In this richly-illustrated lecture, I discuss two collaborative partnerships in which I have been involved with historically marginalized, Indigenous communities in both the Himalayan region and in Native North America who are working to preserve and revitalize their languages. Through the presentation, I explore these three words: Collect, Protect, Connect.

Zoom Webinar
Friday, 4 April, 13:00–14:30 JST

Using the example of Sophia, the first humanoid robot to be granted citizenship in 2017, I will suggest that these strange machines occupy a sensitive place in our societies by taking on the role of messianic machines (machines that announce the coming of other machines), metaphysical machines (machines that force us to ask fundamental metaphysical questions such as knowing who is human or who is alive) and conjuring machines (machines that help to fight against the fear of dangerous machines).

Zoom Webinar
Wednesday, April 9, 2025 JST 15:00-16:30 JST

The “Black Death” refers to the peak of the second plague pandemic, which spread across Europe from 1347. It remains the greatest demographic catastrophe in history. Today, interdisciplinary research—combining funerary archaeology, anthropology, microbiology, and environmental sciences—has transformed our approaches to it. Advances from DNA analysis to climate studies have contributed to a new understanding. Yet, the challenge remains: how to write a global history of a long-term event on a global scale?

Zoom Webinar
Wednesday, 16 April, 10:00–11:30 JST

Texts travel across continents and cultures, translated from every language, taught in universities worldwide, and forming an emerging global canon. Never before have we been so free to read whatever we wish, from anywhere. Or so it seems. But is this true freedom, or merely a comforting illusion? What are the boundaries of this seemingly limitless literary exchange? This talk aims to explore those limits and propose a new approach to literature.

Zoom Webinar
Thursday, 8 May, 10:30–12:00 JST

On a crisp and windy Tuesday morning in mid-February, members of the Heritage Studies and Global History Groups based at Tokyo College, together with a small contingent of associated academic visitors, visited Yoshimi Hyakuana in Saitama Prefecture. We were fortunate to visit this extraordinary site with Korea University Professor Jung-Sun Nina Han...

Mark TURIN, Andrew GORDON
March 4, 2025

This blog post was created as part of the interdisciplinary zengaku seminar "Knowledge Encounters in Global History and the Contemporary World" offered at the University of Tokyo during the 2023-2024 academic year.

KAWASAKI Takehiro
December 20, 2024

Tokyo College is an organization like no other. Founded in 2019 to serve as an interface between the University of Tokyo and overseas researchers and research institutions, our core philosophy centers around the “Joy of Discovery and Power of Knowledge.”