Proposal

My thesis proposal is in! I should find out sometime next week if it has been accepted, in which case I will move full steam ahead. 
In my proposal I've identified two main areas of interest:

First, I am interested in the migration of a commercial art form from East Asia (Japan and Hong Kong) to the United States and then back again to the East. A fluid cultural exchange exists around these objects. Parallel studies on anime and manga (Japanese comics) exist, but this current phenomenon of art toys has yet to be fully explored. Though scholars have considered Japanese toy culture, far less work has been done on the manifestation of this phenomenon in the United States. Secondly, I am interested in the collectors of these objects and how virtual interaction has changed the landscape of the culture of collecting. A complex online forum associated with art toys bears examination, for it affects the way people communicate, collect, and ultimately identify themselves. Art toys merit scholarly attention for they represent a dynamic, highly experimental area of visual art that reflects the current direction of contemporary art.

These are my preliminary aims. I'm sure as I dive into my research they will morph and evolve into something truly interesting. Stay tuned.