Kyle Cleveland

Kyle Cleveland

  • Sociology

    Associate Professor /
    ICAS Co-Director

    Programs
    • Undergraduate
    • Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies (ICAS)

Areas of Expertise

Associate Professor Cleveland's expertise ranges from political and theoretical sociology to race and ethnicity, popular culture and ideology.

Teaching Interests

Associate Professor Cleveland has taught at TUJ since 1990. He currently teaches the courses The History & Significance of Race in America and Ideology and Social Changes in Japan. He has also presented courses on Japanese culture, criminology, and political sociology.

Research

Associate Professor Cleveland's research interests focus on Japanese popular culture and ethnic identity in relation to globalization and social changes in contemporary Japan. Associate Professor Cleveland supervises both American based university students on short-term study abroad, and locally enrolled students with long-term visa sponsorship who study at TUJ. As the founding Director of TUJ's Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies, he has supervised special programmes in Japanese popular culture and visual media studies, organized a lecture series, and produced events and symposia related to contemporary political issues. Through the Wakai Project, he organizes a series of events in which students from various universities, scholars, activists, and media collaborate to address how globalization is affecting youth culture in Japan.

Representative Publications

  • Cleveland, Kyle. 16 Hiding in plain sight. Critical Issues in Contemporary Japan (2013): 213.
  • Cleveland, Kyle. Mobilizing Nuclear Bias: The Fukushima Nuclear Crisis and the Politics of Uncertainty (Updated and Revised May 18, 2014) 福島原発危機 核に纏わる先入観を煽る不確実性の政治学. The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol 11 (2011): 2014.
  • Cleveland, Kyle. "SIGNIFICANT BREAKING WORSE" The Fukushima Nuclear Crisis as a Moral Panic. Critical Asian Studies 46.3 (2014): 509-539.

Education

  • M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology, Temple University, Philadelphia
Last update: June 30, 2020

Kyle Cleveland (Ph.D., Temple University, Sociology) is the Co-Director of TUJ’s Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies, and is Associate Professor of Sociology at TUJ. As the founding Director of the university’s Institute of Contemporary Japan Studies (now ICAS), he organized TUJ’s Pacific Rim Lecture series, and was the founding director of the Nextframe International Film Festival. Dr. Cleveland is the Director of TUJ’s Summer Institute in Studies of Japanese Popular Culture, and through the Wakai Project, organizes a series of events and symposia in which students from various universities, scholars, activists, and media collaborate to address how globalization is affecting youth culture in Japan.

At TUJ, he has been the Director of the Office of International Students, the Study Abroad Advisor, Director of Student Activities, Manager of the Office of Student Services, and is the faculty advisor to the university’s Student Government. His areas of specialty include Japanese Popular Culture, Political Sociology, Youth subcultures, Race/Ethnicity and Globalization.