The Asian Platform for Global Sustainability & Transcultural Studies
Kyoto University

AGST Newsletter

Featured in this issue:- International Collaborative Courses at the GSE“Sustainable Industry Development”, “Comparative Development Studies “ and more

- Kyoto Univ./ Strasbourg Univ./Heidelberg Univ.
Joint Student Workshops 2020 at the GSL- Joint Graduate Workshop with the University of Göttingen at the GSA- AGST Spotlight Interview
Prof. Sandra Schaal, Strasbourg University, France

Published by The Asian Platform for Global Sustainability & Transcultural Studies (AGST)
Edited by
AGST Head Office (Graduate School of Economics)
Faculty of Law and Faculty of Economics East Bldg., Kyoto University
AGST Newsletter | Spring/Summer 2020

Graduate School ofT

Economics: International Collaborative Courses

he course entitled “Sustainable Industry Development”, taught by Mr. Edward Clarence‐Smith, gave students updated knowledge about sustainable
development in today’s industries. The course was delivered in a series ofseven lectures over two weeks.

Sustainable Industry
Development
by Mr. Edward Clarence-Smith

The course started with the Industrial Revolution, showSenior Advisor to intergovernmental
ing the relationship between economic development andinstitutions and the private sector toenvironmental protection and how “the Earth does notpromote green industry
have infinite regenerative capacity with the increasing
demand from human.” In every lecture, Mr. Clarence‐
Smith would give detailed data and examples to explain
environmental issues that different countries would confront, and the kinds of responsibility that should betaken from companies, governments, consumers, giving students a space to understand these problems fromtheir own experience and knowledge. At the end of every lecture, Mr. Clarence‐Smith gave students time to raise questions to clarify
something or ask for more information about something that they were particularly interested in.

Combined with the work experience as senior advisor to intergovernmental institutions and the private sector to promote green industry, Mr. Clarence‐Smith shared his knowledge and experiences from his work over the last few decades, which helped students have a
deeper understanding about sustainable development from a practical point of view. At the end of this course, Mr. Clarence‐Smith gave
students a “homework for the rest of their life”, which encouraged students to minimize their ecological footprint. The principles ofsustainable development will continue for the rest of the students’ lives. It does not end up with the end of this course.

Ting Wang
Master ‘s student, Graduate School of Economics

Comparative Development Studies
by Prof. Raymond Jussaume Jr.
Michigan State University& Prof. Maria Fonte
The American University of RomeL

ast semester’s “Comparative Development Studies” course, which
was offered through the Graduate School of Economics andsponsored by the Asian Platform for Global Sustainability andTranscultural Studies, was led by two visiting scholars: Prof. Raymond
Jussaume from Michigan State University, USA, and Prof. Maria Fonte
from the American University in Rome, Italy. The following is a summary of what topics were covered and what kinds of activities took
place during the course.

Prof. Jussaume, who led the first half of the course, focused on a wide
variety of themes related to sustainable development, which enabled participants from different disciplines
to share their understanding about sustainability. In the first session, Prof. Jussaume asked each participant
to write down their own understanding about sustainable development on paper and then he collected theanswers. Later, he asked them to reflect on their perspectives after taking all the sessions. Issues like the relationship between agency and structure, and wicked problems, were discussed in this session. In the second
session, several participants were invited to participate in a role play exercise with Prof. Jussaume. The roleplay was about how to plan the infrastructure of a city and what should be prioritized. Students played roles
which corresponded with their own specialties, like the minister of environmental protection, the minister oftransportation, etc. This game deepened participants’ understanding about top-down and bottom-up development. In the session threeand four, issues like the purpose of development, and the stages of development of nations were discussed. Prof. Jussaume also referred
to several theories to deepen the discussion, such as modernization theory, dependency theory, world systems theory and measurement theory. In the last session, Prof. Jussaume asked students to share their opinions about the textbook of this class and let each participant to re-consider their initial understanding about sustainable development.
In the sessions led by Prof. Fonte, she offered students an opportunity to discuss different frameworks for analyzing the current ‘turn’ andtransition in rural development and the global agro-food economy. Two questions Prof. Fonte asked students toconsider during the four sessions were: “What is wrong with the current agro-food system?” and “What is the
future food system we would like to aim at?” The articles that students were asked to review offered different
theoretical perspectives on how to make an agro-food economy that is sustainable and socially just. Prof. Fonte
began the first class with the clarification of some key concepts such as modernization, agriculture, rural andrurality, sustainable food systems and then introduced students to recent themes in the development of agriculture and rurality. The topics discussed by Prof. Fonte in the subsequent classes were the roles of consumers
toward sustainable diets, how to conceptualize transitions to sustainability, and democratising food. Working insmall groups, students summarized the main topics, key arguments from two or three assigned readings for eachclass. In addition, through highlighting how authors’ arguments relate to each other from the readings, students generated connections,contrasts, and comparisons. Students prepared some reflections and questions to be discussed in each class as well. The course stimulated
student participation and discussion in order to develop a comparative perspective at a global level on these topics.

Youping Liu and Yang Lu
Master ‘s students, Graduate School of Economics

AGST Newsletter | Spring/Summer 2020

T

he course entitled “Quantitative Research Method ” taught by Prof.
Chengfang Liu brought students with abundant knowledge, by
providing various econometric tools and research designs through aseries of lectures in two weeks.

Quantitative Research Methodby Prof. Chengfang Liu

The course started with a set of questions, for example, “Do conditional
Peking University
cash transfers affect behavior?”, “Has the family planning policy affectedintergenerational mobility?”. It then introduced academic tools of research
design, with a special focus on causal effects. In each lecture, Prof. Liu gave students detailed data and examples to explain randomized
experiments and help them explore a range of quasi-experimental approaches. Each topic covered first the identifying assumptions required to make a causal effect, and second determining what exactly can be interpreted from the results. These training would be very
useful for students to resolve their own research problems.
Moreover, Prof. Liu encouraged students to raise questions during the discussion, which created active and relaxed atmosphere. The course would help students to understand and learn from various
readings, problem sets and referee report requirements, which is a very worthy practice on how to
use Stata and to understand quantitative research method.
Furthermore, the course provided clear explanation on the strengths and weaknesses of various quasi-experimental strategies relative to experimental approaches and structural approaches. For the students who are going to apply quantitative method in their thesis, this course was very elaborate.
Ting Wang
Master’s student, Graduate School of Economics

B

Historical Approaches toBusiness and Economics B

etween March 2, 2020 and March 6, 2020, Dr. Susie Pak, Associate Professor of
St. John’s University, New York, taught the course “Historical Approaches toBusiness and Economics B” at the Graduate School Economics, Kyoto University.

Dr. Pak was invited by the Graduate School of Economics Professor Takafumi Kurosawa under the International Collaborative Courses for 2019 Spring/Summer program.
Five graduate students, including a participant from Glasgow University, attended
this intensive course.

by Dr. Susie J. Pak
St. John's University

This year, Dr. Pak taught the course with the theme “Analyzing Social and Economic
Networks: An Introduction to Historical Research Methods.” She introduced students to key literature and issues in studying society andculture as drivers of economic change.
During the course, Dr. Pak also described the various research tools, methodologies and resources she used to write her book, Gentlemen
Bankers: The World of J.P. Morgan, and she guided students through theoretical frameworks that could be used in historical analysis. The
course also included practicum on historical research methods and trends used by researchers to create and interpret datasets on socialand economic networks.
Apart from the lectures, Dr. Pak conducted in-class discussions and exercises on digital technologies
such as Google Earth Pro, ABBY FineScanner, and online archival resource sites including the digitalcollection of the Library of Congress, Hathitrust.org, Ancestry.com, and the Spatial History Project by
Stanford University. These resources open possibilities to visualize data in innovative ways and provide
new interpretations to historical data.
In the final day of class, students gave short presentations on their respective thesis projects. Students
also gained constructive feedback from Dr. Pak and from each other on ways to improve their presentation skills, as well as ideas and methodologies for future research. Students were also required towrite a final paper on how class readings, lectures and discussions would be incorporated into their
thesis projects based on discussions held in class.
Despite concerns of the COVID-19 outbreak happening globally, the students enjoyed learning from Dr. Pak, and have come away withnew and interesting insights on historical research.
Yen Nie Yong
Doctoral student, Graduate School of Economics

AGST Top Global Course
It is a pleasure to announce that two students completed the AGST Top Global Course on March 23,
2020. They come from the Graduate School of Letters and the Graduate School of Agriculture. This
brings the total number of students that have completed the programme to 22 since it was launchedin March 2017. More information about this programme can be found here.

AGST Newsletter | Spring/Summer 2020

Graduate School ofLetters: Joint Student Workshops 2020

For the first time in 2015, the Graduate School of Letters sent a group of graduate students to its partner universities in Strasbourg and Heidelberg, where
they met fellow students and learned about study opportunities and research
environments in Europe. After this one-week trip, quite a number of these students embarked on longer exchanges to France and Germany. At home in Kyoto,
they spread the word about their experiences and encouraged younger students tofollow in their footsteps.

Kyoto Univ./ Strasbourg Univ./
Heidelberg Univ.
Joint Student Workshops 2020

With an eye on the establishment of the Division of the Joint Degree Master of Arts in Transcultural Studies (JDTS) in 2017, a collaborative
degree program of Kyoto University and the Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies (HCTS), the Strasbourg-Heidelberg excursion
shifted its focus on the above-mentioned “younger students,” namely BA students in their second and third year. They were to gain theopportunity to learn about exchange possibilities to partners in Europe in general, and about options of learning Transcultural Studies inparticular. Considering the language requirements for related study programs, this would also offer them the time to practice and improvetheir English.
The first such study and exchange program builds on a Memorandum of Understanding between the Graduate School of Letters, the Graduate School of Economics and the HCTS in Germany: Each year, five undergraduate or graduate students go to Heidelberg for six months or a whole year. Coming from various disciplines, such as European history or French literature, they study Transcultural Studies to integrate its theories and methods for research on border-crossing, cultural processes into their own scholarly fields. Heidelberg students – often but not always with a background in Japanese studies – similarly come to Kyoto forfield research and the Courses on Asian and Transcultural Studies program, which offers classes in areas nottaught at the HCTS.

European Parliament

Since 2018, five more students on each side annually cross the 12,909 km between Kyoto and Heidelberg to fulfil
their one year in the JDTS at the partner institution. The JDTS is one of the very first such international collaborations, where students
study and research at two world-leading universities to receive a degree jointly awarded by these institutions. Currently, the second cohort of students resides at the partner, while the third group on each side prepares for their stay abroad.
In both programs, the HCTS exchange and the JDTS, we find alumni of the Strasbourg-Heidelberg excursions. After their short trip to
Europe, they feel encouraged to spend a semester or year in Heidelberg – where many already have friends waiting for them, when they
arrive; friends they met during the workshops organised as part of the excursion. Other participants already know before enrolling at Kyoto University, that they want to take part in these workshops and seek to apply for the JDTS after their graduation.
Through these workshops, participating students deepen their understanding about the dynamics of transculturality and cultural exchange by studying various related phenomena, such as migration caused by nationalism, representations of peace and conflict in art andliterature, or refugee entanglements. The purpose of this visit at the European partners and the two joined workshops asks students toengage with existing research but also to express their own thoughts in talks, followed by an exchange of ideas with fellow students concerning cultural negotiation and transculturation.
One pillar of the continued success of these workshops is Prof. Sandra Schaal at Strasbourg University, who received her PhD from Kyoto
and is currently also a project professor at the Asian Platform for Global Sustainability & Transcultural Studies (AGST). This issue of theNewsletter also includes an in-depth interview with Prof. Schaal about her career but also the joint workshops. This year, the workshops
held in February engaged questions of gender, sexual minorities, consent, and related societal movements – a topic building on researchinterests of Prof. Schaal but also Prof. Björn-Ole Kamm, who is accompanying the students from Kyoto each year. In Kyoto during a preparatory meeting, they were supported by one, if not the founder of Japanese masculinities studies, Prof. emeritus Itō Kimio, who gave alecture on gender sociology.
In Strasbourg, the six undergraduate and two graduate students from Kyoto (one of which participated inthis excursion himself in 2015) were joined by two JDTS students and discussed gender discrimination atuniversities or gender-connoted language with 20 MA students from the Japanese Studies Department.
In Heidelberg, Prof. Takahiro Yamamoto also brought 20 MA students from the HCTS to a second workshop, including students who would enrol in the JDTS soon thereafter. While the event in France washeld in Japanese, the workshop in Heidelberg was conducted in English.
The workshops are embedded in a rich program, which includes visits to institutes and libraries of thetwo partner universities but also the Kyoto University European Center located in the Old University
Building in Heidelberg’s romantic old town. In Strasbourg, students had a chance to learn about issues ofhuman rights, the workings of pan-European institutions, and how 24 official languages are handled simultaneously by interpreters through a guided tour of the legislative branch of the European Union, the European Parliament. Lunch meetings and sightseeing together with students from the partner universities rounded off the visits with explorations of local culture and cuisine and a chance for the Kyoto group to learn about student life in Europe. The students prepared a video of this year’s excursion, which
can be accessed here.

Workshop at Strasbourg University

Considering the success of the workshops, the intensive exchange of ideas between students, and the many prolonged friendships resulting from these endeavours, all parties involved seek to continue with this tradition. In light of the current COVID-19 situation, however, aschedule for the 2021 workshops is still undecided. A call for applications will be released in the fall of 2020 and we highly recommend thisexciting trip to Europe to all interested students in the second or third year of their bachelor studies.

Björn-Ole Kamm
Senior Lecturer, Graduate School of Letters
AGST Newsletter | Spring/Summer 2020

Graduate School of

Agriculture: Joint Graduate Workshop with the University of Göttingen2020 Kyoto University &University of Göttingen
Joint Graduate Workshop(2020/2/26-28)

T

he Division of Natural Resources Economics in the GSA successfully organized the2020 Kyoto University & University of Göttingen Joint Graduate Workshop,
themed “Towards a Sustainable Future of Food, Agriculture and Rural Society,” on
26-28 February 2020. This was the second joint workshop between the two universities,
with the first one being held in Göttingen in December 2017. This time we received nine
participants from the University of Göttingen: Prof. Claudia Neu, Chair Professor of Rural
Sociology, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development and eight graduate students (four Master’s and four doctoral)
under Prof. Neu’s supervision.

The first day of the three-day workshop, February 26th, started with an hour-long campus tour followed by two lectures on agriculture and rural society in Japan mainly aimed at the participants from
Göttingen. The first lecture, entitled “Agri-food World in Japan: Present and Future,” was given by
Prof. Motoki Akitsu (GSA, Kyoto University), the key organizer of the workshop, where he provided
an overview of the current situation of Japan’s food and agriculture. Then the second lecture, entitled“Hybridizing Rurality,” was given by a guest speaker, Dr. Kiyohiko Sakamoto, Associate Professor at
the Faculty of Sociology, Ryukoku University. His lecture was intended to stimulate the participants
to redefine what is “rural” today by focusing on the concept of “hybridity.”
The second day, February 27th, was devoted to research presentations by graduate students from the two
universities. Seven postgraduate presentations were given, four by students from the University of Göttingen and three from Kyoto University. As can be seen from Workshop Program and Abstracts, the topics of the presentations were rather diverse, ranging from “new economic geography” to “social places,”from teikei movement to women on farms, but analysis from a gender perspective was shared by many ofthe presentations. Following the session of postgraduate presentations, a get-together was held for theparticipants to get to know each other better and exchange ideas.
The third and final day, February 28th, was spent on a field trip to local food and agricultural sites in thecities of Uji and Kyoto, which was attended by 16 of the workshop participants.
The first site was the Kyoto Prefecture Tea Industry Research Institute located in Uji City, where the participants were given an overview ofthe history and specific features of tea cultivation and processing in Uji. This was followed by a visit to a
farmers’ market named “Jinen & Ichiba” and then a visit to the Gekkeikan Sake Museum, both located in
the Fushimi Ward of Kyoto City. The visit to the Sake Museum, which ended with a tasting of three different types of sake, helped the participants to learn the past and present of Japanese sake making.
The outbreak of COVID-19 forced some last-minute changes to the program of the field trip. Overall,however, the workshop was a great success. It significantly helped the faculty and students of the two
universities to better understand each other and further develop and deepen the collaborative relationship between them. It was agreed during the workshop that the next or third joint workshop would beheld at the University of Göttingen in early December this year. It is to be hoped that the new coronavirus
pandemic will be contained by then.

Makoto Kuroda
Assistant Teaching Staff , Graduate School of Agriculture

Report from GSA

I

n the fall/winter semester of AY 2019-2020, the Division of Natural Resource Economics in the GSA organized one international collaborative course (worth one credit) and one non-credit special seminar as part of the Japan Gateway: Kyoto University
Top Global Program (JGP) . The former, held on December 10-13, was an intensive lecture
course, entitled “Rural Depopulation and Community Revitalization in East Asia: Issues
and Directions,” given by Dr. Yu-Hua Chen from National Taiwan University. The latter
was a JGP Special Seminar with Prof. Claudia Neu from the University of Göttingen, entitled “New Rurality? Reflection on Territoriality and Rural Life (Style).” The seminar washeld on February 21, immediately preceding the joint graduate workshop outlined above.

AGST Newsletter | Spring/Summer 2020

AGST Spotlight Interview
Dr. Sandra Schaal
Associate Professor
Dr. Habil., Strasbourg University, France+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

In February 2020, the Graduate School of Letters sent a student delegation to its European partners, Strasbourg University in France and Heidelberg University in Germany.
"Considering Gender and Sexual Minorities from a Transcultural Perspective" was the theme of the student delegation from
Kyoto University this year. The general purpose of this visit andespecially of two joined workshops, one at each partner, asks
students to engage with academic background talks about gender, subject positions, and sexual minorities, followed by anexchange of ideas with fellow students. Dr. Schaal is one of themembers of this program and a Project Professor of Japan Gateway: Kyoto University Top Global Program.

Q1: Please let us know how you became involved with
Kyoto University.
Dr. Sandra Schaal : After my Maitrise (Master) in Japanesestudies at INALCO (National Institute for Oriental Languages
and Civilizations) in Paris, I applied for the MEXT Postgraduate
Scholarship and came to Japan in Fall 1999 as a research student(kenkyūsei) at the Department of Sociology (Faculty of Letters)
at Kyoto University. Aware that most of the primary and secondary sources I needed for my research on the ‘Pitiful History
of Women Workers’ (jokō aishi) in prewar Japan were only
available in Japan, I took the entrance examination to the PhD
course in the same department in February 2001. I passed andbegan studying these women workers’ voices –– i.e. silk reelers
songs (itohiki uta) and oral testimonies of former female workers in silk reeling mills –– under the supervision of Prof. Emiko
Ochiai. I got my PhD degree in 2006, went back to France andstarted working at the Department of Japanese Studies at the
University of Strasbourg as a lecturer and then as an Associate
professor –– but I kept strong ties with my former professors at
Kyoto University. Since 2016, I am also a Project professor(tokunin kyōju 特任教授) of « The Asian Platform for Global
Sustainability & Transcultural
Studies (A.G.S.T.) » program(Japan Gateway: Kyoto University Top Global Program –J.P.G., Center for the Promotion of Interdisciplinary Education and Research).
Q2: What kind of academic and educational
exchanges with Kyoto University are you taking care of?
Dr. Sandra Schaal : I helped set up an International cooperation agreement on graduate student exchange between Kyoto
University (Graduate School of Letters) and the University ofStrasbourg (Faculty of Languages/Department of Japanese Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Faculty of Letters, Faculty of Historical Sciences), that was signed in 2018.

I am also taking care of a joint workshop held annually since2015 at the University of Strasbourg: "Skills for Transcultural
Studies II". The idea of this workshop in Strasbourg was initiated with Prof. Hirata Shôji, who was then the Dean of the Kyoto
University Graduate School of Letters. I co-organize it with
Björn-Ole Kamm, a senior lecturer and the coordinator of thejoint degree "Master in Transcultural Studies" program at Kyoto
and Heidelberg University.
Each year in February, the Kyoto University Graduate Schoolof Letters sends a student delegation to its partners in Europe, Heidelberg University
and the University of Strasbourg. As far as the Universityof Strasbourg is concerned, theJapanese students come together with researchers andfellow Master students of the
Department of Japanese Studies to hold a one-day joint workshop about a given topic of historical and contemporary concern. Joint degree students currently studying in Heidelberg arealso invited to join this workshop. The purpose is to engage
with academic background talks by senior researchers and to
exchange ideas with fellow students concerning cultural negotiation and transculturation. Japanese and French students acquire competence in writing, presenting, commenting and critiquing a paper that relates to the topic of the workshop: inpractice, they are asked to prepare readings in English and to
submit a script (in Japanese) and a PPT presentation file (inEnglish). On the day of the workshop, they present their workand discuss it with the other students. In the previous years,
topics included “Nationalism in the Era of Globalization” (2017),“Peace and Conflict in Asia and Europe” (2018), and"Environmental issues in Europe and Japan" (2019). Additionally, students also visit some local institutions (EU institutions),
the Strasbourg National Library and museums to gain
knowledge about the history of the University of Strasbourg,
French and Germany history, as well as to learn about current
affairs. More widely, we believe this allows students to deepen
their understanding about the dynamics of transculturality andcultural exchange in and between Asia and Europe.

Q3: Please let us know a little bit about your future
professional and academic perspective.
Dr. Sandra Schaal : I am currently finishing some editing work on a collective volume in French on body and gender in interwar Japan (the modan period) that will be released
at the end of this year.
I also intend to continue and extend my research on gendered discourses and representations in modern and contemporary Japan –– notably on the representations of women in cartoons of the interwar period, on lesbianism and female transvestism in modern times, but also on the #MeToo movement,
its variants and its consequences in Japan.

AGST Newsletter | Spring/Summer 2020

Björn‐Ole Kamm
Senior Lecturer,
Graduate School of Letters