国際共生学部
国際共生学科 2023.04 開設 College of Global Engagement.

With over 25 years of experience in higher education, I have designed and supervised English and Business Communication programs that are designed to meet the unique needs of university students. I have also taught Academic English Language to students from over 30 countries. My teaching style is highly interactive. I encourage students to actively participate in class discussions and group activities, and I use task and project-based lessons to engage students and foster their critical-thinking skills. Having lived in eight countries, I have an infectious enthusiasm for international education and wish to instill this passion in my students.

Language and Society, Global Communication, and Diversity and Equality in Contemporary Literature are just a few of the thought-provoking courses that I relish teaching. My classes are often influenced by my professional and scholarly interests, including discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, cognitive linguistics, and educational technology. As a linguist and language enthusiast, I'm fascinated by the role language plays in every aspect of our lives, and I enjoy instilling this fascination within my students through interactive group discussions, team-based activities, and project-based learning. I'm excited to work with students who are motivated to investigate, understand, and respond to global topics and issues.

My teaching and research interests lie in subjects such as comparative constitutional law, human rights, customary law, and international development. Such interests are essentially anchored by my extensive experience as a practitioner at the Embassy of Japan in the United States of America and the United Nations Development Programme in Montenegro and Lao PDR. Drawing from this background, I am committed to providing students with opportunities of “learning to do” and “learning by doing.” Through the highly interactive and participatory courses that I teach, I hope to help students develop critical thinking skills and devise creative solutions for various global challenges and issues.

I am a specialist on Japanese society and religion and am also an expert on the culture of pilgrimage. I am profoundly interested in topics with regard to understanding human beings, including religion, the pursuit of wealth, and the culture of war. It is my humble wish to share enthusiastically the curiosities and intricacies of these topics with Kansai Gaidai students. My academic life is not compartmentalized; rather, my research pursuits and classroom activities are deeply intertwined. My non-academic passions include exercise, outdoor adventure sports, and coffee.

My research covers contemporary theatre productions, literature, and cultural studies with a focus on urban Asia. I have a diverse teaching background having previously taught in the U.S., South Korea, and Singapore before joining Kansai Gaidai in 2017. The interdisciplinary approach and rationale of my courses are aimed to encourage the students not only to consider the aesthetic and literary aspects of dramas and other types of fiction but also to see how artworks and socio-historical contexts reflect each other. My classroom is open to students who are keen to develop their intellectual passion and curiosity, and to enrich their cultural understanding.

I enjoy teaching my courses in the history of modern and contemporary Japan, film and history, Asian history, and world history. I carry out research on the history of travel in Asia and the Pacific, especially during the nineteenth century. I have published books and articles on topics related to global history, travel, and film and history. My classes are highly interactive, with student group discussions a central element of every session. I always look forward to welcoming students in my classes who are ready to engage with ideas and pose thoughtful questions.