The Department of Media and Culture Studies will launch in 2018 with the merging of the Departments of Humanistic Informatics and Twentieth Century Studies. We will introduce the concept behind and the purpose of this Department below.

We live in the information age, where every corner of the world is increasingly connected via various new types of media. Each of us, whether wealthy or poor, has access to a staggering amount of media content, which is disseminated at lower costs and greater speeds than ever before. New cultures and information travel around the world in a shorter period, and new and old cultures interact with each other, crossing borders and resulting in the formation of new cultures, new senses of values, and new ways of life. Meanwhile, traditional cultural, institutional, and political systems coexist with the newer ones. In this globalized information society, we experience political and cultural conflicts over social norms or the understanding of history.

In the course of study at our Department, you will explore the abovementioned issues characteristic of the present-day world, while focusing on historical context as well. We employ new methodologies such as media studies and informatics in addition to more conventional methods used in the humanities or social sciences.

A major characteristic of our Department is that we cover new media, such as audiovisual materials, comics, animation, blogs, and SNSs, alongside written materials, which the humanities and social sciences have traditionally examined. Our Department will offer courses on manga and animation studies, image studies, and humanistic informatics, in addition to those on history, literature, sociology and philosophy.

At our Media and Culture Studies Department, you can develop the skills necessary to analyze a wide range of contemporary society’s problems and phenomena by means of the newest methodologies, and obtain the highly specialized knowledge required by present-day society. The skills and knowledge we offer will prepare you for a career in a range of fields, including media, the IT sector, the educational sector, and public services and administration.

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