“Report of Results by Graduate Students and Mentors Dispatched to National Taiwan University”

Kiyomitsu Yui (Professor, Kobe University, Graduate School of Humanities)

　In the year 2008, the following two parties were dispatched from the Graduate School of Humanities as graduate student and mentor.

Tatsuma Fujioka – Ph.D Candidate, Kobe University Graduate School of Humanities

Nanako Hayami – Post Doctoral Fellow, Kobe University Graduate School of Humanities

　Between the aforementioned parties, Mr. Fujioka was the first to attend the department of anthropology at National Taiwan University as a foreign student, staying from October 2008 to June 2009.

　There, he conducted his investigative research entitled “The prospects of constructing Public spaces in East Asia: Towards a Sociological Theory Construction Bridging Consumer and Trauma Sociology” under associate professor Chia-yu Hu of the department of anthropology. Primarily, he analyzed Taiwan’s complex historical timeline, while at the same time focusing on the “Night Market,” a place where consumer activity and public interests intersect, as a concrete object of investigation.

　Namely, his research was conducted focusing on the realities of how the “Night Market,” the space where the consumer activity of Taiwan’s capitalist society and the construction of the public sphere in Taiwan intersect, formed both a common area for local interaction as well as it’s own tourist industry, while also addressing the larger issue of how public spaces are constructed in Taiwan. First, he assumed that the historical development of the “Night Market” began with the markets that were held near the vicinity of a temple, and through a process of urban expansion in Taipei, the space that was originally used by the local residents as a place to perform their rituals was expanded to form the “Night Market.”

　He analyzed the background of how the night market became a place for people from all over Taiwan as well as foreign tourists to assemble, eventually becoming a space that superseded locality, where a “community of imagination” from the whole of Taiwan was constructed and became the “public sphere” that intersected with consumer activity.

　Additionally, Ms. Hayami stayed at National Taiwan University from the end of January to the end of March 2009 working as a close advisor to Mr. Fujioka. While giving advice in regards to his research, she also actively conducted her own investigative research on her research topic, “An Analysis of Women’s Bodily Etiquette in East Asian Societies: Constructing a Theoretical Framework of Bodily Image and Bodily Control,” working under the aforementioned associate professor Chia-yu Hu as well as professor Hsin-huang Hsiao from Academia Sinica.

As research for her theoretical framework, she investigated actual situations in the image consulting industry, while also planning the construction of a more sophisticated analytical framework for application to the research regarding women’s bodily control in East Asia from the standpoint of E. Goffman and Y. Winkin. She conducted her research to focus on how the effects of globalization had changed the traditional ways of physical control over women.

　The research of both parties was highly acclaimed in the July 2009 debriefing session, and both are now making active efforts to continue the development and completion of their research in Europe.



“Report of Results by Graduate Students and Mentors Dispatched to Sung Kyung Kwan University”

Kan Kimura (Professor, Kobe University, Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies)

In the year 2008, the following two parties were dispatched from the Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies as graduate student and mentor.

　Miho Yokomizo (Ph.D. Candidate, Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies)

　Satoru Tanaka (Assistant Professor, Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies)

　Between the aforementioned parties, Ms. Yokomizo was the first to attend the Academy of East Asian Studies at Sung Kyung Kwan University in Korea as a research student, staying from September 2008 to May 2009. At the academy, she conducted her research on the debate in Korea regarding the unification of Germany. Her methodology had two main categories.　The first was the collection of research materials, mainly focusing on three Korean general interest magazines “Monthly Chosun” “Shin-Dong-A” and “Maru,” studying the change in commentary in the three magazines before and after the unification of Germany.

　The second category was the analysis of her research results, and the solicitation of opinions from Korean scholars regarding the results. Regarding the solicitation of opinions, she focused her investigation on comments from scholars within Sung Kyung Kwan University, while also investigating comments from teachers and graduate students at The University of North Korean Studies, and additionally at Ms. Yokomizo’s post-graduate alma mater Sogang University.

　Consequently, the following things became clear. Even though the general-interest magazines were originally distributed in accordance with their various ideology, the magazines’ differing views regarding the unification of Germany gradually became consistent as the unification of Germany became a reality. What should be especially noted is that the original commentary, which provided the unification of Germany as a favorable model for the reunification of the Korea peninsula, had vanished and was replaced with an understanding that the German unification model would not be applicable to the Korean peninsula. This was particularly noticeable in the leftist magazine “Maru.”

　Additionally, Mr. Tanaka also attended the Academy of East Asian Studies at Sung Kyung Kwan University in Korea from December 2008 to March 2009 as a visiting researcher. During this time, Mr. Tanaka worked as a close research advisor to Ms. Yokomizo, while also actively conducting research on his own topic “Nationalism and Treatment of the Deceased in Korea.”

　The contents of this research may be divided into two main categories as well. One is a basic literature search, and Mr. Tanaka actively collected materials from the Sung Kyung Kwan University Libraries as well as other libraries in Korea during this time. The second was a fieldwork survey. After the liberation of Korea, many national cemeteries and related memorial establishments were created, such as Seoul National Cemetery, and Mr. Tanaka visited many of these establishments and conducted field surveys regarding changes in how the deceased were mourned.

　The research of both Ms. Yokomizo and Mr. Tanaka was highly acclaimed at the July 2009 debriefing session, and currently both are actively continuing their efforts for the development and completion of their research.



“Regarding the Significance and Methodology of the Asian Program”

Motoki Takahashi (Chairman of the ITP Evaluation Committee)

　As a comprehensive explanation of the project, a report entitled “The Young Researcher’s International Training Program and the Internationalization of Research Education in the Graduate School of Humanities” was made by Mamoru Sasaki, Dean of the Graduate School of Humanities at Kobe University. The contents of the report are as follows.

　The project, in addition to advanced research and written composition relating to East Asia, prepares scholars for giving research presentations in foreign languages and aims to develop human resources who may be active internationally. The ultimate desire for these human resources is to construct a grand design for the dialogue and coexistence in East Asia. Therefore, the project works to build an international, multipolar educational system between Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, and the West that will enable scholars to undergo comprehensive training in the various fields within humanities and social sciences, while also studying the accumulation of East Asian research being conducted in both Asia and the West. The Graduate School of Humanities wholeheartedly promotes the ITP as a means of continuing the success and growth of the development of research education at the Port Cities Research Center, the “Program for Enhancing Education in Graduate Schools,” as well as training for the inter-disciplinary “ability to interpret the classics” and “ability to engage in dialogue.”

　Next, a report entitled “Looking to Erasmus Mundus to Form a Base for the International Exchange of Knowledge” was made by Akio Wada, head of the Office of International Affairs at The Osaka University School of Letters. The Erasmus Mundus Program was implemented in 2004 at higher education institutions in the EU as an international cooperation initiative, and is a pioneering example of the kind of international joint education system that the ITP program should strive to replicate. A summary of the report is as follows. The projects conducted under the Erasmus Mundus Program are: the founding of an international university cooperative post-graduate program, the support of foreign researchers from other regions, cooperation with universities from other regions, and raising interest in higher education in the EU, among others. The “Euro Culture Program,” which is one part of the Erasmus Mundus Program, is currently conducting international cooperative efforts relating to post-graduate education among 8 universities within the region, and 4 universities outside the region. The Osaka University School of Letters is one university cooperating outside the region, and provides courses in English relating to Japanese Studies and comparative research.

　In addition, Professor Motoki Takahashi of the Kobe University Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies conducted a report entitled: “Further Prospects for the Asian Program: Experiences at the School of Oriental and African Studies and Possibilities for the ITP” which gave a digest of The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, one of the ITP’s cooperative partners, and discussed the future of regional Asian research and the development of international cooperation, as seen from an outline of cooperation with the SOAS. A summary of the report is as follows. The SOAS conducts high quality educational research regarding Asia, Africa, and the Middle East in both the fields of sociology and humanities, and is one of the world’s prominent higher education research institutions, making it a key partner in the ITP’s international joint education system. As legacy of past imperial rule, the SOAS represents much of the regional research conducted in Europe, and the research conducted at the SOAS is partly carried out by residents who are from areas that are subjects of its regional research, and is a center for discussions relating to own-cultural understanding and cross-cultural understanding. The future of regional research seeks the training of researchers who, in addition to understanding others in mother and local tongue, possess the ability to reference volumes of research and hold discussions relating to own-cultural and cross-cultural understand in various world languages, such as the precedent established by the SOAS as an institution of higher research education at the center of the English-speaking world.