Historical and spatial examination of networks in Asia

東アジアをめぐるネットワークの歴史的・空間的考察

We are delighted to receive funding for our project beginning with the academic year 2012-13, which is extended for the academic year 2013-14.

Participants:

北條勝貴 (文学部史学科): 東アジアの自然環境をめぐる情報のネットワーク

飯島真里子 (外国語学部英語学科): 日本帝国勢力圏内外をめぐるネットワーク

Bettina Gramlich-Oka (国際教養学部国際教養学科): 近世の政治的なネットワーク

Our aim:

The collaborative project’s objective is the analyses of cross-cultural and cross-temporal networks. This collaborative project is the endeavor, where we, three historians from different subfields (intellectual history and history of environment and migration), will engage in network analysis. We will apply tools, still new to the field of history, for our individual research. Our analysis will generate a new set of questions that will broaden our dealing primarily with written texts. In the end, we expect our research to become a model for other historians.

Reacting to the Past: New Approaches to Critical Thinking and Japanese History

We are delighted to receive funding for our project beginning with the academic year 2012-13, which is extended for 2013-14.

(for report, click here)

Participants: James McKinley (FLA), Mathew Thompson (FLA), Gramlich-Oka

Aim:

To contribute to educational innovation by introducing the “Reacting to the Past” (RTTP) program to Sophia University and to Liberal Arts Education in Japan as a whole. RTTP is an innovative approach to Liberal Arts Education consisting of interactive classroom activities that promote student engagement in big ideas and improve critical thinking skills.
To test the use of RTTP materials that are currently available in a classroom environment at Sophia, with the goal of making RTTP an integral part of the core program in the FLA.
To develop and test a set of RTTP-style materials that explore important moments in Japanese history (e.g. the arrival of Commodore Perry and the Akō incident) for use in the FLA core, history, and literature programs.
To publish a series of RTTP textbooks and manuals that will make the RTTP method widely available for use in classes relating to Japanese history or critical thinking not only at Sophia but other Japanese and Western universities as well.