Faculty

English and American Literature
Medieval English Literature, Celtic Literature, J.R.R. Tolkien

My research has focused on aspects of fairy lore discerned in medieval romance, Celtic literature and folklore, and in the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. For the past few years, I have been studying Tolkien’s unpublished manuscripts in order to shed light on the idea of Tolkien as a Celticist.

German Literature
Film, Media

My actual research focus is on the aesthetic interdependence of Japanese and Western film, especially the work of Yasujirô Ozu. Other research interests include the visualisation of time in film (slow motion and time lapse). My theoretical background is the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl, the works of Walter Benjamin, and comparative aesthetics.

English and American Literature
Nineteenth-Century American Literature and Culture

I have mainly studied Mark Twain (1835–1910), one of the greatest American realist writers. My current research project focuses on sensationalism and expansionism in the works of Antebellum writers, especially George Lippard (1822–1854).

English and American Literature
History of English and Historical Linguistics

My main areas of research are the history of English and the mechanism of language change with special attention to the questions of how and why language changes. Questions have never ceased to arise since I first addressed the matter of the nominal plural -s in English several years ago. My recent research questions include the history of English spelling and the historical development of "diatonic" stress alternation (such as REcord for noun and reCORD for verb).

Japanese History
Modern Japanese Economic and Business History, Economic History of the Japanese Colonies, Historical Economics

The market, which is based on various institutions and systems such as exchanges and legal regulations, forms prices and allocates goods and services. This study conducts a qualitative examination of historical materials pertaining to fundamental institutions and systems. Additionally, it employs quantitative analysis on high-frequency trade data to capture historical changes in the function and operating conditions of the market in the Japanese Empire during the modern period. By dynamically investigating the role of the market from a historical perspective, this study aims to acquire knowledge that can enhance our understanding of market function and contribute to its improvement.

Education Studies
Theory of Human Formation, History of Educational Thought

I have a particular interest in the following issues:
1. Aesthetic experiences and formative (human developmental) issues
1.1 A historical ideological interest in the practice and theory of late-19th and 20th century German art and music education.
1.2 Theory in order to aptly describe aesthetic experiences as well as Ernst Cassirer's philosophy of symbolic forms and modern and contemporary German humanism.

2. A history of modern and contemporary German educational thought, especially research into the thought behind the concept of Bildung.

3. A search for the meaning and conditions of becoming an adult in modern-day Japan.

Chinese Literature
Modern Chinese Literature

My research interests focus on gender and sexuality in modern Chinese literature, particularly female author Ding Ling and Lu Yin.

Library and Information Science
Library and Information Science

In Japan, there are nearly 3,300 public libraries, established and managed by local governments. Although laws regulate the basic functions of public libraries, the quality and quantity of services depends substantially on the commitment of local governments and residents. I therefore studied the administration and management of these public libraries. In particular, I adopted an interdisciplinary approach to examine the interaction between the external environment and the public libraries. I aim to explore the possibility of public libraries existing as centers for community knowledge.

Sociology
Cultural Anthropology, East Asian Studies

Anthropological studies on folk belief and cosmology. Studies on historical recognition and social construction by the people who were colonized by the Japanese Empire. Studies on migration and globalization.
Main fields: Taiwan, Mainland China, Palau, Korea, Ryukyu and Amami islands, and Chinese immigrant societies in Southeast Asia, in particular Vietnam.

Archaeology and Ethnology
Archaeology of West Asia and South Asia, Prehistoric Archaeology, Archaeological Theory, Interdisciplinary Studies of Pottery

My research interests are in the prehistoric archaeology of West Asia and South Asia. In particular, I am interested in the period from the emergence of farming and pastoralism to urbanization and civilization. During this period, humans continued to search for various “shapes” of societies, entangled with various things and people from various regions. Drawing on artifacts, I seek to reconsider the social transformation during this period. I am eager to conduct interdisciplinary research collaborating with various natural science fields to extract as much information as possible from artifacts. I also attempt to broaden perspectives on the history of humankind through artifacts drawing attention to recent trends in philosophy and cultural anthropology. Following these policies, I am conducting excavations and surveys of archaeological sites in Iran, Iraqi Kurdistan, Oman, and Pakistan.

Psychology
Psycholinguistics, Developmental Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience

The main focus of my research is language acquisition, the development of social cognition, and their neuronal correlates from the neonatal period to adolescence. Currently, we are also performing a longitudinal study of infants to find an early predictor of developmental disabilities by measuring brain responses and various behavioral markers such as eye and body movement.

Philosophy
Philosophy of Language, Logic, Semantics and Pragmatics

My main research areas are in the philosophy of language, logic, semantics and pragmatics. Specifically, I am interested in building formal and computational models of how natural language understanding works using theoretical tools developed in linguistics, logic, computer science and cognitive science.

French Literature
Modern and Contemporary French Literature (Jean Genet）

Researching the influence of the unique forms of punishment that emerged in 19th century France, including isolation cells and penal colonies, on modern authors, especially Jean Genet. Other themes include “faits divers”, return, confession, and description.

Library and Information Science
Library and information science

Recently my research interests are in exploring the formalization process of academic disciplines both quantitatively and qualitatively using library and information science as an example. I am also engaged in collaborative research about media usage and the web.

Ethics
Contemporary French Thought(esp.Emmanuel Levinas), Existential and Religious Thought

I am considering Levinas's thought in terms of a possible connection between morality and humanity(human way of life). I am especially interested in how some existential problems concerning human singularity and unicity are discussed in relation to the topics originated in religious thoughts.

Aesthetics and Science of Arts
Western Art History, Art Theory

The focus of my research is twofold: (1) to analyze early modern art and art theory in France concerning the art of Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) in particular, and (2) to analyze the establishment and transformation of artistic theory at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in the latter half of the 17th century, a theory which commended the works of Poussin as a canon. My study considers the relationship between factors related to Poussin such as his theory of production, his works and their acceptance, discourses on works and painters, social contexts, and art collections.

Sociology
Sociological Theories, Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Sociology of Culture, Sociology of Knowledge, and World Society Studies

My research interests have recently grown toward the following topics: 1) Studies on a post-poietic paradigm: Since Plato and Aristotle, three tenets of western philosophy have been the understanding of human action as production (poiesis), of beings as products, and of time (past, present, future) as a continuum without a qualitative break. Sociological thinking is not free of this epistemological tradition, and almost all sociological theories of action regard the meaning of human action as being parallel to the meaning of products. The post-poietic paradigm attempts to relativize this epistemological tradition and open a new horizon of sociological thinking; 2) Sociology of forgiveness and reconciliation; 3) Democracy and authoritarian regimes in the world society.

Foreign Languages
Spanish Art History

My research focuses on the Golden Age of painting in Spain. I am mainly interested in the works called “bodegones” from Velázquez’s formative years in Seville and trying to clarify the relationship of the origins of naturalism in Seville around 1600 and the entirely original works of Velázquez. My research interests also include: the art theory and the picture collecting in the first half of the 17th century Spain.

Archaeology and Ethnology
Geoarchaeology, Historical and Museum Anthropology in Oceania

I have been concerned with geoarchaeological studies of Oceania and the Yaeyama Islands, Japan, to disentangle dynamic interactions between two agencies, natural and human, in the island landscape. My research project of Pukapuka Atoll, Nothern Cooks, is now in progress. I'm also interested in historical and museum anthropology of the Oceanic arts collected in the colonial period from the mid-18th century to the early 20th century.

Education Studies
History of Japanese Education, History of Adult and Social Education

My research interest is the history of modern Japanese education, focusing on the relationship between education and reading activities. I am also interested in the historical transition of cooperation between school, home, and local communities.

Western History
Modern Spanish (Catalan) History

My current research theme covers the silk industry of Barcelona from the second half of the 18th century to the first half of the 19th century, in particular, the silk-stocking trade of that period. Through the systematic studies of historical documents such as testaments, inventories post-mortem and marriage settlements of such craftsmen and of their wives and widows, I seek to shed light on the changes to their lives and labor on the eve of the industrialization: how their working styles and family structures changed, how their lifestyle culture and mentality changed, and how they tried to survive that period of transformation.

Chinese Literature
Chinese Classic Literature

My main areas of research are Chinese classical literature. I study the reception of media mixing in the classical literary arts. I particularly aim to clarify the process of how the history of Sanguozhi, commonly known in English as the Three Kingdoms, was novelized from many folk stories (including stories from modern Japanese subculture).

German Literature
Modern German Literature and Culture Studies

Literature and culture research develop in tandem with one another. I take this position and apply the social theories of cultural studies and Bourdieu to observe modern and contemporary German literature, with a focus on the relationships between culture, society, and media. I have a particular interest in the pivotal years of 1945 and 1989.

English and American Literature
Philosophy and Literature in Eighteenth-Century Britain, Global Intellectual History, Hume Studies

Yusuke Wakazawa is an intellectual historian of eighteenth-century Britain, chiefly of the Scottish Enlightenment, trained in Philosophy and English. He is particularly interested in David Hume as a distinctive man of letters, and discusses him along with representative figures of eighteenth-century literature including James Boswell and Tobias Smollett. He has studied and researched in three countries: the UK (Royal Holloway, University of London and the University of York), the US (New York University), and Japan (Keio University and the University of Tokyo). In 2019, he completed his JASSO-funded doctorate in the Department of English and Related Literature at the University of York. His current project aims to trace the intellectual genealogy of the Addisonian model of philosophy and conversation in the long eighteenth century. Prior to this job appointment at Keio University, he was a J. D. Fleeman Fellow at the University of St Andrews (2020) and an EAA Project Research Fellow at the University of Tokyo (2020-21).

Library and Information Science
Library and Information Science

My research interests are in the relationship between public libraries and social minorities. So far, my research has mainly adopted qualitative methods such as interviews and observational surveys. I aim to study the current state and future direction of public libraries from various aspects, including institutions, library staff, and users.