Science and technology studies (STS) is an interdisciplinary approach to the study of science and technology (S&T) and their relationship with human beings and the societies, polities and cultures they inhabit. The course thus explores the central – if not determining – role of S&T in modern societies by providing a critical analysis of the philosophical, sociological, political, economic and ethical conditions and choices they confront us with.

広く産学官にわたってグローバルに活躍するために必要な「俯瞰力」を養成することを目指す。物質科学の各分野について最先端の知識を修得し、自分の専門分野と周辺分野がどのように関連するか、あるいはし得るか、について深く考察するために、第一線で活躍する講師の方々にその分野の最前線を概観していただく。さらに、それらの講義を通して異分野間のコミュニケーションを円滑に進めるための具体的方法論を学ぶ。 This survey course is designed to enable students to develop the broad perspective that is required of global leaders working in and across industry, academia, and government. Students will gain knowledge and insight on advancements in each field of materials science research, given by leading researchers working on the frontline in those fields. This will allow students to consider how peripheral fields are related to their own area of expertise, and to consider the potential for forging bridges between related fields in the future. In addition, students will learn specific methodologies designed to facilitate smooth communication among different disciplines.

This is a course on visual culture in the 20th and 21st century, with a particular focus on the interplay between media technology, culture and society. This course will also be multidisciplinary in nature, as we reflect on our discursive assumptions in the historical, sociological, anthropological, philosophical disciplines among others. While the readings may primarily cover phenomenon in the United States, participants will be strongly encouraged to think of the specificity of the impact of globalization on media and society in various regions of the world including Japan. The course objectives are the following: -Gain a better understanding of the relationships between society, media, people, institutions and how they function as agents of maintaining the status quo or for fostering change -Learn about the transformative faculties and social implications of quotidian applications of technology -Gain deeper understanding of the academic disciplines Topics will include (but are not limited to): -representation of race, ethnicity and gender and other minorities -regional, transnational and international ecosystems of information technology -artificial intelligence and algorithmic bias -technological advancement and implementation in everyday life and the powers at play

This course is an introduction to affect and sensory studies. In recent years, emotions and the senses have become a vibrant topic of research in a range of disciplines from humanities and social sciences to biology and psychology. Scholars in these growing fields have argued for the importance of understanding how technological, economic, and cultural changes transformed people’s emotional and sensory experience. Yet, due to the interdisciplinary nature of this growing field, there is no consensus on theoretical grounds or methodological frameworks in studying emotions and the senses. The course aims to help students understand theories and methodologies employed by scholars in the fields and critically analyze how, of if, affect and sensory studies would contribute to expanding and/or deepening the existing scholarly knowledge.

Does the written word have a future? Some contemporary trends seem to suggest otherwise: the replacement of the novel first by movies and then video games as leading cultural form; the shift from text to audio and video in messenger apps and on social media platforms; a (related?) loss of concentration and focus; and sinking rates of functional literacy in many developed countries. And just a year after large language models such as ChatGPT arrived on the scene, artificial intelligence is already doing a lot of writing and reading for us. In this seminar we will take these trends not necessarily at face value, but as a starting point to explore the relationship between reading/writing, media and society from interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives. I invited colleagues in literature and psychology, book history and the history of computing to co-teach this seminar together with me. Together we will look at long-term trends related to various textual media, the evolution of technologies from the printing press to social media platforms, and the social contexts of reading and literacy in order to think about past, present, and future trajectories of textuality. <<Learning Goals>> After successfully completing this seminar, participants will be able to - identify and compare different conceptions of text, reading, writing and literacy - understand textuality as a complex social and cultural practice - analyze how textual practices are influenced by social and technological contexts - consider a range of interdisciplinary perspectives from social media studies, anthropology, history and science and technology studies on textuality - apply critical approaches on the relationship between text, media, and society to their own research as well as to reflections on future scenarios

The primary goal of the course is to provide students with an integrated view of how the basic concepts of mathematics and physics are applied to collecting information about a system. Upon successful completion of this course, the student will have: -acquired a basic knowledge of the physics of information, -gained an understanding of the physical principles of a broad range of modern sensors, -developed skills in data analysis and system modeling.

In this course, students learn about STS (Science, Technology and Society) through case studies. What is this called science? How can we manage the conflicts between S&T and Society? Who are the experts? These questions appear in various issues around us, such as the pandemic of COVID-19, environmental problems, disasters, and emerging technologies. In this course, we learn about, and discuss cases from STS perspectives. Students are required to do their own case analysis in their final report.

In this course, students learn about STS (Science, Technology and Society) through case studies. What is this called science? How can we manage the conflicts between S&T and Society? Who are the experts? These questions appear in various issues around us, such as the pandemic of COVID-19, environmental problems, disasters, and emerging technologies. In this course, we learn about, and discuss cases from STS perspectives. Students are required to do their own case analysis in their final report.

This course explores the role of law and governance in mediating the human-environment interface. It focuses on the legal and consequent governance challenges presented by the emergence of the Anthropocene as a possible new geological epoch. While the epoch has yet to be formally confirmed, the trope and discourse of the Anthropocene already confront law and governance scholars with a unique challenge concerning the need to question, and ultimately re-imagine, international environmental law and governance interventions in the light of a new socio-ecological situation. Through interactive lectures, classroom discussions based upon pre-assigned readings, and the elaboration of a joint mini-project, students not only assess the (mostly unsuccessful and ineffective) regulatory interventions used thus far to mediate the human-environment interface; they also examine the possibility to develop counter-narratives and alternative institutional practices, by drawing on most recent critical legal approaches as well as sociocultural traditions that have been marginalised within international environmental law.