Join Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival Board Chair Rob Buscher (SOAS MA Japanese Studies 2009-2010) and Dr. Griseldis Kirsch (SOAS Department Head of East Asian Languages and Cultures) for a conversation about Rob's decade-long career as a film programmer that began during his time at SOAS. As a lecturer at University of Pennsylvania's Asian American Studies Program, Rob has utilized his position with the film festival to engage the public in critical discourse related to his research on racial and social justice topics within the Asian Diaspora. This conversation will examine the function of film festivals as a facet of the public sphere, exploring specific instances from past festivals where entertainment, education, and dialogue have intersected.
Attendance is free, but you must RSVP in advance: CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
This virtual event will be held via Zoom on Friday, November 6th at 11am PST / 2pm EST / 7pm GMT. A Zoom invitation with the event link will be sent to you by email in advance of the call.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Rob Buscher, Board Chair of the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival is a film and media specialist, educator, arts administrator, and published author who has worked in nonprofit arts organizations for over a decade. As a person of biracial Japanese American heritage who is deeply involved in his community, Rob also has an expertise in cultural sensitivity training, community organizing, and advocacy issues related to the Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. Robʼs expertise is Japanese and Asian American & Pacific Islander Cinema although he has worked as a professional film programmer, critic, and lecturer across a variety of fields. Some of his career highlights include growing the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival into an internationally recognized leader in the film festival circuit, developing the Japanese Cinema and Asian American Studies curriculum at Arcadia University, and co-founding Zipangu Fest - the UKʼs first Japanese Film Festival. Rob currently lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, and is a contributing writer at the Pacific Citizen and the Broad Street Review. Rob serves as President of the Philadelphia Chapter of civil rights group Japanese American Citizens League and chairs the editorial board of Pacific Citizen, the organization’s national newspaper. In his spare time, Rob is an accomplished guitarist and enjoys writing and performing music.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Dr. Griseldis Kirsch is Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Japanese Culture at SOAS University of London. Her research interests include screen culture and (self-)censorship in Japan, with particular reference to war memory in Japan. She has acted as script consultant for The Amazon Prime series The Man in the High Castle (series 1 and 2) as well as Giri/Haji (BBC/Netflix). She is author Contemporary Sino-Japanese Relations on Screen. A History: 1989-2005 (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015) and co-editor of the volume Assembling Japan: Technology, Modernity and Global Culture (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2015), but she has also published widely on nationalism and identity in the media in Japan and Europe.