My name is
Alexis Jenkins and I am a senior studying English with a minor in Japanese
Studies. In the fall of 2015, I studied abroad in Akita, Japan at Akita
International University for an entire semester. While I was there, I joined
the school’s hip-hop dance team. Being a member of the team gave me the
opportunity to not only perform in three shows and practice with a team of
mostly Japanese students, but also watch and interact with hip-hop teams from a
neighboring school, Akita University. The rich experience I had inspired me to
explore the Japanese hip-hop subculture further when I returned home. I wanted
to learn about how and why the subculture developed. I also wanted to determine
whether Japanese people see hip-hop as something inherently American, Japanese,
or just generally cool. My research question recently changed to the following:
How do participants in the Japanese hip-hop subculture perceive the
relationships between hip-hop and Japanese and American identities?
My project has
involved secondary research, participant observation, and interviews with a few
Japanese college students. Using these methods has given me skills that will
help me as I move past college and into the working world and post-graduate
education. The interview process was especially helpful in helping me develop
my interpersonal skills and in improving my skills with the Japanese language.
At this point, I
am still completing research on a weekly basis. I am going through the list of
secondary sources I gathered, have started writing about my experiences as part
of the participant observation, and I have gone through the responses of the
interviews I completed. This term, I realized that my project, given my
personal experiences, could not simply be a research paper; instead, I am now
taking an autoethnographic approach with my writing and how I will frame the
project as a whole.
