From the Dean
Dean’s Message
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MORIMOTO, Mariko |
The Graduate School of International Culture and Communication Studies (GSICCS) is a diverse academic community where students and faculty from different cultural, academic, professional, and personal backgrounds come together to explore a wide range of questions and perspectives. Our faculty work across many different fields, including language, politics, sociology, psychology, law, literature, and other areas. What connects these diverse fields is communication. Communication is the backbone of our program.
Education in English at GSICCS goes beyond internationalization or globalization. It provides opportunities to engage with ideas, perspectives, and people across cultural and disciplinary boundaries. We hope that our students will take full advantage of this environment, not only to deepen their own areas of expertise, but also to explore questions and approaches that may be very different from those they have encountered before.
Graduate study is not a passive experience. We encourage our students to take the initiative, talk to people, reach out to faculty beyond their immediate research interests, and step outside their comfort zones, both intellectually and personally. Do not simply follow what someone else is doing, including your professors. Find the questions that truly interest you and make them your own.
Graduate study will not always go exactly as planned. Research involves uncertainty, unexpected difficulties, and sometimes changes in direction. Learning to think independently and find your own solutions is an important part of the process, while knowing when to seek advice is equally important.
I hope that your time at GSICCS will challenge you to think in new ways, help you develop your own research interests, and allow you to become part of an intellectually diverse community. The possibilities are endless as long as you are willing to explore them.