Many social science departments include scholars whose work involves different world regions. Department breadth presents an opportunity to learn from colleagues working across very different settings. It also presents a challenge. Researchers who work on specific contexts must ask: Is my understanding of this feature of the political system or policy area correct? What other conclusions have scholars drawn that might be relevant to my line of inquiry? Have I identified and addressed all potential competing explanations? To answer these questions, scholars must share their work with others in the same field.
Few of us in the Japanese politics community are fortunate to have other Japan scholars in the same department. This is largely true for other country and regional experts, except for Americanists. Conferences have always been important venues to engage researchers with similar interests. Concerned that the COVID-19 pandemic would diminish opportunities to receive feedback and interact with fellow academics, we established the Japanese Politics Online Seminar Series (jposs.org), or JPOSS. This article describes JPOSS and its advantages for our community, and it summarizes logistical and technical challenges.
JPOSS at a Glance
Since its inaugural session on July 10, 2020, JPOSS has met approximately twice a month. The one-hour sessions take place via Zoom in the evening in the US Eastern Time (i.e., early morning in Japan). Papers for presentation are submitted via our website or invited by the organizers. Presented papers cover a wide range of topics related to Japanese domestic and international politics and use various qualitative and quantitative approaches. We usually solicit two discussants for each paper, one of whom is not an expert on Japan. The event then is disseminated via the JPOSS website, Twitter, and email. Sessions are open to everyone. A postdoctoral researcher, Nicholas Fraser, posts an online blog after each session, which preserves the presentation and discussion content. Presenters can submit either a draft paper or a pre-analysis plan, and they are required to circulate their paper one week before the event. We also feature several practice job talks to prepare students with a wide range of feedback.
Each session consists of the chair’s introduction, researcher presentations (10 minutes each), and comments from two discussants (10 minutes each). This is followed by a chair-moderated Q&A session. Participants use the “raise-hand” function to ask questions directly; many others also use the chat box to make comments. Each JPOSS session draws an average of 60 attendees, highlighting substantial buy-in from the Japanese politics community, which is relatively small compared to other fields.
In addition to standard presentations, we also have held two special sessions and a virtual “happy hour.” The special sessions provided professional-development advice on topics such as publishing, fieldwork, and working in Japanese academia. These two sessions were very popular, drawing 129 and 98 participants, respectively.
The Value of an Online Seminar Series
Online seminar series like JPOSS provide considerable value to area-focused researchers in comparative politics and international relations. First, they offer opportunities for students at institutions that do not have faculty who specialize in their region to connect with experts elsewhere. Professionalization sessions also “level the playing field” for students by providing equal access to information.
Second, by recruiting non-Japan experts to serve as discussants, JPOSS creates dialogue between Japan-focused researchers and other scholars studying similar topics in different parts of the world. This helps to situate our research within the broader discipline, maximizing its impact, while also increasing knowledge of Japan across subfields. In particular, we encourage graduate students and early-career researchers to present their work and nominate a “dream team” of discussants. We are fortunate to have excellent discussants, and we hope that the communication between presenters and these non-Japan experts continue.
Third, JPOSS serves a larger purpose in cultivating area expertise on Japan and fostering a sense of community. This is useful to researchers in all stages of their career: senior members of the community can learn what early-career scholars are working on and provide valuable advice and mentoring; early-career scholars can increase their network and broaden the impact of their research through greater exposure. The happy-hour session using gather.town promoted an inclusive culture in a casual environment. We are pleased that several retired scholars of Japanese politics also attended our sessions. Our platform provides opportunities for scholars of all generations to “meet” and get to know one another.
Fourth, building and strengthening international connections is a signature accomplishment of the forum. About a third of JPOSS attendees and some of the presenters and discussants are affiliated with Japanese universities. Before launching this online platform, the only effective opportunity for those in Japan and in other countries to interact with one another was to physically attend conferences and seminars. The cost of academic interactions among scholars around the world, therefore, has been reduced dramatically. We expect that this benefit of an online seminar series applies to other area-focused researchers as well.
Managing an Online Community
Several features of JPOSS have worked well. First, we receive generous administrative support from the Program on US–Japan Relations at Harvard University and the Centre for the Study of Global Japan at the University of Toronto. Excellent staff support on matters such as logistics and communications allow faculty organizers to focus on general direction and intellectual engagement during sessions.
Second, JPOSS adopted a shared-leadership model, with six faculty organizers. This gives us flexibility: one organizer is always available to chair, and a subset consistently attends every session. Our shared-leadership model also guarantees presenters a range of comments—substantive, theoretical, and methodological—that reflect the diverse expertise of the organizers. Challenges of shared leadership include the need to achieve consensus on organizational matters and to communicate effectively across time zones. Our initial attempts to communicate by email were cumbersome and delayed our decision making; however, we solved this by using Slack’s threaded conversation features, which allow for isolated discussions about each planned session.
Third, we take advantage of the virtual format. We encourage attendees to use Zoom’s chat feature. Comments and questions typically flow almost as soon as the presentation begins. We record the session for presenter use only, without uploading it online, to promote a more open exchange of ideas. We send both the recording and chat transcript to presenters after the session. Presenters thus receive a substantial amount of information. In a virtual seminar, audience members lose the physical proximity of in-person discussion. However, they have the opportunity to communicate feedback without being concerned about interrupting or taking time from other audience members. Presenters can review the feedback later in a more relaxed setting and identify areas for improvement.
Challenges
To help colleagues who are interested in establishing a virtual seminar series, we conclude by reflecting on three challenges. First, JPOSS sessions have been timed to maximize attendance by scholars based in the United States and Japan, which results in limited participation by researchers in other time zones. Abandoning the fixed time slot may help, but the consistency also has considerable organizational benefits.
Second, we have received relatively fewer applications from early-career scholars than anticipated. One reason for this may be our relatively large audiences. There is a tradeoff between broad participation and enabling intimate, low-stakes discussions of works in progress. We are exploring strategies to make JPOSS more inviting for junior scholars, such as potentially holding closed or limited attendance sessions.
Third, virtual seminars will face greater competition when in-person gatherings resume. As circumstances evolve, we will continuously adapt JPOSS to sustain and grow what has become a vibrant intellectual community.
