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Graduate School of Social Studies
The Graduate School of Social Studies offers degree programs aimed at probing, from a professional and humanistic perspective, the nature of changing society and inquiring what mankind should be.
Outline
About the Graduate School of Social Studies
Today, what mankind should be is on the verge of significant changes. These changes include globalization and informatization; regional conflicts and terrorism; alienation from work and unemployment; falling birthrates and aging populations; erosion of the family system; and changes in what education and character-building should be for future generations. These significant social changes are having a fundamental impact on what mankind should be.
Resolving those social problems that surround mankind while responding to these social changes calls for the humanization of social science. In other words, there is a need for social science that can comprehensively delve into social changes from the perspective of the human element. Moreover, there is a need to systematize social science in accordance with the intrinsic structural characteristics of the various activities that make up society, while dealing with each of these activities as specialists in resolving these issues. In response to these needs, the Graduate School of Social Studies was established to delve from the perspective of the human element into such issues as the various relationships between people and societies, issues related to social welfare, the mass media process as a self-understanding of society, the human relationship in industrial activities, and cultural and educational issues in character building. It is the aim of the Graduate School of Social Studies to become an important center of humanistic-oriented social science.
What is in needed more than ever in this day and age to boldly face these social changes and the changes in what mankind should be, are human resources with high-level and specialized skills. Ideally suited for times such as these when what mankind should be is undergoing fundamental changes, the Graduate School of Social Studies aims to develop human resources that have high-level specialized knowledge of social science, and an awareness of the world and humanity.
The Graduate School of Social Studies was established when it was separated from the Graduate School of Letters in April 2005. The Graduate School of Letters was established when the graduate schools of Doshisha University were newly launched in April 1950. Since its establishment, the Graduate School of Letters had been expanding the number of courses to keep pace with the increasing specialization and complexity of academic fields, eventually growing to a total of eleven courses. However, in order to achieve further development, it became necessary to carry out a restructuring and reorganization of the graduate school. At the same time, the Faculty of Social Studies was established by separating from the Faculty of Letters for the purpose of carrying forward new development befitting the times. These events presented an important opportunity for the Graduate School of Social Studies to also be established as an independent graduate school by separating itself from the Graduate School of Letters.
As its framework, the Graduate School of Social Studies follows Doshisha University’s philosophy of “freely carrying out studies centered around Christian principles and internationalism,” which has also been the longstanding objective of the Graduate School of Letters. Based on this philosophy, the Master’s Program of the Graduate School of Letters nurtures students to become highly-specialized human resources, and the Doctoral Program nurtures students to have the skills and knowledge that will enable them to carry out independent research activities.
Courses: (Social Welfare; Media Studies; Education; Sociology; Industrial Relations)
| Social Welfare Course |
The Social Welfare Course, established in April 1950 as Japan’s first Master’s Program for social welfare, has a long history and tradition. With the establishment of the Doctoral Program in 1986, it became able to offer a comprehensive education from the Faculty’s undergraduate program to the Graduate School’s Master’s Program and Doctoral Program. Providing a great depth of learning, the Social Welfare Course is dedicated to nurturing professional competencies, including high-level research capabilities and specialized expertise, and producing many researchers, highly-specialized professionals, and other such human resources.
» Features
- Entrance examinations are administered three times a year: in autumn in the month of September; in spring in February; and in November, when the entrance examination for international students is given. Many students who graduated from other universities, as well as adults who have taken the special selection entrance examination for full-time workers, are accepted for study in this course.
- In order to promote internationalization, the Social Welfare Course undertakes various activities, such as hosting international academic exchanges and annually inviting visiting professors from abroad.
- This course has set up a system of advisors who are available for giving advice and consultation on various matters related to research and studies from the time the students enrolls. In addition, a system was established to provide guidance by the faculty member in charge of the student’s subject for writing the master’s thesis. Furthermore, a system was set up to provide opportunities for students to present their master’s theses and receive critiques and advice from faculty members and all of their fellow graduate students. The Social Welfare Course also furnishes joint research rooms for its graduate students.
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| Media Studies Course |
| One of the causes leading up to Japan’s fall into fascism and the failure to stop the Asia-Pacific War was poor journalism. Learning from this mistake, the Media Studies Course was launched under the new university system in 1948. The Doctoral Program was established in 1998, enabling the Media Studies Course to become one of the central institutions of media studies in Japan. From now and into the future, this course will continue to pursue what form mass communication in the 21st century, including electronic media, should take and what it should be, and contribute to reforming the state of the media in Japan, and promote an education and research system capable of taking the lead internationally in both theories and practices. |
| Education Course |
| In two areas, educational culture and lifelong education, the Education Course focuses on the study of education as a cultural phenomenon that involves the building of one’s character from birth all the way to the end of one’s life. In particular, with regard to studies on education concerned with the role cultural exchange plays in character-building and the related issues that need to be addressed, it is a source of great pride that this discipline is found nowhere else in Japan. This course also has an impressive staff of teachers comprised of not only specialists in education studies, but also teachers who are engaged in education studies based on their respective fields of expertise, such as sociology, history, theology, and psychology. All of the teaching staff have spent between one and five years studying in various research institutions overseas. |
| Sociology Course |
| In order to realistically understand and analyze the turbulent and intricate global society, the Sociology Course focuses on delving into social studies taking a multi-layer approach from the three areas of the lifeworld, contemporary society, and international society and relationship. Another objective of this course is to develop professionals and researchers who will have practical research skills not only through cultivation of the ability to carry out theoretical and documental research, but also from the accumulation of experience acquired through international field work and social surveys. |
| Industrial Relations Course |
| The Industrial Relations Course, established in April 2003, is the newest course in the Graduate School of Social Studies. The objective of this course is to nurture students to become researchers of labor and employment studies. Amidst tremendous changes in the industrial society, this course focuses on such issues as the reform of corporate organizations, diversification of the employment system, increase in overseas development and the number of people going abroad to work due to globalization, worsening job hunting situation for new graduates, and increasing stress levels from work life. In this course, students develop the ability to research case studies and carry out statistical analysis at the levels of the workplace, company, and society to obtain firsthand information about labor and employment, as well as analyze real issues and study strategies producing solutions to these issues. |
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