UTokyo Global Unit Courses

Media in Japan and the World
(online, synchronous)

Hi. My name is Kaori Hayashi, written 林香里 in Chinese characters. After working as a journalist at Reuters in the early 1990s, I began investigating the Japanese media and journalism in a global context. As one of the few female professors on campus (less than 10% of the entire faculty), I belong to the absolute minority group in the UTokyo community. I am a strong advocate for gender justice and am constantly challenging gender biases and stereotypes. In the course I teach, I will focus on both the changing and unchanging aspects of journalism in this volatile digitized age and hope to think together with you about their implications for social justice and democracy from a comparative perspective. I am looking forward to having productive discussions with all of you!

Prof. Kaori Hayashi

Law in Transnational East Asia
(online, synchronous)

Tokyo is one of the best places in the world to study East Asian cultures and societies.  My area of expertise is in the Legal History and Comparative Law involving East Asian societies. After completing my LL.B. in Tokyo and D.Phil. in Oxford, I have held research and teaching posts in Columbia Law School, Hong Kong University, the National University of Singapore, and Yale University.  The GUC provides a wonderful opportunity for students with diverse backgrounds to come together, and to learn from each other. I am excited to participate again this year, to learn from the vibrant exchanges myself, and to begin a long-term exchange of ideas and experiences.

Prof. Kentaro Matsubara

Writings About Japan--Analyzing Cultural Representations, From Orientalism to Artificial Intelligence
(on-demand, nonsynchronous)

I am a cultural studies scholar whose focus is on United States-Japan relations. As the Director of International Education Support Office, I am also passionate about promoting international student exchanges, even amidst the pandemic, and that is why I am teaching this on-demand/online course. It focuses on how Japan has been portrayed in various media (written texts, films, artificial intelligence) throughout the last 150 years to understand the dynamics of cultural representations. I taught this course last year and had a wonderful time talking to students from all over the world. I look forward to doing the same with you!

Prof. Yujin Yaguchi

Group Theory and Its Applications--Introduction to Beautiful Modern Mathematics
(online, synchronous)

I am a Professor of Kavli Institute for Mathematics and the Physics of the Universe (IPMU) I am interested in Algebraic Geometry which are related with Superstring theory. I am also interested in mathematical education and have organized Exhibitions "Mathematics Museum" several times. Recently I wrote a book "Introduction to Beautiful Mathematics" in Japanese and I would like to show you a part of the book on some traditional Japanese culture and mathematics in this lecture. Moreover, I will talk on recent research on Algebraic Geometry, for example, McKay correspondence which was studied well in UK , Europe and Japan.

Prof. Yukari Ito

Nanoscience
(online, synchronous)

How are you reading my message? With a laptop? a tablet or a smartphone? None of them would have been possible in the present form as you use them today without the development of nanoscience and nanotechnology. Nanoscience and nanotechnology are also revolutionizing some medical care. Drug delivery is one of the examples. As such, nanoscience and nanotechnology are enabling our daily life and will make future life better. In this course, we will guide you to the “nanoworld” through a series of lectures on nanoscience and nanotechnology in diverse fields including physics and electronics, biomedicine, and bioengineering. We will also learn the fundamentals of rapidly-growing quantum computing technology from a researcher in the industry.
Why not go on an adventure to the “nanoworld” this summer?

Prof. Satoshi Iwamoto

Sustainable Urban Management
(online, synchronous)

I'm Kiyo, who coordinates this course. My specialty is environmental engineering, especially about people-side acceptance of environmental measures, fostering pro-environmental behaviors to build a low-carbon society, and effects of climate-change adaptation on people's quality of life. It is our responsibility to build a sustainable society. In this course, you will learn approaches for the formation of a sustainable society from the fields of urban engineering, architecture, and civil engineering.

Assoc. Prof. Kiyo Kurisu

Early Language Acquisition--How Human Infants Learn Language Within Their Social Environment
(online, synchronous)

My research investigates the mechanisms behind young children’s amazing capacity to acquire language fast and efficiently in diverse environments. 
Language acquisition is both potent and fragile: Normally developing babies learn language at a speed unrivaled by machines, but early adversity can dramatically affect early acquisition. Understanding the mechanisms behind their learning is of high societal relevance, since early language skills are the single best predictor for later academic success. Drawing on observational, experimental, and interventional methods, I focus on the role of the linguistic environment and social context for advancing learning.

Asst. Prof. Sho Tsuji

AI and Social Justice
(online, synchronous)

My teaching and research at the University of Tokyo has been motivated on the inclusion of minorities in society, whether the marginalization is due to their race, class, gender, linguistic ability or otherwise. I am very excited to be thinking about artificial intelligence with the GUC participants, particularly about how this technology can be examined using the lens of social justice. By welcoming students from various parts of the world, I believe we will be able to see just how varied our understandings are when it comes to our concerns about AI and how it can be used for social justice. 

Prof. Yuko Itatsu