Inaugural Symposium on 27/28 February 2019
With the international interdisciplinary symposium “Challenges for Aging Societies: Interdisciplinary Approaches in Comparative Japanese, German and European Perspectives” on 27-28 February 2019 the “Doshisha EU Campus at Tübingen University” will officially start its activities this year. Prof. Dr. Gregory Poole, Vice-President for International Affairs at Dōshisha University, and a delegation of seven researchers and administrative staff members from Dōshisha University will join the Tübingen conference. Two brain scientists and two researchers of social sciences from Dōshisha will present their research in the three panels of the symposium on „Aging Research in the Life and Medical Sciences“, „Assisted Living and Social Impacts of Elderly Care“, and „Challenges of Demographic Change: Discrimination of the Elderly and the Impacts of Migration“. Prof. Dr. Yoshihiko Wada, Director of the Doshisha EU Campus Office, who already visited Tübingen in July 2018, will also join the inaugural symposium. At the occasion of a second delegation visit of Dōshisha in Tübingen in October 2018 President Prof. Dr. Takashi Matsuoka from Dōshisha University and President and Vice-Chancellor Prof. Dr. Bernd Engler from the University of Tübingen signed the Agreement for the Exchange of Faculty between the two institutions.
The Tübingen symposium is the second in a series started 2018 in Kyoto, which will be continued 2020 with another symposium at Dōshisha University. On behalf of the University of Tübingen, President Bernd Engler will give a warm welcome to the participants of the conference on 27 February. Tübingen researchers from neurosciences (brain research, neurodegenerative diseases), medical technology and regenerative medicine, clinical psychology, molecular biology, psychiatry and psychotherapy (gerontology), physical chemistry, political science, historical and cultural anthropology, sociology, sports sciences, and Japanese studies will give presentations or act as chairs at the three panels.
This summer semester, the Doshisha EU Campus will for the first time offer a semester course program for a group of Dōshisha students in Tübingen. The program will concentrate on an intensive German language course (offered by the Section German as a Second Language and Intercultural Programs of the Tübingen International Office in cooperation with the Department of Japanese Studies), also including intercultural courses, field trips, and an intensive course taught mainly by Dōshisha faculty. Beside the semester program for Dōshisha students, it is planned to organize a “Doshisha Week” in November and start the Faculty Exchange Program, which shall not only support the initiation and development of new research collaborations between Dōshisha and Tübingen but also strengthen the exchange in teaching. Also the Tübingen symposium aims at initiating new collaborations, especially in the life and medical sciences but also in the social sciences and the humanities. For this purpose, the Dōshisha researchers will have the occasion to meet with Tübingen colleagues at their institutes or labs on the day before the symposium starts.
After nearly 30 years of cooperation between the two universities, with the foundation of the Tübingen Center for Japanese Studies (formerly Tübingen Center for Japanese Language) at Dōshisha University in 1993, the Doshisha EU Campus situates Dōshisha University now with a reciprocal office at the University of Tübingen. The Tübingen Center in Kyoto was the first and is still the only branch office of a European university at a university in Japan. For Tübingen students of Japanese studies the two-semester stay in Kyoto is an integral part of their Bachelor study program. Since 1993, more than 700 students have spent part of their study at the Tübingen Center in Kyoto. The institutionalization of the Dōshisha EU Campus at Tübingen University follows an initiative supported by the Japanese government and the Ministry of Education to internationalize the Japanese universities. It aims at the promotion of international education of its students, both in the country at its own campuses and abroad, and on strengthening the international exchange and cooperation in research and teaching between Japan and Germany and the European Union, respectively. Those aims will be strongly supported by Dōshisha University and the Doshisha EU Campus with the activities planned for this year and the following years, in cooperation with researchers, teaching staff, students as well as administrative staff members of the University of Tübingen.
Information:
Prof. Dr. Viktoria Eschbach-Szabo
Direktorin, Abteilung für Japanologie
Asien-Orient-Institut, Philosophische Fakultät
Wilhelmstr. 9 – 72074 Tübingen
Tel. 07071/29-76894
eschbachspam prevention@japanologie.uni-tuebingen.de
Dr. Karin Moser v. Filseck
Dezernat II Forschung
Abt. 1.2 Internationale Forschungskooperationen
Keplerstr. 2 (R. 312) – 72074 Tübingen
Tel. 07071/29-77353
karin.moserspam prevention@uni-tuebingen.de
