Native Japanese Scholar Will Lecture about Japanese Religious Tradition

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Media contact: Terry Goodrich, (254) 710-3321
WACO, Texas (Sept. 8, 2015) – Baylor University will host Maeri Megumi, Ph.D., for a lecture held by the department of modern languages and cultures entitled “The Japanese Religious Tradition.” The lecture is at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 10 in Old Main 370, followed by a green tea reception in Old Main 271.
Megumi was born and raised in Kagoshima, Japan. In the 1990s, she came to the United States to finish her education. In 2014, she graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Ph.D. in Asian cultures and languages with a specialization in modern Japanese literature and a secondary interest in Japanese religion. Megumi teaches Japanese at St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas. She has presented research on “Christianity and Modern Japanese Literature” and “Modern Christian Authors in Japan” and has researched works by several Japanese authors, including Endo Shusaku and Akutagawa Ryunosuke.
“We hope students will gain insight into Japanese religious practices and Christian faith of Japanese people found in well-known literary works,” said Yoshiko Gaines, lecturer in Japanese.
Megumi has researched and presented on works by many modern authors in Japan. One of those, Endo Shusaku, is an author Baylor students have read and studied in their History of Japan or Baylor Interdisciplinary Core classes.
As students in the introductory Japanese course are getting ready to work on their first group project, Gaines believes this is the perfect time for her students to hear about Japanese literature and religion. Students are preparing to present on a topic from the Japanese culture and will gather ideas for their research project from Megumi’s lecture.
This event is free and open to the public. Old Main is located on Baylor’s campus in between Carroll Science Building and Tidwell Bible Building.
For more information, contact Yoshiko_Gaines@baylor.edu

by Bethany Harper, student newswriter, (254) 710-6805

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