Teaching
I teach a wide variety of courses intended to help students to better understand the global world in which we live. These include Introduction to Anthropology, Sex and Gender, Medicine and Culture, and a variety of courses on East Asia. My teaching style is interactive, and assignments are designed to teach critical thinking and research skills. Whenever possible I incorporate the rich array of resources we have in Northeast Ohio and beyond. With my colleagues, I have developed a two-course sequence on Japanese popular culture that includes a study-tour to Japan every two years.
Research
I have conducted research in Japan and the US in three related areas. One is at the intersection of family, lifecourse, and gender in Japan. The second is a study of end-of-life decisions in Japan. My book, Final Days: Japanese Culture and Choice at the End of Life (Hawaii, 2005) explores bioethical issues at the end of life in a culture quite different from those in which bioethics originated. This volume was selected as the best 2005 publication in East Asian anthropology by the Society for East Asian Anthropology. My most recent work is in the area of elder care policy and practice in Japan. For that project I am working with a Japanese research team to understand changes in family and institutional care resulting from the implementation of a new public long-term care insurance system there. Please see my c.v. for complete list of publications. My research is qualitative in methodology and conducted in Japanese or English. In addition, I have engaged in some research on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in China and in Northeast Ohio, attempting to understand how the political and cultural context impacts the practices of this prescientific medical system.
Service
I served as the founding coordinator of John Carroll University's active East Asian Studies program and continue to work on its programming and development. Service to the profession includes regularly reviewing article and book manuscripts in my field, two terms as Chair of the Midwest Japan Seminar, program chair of the Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs, and Secretary of the Society for East Asian Anthropology. I currently serve as a member of the American Advisory Committee to the Japan Foundation.