AREA Book Talks as Podcast

In the AREA Book Talk Series we look at and discuss newly released academic books that deal with East Asia from a wide variety of disciplinary perspectives. Experts from AREA Ruhr meet up with the respective authors to have a conversation about their recent work, learn more about novel research results and discuss the “research journey” that authors had been engaged in.

The first AREA Book Talk between AREA host Dr. Anke Scherer and our guest Dr. Dorothea Mladenova (University of Leipzig) is now published as the first volume of our AREA Book Talk Series Podcast. The two scholars discuss Dr. Mladenova’s 2023 monograph Selbstoptimierung bis in den Tod. Aktive Lebensendplanung in Japan that deals with proactively preparing the organization of one’s own closing of life (e.g., one’s funeral) in Japan.

The conversation gives 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 is especially interesting for students who plan to pursue a dissertation. Content-wise the audience learns 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).