Admission requirements
This course is only accessible for BA Japanstudies students. Students must have successfully completed all courses from BA1, 10 EC in BA2 seminars and the course Texts IIb.
Admission to this seminar happens only through this application form.
Description
CONTENT COMPONENT DESCRIPTION
Post war Japanese international relations have been mired in contradictions. While identifying itself as “the only victim of the atomic bomb,” it secures itself under the U.S. nuclear umbrella, thereby indirectly threatening any potential attackers with the promise of retaliation by nuclear strike. The emphasis on victimhood in turn effaces the existence of Japan’s “Other” who suffered under the Japanese imperial endeavours—which manifests as the persistence of Japan’s history problem. The pacifism enshrined in Article 9 of the post war constitution is operationalized by stationing more than seventy percent of U.S. troops in the prefecture of Okinawa against the Okinawan democratic will. In this sense, post war Japanese “peace” has been possible because of the violent peace maintained by U.S. global military security apparatus. In this seminar we consider how these contradictions manifest in various forms. As a combination of content and language component students are asked to critically engage with academic texts on the vexed relation between war and peace.
TEXT COMPONENT DESCRIPTION
When you read an academic book or article, written in English or in your native language, which consists of ten's or even hundreds of pages, you do not try to comprehend its contents by going through the text sentence by sentence, chewing on each separate word with a dictionary at hand. Somehow you have learned to go through the text in a cursory way, you select the most relevant passages and you intuitively decide to skip those parts of the text that seem less relevant. Still, you manage to understand the purport of the author's argumentation. The aim of the text component of this seminar is to develop skills that will allow you to accomplish the same in the case of academic texts written in Japanese. Academic texts are essays in which the author posits a research question or a specific aim which, through presenting arguments, examples, data etcetera will lead to certain conclusions. Such a line of reasoning is put into a certain structure, which often consists of an introduction, followed by a number of sections, and concluded by a review of the results (i.e. the conclusions). In order to develop the reading skills necessary to decipher these elements, we will read six or seven academic texts in Japanese on topics that also will be discussed during the lessons of the content component by Dr. Koyama Hitomi.
Course objectives
The BA3 seminars in the Japanese Studies programme prepare students to conduct academic research within their chosen discipline in the humanities and the social sciences.
To achieve this goal, students will learn to identify and apply key concepts and analytical methods from their discipline as well as to use both Japanese and English (primary and secondary) sources critically within their own research projects.
Content component: 1. To be able to identify the broader academic discourse within which “Japan” is used as a case to support or challenge the preexisting paradigms (i.e., on the relation between peace, force, and stability). 2. To further critical reading skills and writing skills through the written assignments. 3. To enhance oral presentation skills by leading one seminar with a clear articulation of the context and stake in examining a particular text of the student’s choosing.
Language component: 1. To develop skills in how to approach texts that are too long and difficult to read and translate them line by line. 2. To develop skills in cursory reading which in effect means that you will learn to distinguish those parts of a text that require close reading versus those parts of a text that can be skipped without the risk of losing control over the text. 3. To develop skills in applying academic conventions and using relevant instruments required for the understanding of Japanese academic texts.
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
Seminar
Assessment method
Mandatory Attendance (minimally 70% of all sessions, both for ‘text’ and ‘content’): pass/fail
Texts assignments: 30% (5 out of 6 required)
Presentation element: 20%
Final paper (3,000 words inclusive): 50%
Assessment
Weighing
The final mark for the course is established by determining the weighted average. To pass the course, the weighted average of the partial grades must be 5.5 or higher.
or
The final mark for the course is established by (i) determination of the weighted average combined with (ii) additional requirements.
These additional requirements typically involve that one or more of the partial exams must be passed with a minimum assessment. If applicable, include the additional requirements above.
Resit
There is no resit for the participation element: if you miss more than 30% of sessions, you cannot successfully finish this seminar. If you miss or fail one or more assignment, you are granted max. one substitute. Everyone will receive feedback on the presentation element, but you do not have an opportunity to redo this and other classroom activities. You are expected to use this feedback to improve your research and to incorporate it into your final paper.
There is a two-deadline policy for the final paper; for those who miss the first deadline, this means they have failed on the first attempt. Those who fail on the first attempt—whether by not submitting a paper by the first deadline, or by submitting an inadequate paper—will have one more (second and last) chance to submit their paper by the second deadline. As for all assessments, rules for legitimate extenuating circumstances apply.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
Content component:
Readings will be provided later on the syllabus. There is no set textbook for this course.
Language component:
Readings and supporting documents and instructions will be provided on Brightspace.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Registration À la carte education, Contract teaching and Exchange
Information for those interested in taking this course in context of À la carte education (without taking examinations), eg. about costs, registration and conditions.
Information for those interested in taking this course in context of Contract teaching (with taking examinations), eg. about costs, registration and conditions.
For the registration of exchange students contact Humanities International Office.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Herta Mohr