This past weekend, I had the privilege of attending the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. There were about 4,000-5,000 students there from all across the country, presenting their research either in an oral, visual/performing arts, or poster session. I first heard about this conference last semester from the Director of the Honors Program at my college, who encouraged everyone in the program to submit their abstract for research they either had done, were currently doing, or were going to have mostly completed by the time of the conference. I had planned on doing my Honors Thesis, a requirement for all Honors students, the following semester, so I wrote an abstract for a paper about anime and personhood (bet you thought you were safe from another anime-related article, didn't you? Well, you were half right). About a month later, I received an email saying that I had been accepted. I was shocked about being accepted from then until...well, I'm still surprised, honestly. Nonetheless, I went, and I loved it.
A lot of students did their research in the sciences, which I expected. Usually when I hear "research," I think in terms of some new biological study being done, a breakthrough in medical technology, a survey of students performed that leads to educational breakthroughs, or something else along those lines. However, when I went to this conference, I was surprised at the different types of research that are now considered scholarly, including a student giving a poster presentation on why Disney still appeals to us even beyond our childhood days, among other interesting presentations.
And then there's me and about two other people that presented on anime.
Granted, it's not that I don't think that anime/manga doesn't have scholarly applications; I just didn't think many other people would recognize this as well.
When I watch anime, I don't watch it just for enjoyment; I also notice the different themes presented in them as well, such as racism, existentialism, personhood, genocide, ethics/morality, and many other topics, which can all be studied academically. Unfortunately, not a lot of research has been done on this.
It saddens me a bit that most people seem to think anime doesn't have much scholarly credibility (or worse, think it's for children, in which case I need to ask what animes you've seen since not a lot is for children), but there's a positive aspect to this: it's a growing field and a great research opportunity. In general, people want to see novel research ideas. Not to say that new ideas can't be discovered in math, science, and other related fields (or really any field, for that matter), but new fields of study can open up so many more opportunities for student and other researchers as well.
Anime doesn't have to be the only new field of research explored by others; it's just the one I love and prefer. However, this research conference taught me that research can really be on anything that you're passionate about and that there are different ways to learn and study familiar as well as new topics. From seeing other students' research, I was able to get a glimpse of just how vast researching opportunities are. I'm so glad I got to go to this conference, and I'd highly encourage anyone else to go to one if they get the chance; it's definitely an experience you won't forget.
I'd love to do more research with anime at some point, but, for now, I'll just worry about finishing my thesis. We'll see what happens after that.
