UW-Madison professor Adam Kern at his home. Kern's interest in Japanese comic books as a teenager led him to study them as a graduate student in Japan and then bring his expertise to students back home.
OWEN ZILIAK, STATE JOURNAL
UW-Madison professor Adam Kern speaks to his Manga Unbound class. Kern strives to show his students how comics can serve as windows into the relationships between cultures.
OWEN ZILIAK, STATE JOURNAL
UW-Madison professor Adam Kern teaches his Manga Unbound class on Wednesday, April 3, 2025 at UW-Madison in Madison, Wi.
UW-Madison professor Adam Kern may be best known — at least around here — for teaching a class on manga, a style of comics he defines as “Japanese-branded.”
UW-Madison professor Adam Kern leads a discussion in his Manga Unbound class. Kern, a scholar of Japanese comics and poetry, came to Madison from Harvard in 2009.
Professor Adam Kern, at home, says he prefers teaching at UW-Madison to his experience at Harvard. "Most of the students here that I get are far more open to pursuing things for the sake of pursuing them, for learning about the world."
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UW professor Adam Kern holds a haiga, a combination of a painting and a haiku he translated from Japanese, given to him by a friend. It reads, "laughing loudly / that the loneliness / might be forgotten."
UW-Madison professor Adam Kern leafs through his book "Manga from the Floating World," first published in 2006. Kern spent years at Kyoto University in Japan learning to read the style of writing in old Japanese comics.
UW-Madison professor Adam Kern leads a discussion in his Manga Unbound class. Kern, a scholar of Japanese comics and poetry, came to Madison from Harvard in 2009.
Professor Adam Kern, at home, says he prefers teaching at UW-Madison to his experience at Harvard. "Most of the students here that I get are far more open to pursuing things for the sake of pursuing them, for learning about the world."
UW professor Adam Kern holds a haiga, a combination of a painting and a haiku he translated from Japanese, given to him by a friend. It reads, "laughing loudly / that the loneliness / might be forgotten."
UW-Madison professor Adam Kern leafs through his book "Manga from the Floating World," first published in 2006. Kern spent years at Kyoto University in Japan learning to read the style of writing in old Japanese comics.
UW-Madison professor Adam Kern at his home. Kern's interest in Japanese comic books as a teenager led him to study them as a graduate student in Japan and then bring his expertise to students back home.
UW-Madison professor Adam Kern speaks to his Manga Unbound class. Kern strives to show his students how comics can serve as windows into the relationships between cultures.
