On 29 October 2024 Dr. Anke Scherer of AREA Ruhr hosted Dr. Dorothea Mladenova (Leipzig University) to talk about her book Selbstoptimierung bis in den Tod. Aktive Lebensendplanung in Japan as part of the newly launched AREA Book Talk Series.
The conversation gave insights into why and how Mladenova came up with the research idea for the book (i.e. dissertation), into how she organized and conducted her field research in Japan and into the key findings of her project. With regards to identifying and organizing an individual research project, the talk was especially interesting for students who plan to pursue a dissertation. Content-wise the audience learned why making preparations for one’s own death might be regarded as neoliberal self-optimization tool that shifts responsibility for taking care for (the end of) others to taking care of oneself(’s death).
In the winter term 2024/25, AREA Ruhr launched its novel AREA Book Talk Series. Experts from AREA Ruhr are meeting up with authors of newly released academic books 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.