This project examines how Western cultural forms introduced to Japan evolved through processes of transculturation across generations. Focusing on cafe culture and blues and jazz music, it asks how practices with foreign origins became embedded in everyday Japanese life in distinct and locally meaningful ways. Rather than reducing cultural exchange to simple narratives of domination or imitation, this study explores how Japanese communities actively reshaped outside influences within their own social and aesthetic contexts. Drawing on Cultural Studies and Fernando Ortiz’s concept of transculturation, this research combines historical analysis with field observation in cafes and blues and jazz venues across Japan. By tracing how these spaces developed and continue to function today, the project demonstrates that imported cultural practices were neither passively accepted nor fully rejected, but continually adapted and integrated into Japanese social environments. The findings suggest that cultural exchange in Japan is best understood as an ongoing process of negotiated transformation grounded in everyday social spaces.
Over the summer, 11 students traveled to San Francisco, California, as a part of the Q-Fest Immersion Program, one of the two flagship programs of the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center. We visited Frameline, the world’s oldest and largest queer film festival. After viewing films, we brought 32 films back to Eau Claire to create Q-Fest, UW-Eau Claire’s student-run film festival. Across the six months, making up pre-trip, immersion, and post-trip work, students broke into research groups to explore issues affecting both San Francisco and Eau Claire. They were tasked with documenting the immersion by writing blog posts and creating short videos to share with the Eau Claire community. In this presentation, student programmers Cory Quinn and Audra Dyer will reflect on their experiences in San Francisco, as well as their time developing Q-Fest.
