Professor Mimura will have a seminar based on reading Fairchild Ruggles, Islamic Gardens and Landscapes (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007), and will discuss, with some introductory lectures, the historical importance of environmental factors for Islamic societies.
Professor Okamoto will conduct a reading seminar and/or give lectures on the history and current situation of the power industry in Japan. The reading assignments will be on three or four of the following issues: the establishment of the first electric light industry in Tokyo; jurists and physicists’ debate over electricity theft; attempts and failure in the frequency unification; the development of nuclear power in postwar Japan; reform of the industry after March 11, 2011; lessons of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident. More specifically, chapters and articles in the following publications may be assigned to read and discuss: J. Ahn et al. eds., Reflections on the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident, Springer, 2015, E.D. Blandford et al. eds.,