Engage

Typically, the Yanai Initiative hosts three visiting professors at UCLA each year: One in the fall, one in the winter, and one in the spring. Most stay for one ten-week quarter and teach a single graduate seminar—usually in Japanese—in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures. Some of our visiting professors have taught in other departments, and not all are scholars: we extend invitations to people whose work embodies the Japanese humanities in all sorts of ways, including writers, designers, translators, critics, artists, architects, musicians, and so on.

In order to help Yanai Initiative visiting professors get settled quickly and make the most of their time at UCLA, we generally pair them with Japanese-speaking graduate students (usually Ph.D. students in Japanese literature or film) who help look after their needs, introduce them into the scholarly community on campus, and engage with them on an intellectual level. Few of our visitors have much if any experience living in English-speaking environments when they arrive.

Because teaching and interacting with students is the core of the visiting professor experience, we extend invitations to individuals whose work and interests resonate with those of students at UCLA. We do not accept applications for these positions, though we welcome expressions of interest.

The future of Japanese literary studies as a global discipline depends, first and foremost, on the continued publication of powerful, engaging translations and retranslations of Japanese literature. This includes not only contemporary works, but also those from the modern, early modern, and premodern eras. It includes, as well, not just fiction, but also criticism and other nonfiction.

Translations make it possible for those who teach Japanese literature, and the Japanese humanities more broadly, to welcome into their classrooms students with no prior knowledge or experience of the Japanese language. They are one of the keys to a more diverse and dynamic future for this field. When the Yanai Initiative began expanding its activities in 2020, then, one of the first things we did was to begin working to shore up the ecology of translation from Japanese into English—dreaming, at the same time, of a time when we could work to promote translation into other languages, as well.

If we hope to ensure the availability, a decade or two from now, of a steady stream of translations from Japanese into English—or, eventually, into other languages—the first step is to cultivate the next generation of translators. In partnership with venerable organizations such as the British Centre for Literary Translation, the National Centre for Writing, and the American Literary Translators Association, the Yanai Initiative has been throwing itself into this task in a variety of ways: sponsoring summer schools and mentorships that allow translators to hone their abilities while forming valuable connections, but also joining with publishers to create opportunities for emerging translators to prove themselves, opening the door to future translation work. As always, we aim through these activities to expand and diversify the field.