![\"\"](\"https:\/\/berghahnbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/DoerrFairies.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>Neriko Musha Doerr is Assistant Professor at Ramapo College. Her publications include Transforming Study Abroad: A Handbook<\/a><\/strong> (Berghahn, 2020), The Global Education Effect and Japan: Constructing New Borders and Identification Practices <\/em>(Routledge, 2020), The Romance of Crossing Borders: Studying and Volunteering Abroad<\/a><\/strong> (Berghahn, 2017, with Hannah Ta\u00efeb), and Meaningful Inconsistencies<\/a> <\/strong>(Berghahn 2009).<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Thank you for joining us, Professor Doerr. Can we begin with a quick survey of your studies and main research interests to date?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Thank you for inviting me to be here. My research interest was originally the cultural anthropology of nationalism, as I studied in graduate school under John Borneman and Benedict Anderson, who both worked on nationalism, and Jane Fajans whose specialities are on Oceania. But because I chose to do ethnographic research at a school with a M\u0101ori-English bilingual unit in Aotearoa\/New Zealand for my doctoral dissertation, my research interest expanded to educational anthropology and linguistic anthropology. So, nationalism and related race politics in education and language practices run through all my research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The site selections in my post-doctoral research had mostly to do with juggling my work and my other responsibilities. After receiving my PhD, I did research in English-as-a-Second-Language classes at a community college where I was teaching part time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n I then did ethnographic fieldwork at a weekend Japanese language school for four years, where my two children attended. After that, I did research on study abroad and alternative break trips from the college at which I taught\u2014this was my work on experiential learning. I also did research on civic engagement in my classes as a part of developing new pedagogical approaches. Besides these main research activities, I collaborated with Japanese-as-a-Foreign-Language professors in analyzing their pedagogical innovations. I did some fun projects like analyzing TV shows, the reception of a musician, and Pok\u00e9mon GO. In all this research, I\u2019m looking at race and language politics and relations of power. I often draw on the works of Michel Foucault, Louis Althusser, Judith Butler, among others.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s the significance of the fairies, ghosts, and Santa Claus<\/em> of the title?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This new book is about the things we used to \u201csee\u201d but have grown out of, the things some of us \u201csee\u201d depending on our viewpoints, and the things we \u201csee\u201d but ignore\u2014willful ignorance. I investigate what makes us \u201csee\u201d as well as the effects of this seeing. In each chapter, I connect my analyses to something we may or may not \u201csee,\u201d using different analogies to symbolize each situation. The fairies in the title come from the famous photographs called \u201cCottingley Fairies,\u201d taken in Victorian England by two teenagers. The photos pictured little fairies flying around one of the teenagers\u2019 face. Some argue that these photos \u201ckilled\u201d the fairies because fairies live in our fantasy world and are not supposed to be \u201cseen\u201d (i.e., \u201ccaptured\u201d) in that way. I connect this domesticating effect to the risk of overanalyzing linguistic landscapes in one of the chapters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ghosts come from a chapter where I analyze the production of what I call \u201cPhantom Japan\u201d at a weekend Japanese language school in the US, where Japan\u2019s complexity is ignored (even though people are aware of it). I liken this to the notion of samurai\u2014the minority elite caste that no longer exists, hence \u201cghost\u201d\u2014 as a symbol of current Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Santa Claus comes from the chapter in which I analyze commodity fetishism; how we see Santa but not his elves\u2019 (or really the parents\u2019) labor, even though we are aware of their work behind the scenes. Other chapters discuss how we can see different things in the same item depending on our viewpoints, which are then connected to figures like the \u201choly mouth man\u201d (a dentist being exoticized in a parody of ethnographic works), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and seeing either Maui\u2019s fishhook or Scorpio in the same constellation of stars. I used these items so that the reader will get an affective aspect of my discussion\u2014we often understand things better if we can \u201cfeel\u201d them. And I think it\u2019s more fun that way. I couldn\u2019t put these all in the book title, so I chose the ones that probably represent our romanticization or fear of seeing things that may or may not exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n How does your new book relate to your previous work on study and education?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This book revisits various fieldworks I have done in the past and re-analyzes them in terms of the politics of vision\u2014what we see but pretend that we don\u2019t\u2014by using Slavoj \u017di\u017eek\u2019s notion of fetish and Walter Benjamin\u2019s notion of the optical unconscious. So, each chapter discusses different fieldworks that I have done. As I mentioned, I talk about my fieldwork at a weekend Japanese language school in the US as pushing us to see the transplanted \u201cPhantom Japan\u201d that masks its complexity, though we are aware of it. From my previous works on study abroad, I look at common discourses in visiting Third World countries, where people say, \u201cthey are poor but happy,\u201d and in testimonials that state \u201cI was so transformed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this volume, I discuss what these statements hide in plain sight or coax us to see, as well as what they push us to do as a result.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n I revisit class projects that I have carried out\u2014students interviewing someone with the opposite political viewpoints, or investigating linguistic landscapes in minority language, or tracing where a mundane product came from. I discuss how these projects revealed hidden complexities but also suggested other things. That include the importance of not over-seeing things and the importance of shuffling between seeing (i.e., being aware) and not seeing (i.e., having space for an escape) in creating effective action. I also re-interpret two groups of students seeing different things in the same experience in an alternative break trip as modelling a way to create unity within diversity. Ethnographic fieldwork is usually very layered because it\u2019s holistic, so focusing on new aspects of it with a new analytical lens is a lot of fun for me. This book is about that.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Naturally we need to read the book for the full picture, but could you briefly introduce the concepts of \u201ctinted glasses\u201d, \u201cunit-thinking\u201d and \u201ccoherants\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The concept of tinted glasses<\/strong> represents the filter you use to see the world. I usually use the example of new drivers or X-ray technicians. Once you learn to drive, you notice new things on the road that relate to driving regulations that you may not have noticed as a pedestrian. So, that\u2019s the new set of tinted glasses. You are looking at the same road but seeing different things depending on what tinted glasses you have gained (these tinted glasses of drivers is my next research topic!). X-ray technicians also have their own tinted glasses that allow them to see a tumor in what seems to the untrained eyes just a chaotic blob of things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unit thinking<\/strong> is a kind of tinted glasses that pushes you to see the world as made up of discrete, bounded units. For example, color is really a spectrum, but unit thinking pushes us to see separate discrete colors of red, green, blue, etc. Digital clocks push us to see flowing time as made up of discrete units of minutes, as opposed to analogue clocks that show the continuous flow of time with the second hand. A more important kind of unit thinking is what I call \u201cnormative unit thinking,\u201d which has more serious effects. This includes the unit thinking of people that divide up diverse people into nations, races, or ethnic groups that make them appear as discrete, internally homogeneous units. Culture and language also involve such normative unit thinking. They are normative because they are conducive to certain policies and actions that force people to conform, such as assimilation and language standardization. Considering the brutal history that has accompanied such policies and actions, in this book I advocate for a framework that replaces unit thinking, such as that of multi-scalar networks that acknowledges the diverse networks that each individual has, for example, that are not conducive to such normative impulses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coherants<\/strong>, with an \u201ca\u201d<\/strong> to show that it is an agent (like a \u201ccoagulant\u201d), are devices within unit thinking that gives a fluid spectrum of things the appearance of discrete units. So, color wheels or digital clocks (as opposed to analogue clocks) are coherants. The census and any occasion that asks people to check a \u201crace\u201d box are coherants. Language dictionaries and grammar books are coherants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My book talks about unit thinking<\/strong> as a set of tinted glass<\/strong> and examines the coherants <\/strong>that create unit thinking<\/strong>. A Japanese language school that teaches \u201cJapanese language,\u201d study abroad that is portrayed as an adventure into the unknown, the political setup of left vs right, mundane commodities, and civic engagement projects that divide the \u201chelper\u201d and the \u201chelped\u201d are some of the coherants I discuss in this book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n And your discussion of the \u2018politics of vision\u2019 also draws on the \u201coptical unconscious\u201d and on \u201cfetishism\u201d. How do these affect what and how we see?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I like the notion of fetishism <\/strong>that \u017di\u017eek uses, which frames fetishism as the dual process of seeing and going along with the simplistic fa\u00e7ade of things while knowing the complexity that it hides. For example, we all know that there are many different kinds of Japanese people, and yet we talk about “Japanese people\u201d as if they all think and act the same. We know various commodities have some problematic labor relations or environmental impacts in their production processes, and yet most of us continue to buy them (my students\u2019 research show there is almost nothing that does not have any of these issues). So, what we need is not just to \u201craise awareness,\u201d because aware people continue to act the same\u2014willful ignorance<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n We need to investigate and understand how and why we continue this willful ignorance so that we can explore more effective ways to tackle social problems, such as shifting our focus to uneven structural arrangements besides individual consumer practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Benjamin\u2019s notion of the optical unconscious<\/strong>\u2014things that the invention of photography allowed us to see\u2014helps me theorize the part of fetish <\/strong>that we do not see and what happens if we see it or see it but pretend not to see it. However, I modify his concept by providing more complexity to it, such as the effects of diverse and layered subject positions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n How can \u201cspectacle pedagogy\u201d help to transform the world?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I am hoping that my book will help plant a seed of noticing certain things that we did not before. Spectacle pedagogy<\/strong> aims at letting students be aware of what I argue throughout the book\u2014that we actually see the complexity and problems of the world, yet we go along with the simplistic fa\u00e7ade of things and that we do need that area of simplicity in order to have space to contemplate things at another level, or even breathe and rejuvenate, wherever you are positioned within the social hierarchy. However, we do not want everyone to stay on this simplistic, fa\u00e7ade level all the time. So, this book and its suggested spectacle pedagogy is a call to start thinking about what to do from here based on this acknowledgement, with the book providing some attempts at doing so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That is, when we see problems, we tend to go for \u201clet\u2019s educate.\u201d But my book is saying that that\u2019s not enough. Instead of stopping at \u201craising awareness,\u201d try to understand what happens after awareness is raised and explore how changes can really be brought about. The aim of spectacle pedagogy<\/strong> is thus to discuss the politics of vision to which \u017di\u017eek\u2019s notion of fetish alerts us and to search, with students, for ways to bring out changes beyond the willful ignorance that \u201craising awareness\u201d may encourage.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n You also discuss your plans to proactively reach wider audiences in different ways. What forms will these take and where can we find them and participate?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I am currently writing a book for practitioners in study abroad, civic engagement, and language education, in which I suggest possible approaches and projects that would overcome unit thinking. It is tentatively called \u201cPost Unit Thinking and Paradoxes of Difference: Multi-Scalar Networks, Fetishes, and Other Alternative Frameworks\u201d and hopefully I can submit it for publication by early 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, I established a forum called NERIKO Institute<\/a> (NERIKO stands for New, Education, Research, and Innovation for Knowledge and Openness), which aims at connecting people with diverse expertise to collaborate on various projects. There are several topics listed, and one of them is post unit thinking projects (others are \u201cdistancing\u201d to overcome the unit thinking in politics of difference and \u201cnew civic engagement\u201d).<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n The one I am currently working on is a project called \u201cBeyond Unit Thinking\u201d with two Japanese-as-a-Foreign-Language professors, Kimiko Suzuki (Haverford College) and Jisuk Park (University of Toronto). We are developing workshops and booklets for Japanese language instructors, introducing and supporting them in exploring concrete ways to teach language without further perpetuating the unit thinking of language. We are submitting a panel to pilot the workshop as a panel discussion at the annual spring conference of American Association of Teachers of Japanese in Boston on March 16, 2023.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n We will be piloting the workshop also on August 17-18, 2023, at the annual conference of the Canadian Association for Japanese Language Education, where I will serve as the keynote speaker. Another occasion is when I will carry out a workshop with Prof. Kimiko Suzuki for students after I give a lecture as a distinguished lecturer at Haverford College this fall. We are making booklets to go with such workshops and are hoping to create workshop packages\u2014with the three of us leading the workshop or just providing resources.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/berghahnbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Neriko-crop.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/berghahnbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/DoerrTransforming.jpg\"){kind=spacer}
<\/a><\/figure>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/berghahnbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/DoerrRomance.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/berghahnbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/DoerrMeaningful.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>