Portland State University Center for Japanese Studies Presents

Free Zoom and Round table

Have you ever wondered what opportunities await those who study Japanese language and culture at PSU? While the possibilities are limitless, this presentation will feature three successful Japanese studies alumni in a round table discussion that reveals the creative paths they chose to successful careers. Topics of conversation will include their PSU experiences, tips for undergraduates on how to transition to the next phase, the steps after leaving PSU that led them to rewarding careers, and how their PSU experience continues to shape their careers and lives today.

Panelists:

Joshua Hunt graduated from Portland State University in 2013 with B.A.s in Japanese language and communication studies. In 2015, he earned an M.S. from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, then moved to Tokyo to work as a foreign correspondent for Reuters. He is a freelance contributor to Vanity Fair, GQ, Bloomberg Businessweek, New Yorker, and various other magazines, and his first book, University of Nike, was published in 2018.

Amanda Imasaka was raised in Toledo, Oregon and obtained her B.A. in Honors History from PSU in 2009. The bulk of courses she attended concerned East Asia and she completed 3rd year Japanese whilst there. Post graduation she moved to Kobe, Japan to participate in the JET Program and continued to study Japanese. She left JET in 2012 to move to Tokyo and after starting a family in 2014 pivoted to freelance writing and translation for publications like TimeOut Tokyo and The Bridge. In 2017 her family moved to Mumbai, India where she spent three years writing, translating, and volunteering at the Happy Home and School for the Blind. COVID 19 cut her stay in India short and she is now applying for MA programs back in Tokyo.

Matt Shores was born in Oregon and has two degrees from Portland State—B.A. International Studies – East Asia; Japanese Minor (2000) and M.A. Japanese Language & Literature (2007). He also has degrees from Tezukayama University (M.A. Traditional Japanese Entertainment, 2004) and the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa (Ph.D. Japanese Literature, 2014). Shores’ career began at the University of Cambridge and he is now Lecturer (associate professor) of Japanese at The University of Sydney. He apprenticed with two rakugo masters in Osaka and this year Cambridge University Press will release his monograph The Comic Storytelling of Western Japan: Satire and Social Mobility in Kamigata Raku