WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Feb. 8, 2010 (Update) -- This year's Faculty Lecture Series at Williams College kicks off with Christopher A. Bolton, associate professor of Japanese and comparative literature, who will talk about "Vampire Samurai Schoolgirls and Other Demons: What We Can Learn from Japanese Animation." The lecture will be held Thursday, Feb. 11, at 4 p.m. in Wege Auditorium in the Science Center. Admission is free and the public is cordially invited to attend.

In discussing vampires and demons, Bolton will discuss "Blood: The Last Vampire," an animated horror film set on an American military base in Japan during the Vietnam War.

"Vietnam represents an uncomfortable intrusion of reality in the midst of the film's occult fantasies," explains Bolton, "but even the war has a ghostly or unreal quality in this film, corresponding to suppressed memories of Vietnam and other wars that still haunt America and Japan."

At Williams since 2003, Bolton's research centers on modern Japanese literature, particularly postwar and contemporary fiction, and animation. He straddles the Asian studies and comparative literature departments, teaching the courses "Masks of Japanese Literature," "Love and Death in Modern Japanese Literature," and "Sublime Confusion: A Survey of Critical Theory," among others.

Bolton wrote the 2009 book "Sublime Voices: The Fictional Science and Scientific Fiction of Abe Kobo," which mines the scientific influence on the fictional works of the avant-garde Japanese writer Abe Kobo. Bolton co-edited "Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams: Japanese Science Fiction from Origins to Anime," a collection of essays on Japanese science fiction. 

He has contributed chapters to the books "Japanese Horror Cinema," "Modern Japanese Authors," and "Bakhtinian Theory in Japanese Studies." A number of his articles and translations have appeared in the journals Science Fiction Studies and Gastronomica, among others.

In addition, Bolton is the associate editor for Mechademia, an annual forum for academic work on anime, manga, and related arts. He has won a Japan Foundation Fellowship and Staff Expansion Grant, as well as a Mellon Eight-College Semester Leave Grant

Bolton received his A.B. from Harvard and his Ph.D. in Japanese with a focus on modern fiction from Stanford. Before coming to Williams, he taught Japanese at the University of California at Riverside.

The lecture series "covers a broad range of academic topics delivered in an accessible and engaging format," said Helga Druxes, professor of German and chair of this year's Faculty Lecture Committee. "It is open to all members of the entire town and college community." Economist Nicholas L. Wilson and mathematician Mihai Stoiciu are also on the committee. 

The series continues for five more weeks with a lecture every Thursday. All will be held in Wege Auditorium at 4 p.m., with the exception of the lecture on March 4, which will be held at 4 p.m. in Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall.

The next speaker is the chemist Amy Gehring, who will talk about a strain of bacteria. Other speakers include economist Kenneth N. Kuttner, musician Edward Gollin, philosopher Bojana Mladenovic, and mathematician Allison Pacelli.

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Founded in 1793, Williams College is the second oldest institution of higher learning in Massachusetts. The college's 2,000 students are taught by a faculty noted for the quality of their teaching and research, and the achievement of academic goals includes active participation of students with faculty in their research. Students' educational experience is enriched by the residential campus environment in Williamstown, Mass., which provides a host of opportunities for interaction with one another and with faculty beyond the classroom. Admission decisions are made regardless of a student's financial ability, and the college provides grants and other assistance to meet the demonstrated needs of all who are admitted.

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News: Alison Hansen-Decelles