This course will focus on the dynamics of cultural representations in contemporary society through the lens of museums. The instructor's geographic focus is Hawai'i but the class will spend considerable amount of time talking about cultural representations of and in Japan. The class combines readings with exploring some visits to actual sites to enhance awareness and understanding of the narratives embedded in museum representations. Particular attention will be paid to the dynamics of representations of race and gender.

This course will focus on the dynamics of cultural representations in contemporary society through the lens of museums. The instructor's geographic focus is Hawai'i but the class will spend considerable amount of time talking about cultural representations of and in Japan. The class combines readings with exploring some visits to actual sites to enhance awareness and understanding of the narratives embedded in museum representations. Particular attention will be paid to the dynamics of representations of race and gender.

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.

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.

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 lecture aims to help explaining and understanding the structure of international order and issues in international public sphere. The key concept for this understanding is globalization. Globalization of market, technology and international security closely knitting up states and actors to global arena, while political structure is geographically divided into 200-some sovereign states. Only these states have legitimate foundation of power to exercise its military, economic and legal capacities. The inconsistency between single global arena and locally divided political authorities requires new concepts and methodologies for analyzing international order under globalization.

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 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

The course will address the individuality of language in relation to translation and the modern world. It is designed to further explore problems concerning translation and the international world. We will survey theories and practices of translation with a special emphasis on (a) the modern international world and Eurocentricity; (b) the international co-figuration of national/ethnic languages; (c) national territory and population in the formation of the sovereign state; (d) the co-figurative schematism in the modern regime of translation. Throughout this course, translation is not defined narrowly as a transfer of a message from one national or ethnic language into another. Translation is primarily understood to designate a practice within which to create continuity at the point of discontinuity in the social; it is an act by which to generate a sense out of a social encounter that does not make sense precisely because it is given as something incommensurate in the first place. In this respect, translation occurs at the singular point of nonsense. When translation is understood in the modern regime of translation (conventional apprehension of translation in the modern world) the representation of translation establishes a division of two spheres (which are usually equated to two national languages, the original language and the target language) and thereby marks the limit of what can be expressed in one medium. Broadly understood, however, translation can take place not only between two national languages but also at a variety of boundaries within a single society. The course will investigate different economies of translation by which different social and cultural identities are constructed and/or transformed; it will emphasize the disappearance of multi-lingualism in the modern nation-state and the mutation of translation economies which has given rise to new ways of imagining the organicist unity of a new community called “a nation.”