Bernardo Palhau

Thesis supervisor: Lorenzo DiTommaso

Thesis title: The intersection of Japanese Shinto and Japanese popular culture

Bernardo is pursuing an M.A in Religions and Cultures at Concordia University. He has completed his B.A at Concordia University in Religions and Cultures accompanied by a minor in Classical Archaeology.

Bernardo's academic interest are in Japanese culture, manga and anime, Shinto and popular culture.

One of his main hobbies include photography, mainly focusing on cityscapes and night photography. 

His primary research explores the intersection of Japanese Shintoism and popular culture by exploring Komaki's  harvest\fertility festival called the Hōnensai. The main focus of his research is to look at its possible transition from a religious festival to more of a popular culture event by investigating various elements presented during the festival.

The main goal of his research is to look at why this possible transition happened and how can Shintoism and popular culture can mix in a modern Japanese context.