About Amanda Kennell

Amanda Kennell is an Assistant Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Notre Dame who researches modern Japanese media like anime and manga. Her book about Japanese adaptations of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland novels, "Alice in Japanese Wonderlands: Translation, Adaptation, Mediation" is now available from the University of Hawai'i Press.

Amanda Kennell is an Assistant Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Notre Dame who researches modern Japanese media like anime and manga.

Amanda's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Amanda:

Frenchy Lunning, "Cosplay: The Fictional Mode of Existence" (U Minnesota Press, 2022)

April 4, 2023

Cosplay

Frenchy Lunning
Hosted by Amanda Kennell

Cosplay, a portmanteau of “costume” and “play,” emerged from geeky Japanese subcultures to become a popular hobby, and even profession, around the wor…

Lucy Fraser, "The Pleasures of Metamorphosis: Japanese and English Fairy Tale Transformations of "The Little Mermaid"" (Wayne State UP, 2017)

December 25, 2022

The Pleasures of Metamorphosis

Lucy Fraser
Hosted by Amanda Kennell

“The Little Mermaid” has become popular around the world since the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen published it almost two centuries ago. Lucy …

Murasaki Yamada, "Talk to My Back" (Drawn & Quarterly, 2022)

September 27, 2022

Talk to My Back

Murasaki Yamada
Hosted by Amanda Kennell

Manga historian Ryan Holmberg introduces the influential alternative manga artist Murasaki Yamada (1948-2009) to English readers through a scholarly t…

Nathaniel Isaacson, "Celestial Empire: The Emergence of Chinese Science Fiction" (Wesleyan UP, 2017)

May 31, 2022

Celestial Empire

Nathaniel Isaacson
Hosted by Amanda Kennell

Chinese science fiction has been booming lately through the translation of books like Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem, but where did the current su…

Alexa Alice Joubin, "Shakespeare and East Asia" (Oxford UP, 2021)

February 23, 2022

Shakespeare and East Asia

Alexa Alice Joubin
Hosted by Amanda Kennell

Shakespeare’s plays enjoy a great deal of popularity across the world, yet most of us study Shakespeare's local productions and scholarship. Shakespea…

Midori Yamamura, "Yayoi Kusama: Inventing the Singular" (MIT Press, 2015)

January 28, 2022

Yayoi Kusama

Midori Yamamura
Hosted by Amanda Kennell

Midori Yamamura’s Yayoi Kusama: Inventing the Singular (MIT Press, 2015) is an in-depth examination of the famed artist’s early years in Japan and the…

Rayna Denison, "Anime: A Critical Introduction" (Bloomsbury, 2015)

December 16, 2021

Anime

Rayna Denison
Hosted by Amanda Kennell

Rayna Denison’s Anime: A Critical Introduction (Bloomsbury, 2015) uses genre as a window into the evolving global phenomenon of Japanese animation. D…