Humanities and Communications(HC)
Thinking about language, culture, history, and politics based on individuals
WARAGAI, Ikumi
Professor, Program Chairperson
How should we live together in this dynamically diverse and globalized world? Humanities and Communications (HC) aims to use interdisciplinary approaches to solve the myriad of issues stemming from this very question.
When thinking about how common life should be shared in the modern world, it is critical to bring our attention to the subtle interactions that occur between the unique aspects of each individual and group. This amounts to regard human life as composed of various communications. It is also essential to adopt a multilayered mode of observation from a viewpoint that connects the macro, meso, and micro, such as the individual and the community and the global and local, while taking language into account at each level. We closely examine how people acquire and use language, and must be sensitive to the effect of language on power relationship and colonialism. The HC Program explores the unique problems in each region, including Japan, and creates objective and subjective solutions to the issues faced by the people who inhabit them. It is also an ideal research environment for those who will spark change in our society through education including multi-lingual and pluri-lingual education.
Objective, multifactorial analysis may be key to accurately grasping one's research subject, but an emphasis should also be placed on what can be learned from the subjective experience of the individual, which is best achieved by closely interacting with their lives and environment. At its core, the HC Program adress the question of what a human person is. This issue requires to continually foster an awareness of the multilayered and unique aspects of people, such as those found within the individual and group, and their objective analysis and subjective lives. Moreover, we must not forget that the meaning of "human person" is relative to the society, language, or culture in which it is embedded.
With this perspective in mind, our program engages with primarily the following topics : language, culture, society, history, education, politics.
In the midst of accelerating globalization, transboundary movements, and cultural exchange, the HC Program stands as the most ideal environment to research the path to human coexistence.
Affiliated Academic Projects
- Humanities Approach to Modern Society and Culture
- Interdisciplinary Japanese Studies
- Language Learning & Teaching Design
- Multilingual and Multicultural Society
Faculty Members
Possibilities after Graduation
Careers include international organizations, development consulting, local regional government, private think tanks, general corporations, journalism, printed/audiovisual media and education. This Program also trains researchers for fields such as regional research theory, human security theory, foreign language education, lingual culture, communications, etc.