Curriculum Vitaes

Kathryn M Tanaka

  (田中 キャサリン)

Profile Information

Affiliation
Associate Professor, Global Business Course, University of Hyogo

J-GLOBAL ID
201901019829178697
researchmap Member ID
B000349953

Kathryn M. Tanaka (University of Chicago, PhD), associate professor at the University of Hyogo, is a Japanese literary scholar who works on the intersections of medicine, literature, and culture. Her work focuses primarily on Hansen’s disease and modern Japanese literature. In addition to work on children and gender in public sanatoria, she also has several articles about Hōjō Tamio, and has done translations of several of his stories. She has also published work on Amabie and Japanese culture in the COVID-19 pandemic. Other research interests include human rights education, medical humanities, active learning, translation, and culture in EFL and CLIL education in Japan.


Papers

 22
  • Robert Sheridan, Kathryn M. Tanaka
    Journal of NELTA,, 30(1) 1-22, Dec, 2025  Peer-reviewedLast author
  • Robert Sheridan, Kathryn Tanaka
    Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language--TESL-EJ, 28(1), May 1, 2024  
    With the growing importance of the United Nations’ SDGs, many EFL textbooks addressing the goals have been developed. However, these textbooks generally discuss the applicability of the SDGs in Global South countries, and for university students in Japan, this has resulted in “SDG burnout,” as they study the topic but often fail to find meaningful connections to the materials. This article builds on previous research into the efficacy of culturally familiar materials, and it takes SDG education in a new direction through the creation of materials in dialogue with social justice issues. Four lessons were created by the researchers, and as part of the post-reading assignment, learners had the autonomy to choose between culturally familiar or unfamiliar activities related to either the news or popular culture. A 6-point Likert scale was used to gauge student interest, which indicated that the inclusion of social justice issues may positively affect interest. A series of binomial tests revealed that learners preferred culturally familiar activities and activities related to the news. These findings provide important implications for teaching the SDGs as they suggest learners might be most receptive to culturally familiar materials that are based on the news and connected to issues of social justice.
  • Kathryn M. Tanaka
    U.S.-Japan Women's Journal, 66(1) 51-82, 2024  Peer-reviewedLead author
    <p lang="en"> Abstract: In 1923, the Japanese Home Ministry published a selection of writings by people institutionalized for the treatment of Hansen’s disease in sanatoria across the archipelago. Entitled Rai kanja no kokuhaku (Confessions of the Lepers), the book was lost in the aftermath of the Tokyo Earthquake, but it was rediscovered and republished by the Leprosy Prevention Association in 1934, as a genre of writing by patients later referred to as “leprosy literature” began gaining more media attention. The Confessions are a remarkable collection of patient writing, ranging from the legalistic form of a petition, to diaristic or literary approaches to representing the illness experience. Yet because of its convoluted provenance and the fact that these writings are anonymous make it a difficult source to use. Using multiple archival sources, this paper identifies one of the authors in the volume as Araya Kōga (1892–1938), a woman institutionalized for the treatment of Hansen’s disease who wrote about her experience of illness and quarantine. It explores the gendered tensions between Araya’s life, her writing, and the way her story is used by medical professionals. In doing so, I suggest that in addition to providing greater understanding of the Confessions volume, Araya’s account also reveals the multiple, contested, and gendered layers in both writing about illness experience and how that experience is represented in public health campaigns.</p>

Misc.

 10
  • Tanaka Kathryn M
    The electronic journal of contemporary japanese studies is an internationally refereed scholarly journal in the social sciences., 22(1), Apr, 2022  Peer-reviewed
  • 田中 キャサリン
    WHO Goodwill Ambassador's Newsletter for the Elimination of Leprosy, 92 2, 2018  
  • TANAKA Kathryn
    大手前大学IIEジャーナル = Journal of research and pedagogy of Otemae University Institute of International Education, (3) 79-89, 2017  
    本論では、日本の「人権文学」が、人文学あるいは社会科学等の様々な教科の教材として大きな役割を果たす可能性について述べる。人権文学を紹介することによって、「人権」の概念やその中身についての学び、そして、人としての権利を確立するための戦いに文学が果たした役割を明らかにする方法を論述する。また、文学から見えてくる、個人、時に身の危険を伴うような社会的、政治的行動に参加していく動機や信念、その思いについても触れていきたい。更には、文学を教材とする授業が、人権と社会的公正についてどのような教育的効果をもたらすかという主要課題について検討する。In this essay, I describe the ways in which Japanese human rights literature can be incorporated into diverse courses in the humanities and social sciences. It introduces studies into the concept of human rights and debates about what constitutes them before discussing the role of literature as part of human rights struggles. It also explores the concept of literature as personal and its connections to social and political action, and how lessons centered on literary texts can teach us about human rights and social justice.
  • TANAKA Kathryn M, JACKSON John L, TAMURA Tomohisa, OZAKI Koji, SHIKATA Yoshiaki
    大手前大学IIEジャーナル = Journal of research and pedagogy of Otemae University Institute of International Education, (2) 39-57, 2016  
    本論は、大学生自身が社会運動への参加を通して得られる学びと大学における教育の関連性について論じる。そして、長島愛生園で行ったサービス・ラーニング・プロジェクトがどのように行われ目的達成を納めたのかを実証する。このプロジェクトは、大学で学んだ英語を駆使して実際に翻訳ができる場となり、地域社会への奉仕の大切さを経験できる場となった。本論では、プロジェクトを実施するにあたっての苦労、成功したこと、そして、教育的価値を加えた教訓を報告する。長島プロジェクトは、問題解決能力の構築と批判的思考能力に加え、チームワーク育成に役立つものである。学生たちは、長島愛生園が日本初の国立ハンセン病療養所としてユネスコ世界遺産に登録されるための一役となり、英語を話す人たちがもっと長島を訪れ、その歴史と世界的な重要性を学べるように、パンフレットやツアー解説の英訳をおこなった。This paper aims to demonstrate the relevance of educating university students through direct participation in projects promoting social activism and documents how a service-learning project to Nagashima Aisei-en set and successfully achieved goals. This project provided authentic opportunities for students in translation and community service and this paper reports the difficulties, successes and lessons learned - in addition to the moral and educational merits. The visit to Nagashima was instrumental in building problem solving, and critical thinking skills in addition to developing teamwork. Futhermore, students assisted Nagashima Aisei-en, Japan&#039;s first national Hansen&#039;s disease hospital, in their mission to gain UNESCO World Heritage Site Status through the translation of documents and brochures into English, encouraging English speakers to visit Nagashima and learn of its history, relenvance and global importance.
  • Kathryn TANAKA
    大手前大学論集 = Otemae Journal, 15 119-147, Mar 31, 2015  
    本論文では、1909年に設立された香川県高松市のハンセン病療養所、大島療養所(現大島青松園)におけるロイス・ジョンソン・エリクソン夫人の翻訳作品を検討する。エリクソン夫人は1905年、アメリカ南部の長老派教会所属の宣教師として来日し、36年間、夫のスワン・マグナス・エリクソンとともに布教活動に従事した。エリクソン夫人はこの布教活動に、大島療養所で生まれた「霊交会」というキリスト教団体の会員の作品を英語に翻訳し、活用した。しかし、エリクソン夫人は、この「翻訳」を単にtranslationとは呼ばず、interpretationと述べている。この語の意味は、「翻訳」というよりもむしろ「解釈」や「意訳」に近い。そのようなエリクソン夫人の翻訳のあり方の特徴に着目して、本論文では、「霊交会」における文学の実態とエリクソン夫人による「意訳」との関係性について論じる。また、エリクソン夫人の翻訳が、療養所の患者の一人、長田穂波の文学を世に知らしめるきっかけとなったことも併せて明らかにしたい。This article examines the activities of Lois Johnson Erickson at a Hansen&#039;s Disease hospital, Oshima Hospital (today Oshima Seisho-en) in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture. She and her husband, Reverend Swann Magnus Erickson, a Southern Presbyterian minister, came to Japan as missionaries in 1905 and served there for 36 years. Erickson used literature in her missionary work, and as part of this she translated the writings of a Christian group in Oshima, Reiko-kai, and used them to publicize missionary activities and the Christian faith. As she herself states, rather than translations, her writings are interpretations of the original Japanese. This article examines Erickson&#039;s process of translation and argues that Erickson&#039;s translations were of use to the missionary community for fundraising and to demonstrate the success of the mission in Japan was precisely because they made the dense original more accessible to readers. Not only did Erickson&#039;s translations domesticate Honami&#039;s psalmic style, but the fact of her English translations served to garner Honami more recognition within Japan as well.

Books and Other Publications

 10

Presentations

 17

Research Projects

 9

Social Activities

 1