MIIS welcomes back GSIPS professor Tsuneo Akaha, who has been teaching in Japan for the summer and fall semester. We thought you would all be interested in his activities:
- Tsuneo taught an MA seminar at Waseda University in Tokyo in the fall of 2008. The topic was Asian Regional Integration, a very hot topic in the region. His experience in the seminar included serving not only as the instructor but also as an interpreter for two of the students. One was a Nepalese student with fairly advanced English language skills (despite the fact that he never used English until he enrolled at Waseda) but little or no Japanese language, and the other was a Chinese student with highly developed Japanese language proficiency but very limited spoken English. Hence, when either of them gave their presentations or spoke up in class, Tsuneo served as their interpreter.
- Tsuneo coordinated a Summer School on Asian Regional Integration at Waseda University’s Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies (GSAPS) in August 2008. The program included mostly MA students and several BA students from Peking University, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Seoul National University, and Waseda University. The group traveled to Shanghai, Tokyo, and Seoul for five days each, taking courses together, discussing Asian integration issues, and doing site visits to government agencies, corporate headquarters, and cultural sites. Among the participants was a MIIS student, Sean Keith, who is our first exchange student studying at Waseda. The program provided an excellent opportunity for the students from the three countries to learn about the national perspectives on regional issues and discuss the challenges to regional cooperation. As history continues to weigh heavily on the national perspectives — mostly negatively — this program was particularly valuable to the young students who will no doubt become future leaders in their respective countries. This program offers a possible model for MIIS (and Middlebury?).
- Tsuneo participated in a Summer Institute at GSAPS, also in August 2008, as one of the invited lecturers. This program was composed of PhD students selected from around the world who are interested in Asian regional integration. Among the countries represented in the group were Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Russia, and Ukraine. In addition to the lecturers, the students gave and discussed presentations on their research. During the Institute, each student was assigned a local (Waseda University) faculty member as his/her advisor to improve his/her paper. Tsuneo has been appointed to serve as editor of a book that is now being prepared, which is a compilation of some of the best papers presented at the Summer Institute and revised subsequently. The disciplines represented in the papers are history, political science, economics, sociology, and cultural studies. This program also offers a possible model for a MIIS (and Middlebury?) student publication.