ROBIN M. LE BLANC

Department of Politics

Williams School of Commerce, Economics and Politics

Washington and Lee University

Lexington, VA 24450

540-458-8612

E-Mail: leblancr@wlu.edu

CURRENT POSITION

Associate Professor of Politics. Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia.

EDUCATION

Ph.D. in Political Science. University of Oklahoma. August 1994.

Fields of Study: Comparative Politics/Japan, Political Theory, American Politics.

Summer Intensive Language School in Japanese. Middlebury College. Middlebury, Vermont. 1989, 1991.

Bachelor of Arts in English (Minor: Political Science). Summa Cum Laude. Berry College, Mount Berry, Georgia. 1988.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Associate Professor of Politics – (Washington and Lee University, Assistant Professor of Politics, Fall 1998 – Spring 2002, Associate Professor 2002 - present)

Comparative Politics Courses Taught

Comparative Government (Winter 2000, Winter 2001, Fall 2001, Winter 2004, Winter 2005, Winter 2006), East Asian Politics (Fall 1998, Fall 1999, Fall 2001, Fall 2004), Japanese Political System (Winter 2000, Winter 2002), Gender and Politics (Fall 2003), Japanese Politics in a Global Context (under Asian Issues Seminar number, with study abroad) (Spring 2005)

Political Theory Courses Taught

Introduction to Political Philosophy (Fall 1998, Fall 1999, Fall 2000, Winter 2002, Spring 2002, Fall 2003, Fall 2004, Fall 2005, Fall 2006, Winter 2006), Power (Spring 2004), Identity, Politics, and Society (Winter 2005), Political Theory and Gender (Fall 2005), Politics of Masculine Power (Spring 2007)

Special Topics Seminars Taught

Citizenship in Spirit and Practice (Spring 2000), Women and Politics (Fall 2000), The Sovereign Citizen in a Global World (Winter 2001)

Assistant Professor – (Oglethorpe University, Fall 1994 – Spring 1998)

Comparative Politics Courses Taught

Social Movement and Identity (Spring 1998), Politics of Japan (Fall 1994, Fall 1995, Fall 1997), Asian Politics (Spring 1995, Spring 1996, Spring 1998), Women and Politics (Fall 1997), Women in Japan (Fall 1996), Postwar Japanese Culture (Fall 1995)

Political Theory Courses Taught

Human Nature and the Social Order [essentially an introduction to political philosophy] (Fall 1994, Fall 1995, Fall 1996, Fall 1997)

American Politics Courses Taught

Congress and the Presidency (Fall 1994, Fall 1996), Democratic Theory and Culture [a course on political ethnography] (Spring 1995, Spring 1997), Introduction to American Politics (Spring 1995, Spring 1996, Spring 1997, Spring 1998), Rhetoric of Politics (Spring 1996)

Adjunct Instructor -- (University of Oklahoma, Spring 1994) Politics of Japan

BOOKS

The Art of the Gut: Manhood, Power, and Ethics in Japanese Politics (Berkeley: University of California Press, forthcoming, 2009).

Bicycle Citizens: The Political World of the Japanese Housewife (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999). A Choice “Outstanding Academic Title” of 1999.

ARTICLES

“The Politics of Gender in Japan.” In Handbook of Japanese Culture and Society. Edited by Theodore and Victoria Bestor. Routledge, forthcoming.

“Rebuilding the Electoral Connection: The Potential and Limits of Anti-Party Electoral Movements in Japanese Local Politics.” In Democratic Reform in Japan: Assessing the Impact. Edited by Gill Steel and Sherry Martin. Lynne Reiner Publishers, forthcoming May 2008.

“Seeking the Empire of Women with Tom Wolfe.” Shenandoah, 57: 1 (Spring 2007), 148 - 165.

“Why Women are Representing Men in a Japanese Town Assembly: A Little Tale About Gender Politics.” Kokusai jendā gakkai shi [Japanese Journal of the International Society for Gender Studies]. 2 (2004), 35 – 70.

“Reconceiving Community: Pedaling and Peddling Democracy Among Japanese Housewives.” In Social Structures, Social Capital, and Personal Freedom, ed. Peter Lawler and Dale McConkey (Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, 2000), 31 – 42.

“What Every Political Scientist Should Know About Housewives: Notes from the Japanese Case.” The Journal of Pacific Asia, 5 (Spring 1999). [In both Japanese and English.]

Translation from the Japanese. Osawa Mari, “Will the Japanese-Style System Change? Employment, Gender and the Welfare State,” The Journal of Pacific Asia (1996: 3) [Published by the Committee for Research on Pacific Asia, Rikkyo University, Faculty of Law and Politics].

“Politics in Japan: The Art of Connection,” Mangajin: Japanese Pop Culture and Language Learning (September 1996), 12-15.

“Nihon no toshi ni okeru shufu no seiji ishiki to seiji gaku no arikata,(The Political Consciousness of Urban Japanese Housewives and the Nature of Political Science)” Seigakuin daigaku soogoo kenkyuujo newsletter [Newsletter of the General Research Center of Seigakuin University] (January 1996).

"Conference Committees: The Congressional Context," Canadian Parliamentary Review, Autumn 1991, Vol. 14, No. 3, 24-28. September 2, 1990.

BOOK REVIEWS

Review of France Rosenbluth, editor. The Political Economy of Japan’s Low Fertility (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007). Journal of Japanese Studies 34:1 (2008).

Review of Mark D. West, Law in Everyday Japan: Sex, Sumo, Suicide, and Statutes (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005). Monumenta Nipponica 59:3 (2006).

Review of Patricia L. Maclachlan, Consumer Politics in Postwar Japan: The Institutional Boundaries of Citizen Activism (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002). Journal of Japanese Studies 30:1 (2004).

Review of Yamagata ken, Nagai-shi Reinbō puran suishin kyōgikai, Daidokoro to nōgyō wo tsunagu [Connecting Farm and Kitchen], Ōno Kazuoki, ed., (Tokyo: Sōshinsha, 2001).Social Science Japan, 6: 2 (October 2003).

Review of Tiana Norgren, Abortion Before Birth Control: The Politics of Reproduction in Postwar Japan (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001). Journal of Japanese Studies 29:1 (January 2003).

Review of Sheila Smith, ed., Local Voices, National Issues: The Impact of Local Initiative in Japanese Policy-Making (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 2000). Governance, 15: 1 (January 2002).

Review of Myra H. Strober and Agnes Miling Kaneko Chan, The Road Winds Uphill All the Way: Gender, Work, and Family in the United States and Japan. Journal of Japanese Studies, 26: 2 (Summer 2000).

Review of Joy Hendry, Understanding Japanese Society, 2^nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 1995) Education About Asia, 3. 2 (Fall 1998).

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

“Cheating as a Democratic Practice: The Connection Between Masculine Identity and Political Power in Japanese Local Politics.” Presented at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the Association for Anthropology of Japan in Japan, in Tokyo, November 17 – 18.

“Rebuilding the Electoral Connection: The Potential and Limits of Anti-Party Electoral Movements in Japanese Local Politics.” Presented at the 2006 International Political Science Association World Congress in Fukuoka, Japan, July 9 – 13.

“The Art of the Gut: How Power Constrains the Political Voices of Japanese Men.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, San Francisco, April 6 – 9, 2006.

“Masculinity in the Construction of the Ethical Citizen in Japanese Political Discourse.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, D.C., September 1 – 3, 2005.

“Rebuilding the Electoral Connection: An Examination of the Origin and Potential of Anti-Party Electoral Movements in Japanese Local Politics.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, IL, September 2 – 4, 2004.

“Self Reliance is the Democrat’s Religion: A Response to Patrick Deneen’s ‘Our Democratic Faith.’” Presented at Democracy and Its Friendly Critics, Berry College, November 13, 2003.

“Why Mothers Are Caring for the Policy Agenda in Japanese Local Politics: A Little Tale About Men.” Presented at the Joint Meeting of the Southeast/Washington Japan Seminar and the Japan Economic Seminar, Washington, D.C., April 20, 2002.

“The Unraveling of Japanese Politics: Perspectives from the Grassroots.” Prepared for the Annual Meeting of the Virginia Consortium of Asian Studies, Fredericksburg, VA, February 9, 2002.

“Ordinary Political Masculinity: How Ethics of Manhood Constrain the Political Participation of Japanese Men.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association of Asian Studies, Chicago, March 24, 2001.

Roundtable member. “Citizen-Government Relations in the Context of Political Change in the 1990s.” Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, San Diego, March 11, 2000.

“What Every Political Economist Should Know About Housewives: Notes from the Japanese Case.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, Washington, D.C., March 28, 1998.

“Pedaling (Peddling) Democracy: Citizenship and Housewives Fifty Years After Japan’s Postwar Constitution.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Washington and Southeast Regional Japan Seminar, University of Maryland, College Park, April 26, 1997

“Reconceiving Community: Citizenship Models from Japanese Housewives,” Presented at Communitarianism and Civil Society, a conference at Berry College, October 17, 1996.

“Housewifery and Women’s Political Activism in Japan.” Presented at the
Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, September 1, 1996.

“The Seikatsu-sha Network’s ‘Local Party’ Challenge to Establishment Politics: Can Democracy Be Crafted Out of a Gender Identity?” Presented at the Southern Japan Seminar, May 4, 1996.

“The Housewife’s View: Women, Representation and the Definition of a Japanese Political Movement.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Southern Political Science Association, November 4, 1994.

“Volunteering Against Politics: Housewife Citizenship in Suburban Japan.” Presented to the Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs, September 1993.

"Homeless as Citizens: The Political World of the Japanese Housewife." Presented at the Combined Annual Meeting Western and Southwestern Conferences for Asian Studies, October 22, 1993.

"Women and the Japan Socialist Party: How Real is the Pink Revolt?" Presented at the 1990 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, San Francisco, California,

"Viewing Conference Committees Through the Congressional Context: Maybe It's Not Whether Chambers Win or Lose, But How They Play the Game." Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Southwest Social Science Association, Little Rock, Arkansas, March 30, 1989.

OTHER FORMS OF CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION

Member of roundtable. “Gender and Politics in Japan.” Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting, San Francisco, April 6 – 9, 2006.

Participant in Liberty Fund Colloquium. “Liberty, Commerce, and Character in Hume’s Essays.” Newport Beach, CA, February 19 – 22, 2004.

Discussant for panel. “Civil Society and the State in Japan.” Asian Studies Conference Japan 2003, Tokyo, 21-22 June 2003.

Participant in Liberty Fund Colloquium. “The Liberal Family: Patriarchy, Liberty, and Virtue.” Richmond, VA, February 15 – 18, 2001.

Discussant for panel. “Literary Figures as Public Intellectuals.” Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, D.C., September 2, 2000.

Chaired panel "Japan and the 'Culture' Question" at the Southern Japan Seminar Spring Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, May 2, 1998.

Discussant: “Social and Political Problems in an Aging Society,” Panel of the Southern Japan Seminar, October 1, 1995.

Discussant: “Political Change in Japan: Toward a New Politics?” Panel of the Southern Japan Seminar, April 22, 1995.

INVITED PUBLIC LECTURES

“Cheating as a Democratic Practice: Dismantling the Constraints of Masculine Trust Networks in Japanese Local Politics.” Presented to the Council on East Asian Studies at Yale University, April 9, 2007.

“Salad and Cigarettes for Breakfast: The Challenges and Rewards of Seeing Japan Through Participant-Observer Research.” Presented to the Blue Ridge Fulbright Alumni Association, Washington and Lee University, May 7, 2004.

“Telling Democracy: How Japanese Men and Women Talk About Politics.” Presented to the Global Studies Center, Knox College, February 25, 2002.

“Telling Democracy: How Japanese Men and Women Talk About Politics.” Presented to the East Asian Studies Program, University of Virginia, April 26, 2002.

“Ordinary Masculinity in Japanese Local Politics.” Presented at the University of California Los Angeles Center for Japanese Studies, March 19, 2001, Los Angeles.

“Character Comes Out: Human Beings and Power Structures in Japanese Local Politics.” Presented at the University of Michigan’s Center for Japanese Studies, February 10, 2000, Ann Arbor.

“Power and Character in Japanese Local Politics.” Presented to the Politics Study Group of the Reischauer Institute for Japanese Studies of Harvard University, Cambridge, December 10, 1999.

“Japanese Local Elections.” Presented at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, October 29, 1999.

“Shufu ni tsuite subete no seijigakusha ga shiranakeraba naranai koto: Nihon no jirei kara no kenkyu noto,” Lecture for the Rikkyo University Asian Studies Centre and the Rikkyo University Gender Forum, Tokyo, July 12, 1999. (conducted in Japanese)

"Pedaling Democracy: Japanese Housewives and Politics," Lecture for the East Asian Studies Program of the University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, April 13, 1998.

“How I Bicycled My Way into the Study of Japanese Politics,” Lecture at Berry College, November 20, 1995.

“Amerika to nihon: hito to hito (America and Japan, Person to Person),” Interview/Dialogue at Seigakuin University, Saitama Prefecture, Japan, June 22, 1995. (conducted in Japanese)

“Nihon no toshi ni okeru shufu no seiji ishiki to seiji gaku no arikata (The Political Consciousness of Urban Japanese Housewives and the Nature of Political Science),” Lecture at Seigakuin University, Saitama Prefecture, Japan, June 1995. (conducted in Japanese)

“The Japanese Housewife as a Political Being,” in the Asian Issues Lecture Series, Georgia Institute of Technology, School of International Affairs and the Center for International Strategy, Technology and Policy, February 1, 1995.

“Japanese Women and Politics,” Public Radio KOSU, Stillwater, Oklahoma, March 3, 1994.

“Japanese Housewives and Citizenship,” Oklahoma State University, March 3, 1994.

HONORS AND AWARDS

Fulbright Grant for Research in Japan, 2002.

Japan Foundation Grant for Research in Japan 2002 (declined)

College in Asia Summer Institute. Sponsored by ASIANetwork / Freeman Foundation. June 2000.

Washington & Lee University R.E. Lee Grant for Summer Student Research Assistance, 2000.

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grant for Post-Doctoral Study, 1999.

Washington & Lee University Glenn Grant for Summer Research, 1999.

Georgia Trend Magazine’s “Forty Under Forty” Leaders in Business, Politics and Academics, 1997.

Summer Institute on Korean Culture and Society: Sponsored by the University of Hawaii Center for Korean Studies, the East-West Center and a Grant from the Korea Foundation. July 1997.

National Endowment for the Humanities Grant for Participation in an Asian Studies Development Program Workshop on Confucianism and Chinese Culture sponsored jointly by the East-West Center at the University of Hawaii and Colorado College, March 1996.

Northeast Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies Travel Grant, Summer 1995.

Oglethorpe University Faculty Development Grant, Summer 1995, 1996, 1997.

American Political Science Association Women and Politics Section Award for the Best Dissertation on Women and Politics Written in 1994.

Carrie Chapman Catt Prize for Research on Women and Politics, 1994, Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics, Iowa State University.

Fulbright Graduate Research Fellowship, 1991-1993, Japan.

Japan Foundation Study Tour Award for Outstanding Foreign Students of the Japanese Language, 1990.