Jennifer Prough

Education

Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology – Duke University
M.A. in Social Sciences – University of Chicago
M.A. in Gender Studies and Feminist Theory – New School for Social Research
B.A. – Valparaiso University

Biography

Jennifer Prough received her B.A. from Valparaiso University and her Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from Duke University. Her teaching and research interests include Japanese studies, anthropology of media, anthropology of tourism, gender studies, and globalization. At the heart of Prough’s research and teaching interests are issues of representation and the ways that cultural meanings are produced and managed, experienced, and interpreted through mass culture. Her book entitled Straight from the Heart: Gender, Intimacy, and the Cultural Production of Shōjo Manga (University of Hawai’i Press, 2011) examines the production of girls’ comics in Japan through ethnographic analysis. Her current research project seeks to understand the ways that tradition, history, and culture are produced, packaged, promoted, and consumed in the Kyoto tourist industry. Through ethnographic analysis, in this manuscript Prough analyzes the ways that history and culture are deployed to create an atmosphere both ancient and modern, marketing Kyoto as a quintessential Japanese destination for both national and international tourists.