Dr Irena Hayter teaches modern Japanese literature, film and cultural studies in the department of East Asian Studies at the University of Leeds.  She recently completed a doctoral thesis on modernism, narrative and ideology in 1930s Japan.  Her work focuses on the relations between historical and cultural form (visuality, cinema and modernity; modernism and advanced capitalism) and her interests include also cultural theory, especially psychoanalytical and Marxist approaches.

Mika Ko is a lecturer in the School of East-Asian Studies at the University of Sheffield. Her major research subject is Japanese Cinema and she is currently interested in the treatment of gender and sexuality in Japanese Cinema.

Duncan Petrie is Professor of Film and Television in the Department of Theatre, Film and Television at the University of York. After completing a PhD at the University of Edinburgh he worked as Research Officer at the British Film Institute.