Giancarla Unser-Schutz 【ジャンカーラ・ウンサーシュッツ】

Currently a lecturer in the Faculty of Psychology of Rissho University (Tokyo, Japan), my research has thus far been focused on (1) a corpus-based sociolinguistic analysis of Japanese comics (manga) and (2) the linguistic characteristics of recent unusual Japanese names (kirakira neemu).  I have been employed at Rissho University since April, 2012, and I now teach primarily (1) English as a second language and (2) cultural and linguistic studies, within an advising seminar for third and fourth year students preparing to write their undergraduate theses, and a lecture course and Master's course on cultural psychology and language.  I myself started off as an undergraduate at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, but found myself increasingly called to Japan, originally to try out the language skills I had been acquiring since high school, and did a year-long exchange program at Hitotsubashi University. After graduating with a double major in linguistics and East Asian studies and a minor in Japanese language, I moved to Japan in 2006 to start off as a research student.  In 2007, I began my MA at Hitotsubashi, and obtained my PhD from the same institution in June, 2013. In my dissertation, I analyzed the language seen in manga from the perspectives of (1) the types of text used, (2) their lexical and orthographic characteristics and readability, and (3) characters' speech patterns. I used a corpus-based approach, having started to compile a corpus of manga as an MA student.  I hope to expand this in the following days, but in the meanwhile, a list of my presentations and articles may be found in lieu of a CV. I also would be happy to send copies of articles or talk about my work through email: [email protected]. Thank you for your interest.  Please note that while I use Facebook for private interactions only and am unlikely to add (1) individuals I have not met in person or (2) current colleagues and students. Thank you for your understanding.