スパイサー ポール

Currently, I am an Associate Professor, in the Faculty of Media and Communication Studies, at Hokkaido University where I teach both undergraduate and postgraduate courses. My teaching focus is to ensure that students engage with my classes, to actively involve them in the direction of the courses, and to ensure that they engage with the topics and disciplines covered. My courses include - Film Lnaguage and Culture - Popular Music and Society - Cultural Studies - Textual Analysis through Popular Music Lyrics (Literary Devices) - Producation, and Receptive English Studies. 

My research is primarily concerned with cultural history but with a focus on film and popular music. Much of my previous work, including my doctoral thesis, has focused on film theory/history/production through Japanese culture including; Japanese literature, modern and traditional art, theatre, history, and society and culture. Without this cultural framework, film reading and analysis becomes problematic. My research seeks to develop broader ideas about methodology and national film culture.More recently, I have been examining the historical relationship between socialist idealism, and the 1920s/30s Japanese tendency film. This research examines contemporary tendency films, but focuses on Suzuki’s Naniga Kanojo wo So Sasetanoka (What Made Her Do It?) (1930). This research will use textual analysis to explore how Suzuki uses metaphorical imagery to highlight the injustice and exploitation of the lower classes in contemporary Japanese society.
Although my work centres on film history and culture, I have also been active in other fields, particularly popular music, and have recently completed a study on the lyrics of the British singer/songwriter Paul Weller, and their relationship with religion and the spiritual.