Global Japanese Studies Workshop 2025
Visual Culture Studies: Topics and Methods

The Global Japanese Studies Workshop 2025 invited graduate students aiming to present their research internationally through conferences and journals to attend eight sessions dedicated to film media and art. Organized through the Global Japanese Studies alliance, the workshop welcomed Takuya Tsunoda (Assistant Professor, Columbia University; modern and contemporary media studies) and Rachel Saunders (Assistant Professor, Princeton University; Japanese medieval painting), who served as alternating instructors and delivered lectures on recent trends, debates, and methodologies in humanities research in the United States.

The eleven workshop participants included students from Waseda University’s Graduate School of Letters, Arts, and Sciences and Graduate School of International Culture and Communication Studies, as well as students from Columbia University studying in Japan at the time. Participants presented their own research and engaged in discussions across a range of topics, including literature, film, contemporary media, and art history.

The workshop also offered opportunities to expand academic networks. On December 18, the workshop was joined by Christina Laffin, Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia, and on the final day, January 15, participants attended a networking event for art history graduate students at Gakushuin University. These events highlighted the importance of sustaining spaces for ongoing global and interdisciplinary dialogue, an initiative we hope to continue in the coming years.

During the workshop period, Professors Tsunoda, Saunders, and Laffin also each delivered public lectures. Many workshop participants attended these events, which collectively represented a major outcome of the sustained, multifaceted learning that took place from December to January.

開催概要

Organizer: Ryusaku Tsunoda Center of Japanese Culture, Research Institute for Letters, Arts, and Sciences, Waseda University
Date/Time: Thursday, December 4, 2025 – Thursday, January 15, 2026; Mondays and Thursdays, 17:00–18:00 (8 sessions total)
Location: Meeting Room 10, Building 36; Meeting Room 5, Building 39, Toyama Campus, Waseda University