Professor Tomoji Odori

• Research area/content
  • Western history (medieval and early modern European history), history of exchange between Japan and Europe. History of religious conflict and reconciliation/mediation in Germany and Switzerland after the Protestant Reformation. European views of Japan and Japanese culture from the 16th century onwards.
• Content of subjects
  • Lecture: The history of medieval and early modern European culture will focus on the Alps (Switzerland) where political, linguistic, cultural and religious borders overlap, and explore the various aspects of border crossing, exchange and cultural creation. Travel literature such as Goethe's "Journey in Switzerland" and "Journey in Italy" will be used.
  • Exercise: European Society and Culture will examine the history of European expansion since the 15th century (read European literature).
• Recent research guidance
  • In Master's Program, I am conducting research on medieval Catholic philosophy in the West and the religious thought of 16th century German reformers such as Martin Luther. An important goal is to identify the continuities and discontinuities between Catholicism and Protestantism.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's term, Doctoral term
• Faculty Profile

Professor Mototsugu Katsura

• Research area/content
  • Central European culture and German literature. Research on post-Modern German literature with a focus on Musil. In particular, the influence of experiences and memories from the Habsburg era on the author's narration.
• Content of subjects
  • In the lecture "Modern German Novels and Criticism," we will closely read modern and contemporary prose from German-speaking countries and clarify the characteristics and issues of the Moderne era.
  • In the seminar "German Literature in the Central European Cultural Area," students will analyze papers and literary works that are important for understanding the concept of "Central Europe," and will study the cultural diversity of Central Europe as well as its cultural unity that transcends national and ethnic boundaries.
• Recent research guidance
  • Lectures focus on close reading of novels by Musil, Kafka, etc. Exercises involve close reading of papers and works necessary for understanding the ideological and cultural situation in Central Europe from the late 19th century to the present. The following is a literature that has been intensively studied in recent years: Karl-Markus Gauß: Abenteuerliche Reise durch mein Zimmer. Vienna 2019.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's term, Doctoral term
• Faculty Profile

Professor Sae Kitamura

• Research area/content
  • Early modern English drama with a focus on Shakespeare, with a particular focus on feminist criticism, audience theory with a focus on fandom studies, and adaptation studies with a focus on film.
• Content of subjects
  • Lecture: Early Modern English Drama. Consider the sources of Shakespeare's historical plays.
  • Seminar: Research on British and Irish theatre performances. Using Shakespeare's play "Henry V" as a starting point, we will consider the representation of power in early modern English theatre.
• Recent research guidance
  • Depending on the students' interests, they will study early modern English drama and related literature, and will analyze related papers.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's term, Doctoral term
• Faculty Profile

Professor Yutaka Kimoto

• Research area/content
  • French literature. Researches late 19th century French literature, particularly novels, with a focus on the author Villiers de l'Isle-Adam.
• Content of subjects
  • Lecture: 19th century French literature. Through reading and comprehending literary research and theory books in French, students will develop the skills necessary for the study of 19th century French literature.
  • Exercise: 19th century French novels. This course will focus on reading and understanding French literary works, with a focus on novels from the late 19th century.
• Recent research guidance
  • I read books on the history of French fantasy literature and excerpts from works by Jacques Cazotte and Gerard de Nerval in the original texts, and gained a deeper understanding of the development of fantasy literature in France.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's term, Doctoral term
• Faculty Profile

Professor Susumu Kuroda

• Research area/content
  • German language studies, Nordic languages, comparative linguistics, language policy. Research on German pragmatics, syntax and morphology with a view to historical change and geographical differences, comparative grammar of Germanic languages and Japanese, language rights protection policy.
• Content of subjects
  • Lecture: Reading and understanding German literature. We will closely read cultural materials written in German from various eras and consider how the position of the German language has changed historically.
  • Seminar: The linguistic situation in medieval Germany. Students will study ancient documents written in medieval German and consider the linguistic situation in medieval German-speaking societies.
• Recent research guidance
  • He lectured on comparative language research, taking an overview of various grammatical phenomena in Japanese, German, English, Finnish, Chinese, etc. He particularly focused on introducing the methodology for comparing unrelated languages.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's term, Doctoral term
• Faculty Profile

Professor Kenichiro Komori

• Research area/content
  • European intellectual history and philosophy, with a particular focus on European thought since the 19th century.
• Content of subjects
  • Lectures and seminars: Critically examine political theology through close reading of original texts related to contemporary philosophy. In any case, pay attention to how the text is read.
• Recent research guidance
  • Instructions will be given in accordance with the above paragraph.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's term, Doctoral term
• Faculty Profile

Professor Masaki Komori

• Research area/content
  • Museum studies, American cultural studies. Researches the culture wars in the contemporary United States from the perspective of cultural representation in museums and exhibitions. In recent years, he has been investigating cases in Japan, the UK and the US on the themes of decolonization of museums and exhibition ethics.
• Content of subjects
  • Lectures: Reading and discussing literature on exhibition facilities in English-speaking countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, and examining the power structures surrounding cultural representation. Learning about the theory of "the politics of exhibitions" through examples of art galleries, museums, historical sites, theme parks, etc.
  • Seminar: Learn research methods for museum research that treats exhibitions and museums as primary sources. Learn the perspective of cultural criticism in museum research through reading theoretical literature, and learn how to use museums and exhibitions as research materials through fieldwork.
• Recent research guidance
  • Example 1) Conduct fieldwork at a museum near Tokyo and critically interpret the curatorial intent behind the exhibition.
  • Example 2) Students learn how to create exhibitions by participating in part of an exhibition planned by the instructor.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's term, Doctoral term
• Faculty Profile

Professor Mayuka Sato

• Research area/content
  • Modern British history, gender history, and visual propaganda such as marches and posters in the history of the British women's suffrage movement in the early 20th century.
• Content of subjects
  • Lecture: We will closely read major research papers on gender history and discuss the development and changes in the field of gender history.
  • Seminar: Modern British Gender History. In this class, we will provide an overview of modern British gender history. We will learn how gender history developed in Britain and discuss the main themes of gender history.
• Recent research guidance
  • As stated in the previous section, guidance will be given on research topics related to modern British history and gender history.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's degree
• Faculty Profile

Professor Hiroe Shimauchi

• Research area/content
  • Cultural anthropology, German ethnology, folklore studies. Mainly analysis of folklore about the dead, research on views on life and death, research on festivals (especially Carnival and Fallas), and research on ethnic minorities.
• Content of subjects
  • Lecture: European Studies from an Ethnographic Perspective.
  • Seminar: Study of festivals and lifestyles in Japan and Europe.
  • In these classes, students will be conscious of their own otherness while confronting European folk culture and everyday life culture, and through this process, they will cultivate a culturally relativistic perspective.
• Recent research guidance
  • Readings and discussions of literature in the original texts, including those from related fields (Fraser's The Golden Bough, Baltrušaitis' The Fantasy Middle Ages, Said's Orientalism, Le Goff's Saint Louis, Gelis: The Spirit of the Volksglaube, Ritual and Praktiken from 1500-1900, etc.).
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's term, Doctoral term
• Faculty Profile

Professor Takamitsu Jimura

• Classes and research guidance are conducted in English, and students are required to write their dissertations in English.
• Research area/content
  • World Heritage and tourism. Tourism in the UK and Japan. The UK and Japan as tourist destinations. Tourism marketing, especially destination marketing. Sustainability and responsibility in heritage and tourism.
• Content of subjects
  • Lecture: Anglo-American cultural studies (Research on the use of Anglo-American culture as tourism resources) -To study on the use of heritage as tourism resources.
  • Seminar: Specialized seminar on British and American culture (British and American cultural heritage and world heritage studies). Western culture research guidance seminar (British and American cultural heritage and world heritage studies) -To explore diverse themes included in the process of conserving British and American cultures as World Heritage sites or nationallydesigned cultural heritage.
• Recent research guidance
  • Support students' research journey by offering challenging but rewarding academic tasks. Always try to be a 'critical friend' of students. Give constructive feedback on students' drafts of MA or PhD dissertations in a timely manner.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's term, Doctoral term
• Faculty Profile

Associate Professor Patrick Schwemmer

• Research area/content
  • Representational Culture of Late Muromachi, Early Edo, and Age of Exploration Japan. Noh plays, Kowakamai, Ko-joruri, Nara picture books and picture scrolls, kana-zoshi, sermons, portraits and topography, Zen literature, Christian literature, and early modern Ryukyu.
• Content of subjects
  • Lecture: Early modern Japan-Europe cultural exchange.
  • Exercise: Early modern Japan-Europe cultural exchange.
• Recent research guidance
  • Students are honing their skills in visually tracing the meanings and actions of symbols and gestures in interactions between different cultures, classes, genders, and so on.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's degree
• Faculty Profile

Miwa Takimoto

• Research area/content
  • Western art history. Mainly studies of late antiquity and early Christian art. Also studies of "classics" in Western art, iconography, and bodily expression.
• Content of subjects
  • Lecture: "Western Art History: The Formation and Dissemination of Iconography" will examine the creation, transformation, and development of Christian iconography from late antiquity to the late Middle Ages through French texts.
  • In the seminar "Study of European Art and Iconography," students will use French texts as a basis to attempt to interpret the emotional and bodily expressions in visual arts from various eras, such as the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, and caricature, from the historical and social background.
• Recent research guidance
  • Based on the above, we aim to teach the methodology of Western art history research and provide guidance so that students can develop their own research themes. This year, we read foreign language literature on paintings with the motif of "windows" in detail, and considered and discussed the spatial recognition of "indoors and outdoors," the concept of "inside and outside," and the gaze of "seeing and being seen."
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's degree
• Faculty Profile

Professor Kenji Tani

• Research area/content
  • Applied linguistics, lexical analysis, history of the English language. Corpus-based vocabulary frequency analysis and cross-cultural vocabulary understanding. Public Diplomacy
• Content of subjects
  • Lecture: Historical and statistical vocabulary analysis.
  • Seminar: Study of cultural differences in communication and current issues in vocabulary acquisition theory.
• Recent research guidance
  • Information warfare between Japan and the United States during World War II. Research guidance focusing on the Hull Note.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's term, Doctoral term
• Faculty Profile

Professor Takehisa Tsuchiya

• Research area/content
  • Applied linguistics, English language teaching. Empirical and scientific research methods for English language teaching.
• Content of subjects
  • Lectures and seminars: Media English and Applied Linguistics. Examine the empirical and objective evidence of English education research and critically examine what research is.
• Recent research guidance
  • Learning and teaching English is nothing less than contact with English language media. We will consider how to critically interact with the media while reading original texts.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's degree
• Faculty Profile

Professor Toshio Tsunoda

• Research area/content
  • The thought and culture history of the English-speaking world and its connections to ancient times and other regions. We explore the thought and culture of early modern English-speaking countries from the perspective of the continuation and development of classical antiquity traditions and exchanges with non-Western regions.
• Content of subjects
  • Lecture: History of British and American thought. To understand the importance of religion in modern British and American thought, we will read the Enlightenment theory of religion and the relationship between religion and civilized society after the Reformation and the Wars of Religion.
  • Exercise: Explore early modern democratic debates to understand the reception of ancient legal and civic traditions into English-speaking cultures.
• Recent research guidance
  • He led research on the issue of racism in contemporary British multiculturalism.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's term, Doctoral term
• Faculty Profile

Professor Kazuhiro Naoi

• Research area/content
  • Exploring various aspects of English language learning and instruction from a social perspective.
• Content of subjects
  • An examination of various aspects of English language learning and teaching with a focus on sociality (connections, cooperation, interrelationships, and power between various agents and factors).
• Recent research guidance
  • Lecture (English Communication Studies): Joan Kelly Hall. Essentials of SLA for L2 Teachers - A Transdisciplinary Framework. Routledge, 2019. Critical understanding and applied assignments.
  • Seminar (Specialized Seminar in English Communication): Critical understanding and application assignments of Amy Tsui. Introducing Classroom Interaction. Penguin Books, 1995.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's degree
• Faculty Profile

Professor Chikako Hirano

• Research area/content
  • French colonial history, comparative imperial history, modern and contemporary European history. I am researching the history of Europe, particularly France, from the perspective of the colonies and Europe's relations and exchanges with the outside world.
• Content of subjects
  • Lectures and seminars on "Modern Europe and the History of Foreign Exchange": We will consider the history of relations and exchanges between Europe and the outside world from the perspective of social and cultural history. Race, gender, and historical awareness will be key themes.
• Recent research guidance
  • In order to acquire an attitude of viewing history from multiple and varied perspectives, I plan to explore the formation of Europe's "perception of the other" towards the other world.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's term, Doctoral term
• Faculty Profile

Professor Jason Hollowell

• Classes and research guidance are conducted in English, and students are required to write their dissertations in English.
• Research area/content
  • Linguistics, First and Second Language Acquisition, Bilingualism, Language Education&Use. Investigation into the characteristics of language and process of language acquisition in children and adults.
• Content of subjects
  • Students will learn about the various aspects of language acquisition and investigate from the perspective of the language user. Students will develop an individual research project, which will culminate in a report and presentation.
• Recent research guidance
  • In a recent past research project, a student analyzed the internal consistency of English entrance examinations as well as performing item analysis to determine the degree to which tests are providing meaningful information to decision making entities.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's degree
• Faculty Profile

Associate Professor Brian James Masshardt

• Classes and research guidance are conducted in English, and students are required to write their dissertations in English.
• Research area/content
  • Japan-US relations, comparative politics.
• Content of subjects
  • Lecture: Comparative Politics. Examination of transnational issues and the challenges confronting states and their citizens in the 21st Century.
  • Exercise: Japan-US Relations. Examination of key aspects of the relationship developed from the mid-20th Century to present. Special emphasis is placed on exploring the future relations between the two countries.
• Recent research guidance
  • Students are encouraged to investigate realworld issues such as diplomacy, conflict resolution, and transnational cooperation through case studies and simulations in international relations and comparative politics.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's degree
• Faculty Profile

Kaoru Matsubara

• Research area/content
  • Musicology and aesthetics. Research on 18th century German music, with a focus on JS Bach, and the reception of Bach in Western music.
• Content of subjects
  • Lecture: "Western Music Studies" will examine how Bach's music was heard and understood in German and other European cultures through the analysis of musical works and the reading of original and research literature on Western music.
  • Seminar: "Study of Musical Aesthetics" examines music from the standpoint of aesthetics as a branch of philosophy, with a particular focus on 18th and 19th century German musical aesthetics.
• Recent research guidance
  • In the "Western Music Studies" course, we will read literature on the reception of Bach in 19th century France and place Bach's music within the various aspects of European culture. In the "Musical Aesthetics Studies" course, we will read literature on musical hermeneutics and examine Bach's symbolism.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's degree
• Faculty Profile

Professor Paul Minford

• Classes and research guidance are conducted in English, and students are required to write their dissertations in English.
• Research area/content
  • British and Postcolonial Literatures, especially 20th century and contemporary novels. Migrant literature, British-Asian literature. Multiculturalism, cosmopolitanism, posthumanism.
• Content of subjects
  • Lecture: [20th Century English Literature] Nation, race, and belonging in twentieth century literature in English.
  • Seminar: [Themes in Contemporary English Novels] Issues surrounding culture and identity in contemporary novels in English.
• Recent research guidance
  • Students are encouraged to consider issues of identity and belonging through close reading and analysis of literary works in their particular contexts.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's degree
• Faculty Profile

Professor Yuka Mochizuki

• Research area/content
  • Modern French religious thought, history of Christianity. Pascal's Christian view of humanity. Paul Royal and the study of spirituality in the theological polemics of Jansenism.
• Content of subjects
  • Lectures and seminars: 16th-17th century French thought. Readings of Pascal's works such as "Pensées" and "Letter of Grace." Comparisons with related themes such as Augustine and Luther.
• Recent research guidance
  • A spiritual historical study of the "emptiness" of the Bible. Rigorous textual reading and guidance on how to find the "gap" for writing an original essay.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's term, Doctoral term
• Faculty Profile