LAS327 Japan Research Project 1

Spring 2025/26

20 credits

Module Organiser: Dr Anna Vainio (a.vainio@sheffield.ac.uk)

Overview

This module will take the research that you covered in LAS330 Researching Japan 1, and allow you to develop a research output on an individual project. Skills around creative outputs will be taught, allowing you to produce digital and physical items such as posters, podcasts, "un-essays" and other creative media to communicate you research findings. You will have developed an idea for a project topic during EAS3031 and should have this in mind when joining this module.

The taught content of this module will focus on the how in research projects, developing your understanding on methods and approaches to material culture related research with an emphasis on practising these skills in class and further application to your own projects.

Topics Covered

See module description for LAS330 Researching Japan 1

Skills developed

• critical thinking 

• translating knowledge and problem-solving 

• research and independent study skills, adaptability, work creativity and autonomy 

• interpersonal skills that depend on communication and collaboration 

• global awareness.

• academic writing

• digital fluency

• problem-solving and adaptability

Study Hours

The University recommends that you spend 200 hours working on a 20-credit module. This will include:

3 Lectures of 2 hours each: In these sessions you will be introduced to different ways of approaching materiality and the types of data and methods you might use.

• Week 1: Introduction: Physical vs digital approaches to material culture

• Week 3: Visual research: Archives, Repositories, and Collections

• Week 5: Working with matter: Embodiment, Affect, and Physical Objects

2 Practical workshops 2h each: The aim of these sessions will be to be opportunities for you to practice the methods and approaches we have discussed in class. We will be looking at different archives and collections and going outside to look at textures and infrastructure, further discussing how we can approach materiality in different ways.

• Week 4: Sound and Sight: Visual research, archives, repositories

• Week 6: Touch, Smell, Taste: Exploring physical materiality in context

3 Peer-learning Seminars of 1 hours each: The purpose of these sessions is for you to work with your peers and get feedback on your project ideas and progress. Through pair and group work you will help each other critically advance and improve your projects.

• Week 2: Starting your project: Refining your topic, choosing your methods, collecting your data

• Week 7: Developing your creative outputs

• Week 10: Reporting your results

Workshops: There will be a small number of training workshops to support work on your creative output in weeks 3-5. These are optional, and open to all students taking a Research Project module (China/Japan/Korea/East Asia). Final details will be in Blackboard, but these will cover the following: 

Assessment

• Creative Output (40%)

• Reflective Diary Entries (60%)

Before you start…

Planning for this module begins at the end of the Autumn semester, in the work for LAS330 Researching Japan 1, so you will finish that module with an idea for your topic and prep/to-do list for this LAS327 Japan Research Project 1.

You can do preparatory reading for the module by looking at the following resources:

• University of Pennsylvania, Japanese Digital Resources: Material Culture: https://guides.library.upenn.edu/c.php?g=476055&p=3643279

• Pink, S. (2010). The future of sensory anthropology/the anthropology of the senses. Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale, 18(3), 331-333.

• Gallace, A., & Spence, C. (2010). The science of interpersonal touch: an overview. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 34(2), 246-259.

• Rose, G. (2014). On the relation between ‘visual research methods’ and contemporary visual culture. The sociological review, 62(1), 24-46.