Applied Humanities
in the Ph.D. Sub-Program for Literature at Tsukuba University (Japan)
Starting April 2020, the new Tsukuba University Ph.D. Sub-Program in Literature will offer the unique field of "Applied Humanities" to support and diversify literary studies.
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The 3 strong elements of
"Applied Humanities" |
Our world is changing on a quicker pace than ever. Nobody knows what it will look like in ten or twenty years. That certainly scares many, but it is also a great chance for new ideas, projects and developments, and for people who embrace the challenges of the future and present to create their own lives and to contribute to this changing world.
Japan is facing her specific difficulties: the biggest is her rapidly aging society and the dwindling of younger generations. A concomitant to that is Japan's continuing deficiency in communicating in English-based professional global settings and the political failure to see the important role of the humanities to vividly recreate Japanese society and to envisage a bright future on new terms. In these times, Japan is more than ever dependent on the inspiring intellectual creativity that has always been the core of humanities studies.
"Applied Humanities" regards the study of literature as the ideal way to understand the "human": human intelligence, endeavors, aspirations and emotions, human modes of communication, thought patterns and negotiation skills, human techniques of survival and resiliency.
"Applied Humanities" as an integrated part of Tsukuba University's Ph.D. Sub-Program in Literature offers our students the possibility to freely study a diversified spectrum of world literature (and an abundant choice of interdisciplinary approaches in co-operation with other departments) while at the same time perfecting their proficiency in English and developing creative skills and analytical techniques so important not only for a university career and the highly diversified market for jobs and self-employment in Japan and abroad. These skills and techniques are what societies throughout the world (including Japan) build on to enhance our shared possibilities of resiliency, to improve the level of life-styles in our changing world and to face our biggest challenges: climate change and a rapidly increasing world population.
Japan is facing her specific difficulties: the biggest is her rapidly aging society and the dwindling of younger generations. A concomitant to that is Japan's continuing deficiency in communicating in English-based professional global settings and the political failure to see the important role of the humanities to vividly recreate Japanese society and to envisage a bright future on new terms. In these times, Japan is more than ever dependent on the inspiring intellectual creativity that has always been the core of humanities studies.
"Applied Humanities" regards the study of literature as the ideal way to understand the "human": human intelligence, endeavors, aspirations and emotions, human modes of communication, thought patterns and negotiation skills, human techniques of survival and resiliency.
"Applied Humanities" as an integrated part of Tsukuba University's Ph.D. Sub-Program in Literature offers our students the possibility to freely study a diversified spectrum of world literature (and an abundant choice of interdisciplinary approaches in co-operation with other departments) while at the same time perfecting their proficiency in English and developing creative skills and analytical techniques so important not only for a university career and the highly diversified market for jobs and self-employment in Japan and abroad. These skills and techniques are what societies throughout the world (including Japan) build on to enhance our shared possibilities of resiliency, to improve the level of life-styles in our changing world and to face our biggest challenges: climate change and a rapidly increasing world population.