Laura Spielvogel

Professional Bio

Laura Spielvogel is trained as a cultural anthropologist and received her doctoral degree from Yale University with a focus on Japan and gender studies.  She is the director of online programming for the WGSS department and is the director of the Diversity Studies Certificate, administered through WGSS and World Campus. Spielvogel has published a book entitled Working out In Japan:  Shaping the Female Body in Tokyo Fitness Clubs (Duke University Press 2003) and recently, has turned to writing ethnographic fiction and memoir. She also has created a web-based, role-playing simulation based on the narrative framework of a cross-cultural wedding.

Areas of Specialization:  Gender; educational technology; gender and East Asia; anthropology of the body; ethnographic fiction and film; national and transnational identities; globalization and popular culture; sport and leisure; and research methods.