Gregg Midon is a second-year doctoral student in the Department of East Asian Studies with a special interest in modern Japan. He holds an M.A. in East Asian Studies from the University of Arizona and a B.A. in Philosophy from Loyola University Chicago. His research focuses on questioning how popular media, religious organizations, and political leadership co-influence one another in modern Japan and Korea. For example, how do the interests of political institutions (e.g. Japan's Liberal Democratic Party) and religious organizations (e.g. the Korea-originated Unification Church) intersect, and how do popular media forms (e.g. digital social media such as YouTube) both empower and weaken attempts at power consolidation and legitimation via strategies of narrativization, historicization, and displays/performances of power over time? Partial to methodologies of close reading, critical geography, and social-cultural historical analysis, his interest extends to transnational relationships between Japan and Korea. As a student with a voice, he hopes to challenge essentialist narratives around Japan's identity, history, and people. As a retired musician, playing the drums, guitar, and piano with friends in Tucson is a regular pastime!