Class of 2011

Alex Benkhart, a member of the class of 2011, was a Religious Studies/Asian Studies double major. Alex incorporated digital media into every aspect of his study. He worked independently on examinations of religious visual culture, anime heroines, and the commodification of sex in contemporary Japanese art. Alex worked closely with Professor Kyoko Omori his last year at Hamilton to create a Comparative Japanese Film Archive  which has become part of Omori's research Benshi: Silent Film Narrators in Japan. He says he finds this work very rewarding and hopes to continue with the project until its completion. Alex received a Fulbright research grant to work in Japan  to study depictions of homosexuality in Japanese popular culture. Alex’s dream is to ultimately make a documentary on the topic.