Sako, Katsura

写真a

Affiliation

Faculty of Economics (Hiyoshi)

Position

Professor
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Other Disclosed Information 【 Display / hide 】

  • k.sako[at]keio.jp

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Career 【 Display / hide 】

  • 2021.04
    -
    Present

    Professor

  • 2013.04
    -
    2021.03

    Associate Professor

  • 2009.04
    -
    2013.03

    Assistant Profeessor

  • 2025.03
    -
    2026.03

    Downing College, University of Cambridge, Visiting Fellow

  • 2019.01
    -
    2022.12

    University of Huddersfield, School of Music, Humanities and Media, Visiting Research Fellow

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Academic Background 【 Display / hide 】

  • 2002.04
    -
    2008.03

    The University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, Department of English Language and Literature

    Graduate School, Withdrawal after completion of doctoral course requirements, Doctoral course

  • 2007.11

    University of Warwick, Faculty of Art, Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies

    United Kingdom, Graduate School, Completed, Doctoral course

  • 1999.04
    -
    2002.03

    Gakushuin University, Graduate School of Humanities, Graduate Course in English and American Literature

    Graduate School, Completed, Master's course

  • 1999.03

    Gakushuin University, Faculty of Letters, Department of English and American Literature

    University, Graduated

  • 2000.09

    University of Oxford, Visiting Graduate Student in English

    United Kingdom, University, Other

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Academic Degrees 【 Display / hide 】

  • PhD, University of Warwick, 2007.11

  • MA, Gakushuin University, Coursework, 2002.03

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Research Areas 【 Display / hide 】

  • Humanities & Social Sciences / European literature (Post-war/Contemporary British Literature and Culture)

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Books 【 Display / hide 】

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Papers 【 Display / hide 】

  • 'Gardens, Age and Generation in Children’s Picturebooks'

    Katsura Sako & Sarah Falcus

    Anglo Saxonica 23 ( 1 ) 1 - 11 2025.05

    Research paper (scientific journal), Corresponding author, Accepted

  • 'Futurity, the life course and aging in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun'

    Katsura Sako & Sarah Falcus

    Frontiers of Narrative Studies (DeGruyter)  9 ( 1 ) 121 - 136 2023.07

    Research paper (scientific journal), Joint Work, Lead author, Accepted

  • Successful ageing and the spectre of the fourth age in the Netflix TV series Grace and Frankie

    Sako K., Oró-Piqueras M.

    Journal of Aging Studies 65 2023.06

    Research paper (scientific journal), Joint Work, Lead author, Accepted,  ISSN  08904065

    　View Summary

    With its potential to engage a large audience and mark emerging social tendencies and with the rich narrative space that the seriality can bring, TV series can be a valuable cultural site through which to explore ageing as an experience in time. The Netflix's longest-running TV series Grace and Frankie (2015–2022) exhibits such potential, bringing together ageing and friendship into the popular cultural domain. Set in the contemporary US, the show closely follows two over-70, newly divorced, female protagonists and friends, Grace (Jane Fonda) and Frankie (Lily Tomlin). Depicting the new opportunities and experiences they gain and drawing on the star persona of Fonda and Tomlin, the show presents an optimistic narrative of ageing into old age. This optimism, however, is more ambivalent about ageing than it appears, as it emerges from the context of the neoliberalization of ageing in the US and other Western societies. Considering friendship, entrepreneurship, the ageing woman's body and sexuality, and care in the show, we demonstrate how the show's optimism is premised on the construction of the neoliberal, successfully ageing subject in the two protagonists and on the othering of the fourth age, “‘black hole’ of ageing,” as a time and space marked by the failing of the body, vulnerability and dependency (Higgs & Gilleard, 2015, 16). While the show's explicit engagement with the bodily ageing in some ways makes it more relevant to older audience, its evocation of the fourth age reflects and reinforces the broader cultural anxiety around it. Ultimately, the show brings in the fourth age only to reiterate the two protagonists' credentials as successful agers.

  • Depicting Dementia: Representations of Cognitive Health and Illness in Ten Picturebooks for Children

    Caldwell E.F., Falcus S., Sako K.

    Children's Literature in Education (Children's Literature in Education)   2020

    ISSN  00456713

    　View Summary

    © 2020, The Author(s). It is estimated that a third of children know someone living with dementia, and there are now many picturebooks for young children that help to explain the changes dementia can bring to family life. Despite their number, there has been little examination of what these books communicate about health and illness. To address this, the current study presents a close visual and textual analysis of 10 recent picturebooks in English that aim to teach children about dementia. Our analysis reveals that in these books dementia is exclusively framed in terms of ageing, and as an illness of older adults. Furthermore, the books rely heavily on mechanistic metaphors to explain the causes of dementia. However, at the same time the “still the same person” narrative is dominant. This narrative emphasises the importance of foregrounding the unique history and personality of the person living with dementia, and offers a way to help children to continue meaningful relationships with their relatives. These books employ often ageist tropes of decline in the depiction of dementia and yet at the same time support a narrative of ongoing personhood, reflecting the complexity of broader social discourses around dementia and selfhood.

  • 'Dementia and Detection in Elizabeth Is Missing and Turn of Mind'

    Katsura Sako

    Contemporary Women's Writing 10 ( 3 ) 315 - 333 2016.05

    Single Work, Lead author, Accepted

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Papers, etc., Registered in KOARA 【 Display / hide 】

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Reviews, Commentaries, etc. 【 Display / hide 】

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Presentations 【 Display / hide 】

  • 'Ageing and Walking a Path'

    Katsura Sako

    European Network in Aging Studies (Lleida) , 

    2025.04
    , 

    Oral presentation (general), University of Lleida

  • "Gardens, Age and Generation in Children’s Picturebooks"

    Katsura Sako

    Ageing and Literature (Keio University) , 

    2024.04
    , 

    Symposium, workshop panel (public)

    PDF1

  • “Gardens, Age and Generation in Children’s Picturebooks”  

    Sarah Falcus and Katsura Sako

    Within and Without: Representations of Ageing: International Symposium III: Special Issue (Online) , 

    2024.01
    , 

    Oral presentation (invited, special), University of Lisbon Centre for English Studies

  • Ageing, Care and Death in Children’s Picturebooks from Japan and the UK

    Katsura Sako and Sarah Falcus

    Age and Care Graz 2023: Aging in a Caring Society? Theories in Conversation (University of Graz, Austria) , 

    2023.09
    , 

    Oral presentation (general)

  • “The Family, Generations and the Posthuman Future in 'Years and Years'"

    Katsura Sako and Maricel Oró-Piqueras

    "Recent Approaches to the Posthuman: Cultural Reflections on the (Post-)Human Condition: 18th International Conference on Contemporary Narratives in English" (Zaragoza) , 

    2023.05
    , 

    Oral presentation (general), University of Zaragoza

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Research Projects of Competitive Funds, etc. 【 Display / hide 】

  • Ageing, Time and the Future in Contemporary Fiction

    2023.04
    -
    2028.03

    Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research , Research grant, Principal investigator

  • Ageing and Illness in British and Japanese Children's Picturebooks 1950-2000: Historical and Cross-Cultural Perspectives

    2018.04
    -
    2023.03

    Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Research grant, Principal investigator

  • Ageing, Dementia, Care in Contemporary Fiction

    2017.04
    -
    2023.03

    Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Katsura Sako, Research grant, Principal investigator

  • Meanings and Experiences of Ageing and Subjectivity in Contemporary British Fiction and Culture

    2013.04
    -
    2017.03

    Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Research grant, Principal investigator

  • Ageing in Post-war and Contemporary British Literature

    2010.04
    -
    2013.03

    Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Research grant, Principal investigator

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Courses Taught 【 Display / hide 】

  • LITERATURE 2

    2024

  • LITERATURE 1

    2024

  • ENGLISH SEMINAR (UPPER INTERMEDIATE)

    2024

  • ENGLISH (STUDY SKILLS)

    2024

  • LITERATURE 2

    2023

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Academic Activities 【 Display / hide 】

  • European Network in Aging Studies Advisory Board Member

    2022.10
    -
    Present

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Memberships in Academic Societies 【 Display / hide 】

  • European Network in Aging Studies, 

    2011.10
    -
    Present

  • Contemporary Women's Writing Association, 

    2011.04
    -
    Present

  • 日本英文学会, 

    2003.04
    -
    Present
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