University of Calgary
Ben Whaley
- Associate Professor
- +1 (403) 220-3482
Website:
Research Interests
Bio
Ben Whaley is associate professor of Japanese. His research engages discourses of ethno-racial identity and national trauma in modern Japanese literature and popular culture, with a focus on manga (print comics) and videogames.
Ben's forthcoming book Toward a Gameic World: New Rules of Engagement from Japanese Video Games (U of Michigan P) asks how games might bring about profound positive changes in who we are as people. It examines the ways in which Japanese video games simulate social issues and national traumas while prompting players’ emotional engagement, critical self-reflection, and development of real-world skills.
Other research interests include his SSHRC and Japan Foundation funded project on the representation of Jewish identity and narratives of the Holocaust in postwar manga, the corpus of Japan's "God of Manga" Tezuka Osamu, and modern Japanese literature of trauma by minority writers.
*On research leave for the 2022-2023 academic year.
Currently Teaching
| F2023 - JPNS 201 - Introduction to Japanese Popular Culture | |||||||||||||||||
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| F2023 - JPNS 317.02 - Japanese Cinema | |||||||||||||||||
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| W2024 - EALS 501 - Advanced Research in East Asian Languages Studies | |||||||||||||||||
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| W2024 - JPNS 423 - Advanced Manga Studies | |||||||||||||||||
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Publications
Book Chapters/Contributions - Peer Reviewed
- Whaley, Ben. Harmonized Dissonance: Parodies of Japan’s America in EarthBound Japanese Role-Playing Games: Genre, Representation and Liminality in the JRPG Ed. Rachael Hutchinson and Jérémie Pelletier-Gagnon Lanham: Lexington Books, 2022. 119–138. Print.
- Whaley, Ben. Teaching Japanese Video Games: Practical Strategies for Analysis and Assessment Teaching Games and Game Studies in the Literature Classroom Ed. Tison Pugh and Lynn Ramey London UK: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022. 91–99. Print.
- Whaley, Ben. What Tezuka Would Tell Trump: Critiquing Japanese Cultural Nationalism in Gringo The Representation of Japanese Politics in Manga Ed. Rosenbaum, Roman Routledge, 2021. 162-182. Print.
Journal Articles - Peer Reviewed
- Whaley, Ben. "When Anne Frank Met Astro Boy: Drawing the Holocaust through Manga". Positions Asia Critique 28.4 (2020): 729–755. Print.
- Whaley, Ben. "Virtual Earthquakes and Real-World Survival in Japan's Disaster Report Video Game". The Journal of Asian Studies 78.1 (2019): 95–114. Print.
- Whaley, Ben. "Who Will Play Terebi Gēmu When No Japanese Children Remain? Distanced Engagement in Atlus’ Catherine". Games and Culture 13.1 (2018): 92-114. Print.
- Whaley, Ben. "Doomed Hybrids: Three Cases of Fatal Mixing in the War Comics of Tezuka Osamu". International Journal of Comic Art 16.1 (2014): 244–257. Print.
Masters Thesis
- Whaley, Ben. Drawing the Self: Race and Identity in the Manga of Tezuka Osamu 2012.
Ph.D. Thesis
- Whaley, Ben. Beyond 8-bit: Trauma and Social Relevance in Japanese Video Games 2016.
Reviews
Special Issues
- Whaley, Ben. What I Write About When I Write About Gaming 2019.
- Whaley, Ben. Teaching Japanese to the Anime Generation 2016.
Degrees
- PhD - Modern Japanese Literature and Popular Culture
University of British Columbia, 2016 - MA - Modern Japanese Literature and Popular Culture
University of British Columbia, 2012 - BA (Hons) with Distinction - Japanese
Stanford University, 2007
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