Susan M. Asai's Books

Nomai Dance Drama

A Surviving Spirit of Medieval Japan

By: Susan M. Asai

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Nomai Dance Drama

A Surviving Spirit of Medieval Japan

By: Susan M. Asai

Nomai dance drama, an artistic expression combining sacred, communal, economic, and cultural spheres of community life in the district of Higashidorimura, is a performing tradition that provides an identity to agriculturally based villages. It has retained features characteristic of the music, drama, and sacred practices of medieval Japan. N=omai singing exhibits traits linked to Buddhist chanting. The instrumental music originates from folk Shinto. This study highlights the social and cultural value n=omaii has for the residents in villages that perform it by providing the historical context in which it is examined, as well as its current performance practices. As this work explores the aspects of agricultural Japanese society, revealed through a dance drama, it will appeal to music and drama scholars as well as students of Japanese culture and history. After establishing the historical lens from which to view n^D=omai drama, the theatrical and musical aspects are discussed in detail. Photographs and musical examples enhance this thorough, well-organized study.

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Page Count

276

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

1440826374

ISBN 13

9781440826375

Sounding Our Way Home

Japanese American Musicking and the Politics of Identity

By: Susan Miyo Asai

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Sounding Our Way Home

Japanese American Musicking and the Politics of Identity

By: Susan Miyo Asai

A product of twenty-five years of archival and primary research, Sounding Our Way Home: Japanese American Musicking and the Politics of Identity narrates the efforts of three generations of Japanese Americans to reach “home” through musicking. Using ethnomusicology as a lens, Susan Miyo Asai examines the musical choices of a population that, historically, is considered outside the racial and ethnic boundaries of American citizenship. Emphasizing the notion of national identity and belonging, the volume provokes a discussion about the challenges of nation-building in a democratic society. Asai addresses the politics of music, interrogating the ways musicking functions as a performance of social, cultural, and political identification for Japanese Americans in the United States. Musicking is an inherently political act at the intersection of music, identity, and politics, particularly if it involves expressing one’s ethnicity and/or race. Asai further investigates how Japanese American ethnic identification and cultural practices relate to national belonging. Musicking cultivates a narrative of a shared history and aesthetic between performers and listeners. The discourse situates not only Japanese Americans, but all Asians into the Black/white binary of race relations in the United States. Sounding Our Way Home contributes to the ongoing struggle for acceptance and equal representation for people of color in the US. A history of Japanese American musicking across three generations, the book unveils the social and political discrimination that nonwhite immigrants and their offspring continue to face when it comes to finding acceptance in US society and culture.

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Page Count

216

Publisher

Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published Date

ISBN 10

1496847652

ISBN 13

9781496847652

Person-Environment Practice

Social Ecology of Interpersonal Helping

By: Susan P, Kemp,James K. Whittaker,Elizabeth M. Tracy

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Person-Environment Practice

Social Ecology of Interpersonal Helping

By: Susan P, Kemp,James K. Whittaker,Elizabeth M. Tracy

Person-Environment Practice addresses a core but long- neglected dimension in social work and human services practice; accurate environmental assessment and strategic environmental intervention. Despite the centrality of "person-environment" as a key construct in direct practice, the domain of environmental assessment/intervention has received relatively little systematic attention in the practice literature. For a variety of reasons, the core focus of direct practice assessment and change strategies has centered more on "person" than "environment." This book seeks to redress that imbalance. Ironically, the relative lack of attention to environmentally oriented practice persists even as current demands of practice fall increasingly under the rubric of what we here call "environmental intervention," defined as both action in the environment and the process of transforming individual and collective perspectives through critical analysis of the impact of environmental conditions. The authors argue that the ability to understand "environment" from the client's perspective and to function effectively in the environmental domain is central to many emergent areas of practice such as practice with extended families and personal networks, practice from a "strengths" perspective, and culturally competent practice. In Person-Environment Practice, the authors offer a coherent critique and overview of environmental assessment and intervention congruent with the demands of both newly emerging and established interpersonal helping approaches within social work's domain. Robert Halpern of the Erikson Institute for Advanced Studies in Child Development described the book as "as clear, thoughtful and subtle a discussion of how to consider the environment in interpersonal helping as I have seen in the literature" and Anthony Maluccio of Boston College called the book "a timely and exciting contribution, with appreciation and respect for social work practices and qualities of inspiration as well as intellectual stimulation" Susan P. Kemp is assistant professor, School of Social Work, The University of Washington, Seattle. James K. Whittaker is professor, School of Social Work, The University of Washington, Seattle. Elizabeth M. Tracy is associate professor, Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio.

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Page Count

274

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Published Date

ISBN 10

1040278124

ISBN 13

9781040278123

Book's by Susan M. Asai

Nomai Dance Drama

Nomai Dance Drama

Sounding Our Way Home

Sounding Our Way Home

Person-Environment Practice

Person-Environment Practice

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