© AREA Ruhr, Wiemann
In the upcoming winter term 2024/25 AREA Ruhr will launch its novel AREA Book Talk Series. Experts from AREA Ruhr are looking forward to meeting up with authors of newly released academic book publications that deal with East Asia from a wide variety of disciplinary perspectives. We are curious about getting insights into recently published research results and discussing the “research journey” that authors have been engaged in.
All events are conducted online via Zoom and are open to be joined after registration. Following the exchange between the invited author and an AREA host, the audience is encouraged to join the discussion.
Book Talk Schedule Winter Term 2024/25
- 29 October 2024, 6–8 PM
“Selbstoptimierung bis zum Tod. Aktive Lebensendplanung in Japan” by Dorothea Mladenova
Host: Anke Scherer (RUB) - 25 November 2024, 10 AM – 12 PM
“Democracy and Human Rights in the Kim Dae-jung Era” by Jin-Wook Shin
Host: Hannes Mosler (UDE) - 14 January 2025, 6–8 PM
“East Asian Landscapes and Legitimation: Localizing Authority Through Sacred Sites in China and Vietnam” by Yasmin Koppen
Host: Christine Moll-Murata (RUB)
The AREA Book Talk Series kicks off on 29 October 2024 from 6 to 8 pm with “Selbstoptimierung bis zum Tod. Aktive Lebensendplanung in Japan”, offering a conversation (in German) between Dr. Anke Scherer (AREA Ruhr) and our guest Dr. Dorothea Mladenova (Leipzig University).
Please register through the following link to receive access to the online Book Talk:
https://uni-due.zoom-x.de/meeting/register/u5Yldu2tpjsoH9AcWT0yyJI3jXOfI1FGKW-p
About the author
Dorothea Mladenova studied Japanese Studies, Bulgarian Studies and Sociology at the University of Leipzig and at Chiba University in Japan. Scholarships took her to the German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ) Tōkyō in 2016, to Ritsumeikan University Kyōtō (DAAD) in 2019 and to Chiba University (JSPS) in 2024. In her research, she focuses on contemporary Japanese society through the lens of Cultural Studies and Governmentality Studies.
About the Book
In her first monograph, published in 2023, Dorothea Mladenova looks at the practice of organizing one’s own death (shūkatsu 終活) as a neoliberal self-optimization tool against the backdrop of the super-ageing and “super-dying” society. Her analysis suggests that the ideal of taking care of others has been transformed into a maxim of taking care of oneself.