Humanities and the Human Sciences – Japanese Society and Global Culture

What invisible forces are driving societies and the world ?
How do we build and belong to communities,cultures,nations and the woeld ?
How does the present relate to the past ?
What makes humans human ?

Students taking classes in this concentration will study a wide range of topics and issues that set out to answer these four core questions.

Topics include: migration; the formation of individual and group identities; the creation and maintenance of communities and social networks; new forms of communication and civil action; the development of cultural systems and concepts of nation; the emergence of global youth cultures and global identities; the influence of new media and regional collectives; the breakdown of class systems and new divisions in global society; the influence of technology on individuals and their collectives; the psychological power of visible and invisible borders; the roots of ethnic and religious conflict; the power of symbols in society and everyday life; the construction of the Japanese past and present.