Japanese Convenience Store Clerk Dissertation by JET Alum
Academic, Graduate School, Interview/Profile, Japan Trends, Translating/Interpreting, Writers 
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I recently learned about an interesting JET alum named Gavin Whitelaw (whom I’ve never met) whose doctoral dissertation at Harvard’s Reischauer Institute involved 18-months of “observant” participation as a convenience store clerk in Japan. Through his writing he then “sought to describe the lifeworld of these stores and understand their cultural significance as industrial system, social arrangement, and personal practice.”
In August 2008, Gavin began working in Tokyo on a new collaborative project through the Asian-Japan Research Center. The project focuses on “the role popular culture plays in the formation of Asian identities” and “the impact of Chinese and Japanese trends in other Asian societies.”
Click here to read Gavin’s introduction with regard to the project. If I can get in touch with him, perhaps we can post a link to his unique dissertation in the near future.
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