Arthur Mitchell

Arthur Mitchell teaches and studies the intersections of art and politics in modern Japan. His book, Disruptions of Daily Life: Japanese Literary Modernism in the World (Cornell, 2020), examines the socially subversive potential of formalist fiction in 1920’s Japan. Delving deeper into the theme of agitational art, his current research, funded by a Fulbright Grant 2021-2022, uses modern literary narratives to uncover a history of racial consciousness in modern Japan and more generally probes the potential for an antiracist scholarship.

His interest in confronting systemic inequity in his research is grounded in a commitment to and fascination with inclusive pedagogy in the classroom. In “Toward Exhilarating Classrooms: Representation vs. Inclusion in Japanese-Language Education” (JLL, 2020),” he explores the idea of language teachers bringing their own complex biographical relationship with the Japanese language with them into the classroom as a way to undermine traditional language ideology and allow non-traditional students to have a sense of place and belonging.

Arthur did his studies at Yale University, where he earned a B.A. in literature and then eventually a Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Literatures. He has also studied modern literature at Sophia University and Waseda University, both in Tokyo, Japan. He joined the Macalester faculty in 2012.

Courses taught at Macalester include: Narratives of Alienation, Race & Ethnicity in Japan, Japanese Film & Animation, Translating Japanese, and Japanese 101.