David Humphrey

David Humphrey received his Ph.D. in Japanese with a designated emphasis in New Media from the University of California, Berkeley, and taught previously at Middlebury College and the University of Notre Dame before coming to Michigan State. His research focuses on the media and culture of modern and contemporary Japan, and he has published in the International Journal of Communication, the Journal of Japanese Studies, Japanese Studies Association Journal, and Japan Forum. He is the author of a forth-coming book, entitled The Time of Laughter: Comedy and the Media Cultures of Japan, which examines laughter and comedy’s rise in late 20th and early 21st century Japanese media culture. He is also working on a second book manuscript on digital culture in Japan.

At MSU, he teaches courses on Japanese literature, media, popular culture and language, as well as on global studies. In addition to serving as a core faculty member of the program in Global Studies in the Arts and Humanities, he is also an affiliated faculty member of the Film Studies and Digital Humanities programs.

Publications

“The Black Box and Japanese Discourses of the Digital.” International Journal of Communication 14 (2020).

“On Mediating Laughter: Japan, Television, and the Discourse of Cheer.” The Journal of Japanese Studies 44.2 (2018).

“Shattering the Everyday: Konto 55-gō and the Television Comedy of the Late 60s.” Japan Studies Association Journal 15.1 (2017).

“The Tone of Laughter and the Strangely Warm Comedy of Hagimoto Kin’ichi.” Japan Forum 26.4 (2014).

“Excerpts from The Legends of Japan (1929).” [Translation] Review of Japanese Culture and Society 25 (2013).

Courses

JPN491 Topics in Japanese Studies

JPN369 Japanese Literature and Culture I

GSAH312 Global Digital Cultures

GSAH850 Seminar on Global Theories and Concepts

JPN101 Elementary Japanese I