Global Studies Courses

Foundational Courses

AG741 Introduction to Global Studies 1

Professor: Co) Instructors of Global Studies Area
The course is required for all Global Studies (AG) MA students in the Graduate Program in Global Studies and is not available to other students. In addition, all Global Studies (AG) Ph.D. students who have not yet taken it must complete this course (the completion of which exempts the student from one qualifying exam). It provides a broad and interdisciplinary view of foundational ideas and problems in global studies. Four faculty members teach the course each semester. In addition to this course, all Global Studies MA students must take Introduction to Global Studies II in either the prior or subsequent semester. The markers “I” and “II” only indicate the semester in which the courses are taught. Students should take whichever course is offered that semester, regardless of number.

AG745 Introduction to Global Studies 2

Professor: Co) Instructors of Global Studies Area
This course is an introduction to global studies. The course is required for all Global Studies (AG) MA students in the Graduate Program in Global Studies and is not available to other students. In addition, all Global Studies (AG) Ph.D. students who have not yet taken it must complete this course (the completion of which exempts the student from one qualifying exam). It provides a broad and interdisciplinary view of foundational ideas and problems in global studies. Four faculty members teach the course each semester.

In addition to this course, all Global Studies MA students must take Introduction to Global Studies II in either the prior or subsequent semester. The markers “I” and “II” only indicate the semester in which the courses are taught. Students should take whichever course is offered that semester, regardless of number.

Elective Courses

AG502 Comparative Politics

Professor: NAKANO Koichi
This course introduces students to a range of “classic” works in comparative politics. A variety of themes that have been central to comparative political research shall be covered.

AG504 Democracy in Globalization

Professor: NAKANO Koichi
This course explores a variety of issues that Japan faces today in the context of globalization. In particular, we shall focus on what may be called “the politics of reform” and seek through concrete case studies to analyze the political dynamics that account for the prominence of the symbol of “reform” in contemporary politics.

PhD students will follow the curriculum assigned to the MA students in the affiliated class; however, PhD students will be given supplementary readings and assignments appropriate to the requirements for students in the PhD degree program.

AG510 Globalization and Popular Religion

Professor: MURAKAMI Tatsuo
The overall objective of this course is to reexamine our perception of “religion” by placing it in a theoretical framework called “globalization.” The first half of the course addresses different roles religion plays in the globalized world as it promotes, enhances or resists the globalization process. In the second half, we will focus on the recent global spread of Pentecostalism in particular and examine how this popular religious movement is gaining its momentum because of/in spite of globalization.

AG516 Global Migration

Professor: WANG Xinyu Promio
This interdisciplinary course integrates the study of migration and mobility with broader processes of development and social transformation world-wide. It provides an introductory theoretical understanding of human mobility and the role of of international migration in economic and political processes, social change and globalisation. It also gives an overview of the major debates and literature on contemporary migration.

AG518 Global Health

Professor: Minagawa Yuka
This course will be conducted online using Moodle (main platform) and Zoom.
The three main goals of this course are to: 1) introduce major theories of social demography, 2) further the understanding of mechanisms underlying health inequalities around the world, and 3) enhance students’ research skills by developing an empirical research paper during the course of the semester.

AG522 Quantitative Research Methods

Professor: Minagawa Yuka
This course provides students with a basic background in quantitative research methods in social sciences. Course requirements include discussions, group/individual work, and presentations.

AG528 Qualitative Research Methods

Professor: FARRER James
This course is a practical introduction to qualitative research methods used by sociologists and other professionals. The focus will be on interviewing and analysis of interview data. Because this course is taught online the method will be online interviewing.

The course will conducted with a mix of uploaded lectures on moodle, offline work also uploaded to moodle, and interactive discussions via Zoom. Every meeting there will be either an assignment with feedback through comments from the professor or face-to-face through Zoom. Students will also be required to comment upon and advise other members on their research projects. For commenting upon each other’s work, google docs is advised, but other methods are possible.

AG530 Global Cities

Professor: FARRER James
This course will be an introduction to urban sociology focusing on the ethnography of global cities. The first part of the course will be a general introduction to the idea of the global city. The subsequent sections will focus on specific topics in the study of global cities: migration, urban foodways, and urban sexual scenes.

AG531 Global Politics

Professor: ITO Takeshi
This course is concerned with the theory and practice of international development. We will study the evolution of the project of development from its launched as a post-World War II initiative to its characteristics under the current era of economic globalization and liberalization, including backlashes against the forms this project has taken. Each phase of development has been marked by intense theoretical and practical debate, from the certainties of modernization theory, the explanatory perspectives of dependency theory to more current critiques of anti-development and anti-globalization theorists. In this course, we will examine the intellectual and practical foundations of these debates. To do so, we will link development theories to the material practice of development.

AG532 Media and Politics

Professor: BURRETT Tina
The news media are enormously powerful and have a strong role in all aspects of governance. Should journalists, who are not elected by the people, have this much power, and can they exercise it effectively? Or are news organisations inevitably compromised by their drive for profit? What is the impact of the tumultuous change sweeping the news media? Will traditional news survive? Should it? What is the nature of the media’s power: how fully and in what ways do the media shape public opinion, elections, debate, and policy? Are the media politically biased? How adept are political leaders at manipulating the media, and do their efforts undermine democracy? Do new communication technologies threaten the role of the traditional media? What can be learned from news coverage of the War on Terror, the war in Iraq, and the 2016 US presidential election? How does the media environment vary in different cultural contexts? Questions such as these will be addressed in this course.

AG534 Nature, Technoscience and Society

Professor: WATANABE Takehiro
This graduate seminar examines the cultural and political dimensions of human technology’s impact on the natural world, from the perspective of the humanities and the social sciences. Through readings in anthropology, environmental studies, and science-technology studies, we will examine the politics of scientific knowledge in the construction of nature, the role of nature ideology in the history of industrial capitalism, management of environmental and biological resources, and the ethical challenges of our technoscientific society. Seminar participation and completion of research projects are required. This class is two credits and repeatable.

AG536 The Anthropological Imagination

Professor: WATANABE Takehiro
This seminar will explore contemporary culture through the lens of anthropology, focusing on questions of language, exchange, and power. We will focus on classic social theory necessary for understanding contemporary anthropology, while bearing in mind social issues we face today in our globalizing world. We will complement our theoretical forays with fieldwork research assignments and readings of major ethnographies, both classic and current. Background in anthropology is preferred but not a prerequisite. Seminar participation and completion of research projects are required. This course is two credits and repeatable.

AG538 International Relations Theory

Professor: ANNO Tadashi
This course introduces students to international relations theory, taking the security of the Asia-Pacific region as our case study. The focus is on conventional issues of national security. The purpose of this course is twofold. One is to provide students with an advanced level introduction to theories of international relations, as they pertain to conventional security issues. The other is to introduce students to the study of security in the Asia-Pacific region.

AG541 Sovereignty, Nationhood, Liberalism

Professor: ANNO Tadashi
Sovereignty and nationhood have together defined the political framework of the modern world. But this framework is in tension with (at least certain strands of) liberalism, which is the dominant political, economic, and social theory of the modern era. Is liberalism compatible with sovereignty and nationhood? How should we think about the apparent disjuncture between the political framework and the theory of modern politics? What is sovereignty? What is nationhood? How should we think about the relationship between the individual and the (nation-)state? This is a seminar course which examines these issues from a theoretical viewpoint. We will read and discuss literature from political theory, international relations, sociology, and social psychology pertinent to the subject.

PhD students will follow the curriculum assigned to the MA students in the affiliated class; however, PhD students will be given supplementary readings and assignments appropriate to the requirements for students in the PhD degree program.

AG542 Topics in Global Studies

Professor: Tin Tin Htun
This course investigates how gender and sexuality concepts and practices have evolved and what structural, socio-cultural, historical, economic, legal, and political factors contribute to the evolution and transformation of gender and sexuality in society. Focusing on the construction of gender and sexuality in Asian, Middle Eastern, and African societies, we will explore issues related to family, reproduction, work, media, violence, sex work and the sex industry, and feminization of migration. We will also incorporate Asian, Middle Eastern, and African feminists’ theorizations of gender and sexuality in the analysis of the issues covered in the course to critique Westernized understandings of gender, sex, and sexuality.
This is a reading and discussion intensive class with a student-centered participatory approach. Small-group and whole-class discussions are the main learning platform for students. Lectures will be given (where appropriate) as a lead into or follow-up to the reading assignments.

AG543 Global Issues Ⅰ

Professor: Staff

AG544 GLOBAL ISSUES Ⅱ

Professor: WANG Chuanfei

Tourism has been perhaps the industry employing the largest number of people around the world. This course explores the global dynamism of tourism, linked by local, national, and multinational actors who create tourism forms, and their roles and relationships in the processes of tourism globalization. Tourism in many local and regional communities and countries has been used as an economic development tool. However, it has produced new issues and challenges to both in-and-outbound destinations. Therefore, this course also concerns the beneficial and unequal consequences that global tourism has brought to our human and natural world.

The entire course consists of two parts. Part I reviews the theories and concepts in tourism studies from multidisciplinary perspectives. Part II is the workshops where students use conceptual tools that they have learned in Part I to examine a tourism case in the actual world.

AG547 Prejudice and Discrimination

Professor: DEGUCHI Makiko
In this increasing globalized world, there is an assumption that our greater interconnectedness would result in greater cross-cultural awareness and understanding, and reduced conflicts. However, despite greater mobility and access to information, we continue to witness conflicts, injustice, prejudice, and discrimination. The discipline of psychology investigates both the individual mental processes as well as group behavior. This course aims to understand prejudice and discrimination using both empirical research as well as lived experiences of members of privileged groups and minority/marginalized groups. Content covered includes history of the study of prejudice and discrimination, psychological constructs and theories of stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination, understanding of various forms of privilege and oppression, and ways of reducing prejudice and discrimination.
Class will have small group discussions, presentations, and reaction papers.

AG548 Theories and Issues in Global Studies

Professors: NAKAMURA Yutaka
What processes constitute an act of “writing ethnography?” And what does a written ethnography reveal? In this course, we will consider various questions regarding “writing human activities” and/or “writing anthropo-related objects” by drawing on selective ethnographies as well as non-fictions, documentaries, and literary works.

AG551 Studies in Emotion

Professor: OKITA Kiyokazu
Over the past several decades scholars in humanities and social science have increasingly paid more attention to the topic of emotions – what they are and how they fundamentally condition our experience. Some call this shift ‘turn to emotion’ or ‘the affective turn’, suggesting that its significance is comparable to ‘the linguistic turn’ in the last century (Brooks and Lemmings 2014). However, this intellectual exploration on the nature of emotions and their roles in society has been largely limited to the works of the authors in the West. For example, in his book What is an Emotion (2003) Robert Solomon, a leading philosopher on the subject, starts his discussion with Aristotle, covers the ‘usual suspects’ such as Descartes and Hume, and ends his discussion with contemporary scholars of Western philosophy. Yet there existed long and complex reflections in South Asia on the topics such as the role of mind in human cognition, the power of emotions in decision making process, and their relationship to aesthetics. This course is an attempt to fill this lacuna in scholarship by examining how the South Asian traditions may contribute to the contemporary academic discourse on emotion.

AG552 Global History

Professor: MELZER Juergen
Global history offers a wide-ranging account of the past that ventures beyond traditional geographical boundaries. Its focus on global integration and connectedness allows us to discover common points where previous historiography would see only differences—of ideas, customs, and worldviews.
We live at a time when capital and information are roaming the globe; when tourists and migrants are crossing continents; when a global economy is becoming increasingly interconnected: in such a globalized age the study of a global past helps us to make sense of our global present.
In this class we will analyze the historical roots of many of today’s global challenges including nationalism, environmental problems, migration, and interstate conflict. We will also explore the grand themes of global history such as empires, warfare, religions, revolutions, and trade.
Engaging in global history will not only cultivate our expertise in all things global. It might also bring us closer to the utopian ideal of becoming citizens of the world.

AG553 History of International Relations

Professor: MICHELIN Franck
The main structure and basic information will be given by the teacher. However, the class is designed to be interactive, with students preparing the class in order to ask questions, proposer alternate explanations. The first part will given following two stages:
1. the first half will be used for giving the main frame and explaining the characteristics of the history of international relations
2. the second half will reused for oral presentations given by students.
Each week, one student will make a short report about a reading related to the class.

AG554 Human Rights – United Nations Human Rights Council

Professor: ONOJIMA Goro
The United Nations Human Rights Council (hereinafter “HRC”) is the main UN organ in charge of the protection and promotion of human rights – one of the three pillars and purposes of the UN. This course, led by a former UN official (who served as Secretary of the HRC until May 2022), is designed to examine the work and functioning of the HRC since its establishment in 2006 replacing its predecessor (UN Commission on Human Rights), including its core mechanisms, such as the Universal Periodic Review and the special procedures.

AG555 Gender Equality and Social Transformation

Professor: KATO Miwa
In many ways, addressing gender inequality is a touchstone for Japan’s transformation in the 21st Century. It is an important starting point for integration of the broader Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) perspectives to the social design and culture of the world’s third largest economy. As is the case for many other countries around the globe, succeeding in attaining greater gender equality is the key for Japan to increase its sustainability, longer-term viability and competitiveness, in addition to respecting the full rights of half of its population. Therefore, this course will be of interest to anyone who wishes to explore deeper about gender equality, and everyone who cares to see Japan as a thriving actor and a reliable global partner navigating through the turbulent international world of the 2020s.