by Rebecca Copeland | Mar 11, 2026 | Japanese Literature
“Pick a topic you love,” my PhD advisor told me. “You’re going to be working on it for years.” At first, I bristled at the advice, thinking he meant I was likely to take a long time finishing my dissertation. Was I really that slow? Later I came to understand. The... 
by Rebecca Copeland | Sep 24, 2025 | Japanese Culture
Novels with clear social messages never fail to incite debate in my Japanese literature courses. They push readers to care, to take a point of view, and to act. Literary works by Ariyoshi Sawako (1931-1984) are a case in point. The Doctor’s Wife (1966), for one,... 
by Rebecca Copeland | May 7, 2025 | Memories
“I don’t understand,” I said, as I read the letter a second time. It was short, barely two paragraphs. “We don’t understand, either,” Peter, the chair of my department, said as he turned to close the door to my office. The room was small and with all my books,... 
by Rebecca Copeland | Apr 23, 2025 | Memories
“You must feel like you have a target on your back,” Van said to me as soon as he saw me in the hallway. I had just stepped out of an academic panel and was making my way to the next one on the schedule. The Association of Asian Studies was always hectic, with people... 
by Rebecca Copeland | Apr 9, 2025 | Memories
“It is just too long and it will be too expensive and it will kill off the market,” Peter wrote to me about my manuscript. His tone was brutal, and so was his prediction. No writer wants to “kill off” their market. At long last Peter and I had secured a contract with...
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