The targeted areas of this project research are issues in society, culture and politics in Southeast Asia. By participating this project research, students are expected to find their own topic of research among these issues, and also to learn research methods. Based on the research method students are going to conduct a research on their topic and write a persuasive MA thesis.
Prof. Murashima, who supervises this project research, is specialized in the contemporary history of Thailand and is also concerned with social phenomena in East and Southeast Asia. Apart from extensive research works on contemporary Thailand, he has also studied, for example, the relationship between Overseas Chinese and Mainland China, international relations among Indochinese nations, and Thailand-Japan relationship. He has researched in Thailand a number of times, and also in archives around the world, in such countries as Japan, Britain, the United States, and Taiwan.
In the past five years this project research had overseas students from Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia and Cambodia, as well as Japanese students. Topics of their MA thesis varied, for example those who studied Thailand selected such topics as roles of NGOs, ethnic minorities and politics, environmental public policies, the influence of Japanese popular culture, educational reform, and foreign policies towards Indochinese nations. On Malaysia, there were such topics as ethnic Chinese and Islamic party; on Cambodia there were theses on the legal service system and the Cambodia-Thailand relationship; and on Singapore there was one on international education. Apart from these examples, there were some theses based on research in Japan, for instance, the religious views and activities of Thai wives married with Japanese men, occupations of Thai residents in Japan, and cultural exchanges between Japan and Southeast Asia through Buddhism.
First of all, students in this project research learn the method of writing an academic paper and research method, and make a research proposal. Next, they conduct a field research, and lastly they write an MA thesis. The research for an MA thesis includes interviewing concerned people in a government office or a certain organization, conducting a survey, and collecting primary written materials kept by archives or individual persons. Certain research topics will require a skill of regional languages in Southeast Asia and Chinese, in addition to Japanese and English, in one of which languages a thesis will be written. At this graduate school there are seminars to assist reading materials in Thai, Indonesian and Vietnamese.
In the first year participants of this project research are encouraged to attend the lecture, "Politics, society and culture in Southeast Asia" by Prof. Murashima. Through this lecture students explore the latest stage of studies on Southeast Asia and find their method of research. At the same time, they start reviewing existing studies on their concerned topics and by doing so they should clarify their perspective and create their own theoretical framework. Those who need to master a regional language should also start studying it in the first year.
From the second semester of the first year, students begin attending a regional language school, along with conducting a preliminary research, such as doing interviews and collecting materials at a university library or government office. Before the end of the first year, they have to make a concrete research proposal and report it at the project research.
In the second year, students pursue their research further, present their work at the project research several times, and finally complete their work as an MA thesis.
Since the supervisor of this project research understands that their MA studies will be the first time for most students to conduct research and to write an academic paper, he will always be readily available to advise them.
