What is JCAAP?
The intent of the Japanese Canadian Arts and Activism Project (JCAAP) is to examine the intersections of artistic practice and activism within the contemporary Japanese Canadian (JC) community. Over the last three years, our research team has been interviewing a diverse group of artists, curators, and community organizers of Japanese descent, mainly those who are living in northern Turtle Island (Canada) today.
Over the course of the research we have focused on how JCs have been engaging with the themes of…
We aim to understand how the larger web of JC desires for social change and community-building are threaded through artistic and activist-based work, keeping in mind the historical legacies and affective terrain generated by the mass incarceration of JCs during WWII.
Research Objectives
Examine how JC art, activism, and community organizing operate to construct cultural identity and community in a contested terrain of multiculturalism, assimilationism, and settler colonialism.
Create and disseminate knowledge mobilization products that convey stories more publicly (through community and academic presentations, social media, as well as our website) to actively remember and reconstruct JC histories and cultural identities.
Our Commitment
We are committed to a critical and decolonial methodology which challenges us to consider how our work is itself shaped by the ongoing legacies of settler colonialism and Japanese Empire. Through partnering with diverse community consultants, we are dedicated to the production of knowledge which amplifies diverse voices.
We believe this research is important because it highlights how Japanese Canadians are actively addressing and disrupting the continued impacts of settler colonialism. Our work emphasizes the ways in which we continue to forge new relations with one another, community, and the land.
Our Team
The JCAAP research team includes researchers from the University of Toronto, as well as research assistants, collaborators and consultants from the Japanese Canadian community.
Current Events
