Teacher Programs

May 14, 2026

6:00pm - 8:00pm (Eastern Time)

Online via Zoom

Centering on Sayaka Murata’s novel Convenience Store Woman, this free NCTA online workshop for K-12 educators explores the meaning of work, family, and happiness in Japan as they manifest in the life of one quirky female protagonist. Convenience stores—konbini in Japanese—are a distinctive marker of the Japanese cityscape. For some, they are the first stop for everyday essentials. For others, they are a place to grab a quick meal or browse a weekly comic. For still others, like the fictional character at the heart of Murata’s novel, they are a welcome respite from the pressures of conformity and conventional pathways to motherhood or career.

Convenience Store Woman, which won the Akutagawa Prize in 2016, is an entertaining window into aspects of contemporary Japanese culture rarely seen in literature. The book is accessibly written and will interest students from middle school on up.

The workshop will be moderated by Shawn Bender (Dickinson College) and feature a framing lecture on Japanese convenience stores by Gavin Whitelaw (Harvard University). The lecture will be followed by a session led by Michele Beauchamp (Mannheim School District) on adapting Convenience Store Woman in the classroom. Participants will receive a copy of the short novel to read in advance of the workshop.

Deadline to Register for this Book Workshop is May 1, 2026

Learn More About the Speakers for this Workshop

Featured Lecturer: Dr. Gavin Whitelaw is Executive Director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies. Dr. Whitelaw received his Ph.D. in Sociocultural Anthropology from Yale University and has spent over a decade living and teaching in Japan. For his dissertation research, he conducted ethnographic research on Japanese convenience stores by working part-time at a konbini himself. He has published extensively on Japan’s convenience stores, foodways, and material culture.

Moderator/Organizer: Dr. Shawn Bender is Professor of East Asian Studies and Coordinator of the NCTA Seminar Site at Dickinson College. Trained as a cultural anthropologist, Dr. Bender’s research examines applications of robotics technology in healthcare and agriculture. His books include Feeling Machines: Japanese Robotics and the Global Entanglements of More-Than-Human Care (Stanford University Press, 2025) and Taiko Boom: Japanese Drumming in Place and Motion (UC Press, 2012). At Dickinson, he teaches courses on contemporary Japan and China, food studies, health and society, and digital culture.

Master Teacher: Michele Beauchamp is an English teacher at Manheim Township High School in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. She received her MEd from the University of Pittsburgh and for the past 25 years she has taught all levels of secondary English Language Arts. She has participated in two NTCA study tours and has taken advantage of numerous opportunities to study about Asia. In 2019 she trained to lead NCTA seminars and has since conducted several presentations and book discussions on East Asian novels and nonfiction texts.