Organized by the Global Japanese Studies Model Unit with the support of Waseda University’s Top Global University project (TGU), the French-Japanese symposium “Les maladies et leurs représentations” was held face-to-face on 12/13 January 2024. This was part of an academic exchange with the University of Strasbourg with Waseda inviting four researchers from the University of Strasbourg, plus the participation of two more remote speakers. From the University of Strasbourg, a total of 11 faculty members and graduate students took the stage. In addition to the speakers, a total of 34 people applied to attend the lecture.
The symposium was originally scheduled for 2020, but had to be postponed again and again due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and was finally realized after a three-year delay. We would like to thank everyone involved for their cooperation and support, especially the Sasakawa Japan-France Foundation, and all the speakers and audience members.
On 12 January, Section I “Théâtre et danse” (Chairperson: Shintaro Fujii) was held in the morning, followed by the keynote lecture “Nô et maladies” by Mikio Takemoto, Professor Emeritus of Waseda University, Section II “Culture” (Chairperson: Mikio Takemoto), Section III “Littérature et cinéma d’animation” in the afternoon, and on 13 January Section IV “Kabuki” (Chairperson: Ryuichi Kodama) in the morning, Section V “Littérature et culture françaises” (Chairperson: Odile Dussud), Section VI “Théâtre français” (Chairperson: Shintaro Fujii) in the afternoon.
The symposium was organized as a workshop with an emphasis on frank discussions. Following the presentations, there was a lively Q&A session and discussion, which went over the scheduled closing time by about an hour on both days.
The event was characterized by the use of Japanese, French and English as the working languages, whereas consecutive interpretation was limited to French-Japanese (Patrick de Vos, Professor Emeritus at the University of Tokyo; Kyoko Watanabe, Professor at Meiji University; and Shintaro Fujii) and contributed to more efficient use of time. It was fortunate that the venue, a multi-purpose lecture room in the basement of Building 26, accommodated 80 people and was suitable for intensive discussions. Another point of pride was the elimination of paper printouts such as flyers and resumes by distributing materials via the cloud. Participants were highly satisfied with the event and parted over drinks after the symposium, vowing to meet again.
A tri-lingual collection of reports in Japanese, French and English will be published before the end of the academic year.
(Written by Shintaro Fujii)
Event Details
Date and Time: January 12-13, 2024, 12 et 13 janvier 2024
Program (in French only)
Venue: Lecture Room, Basement 1F, Building 26, Waseda University, Salle polyvalente, 1er sous-sol, bâtiment 26, campus principal
Université Waseda, Tokyo
Audience: Open to public.
Participation: Free
