Overview

This seminar aims to explore and examine our intercultural communication from a critical perspective.

Culture, a widely used but perhaps little understood term, is in fact influenced by economic and political issues which create unequal relations of power between peoples. Since dominant discourses often lack comprehensive understanding of the politics and power relations behind culture and language, a hegemonic relationship can emerge between people who engage in intercultural communication as a result of cultural differences being over- or under-emphasized. Therefore, it is imperative that we understand the politics at work in an intercultural context and develop critical literacy.

We will examine intercultural communication throughout reading and discussing a book or some articles. Students will also conduct a research/project on related topics to assigned literature or graduate thesis.

Members

Graduation Project / Master Thesis

Project

[2023 Spring Semester] Collaborative Project with San José State University in the United States

We conducted a five-week online collaborative learning program in April in collaboration with students from the “Local and Minority Cultures of Japan” course at San José State University.

 

Members from “多言語多文化共生社会と日本語” seminar and “Intercultural Communication: A critical perspective” seminar participated,  exchanged opinions from various angles using both English and Japanese.　

Specifically,  in order to relate with the Zainichi Korean community, we watched the TV show Pachinko (based on the novel by Min Jin Lee) and engaged in discussions. Then, we created posters representing the content of the show in groups and shared our comments while appreciating them.

Student project

• A video on findings and thoughts on research done through the seminar.
• A workshop for creating a space where diversity is visible at SFC