Dr Masafumi Monden
Masafumi Monden is a cultural studies scholar specializing in Japan. He writes and teaches on modern Japanese cultural history, fashion, art and popular culture, gender studies, Japanese language, and international relations focusing on Australia's ties with Asia. Before joining the University of Sydney, Dr Monden most recently taught at the University of Western Australia.
- Media and Popular Culture/ Japan
- Fashion and Dress Studies
- Youth Culture, Body, Gender and Self-hood
- Construction and Cultural Conception of “Girlhood” and “Boyhood”
- Intercultural Interaction and Communication
- Cultural History of Modern Japan
- Historical Relationships between Modern Australia, Japan and Asia
Dr Monden teaches Japanese language units as well as Japanese and Asian cultures, history and society. Previous courses include international relations, world history, Japanese literature, culture and history, Japanese language (beginners to advanced), and Asian popular culture.
Teaching
- ASNS6905 Asian Popular Culture
- JPNS2672 Japanese Media and Popular Culture
- ICLS2621 Love in Different Languages (Japanese Literature Modules)
- JPNS1612 Japanese 2
- JPNS3631 Japanese 9
- JPNS3632 Japanese 10
Dr Monden is currently working on two book-length projects: Maidens sans Frontiers, a study ofshōjo(girl) cultures in Japan and beyond with Dr Lucy Fraser and Dr Emerald King; andSalarymen to Shōnen: Male Models and Consumer Culture in Post-War Japan, which uses the cultural history of male modelling in Japan as a means to engage with visual and consumer culture, the interlinked history of race, aging, technology, fashion and consumption, and the dissemination of bodily aesthetics and gender ideals within the modern Japanese imagination. His new project deals with the cultural history of Australia and Japan.
His recent project “Preparing for a Post-COVID World: Japanese Higher Education Student Experience in Australia” (funded by the Japan Foundation Sydney, 2021) has just completed. Dr Monden is also a joint recipient of Australia-Japan Foundation Grants (2022).
- Japanese Studies Association of Australia (JSAA)
- Korean Studies Association of Australasia (KSAA)
- The Australian Historical Association (AHA)
- Australian Studies Association of Japan (ASAJ)
Grant
2021, Australia-Japan Foundation Grants. Affiliated to“Festival of the Fantastic in Australian and Japanese Arts.” CI, with Lucy Fraser and Emerald King, in partnership with Kanagawa University. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
2021, The Japan Foundation Sydney’s Japanese Studies Mini Grants. Affiliated to“Preparing for a Post-COVID World: Japanese Higher Education Student Experience in Australia.” CI, with Mona Chettri and Yu Tao (UWA), in partnership with The Japanese Studies Association of Australia (JSAA).
2018, The Japan Foundation Sydney’s Japanese Studies Mini Grants. Affiliated to “Unlocking the International Possibilities of Shōjo Studies” symposium, The University of Queensland. CI, with Lucy Fraser and Emerald King.
Awards and Fellowships
2021, Awards for Teaching Excellence,the Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Education, nominated. The University of Western Australia
2019, The Hakuhō Foundation Japanese Studies Research Fellowshipawarded for 12 months (Sept. 2019 – Sept. 2020). Declined.
2019, The Professor Chung-Sok Suh Best Paper Award at the 11th Korean Studies Association of Australia (KSAA) Biennial Conference, nominated for the paper “Terius: a Cross-cultural Ideal of Melancholic Male Beauty in Japan and South Korea.”
2017, The National Library of Australia, Fellowship in Japan Studies. Project title: “The Changing Scape of Shōjo: Examining Girlhood, Aesthetics and Self-hood in Japanese Popular Culture.”
2016, The Japan Foundation Japanese Studies Fellowship (long term). Project title: “Fashion, Body and Male Identity in Contemporary Japan: A Cultural Investigation.”
Selected publications
(Bloomsbury Academic, 2015)
Publications
Books
- Monden, M. (2015). Japanese Fashion Cultures: Gender and Dress in Contemporary Japan. London: Bloomsbury Academic. [More Information]
Book Chapters
- Monden, M. (2024). The Beauty of Winter Sports: The Popularity of Figure Skating in Japan. In Helen Macnaughtan and Verity Postlethwaite (Eds.), Handbook of Sport and Japan, (pp. 122-144). Tokyo: MHM Limited. [More Information]
- Monden, M. (2023). Hair Dressing: Fetish, School Uniforms and Shojo in Cocoon, Entwined. In Roberto Filippello and Ilya Parkins (Eds.), Fashion and Feeling: The Affective Politics of Dress, (pp. 285-304). Cham: Springer. [More Information]
- Monden, M. (2022). The Subversively Cute Side of Comme des Garcons: Rei Kawakubo and Romantic Transgression. In Rex Butler (Eds.), Rei Kawakubo: For and Against Fashion, (pp. 117-136). London: Bloomsbury. [More Information]
Journals
- Monden, M. (2024). Elegant Threads: Unveiling Kimono Intricacies in Julie Valk's "Cultural Literacy as Mission and Product". Current Anthropology, 65(3), 451-452. [More Information]
- Monden, M. (2023). Book review - Masculinity and Body Weight in Japan: Grappling with Metabolic Syndrome by Genaro Castro-Vazquez. Social Science Japan, 26(1), 145-148. [More Information]
- Monden, M. (2022). Midnight Cinderella: Amoral Shojo (Girl) and Japanese Girl Culture. Journal of Popular Culture, 55(2), 454-475. [More Information]
2024
- Monden, M. (2024). Elegant Threads: Unveiling Kimono Intricacies in Julie Valk's "Cultural Literacy as Mission and Product". Current Anthropology, 65(3), 451-452. [More Information]
- Monden, M. (2024). The Beauty of Winter Sports: The Popularity of Figure Skating in Japan. In Helen Macnaughtan and Verity Postlethwaite (Eds.), Handbook of Sport and Japan, (pp. 122-144). Tokyo: MHM Limited. [More Information]
2023
- Monden, M. (2023). Book review - Masculinity and Body Weight in Japan: Grappling with Metabolic Syndrome by Genaro Castro-Vazquez. Social Science Japan, 26(1), 145-148. [More Information]
- Monden, M. (2023). Hair Dressing: Fetish, School Uniforms and Shojo in Cocoon, Entwined. In Roberto Filippello and Ilya Parkins (Eds.), Fashion and Feeling: The Affective Politics of Dress, (pp. 285-304). Cham: Springer. [More Information]
2022
- Monden, M. (2022). Midnight Cinderella: Amoral Shojo (Girl) and Japanese Girl Culture. Journal of Popular Culture, 55(2), 454-475. [More Information]
- Monden, M. (2022). The Subversively Cute Side of Comme des Garcons: Rei Kawakubo and Romantic Transgression. In Rex Butler (Eds.), Rei Kawakubo: For and Against Fashion, (pp. 117-136). London: Bloomsbury. [More Information]
- Monden, M. (2022). Transformations: Aimer's 'I Beg You' and Alice in Japanese Music Video. In Antonio Sanna (Eds.), Alice in Wonderland in Film and Popular Culture, (pp. 255-271). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. [More Information]
2021
- Monden, M. (2021). Modman: an Ideal Male Beauty in Japan and the Roles of Male Fashion Models. In Y. Takagi & K. Koma (Eds.), Fashion Studies that Cross-Boundaries: For University Students who Study Fashion, (pp. 131-145). Kyoto: Nakanishiya-shuppan. [More Information]
2020
- Monden, M. (2020). Magical Bird Maidens: Reconsidering Romantic Fairy-Tales in Japanese Popular Culture. In Mayako Murai and Luciana Cardi (Eds.), Re-Orienting the Fairy Tale: Contemporary Fairy-Tale Adaptations Across Cultures, (pp. 335-360). Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
- Monden, M. (2020). Shrouded in Memory: Time, Desire, and Emotions in Iwadate Mariko's 'A White Satin Ribbon'. US-Japan Women's Journal, 57, 78-106. [More Information]
2019
- Monden, M. (2019). A Dream Dress for Girls: Milk, Fashion and Shôjo Identity. In Jaqueline Berndt, Kazumi Nagaike, Fusami Ogi (Eds.), Shojo Across Media: Exploring "Girl" Practices in Contemporary Japan, (pp. 209-231). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. [More Information]
- Monden, M. (2019). Boys at the Barre: Boys, Men and the Ballet in Japan. Japanese Studies, 39(2), 145-167. [More Information]
- Monden, M. (2019). The continuum of male beauty in contemporary Japan. In Jennifer Coates, Lucy Fraser, Mark Pendleton (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Gender and Japanese Culture, (pp. 270-278). London: Routledge. [More Information]
2018
- Monden, M. (2018). The Beautiful Shonen of the Deep and Moonless Night: The Boyish Aesthetic in Modern Japan. Asien, 147, 64-91.
2017
- Fraser, L., Monden, M. (2017). The Maiden Switch: New Possibilities for Understanding Japanese Shojo Manga (Girls' Comics). Asian Studies Review, 41(4), 544-561. [More Information]
2015
- Monden, M. (2015). Japanese Fashion Cultures: Gender and Dress in Contemporary Japan. London: Bloomsbury Academic. [More Information]
2014
- Monden, M. (2014). Being Alice in Japan: performing a cute, 'girlish' revolt. Japan Forum, 26(2), 265-285. [More Information]
- Monden, M. (2014). Layers of the ethereal: A cultural investigation of beauty, Girlhood, and Ballet in Japanese Shōjo Manga. Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress Body and Culture, 18(3), 251-296. [More Information]
Selected Grants
2025
- Shojo Studies Symposium Australia: Exploring the Past, Present, and Future, Monden M, Japan Foundation, Sydney/Local Grant Program
Community engagement
Masafumi has taught Japanese at Saturday Japanese language school for children in Sydney, NSW (2014 - 2015) and often helps high school students with their school projects concerning Japan, Asia, gender and culture.
He enjoys giving public lecture on Japanese culture (e.g. the National Library of Australia, 2017), popular culture (The Australian Embassy, Tokyo 2020), and Japanese fashion (e.g. Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, 2019) to communicate his research outside of academia.
Professional contributions
2020 – present, Member of Editorial Board, International Journal of Fashion Studies (Intellect), https://www.intellectbooks.com/international-journal-of-fashion-studies.
2019 – present, Member of Editorial Board, Textile: Cloth and Culture (Taylor and Francis), https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rftx20/current
In the media
In addition to the presentation of his work in academic contexts, Dr Monden's expertise and knowledge in gender, culture, fashion and Japanese youth studies have attracted attention in a variety of non-academic settings, including in media appearances such as ABC News(Canberra, July 2017; August 2023) the.New York Times (January 2017; July 2023) and CNN (January 2024).
BBC. "Japan's imperial family latest royals to join Instagram” by Frances Mao, April 3 2024. (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-68710938)
CNN Japan. "日本発祥のロリータファッション、世界中の女性を魅了する理由”January 31 2024.(https://www.cnn.co.jp/style/fashion/35214627.html)
CNN. "Lolita style, explained: Why the Japanese-born, Victorian-inspired street style enchants women around the world" by Scottie Andrew, January 25. (https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/25/style/lolita-fashion-history-style-photos-cec/index.html)
ABC News. “How the history of tattoos went from mummies and frozen bodies to British royalty and Japanese masters” by Sophie Kesteven and Julie Street, August 5 2023. (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-05/history-of-tattooing-in-japan-and-around-the-world/102656106?utm_campaign=abc_news_web&utm_content=link&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_source=abc_news_web)
Dazed and Confused.“Inside the growing online community of Black gyarus” by Sayou Cooper, July 25 2023. (https://www.dazeddigital.com/beauty/article/60429/1/inside-the-growing-online-community-of-black-gyarus)
“The Eternal shōjo: Exploring the Aesthetics of Kawaii Culture and Lolita Fashion in Japan”Invited lecture for GESSHIN, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy, May 28, 2023. Video of the talk available at:https://youtu.be/JzbHZvVrfhY?si=mYXO3Ixz9DGh4OoJ
Fashion Tech News, “男性ファッションモデルという職業[The profession called 'Male Fashion Model']," February 13, 2023 (in Japanese). (https://fashiontechnews.zozo.com/research/monden_masafumi).
Trufelman, Avery. “Articles of Interest” Season 3. Design Podcast on American Ivy Style. Appear in Episodes 1 – 5, 7. 2022. Available at :https://www.articlesofinterest.co/podcast