"Painted Brides" Panel Discussion with Kathryn Hemmann*, Friederike Baer, Pierce Salguero

*Kathryn Hemmann is a UPenn graduate student in contemporary Japanese literature, cinema, and new media, with a particular focus on gender.

This is part of Penn State Abington's participation in the annual One Book One Philadelphia program. This city-wide event involves many educational and cultural institutions around our area, bringing people together to discuss a book that is chosen by the Mayor's office.

This year's chosen book is Julie Otsuka’s The Buddha in the Attic, a finalist for the 2011 National Book Award. The book deals with the experiences of Japanese "picture brides" (i.e., mail-order brides) brought to the US in the early twentieth century. It touches on many issues and topics that will be of interest to our community, including:

    Women's Studies/Gender Studies
    Asian-American Literature
    Japanese cultural studies
    History of immigration
    Immigrants' experiences in the US
    Cultural and racial prejudice
    Social alienation and stigmatization