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The annual Mitsui Distinguished Lecture Series brings to Cleveland, and to the John Carroll University campus, prominent scholars and other experts on Asia and contemporary global issues. The Lecture is held each spring, on a weekday evening on the JCU campus. The Lecture is free of charge and open to the public.The Mitsui Distinguished Lecture is made possible by generous funding support from the Mitsui USA Foundation, through the Cleveland office of Mitsui & Co. (USA), Inc.

2021 Update

With continued restrictions in place and health and safety as our priority, we will not hold the Mitsui Lecture in 2021. We hope to be back in the spring of 2022 when we can safely gather again on campus.

2020 Mitsui Lecture

On March 10, in response to the COVID-19 crisis, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine requested all Ohio universities and colleges suspend face-to-face, in-person classes and events. John Carroll University will transition to online and virtual classes beginning on Monday, March 16 until at least Tuesday, April 14, and has cancelled all scheduled events during this period. For this reason, the 2020 Mitsui Lecture has been cancelled.

We continue to be grateful for the generous support of the Mitsui USA Foundation, through the Cleveland office of Mitsui & Co. (USA), Inc. 

2019 Mitsui Lecture

The 2019 installment of the annual Mitsui Distinguished Lecture Series featured Dr. Susan Napier presenting World Building: The Utopian Dreams and Apocalyptic Nightmares of Hayao Miyazaki. Napier is a Goldthwaite Professor of Rhetoric and Japanese Studies at Tufts University and the author of Anime from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle and the newly released Miyazakiworld: A Life in Art, which explores the life and art of this extraordinary Japanese filmmaker. Her research explores the implications of anime on cultural, personal, and gender identity. Dr. Napier has authored numerous articles on Japanese media. Her TedX Talk, “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Enjoy Being an Anime Expert” can be found here.

The Mitsui Distinguished Lecture is made possible by generous funding support from the Mitsui USA Foundation, through the Cleveland office of Mitsui & Co. (USA), Inc.