Integrated Arts and Human Sciences Program

 There are too numerous problems to list in this modern society, such as global warming, environmental destruction, regional conflict, terrorism, the North-South issue, and energy problems. Such problems are caused by multiple elements that complicatedly interact with each other and with human beings beyond the border between countries, regions, and races and the boundary between the nature and human beings. Therefore it is not possible to understand the big picture of those problems and find solutions only with the approach in a specific research area. In addition to that, risk trade-off might be caused when the understanding of a problem is biased with a specific point of view to cause another new problem. Therefore it is required to provide experts who can evaluate the cost and benefit of a way of solving the problem from multiple points of view based on complex analyses including various academic fields and simulation regarding correspondence of results of those analyses to determine the most efficient and effective method for solving the problem. To achieve this aim, students are required to develop capabilities for comprehensively examining a phenomenon from a multi-faceted point of view, identifying the research area in which the cooperation will be effective for analyzing and solving the problem, and working with experts of the other area while based on his/her own expertise. The Integrated Arts and Human Sciences Program provides a multidisciplinary education to allow students not only to establish their specialties in a specific field but also to acquire knowledge and methodology that are not limited within a research area to develop academics who can cope with various problems in the modern society by cooperating with experts of other academic areas. This Program conducts cross-disciplinary projects beyond the existing framework of academic fields. Students take part in research projects with various faculties to acquire profound knowledge and methodology related to their core specialized area and develop a compound point of view for a multi-faceted understanding from multiple perspectives and ability for cooperation with experts from the other academic area.

 The first two years of the five-year doctoral program (equivalent to a master's program), students mainly take class subjects provided in each project to acquire core expertise and methodology. They also take class subjects in related academic areas to acquire a broad knowledge and a wide point of view required for cooperation with experts of the other academic area. In addition to that, students take part in research activities concerning their project to conduct research for their own theme while working as a member of the research team.

 The following three years of the doctoral program, students take a core role in the project to advance research activities for their own theme. In addition to that, they take class subjects in related academic areas under the guidance of a tutor to broaden their perspective for research and to further develop the ability for cooperation with experts of other academic areas from a multi-faceted point of view.

《 Research projects 》

 To identify and solve problems that contemporary society is facing, it is required not only to directly approach the problem but also to understand both the visible and hidden facets of it from multiple points of view.

 To achieve that, it is important to understand persons who are involved with the problem, as well as the characteristics and historical background of the area in which the problem occurs, and the circumstances of the society and interaction between the society and its environment. It will be possible to understand the problem from a new perspective and to find a solution for it by conducting research that considers the visible and hidden causes of the specific problem and focuses on and examines such causes from a bird's eye view.

 The Integrated Arts and Human Sciences Program conducts three research projects described below to explore various problems in contemporary society from three perspectives regarding human beings; such as, area and culture, environment and society on the basis of humanities and social sciences while also applying a perspective and knowledge of natural and engineering science.

< The Mind, Body, and Language Research Project >

 Human beings are the major factor in various problems that occur in society. Human beings cause or induce a lot of problems, and also mediate then expand them, which finally affects human beings. What among the activities of human beings interacts with the society? And what kind of influence does occur in such interaction? It is important to understand various activities of human beings to apprehend various phenomena in society. 

 This project conducts research to examine mechanisms and actions of mind and body of human beings, diversity and universality of languages, and relationships among such factors based on three core areas, i.e. psychological activities, physical action, and verbal communication while cooperating with the areas, such as social science, life science, and environmental science for comprehensively understanding the behavior of human beings. In the area of psychology, regarding mind and behavior of human beings, this project examines the behavior of human beings from multiple points of view mainly related to physiological, cognitive, clinical, and social aspects. For the area of physical action, this project aims to identify the mechanism of physiological reaction and physical action and the correlation between the mind and body that is resulted from the interaction between the psychological condition and the physical action. For the area of language, this project conducts multi-faceted research on human communication by examining the mechanism and action of language that enables human beings to think and communicate with each other while focusing on the relation between language and such as cognition, physical action, and voice. This project aims to, in the fields related to psychology, physical action, and language communication, identify phenomena and interactions in human behaviors based on a wide point of view and various information regarding such things as physiological reactions and social application scenes.

<The Area & Culture Research Project >

 Thanks to the development of science and information technologies and the advancement of globalization, contemporary society is becoming richer and richer. On the other hand, distortion, contradiction, disparity, and conflict are found in various aspects of society and now it contains a lot of problems to be solved. To appropriately cope with such problems, it is required to have a clear point of view and profound knowledge regarding the history of each "area" and the human "culture" that has been developed in that area to establish the fundamental vision for human lives and develop insight and an analytical ability to forecast the future of human beings and society. In addition to that, it is required to cooperate with people who have different value sets across areas and cultures to cope with various problems. To address such needs of contemporary society, this project aims to conduct research on human beings themselves and cultures rooted in each area to better understand human society and establish an image of the desirable future from various points of view related to such disciplines as history, literature, thoughts, art, ethics, philosophy, religion, behavior psychology, and natural environment.

< The Civilization & Environment Research Project >

 The contemporary world faces a variety of problems and challenges, such as environment destruction, population size and energy problem, dispute and confrontation between races, religions, and nations, disparity and poverty problems, and rampant natural disaster. To understand and solve these problems, it is required to persistently examine the problem and try to find a solution by combining multiple points of view and methodologies, rather than focusing only on the current phenomenon, based on understanding on the complex interaction between culture that is a general representation of activities of human beings and the natural and social environments that enclose the lives of human beings. In addition to that, it is required to solve the problem while enabling co-existence with various cultures and environments to make the measure sustainable. This project aims to analyze the complex interactions that occurs between civilization and culture and the environment at a local and global level and explore ways to make such interactions sustainable by using findings and methodologies in other academic areas including natural science while based on the specialties in the research fields related to such as religion, culture, society, and economics.


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