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Mortenson Distinguished Lecture: Jeff Chiba Stearns
I Hotel and Illinois Conference Center
1900 South First Street
Champaign, Illinois 61820-6914
(217) 819-5000
Category
Hours
View Website
Co-organized with the Youth Literature Festival (YLF), Jeff Chiba Stearns (Animation and Documentary Filmmaker, Author and Illustrator) will present the lecture (also keynote on the YLF Community Day) on “Animation Meditation: 25 Years of Exploring Mixed-Race Identity and Japanese Canadian History Through Visual Storytelling“.
The lecture celebrates the Mortenson Center’s 35th Anniversary and Libraries for Peace Day.
Free! Please register. Presented in person and online.
Jeff Chiba Stearns is an Emmy® nominated and multi-award-winning animation and documentary filmmaker, author, illustrator, and educator. A graduate of Emily Carr University with a degree in Film Animation, he founded Vancouver-based animation studio and publishing company Meditating Bunny Studio Inc. in 2001.
Jeff’s films including What Are You Anyways? (2005), Yellow Sticky Notes (2007), One Big Hapa Family (2010), and Mixed Match (2016) have been broadcast internationally, screened at hundreds of film festivals, and received dozens of awards. As a yonsei, fourth-generation Japanese Canadian of mixed Japanese and European heritage, his work frequently explores identity, family, culture, and belonging. He coined the term “Hapanimation” to describe his distinctive fusion of anime and manga influences with a North American cartoon aesthetic.
As an educator and speaker, Jeff has presented workshops, lectures, and screenings at hundreds of universities, elementary and secondary schools, and cultural institutions across Canada and around the world.
Jeff is also an acclaimed author and illustrator. His picture books include Mixed Critters (2018), Nori and His Delicious Dreams (2020), and the bestselling graphic novel On Being Yukiko (2021), created with Lillian Michiko Blakey. His graphic novel Tomey was released in 2025, followed by Ojiichan’s Dragon in Fall 2026.