An international conference, ‘Okinawan Art in its Regional Context: Historical Overview and Contemporary Practice’, is to be held at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK.

The aim of the conference is to offer an international stage to distinguished scholars and to discuss Okinawan arts and cultures. We hope to re-evaluate the significance of mutual influences among the islands of the Okinawan chain in regional, transregional and transnational contexts.

Keynote speakers from Japan:
Prof. Junko Kobayashi (Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts)
Artist’s talk: Mr Yuken Teruya (artist based in New York and Berlin)
Curator’s Talk: Ms Haruka Iharada (independent curator, Japan)
Music Performance: Dr David W. Hughes (SOAS) and the London Okinawa Sanshinkai

Other speakers:
Dr Hiroko Ikegami (Kobe University)
Dr Nobuyuki Hirakawa (Okinawa Prefecture)
Dr David E. Little (The Mead Art Museum at Amherst College)
Dr Setsuko Nitta (Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts)
Dr Seisaku Okuma (Waseda University)
Ms Megumi Machida (independent scholar)
Dr Ra Mason (UEA)
Mr Francesco Montuori (Leiden University)
Dr Richard Pegg (The MacLean Collection)
Ms Gabriela Shimabukuro (São Paulo State University (UNESP))
Dr Amanda Mayer Stinchecum (independent Scholar)
De Travis Seifman (University of Tokyo)
Dr Eriko Tomizawa-Kay (UEA)
Ms Shino Yanai (UCL)
Dr Ayelet Zohar (Tel Aviv University)

Discussants:
Prof. Adrian Favell (University of Leeds)
Prof. Toshio Watanabe (SISJAC)
Dr Eugenia Bogdanova-Kummer (SISJAC)
Research Collaborator: Prof. Timon Screech (SOAS)

Eriko Tomizawa-Kay (Ph.D in Japanese Art History)
Lecturer, The School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies
University of East Anglia
e.tomizawa-kay@uea.ac.uk