (Kyoto)
6.	2025/10	Reimagining "Women" 1970s-1980s Japan: Feminists, Lesbians, and Queer Manga Artists and Fans (Rutgers, NJ (Online))
7.	2025/06	Queer Transfigurations of BL (Seoul)
8.	2025/03	Rethinking "Women": Feminists, Lesbians, and Queer Manga Artists and Fans in 1970s-1980s Japan (Atlanta, GA)
9.	2025/03	Book talk on Transfiguring Women in Late Twentieth-Century Japan: Feminists, Lesbians, and Girls' Comics Artists and Fans (New York, NY)
10.	2025/03	Rethinking "Women": Feminists, Lesbians, and Queer Manga Artists and Fans in 1970s-1980s Japan (Philadelphia, PA)
11.	2025/03	Book talk on Transfiguring Women in Late Twentieth-Century Japan: Feminists, Lesbians, and Girls' Comics Artists and Fans (Philadelphia, PA)
12.	2025/03	Feminists, Lesbians, and Queer Manga Artists and Fans Reconsidering "Women" in 1970s-1980s Japan (University Park, PA)
13.	2025/03	Reimagining "Women" in 1970s-1980s Japan and Beyond: Feminists, Lesbians, and Queer Shōjo Manga Artists and Fans (St. Paul, MN)
14.	2025/03	Feminists, Lesbians, and Queer Shōjo Manga Artists and Fans Reimagining "Women" in 1970s-1980s Japan (Northfield, MN)
15.	2025/02	Reimagining "Women" in 1970s-1980s Japan: Feminists, Lesbians, and Queer Shōjo Manga Artists and Fans (Evanston, IL)
16.	2025/02	Reenvisioning "Women" in Late Twentieth-Century Japan: Feminists, Lesbians, and Queer Manga Artists and Fans (St. Louis, MO)
17.	2025/02	Feminists, Lesbians, and Queer Manga Artists and Fans Rethinking "Women" in 1970s-1980s Japan (Urbana, IL)
18.	2025/02	Feminists, Lesbians, and Queer Manga Artists and Fans Reenvisioning "Women" in Late Twentieth-Century Japan (Lafayette, IN)
19.	2025/02	Feminists, Lesbians, and Queer Manga Artists and Fans Rethinking "Women" in Late Twentieth-Century Japan
20.	2025/02	Feminists, Lesbians, and Boys Love Manga Artists and Fans: Rethinking "Women" in Late Twentieth-Century Japan (Indianapolis, IN)
21.	2025/02	Repicturing "Women" in 1970s-1980s Japan and Beyond: Feminists, Lesbians, and Queer Shōjo Manga Artists and Fans (Lewiston, ME)
22.	2025/01	Reenvisioning "Women" in 1970s-1980s Japan: Feminists, Lesbians, and Queer Shōjo Manga Artists and Fans (Toronto)
23.	2025/01	Transfiguring "Women" in 1970s-1980s Japan: Feminists, Lesbians, and Boys Love Artists and Fans
24.	2024/12	Transfiguring "Women" in 1970s-1980s Japan: Feminists, Lesbians, and Boys Love Artists and Fans
25.	2024/10	Feminists, Lesbians, and Boys Love Artists and Fans: Rethinking "Women" in 1970s-1980s Japan
26.	2024/09	Feminists, Lesbians, and Queer Girls' Manga: Transnational Engagements and Cultural Change in 1970s-1980s Japan (Pittsburgh, PA)
27.	2023/05	Overseas Trans* Fans of Boys Love (BL) and Yuri: Thoughts on Media Consumption & Gender Identity, (Riverside, California (Online))
28.	2023/02	On the spread of BL and yuri overseas, and trans and nonbinary fans
29.	2022/11	Boys Love (BL) and Yuri: From Domestic Genres to Global Queer Fandoms
30.	2022/10	An Introduction to the Boys Love (BL) Genre
31.	2022/06	Boys Love (BL) and Yuri Media, from Niche Japanese Genres to Queer Global Fandoms (Manila (online))
32.	2022/03	Global Japan and Academia during COVID 19
33.	2021/12	Cool Japan, Queer Japan? On Global Fandoms of Boys Love (BL) and Yuri Media and Local LGBTQ Identities (Online)
34.	2021/06	Yuri media and fandom at fan events in Japan and overseas
35.	2021/04	Cross-Strait Cultures: Performance, Media, and History (Online)
36.	2020/02	From Japan with (Boys) Love: BL Media and the Transfiguration of Gender and Sexuality in Asia
37.	2020/01	To Asia with (Boys) Love: BL Media and the Transfiguration of Gender and Sexuality
38.	2019/11	"Boys Love" Manga, Anime, and More in Asia: Transforming Media, Gender, and Sexuality (Mexico City)
39.	2019/10	BL Media Transformed in Asia: From Shōnen'ai, Yaoi, and Boys Love to Danmei, Series Y, and Beyond (Taipei)
40.	2019/07	Crossroads in Boys Love: A Special Lecture Featuring BL Scholars Thomas Baudinette, Fusami Ogi, and James Welker (Manila)
41.	2019/06	Academic Freedom and Gender Studies: The Case in Hungary and a Response in Japan
42.	2019/05	The Transformative Power of Boys Love (BL) Media in Asia (Eugene, Oregon)
43.	2019/05	What We Can Learn from the Circulation and Transformation of Boys Love (BL) Media around Asia (New York City)
44.	2019/03	Boys Love (BL) Media in Asia: Transformed and Transforming (Albuquerque)
45.	2018/03	Transfiguring Boys Love (BL) Media in Asia (Northampton, MA, USA)
46.	2018/03	Boys Love (BL) Media and Its Asian Transfigurations (Philadelphia, PA, USA)
47.	2018/03	Boys Love, Yuri, and More: Tracing the History of "Queer" (But Not Necessarily LGBT) Media in Japan, (Philadelphia, PA, USA)
48.	2018/03	Developing a Lesbian Gaze in Late 1960s Japan: An Examination of the Photos and Writing of Kiyooka Sumiko (Toronto, ON, Canada)
49.	2018/02	Male Gaze or Lesbian Gaze? The Photos and Writing of Kiyooka Sumiko (Ottawa, ON, Canada)
50.	2016/03	Transcending Gender in Manga?: From Cross-Dressing Characters and Cross-Identifying Fans to Transgender Narratives, (Vancouver, Canada)
51.	2015/10	Gender and Sexual Minorities in Japan: Culture, Visibility, and Rights
52.	2014/11	Whose Queer Media? An Examination of the Diverse Fandom of the Cross-Media Yuri Genre (Wollongong, Australia)
53.	2014/07	A Brief History of Gender and Sexual Minorities in Japan (Tokyo, Japan)
5 display
All display(53)

■ Committee and society

1.	2026/06～	Mechademia (conference) 2027 Mechademia Conference Organizing Committee Chair
2.	2025～	Mechademia (conference) Steering Committee Member
3.	2020～	Global Queer Asias (academic book series) Series Co-Editor
4.	2017/07/01～2017/07/02	Queer Transfigurations: International Symposium on Boys Love Media in Asia Kanagawa University, Yokohama, Japan Organizer
5.	2017～	Mechademia (journal) Editorial Board Member
6.	2015/10	Society for Queer Asian Studies Founder
7.	2015/10～2018/03	Society for Queer Asian Studies Co-Chair
8.	2010/09～	Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific International Advisory Board Member (Editorial Board)
9.	2005/12～	Association for Asian Studies Member
5 display
All display(9)

■ Home Page

https://kanagawa-u.academia.edu/JamesWelker

■ E-Mail Address

■ Research Field

1.	2016	Nominee, Will Eisner Award for Best Academic/Scholarly Work
2.	2008/08	Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship
3.	2007/08	Foreign Languages and Area studies Fellowship (FLAS), University of Illinois
4.	2006/12	Crompton-Noll Award for Best Essay in Lesbian, Gay, and Queer Studies (Modern Language Association)