The instructor will ask students to read papers he has written (mostly in Japanese, but some papers written in English might be assigned, too) in the course of his academic career, and will try to provoke students to think about how to conduct research, and encourage/stimulate them (I should rather say, you!) in their progress as a researcher.
The instructor ask students to understand what he has studied in his career, and to make certain progress in their own research.
Latin American Studies, Political Science, Migration Studies, Fieldwork and Language
✔ Specialist skills | ✔ Intercultural skills | Communication skills | ✔ Critical thinking skills | ✔ Practical and/or problem-solving skills |
In the 2nd, 4th and 6th class, we will discuss my own papers; in the 3rd, 5th, and 7th class, we will either discuss about the topics we studied in the previous class (A), or about the research by the students (B). As for the 3rd, 5th, and 7th class, I would like to ask students about their preference (either A or B).
Course schedule | Required learning | |
---|---|---|
Class 1 | Orientation | To get to know each other and to understand instructor's plan. |
Class 2 | Democratization in Mexico | To read instructor's papers about elections and democratization in Mexico |
Class 3 | Democracy, democratization and politics | To deepen the discussion about democracy and/or democratization. |
Class 4 | Mexican migration to the United States | To read instructor's papers about Mexican and Latin American migration to the United States |
Class 5 | Migration | To deepen the discussion about migration. |
Class 6 | Social science, area studies, and literature | I have also written some essays about literature, which are well out of my field. Let's discuss about the meaning of intellectual activity "outside our fields". |
Class 7 | What is research, after all? | Students will be asked to give a small talk about what they have learnt from the course. |
You have to read assigned papers and write a "memo" to attend the class. Other requirements may well be assigned in class.
No textbook is assigned.
My papers are available at the following website: https://researchmap.jp/akira_watanabe
Attendance(50%), Term paper (50%)
None
I am really looking forward to teaching this course, my first ever graduate course apart from the Spanish course I taught in 2020. And this is the first ever graduate course about Latin American studies in the Tokyo Tech. Let me also say that I will try to learn from all of you!