Courses

• Department of Philosophy

  　This department conducts research and education in philosophy, ideology, and culture from both a fundamental and application perspective. Fundamental majors include Philosophy and History of Philosophy (research focusing on modern Western philosophy), Chinese Philosophy, and Indian and Buddhist Studies, which mainly involve studying the classics through rigorous text interpretation methods. Application majors include Science, Technology, and Society (interdisciplinary field for studying the social issues raised by technology) and Clinical Philosophy (philosophy that focuses on interaction with actual society), which try to address the challenges faced by today's society from a philosophical perspective.

• Department of Global History and Geography

  　The three majors Asian History, European and American History, and Human Geography, provide students with the opportunity to learn interdisciplinary, cutting-edge research methods. These are applicable to a variety of topics, ranging from micro-level communities to the trajectories of global structures. In terms of chronology they cover the longue durée, from ancient to modern history. The department aims to provide individuals with the knowledge needed in the information age. To achieve this goal, we first offer a minor in Global History that embraces students enrolled in the University across disciplines, and second, the opportunity to engage in community-based fieldwork. Furthermore we offer the History and Geography Education Program, to make historical and geographical research accessible to the general public by working together with junior and senior high school teachers.

• Department of Literature

  　This department consists of five majors: English and American Literature, German Literature, French Literature, and Chinese Literature (Literary Representation Studies group), and Textual and Comparative Literary Studies, which covers both Japanese and foreign literature. All five departments build on conventional literary study methods to conduct research on "borderless literature" that transcends the boundaries of ethnicity, region, language, class, and gender. Moreover, research is not confined to literary works but also covers "texts" in the broad sense, including music, drama, paintings, architecture, comics, and films.

• Department of Comparative and Contrastive Linguistics

  　In this department, students will learn the synchronic and diachronic analysis methods used in linguistics. Synchronic research aims to identify regularities in languages by comparing multiple languages, including present-day English and Japanese. Diachronic research aims to gain insights on how Indo-European languages such as English have evolved over history. Both approaches emphasize the importance of developing theories based on sufficient linguistic data and sources.