Rea Amit

Assistant Professor, Japanese

Rea Amit is an assistant professor in the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics and an affiliated faculty member in the Film and Media Studies Department at the University of Oklahoma. He received his PhD in Film and Media Studies and East Asian Languages and Literatures from Yale University in 2016. He taught for four years at different liberal arts colleges in Illinois before coming to OU.

Rea’s research focuses on aesthetics, film, and media studies, with a particular emphasis on Asia. His work primarily centers on Japanese cinema, television, and animation, but also extends to Korean and Indian media. In addition, he has written on theoretical and comparative aesthetics

At OU, Rea teaches courses on Japanese media, especially film and literature.

Google Scholar website: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=hEV-y6YAAAAJ&hl=en

Selected Publications

“The Dark Line of Japanese Noir: Generic Appropriation, Matsumoto Seichō and Nomura Yoshitarō’s Stakeout (1958),” Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema (2024). https://doi.org/10.1080/17564905.2024.2397749
“A Remake, But…: Media Infantility in Ozu’s Good Morning,” in David Scott Diffrient and Kenneth Chan (eds.), East Asian Film Remakes (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2023). https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/jj.5864752.12
“The Legend of Prince Rama and the Birth of Indian Animé: A Transnational Mediated Perspective.” Animation Studies Vol. 17 (2022). https://oldjournal.animationstudies.org/rea-amit-the-legend-of-prince-rama-and-the-emergence-of-an-indian-anime-a-japanese-mediation-of-the-sanskrit-epic/
“What is Japanese Cinema? Imamura Taihei`s Wartime Theory of Film, Tradition, and Art,” Positions Vol. 27, No. 4 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1215/10679847-7726903
“Shall we Dance, Rajni? The Japanese Cult of Kollywood.” Participations: International Journal of Audience Research Vol. 14, No. 2 (November, 2017). https://www.participations.org/14-02-35-amit.pdf
“On the Structure of Contemporary Japanese Aesthetics,” Philosophy East and West Vol. 62, No. 2 (April, 2012). Chinese Translation: “论当代日本美学的结” 美与时代 (August, 2017). https://www.jstor.org/stable/41426844

Education

Ph.D. in, Film and Media Studies combined with East Asian Languages & Literatures. Yale University. 2016.
M.A. in Aesthetics. 2010. Tokyo University of the Arts