Penn State Penn State: College of the Liberal Arts
Charlotte Eubanks

Charlotte Eubanks

Department Head
Professor of Comparative Literature, Japanese, and Asian Studies
452 Burrowes Bldg.
(814) 863-4933
Eubanks_Charlotte

Fall 2022 Office Hours

Tuesdays 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. Thursdays 10:30 - 11:30 a.m. Or by appointment

Education

PhD, University of Colorado, 2005
MA, Indiana University, 1999
BA, University of Georgia, 1993

Professional Bio

I am interested in material culture, performance studies, and ethics, with a focus on Japanese and Buddhist literature from the medieval period to the present. My first research area examines transnational (or prenational) Buddhism as a major literary force and as, simultaneously, a set of techniques and concepts for cultivating ‘mind.’ The basic questions I’ve worked on here are: What does it mean to ‘read’ a religious text? And, in what ways might literature be understood to ‘map’ the mind? My second research area looks at transformations in visual culture as related to ideologies of colonization and war. The basic question I’m working on here is: How can art generally, and the museum specifically, be activated as a site of ethical engagement? My articles have appeared in Asian Folklore Studies, Book History, The Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, The International Journal of the Sociology of Language, The Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, PMLA, and Word & Image, among other places. I am an Associate Editor at Verge: Studies in Global Asias.

I teach graduate level courses on global Japanese literature, sound studies, visual culture, book history, and global premodern theory. At the undergraduate level I teach courses on world literature, graphic novels, reading practice, and Japanese language and visual culture

 

AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION

  • East-West Comparative
  • Visual Culture
  • Literary Buddhism

Publications

The Art of Persistence: Akamatsu Toshiko and the Visual Cultures of Transwar Japan
The Art of Persistence: Akamatsu Toshiko and the Visual Cultures of Transwar Japan
 (University of Hawai’i Press, 2021.)