Syllabus & Courses

You may view and download the course syllabi for the JD Transcultural Studies below. The PDFs contain the name of the lecturer(s), date and time as well as an abstract for the courses’ content where available.

You can access more detailed descriptions of courses offered at the GSL via the Kyoto University Student Affairs Information System (KULASIS) and via heiCO for courses at the HCTS (You do not have to log-in to view the course information on heiCO; if the site does not show you Transcultural Studies courses for the current semester, make sure the correct semester is selected in the top right and “Heidelberg Center for Transcultural Studies” as organisation).

Course Rooms at KU
Most classrooms are located on the 2nd floor of the Faculty of Letters Main Building (no. 8 on the campus map). Some, however, e.g., seminar rooms 8-12 or lecture rooms 8-9 are in Research Building No. 2 (総合研究2号館), no. 34 on the campus map (opposite the Letter’s building). Most of the seminar rooms there are on the first floor, and the lecture rooms are in the basement. Please check this excerpt from the student handbook (Japanese only with some English notes).

Current Academic Year
Courses for Spring and Fall Terms 2025: PDF.
Course Schedule for Spring and Fall Terms 2025: PDF.
CATS (Courses on Asian and Transcultural Studies) leaflet 2025: PDF.

First Semester Modules

Please find descriptions of the program’s first semester modules below. Please be advised, that individual courses as well as rooms and times may be subject to change! Check KULASIS for up-to-date information.
You may also look for courses in a particular study focus via the links below:

Introduction to Transcultural Studies

Introduction to Transcultural Studies

Basic Research Skills (Tutorium)

Introduction to Indian Aesthetics

Qualitative Research and Community Fieldwork in and around Kyoto

Play, Transcultural: Interdisciplinary Game Studies 101

Transcultural Cinema Forum 2025

Skills for Transcultural Studies

Advanced skills for humanities research in English: reading, writing, and discussion

Focus 1 – Foundations

Scripts, Languages and Buddhist Scriptures

What Is Transcultural History?

Cinema and Media Studies Seminar: Women and Documentary in East Asia and Documentary Writing

ゲーム研究入門

Transformative Experience

Feminist Theory

ファッション論入門

Aesthetics, Materiality, and Politics: An Intensive Introduction to Meiji Art

Ways of Thinking Gender

Learning the Power of Observation: How and Why I Make “Observational” Documentaries

VTuber文化から考える情報社会

Conceptualizing the Real: History of Documentary Cinema

Second and Third Semester Modules

For courses during a student’s stay at Heidelberg University, please refer to the syllabus on the heiCO platform (Select “Courses” and then choose “Heidelberg Center for Transcultural Studies” under “Organisation,” see this screenshot).
Students in Kyoto can choose courses from the list below.

Research and Advanced Studies

A History of Tantric Yoga

An Introduction to Bioethics

Beyond Play: Game Design for Transcultural Learning

Buddhist Art and Manuscript Cultures along the Silk Road

Contemporary Japanese Philosophy in a Global Context

Digital games in a transcultural perspective

East Asian Origins: Ancient History and Material Culture

Ecocinema

Global Neorealism

Heidi in Japan

Historical Seminar: Animals and Borders

Immigration and Refugee Policy in Asia

Issues in Environmental History: Nature, Knowledge, Place, and Surroundings

Japan’s early diplomacy during the last decade of the Tokugawa Shogunate

Play, Advanced: Transcultural Game Studies 102

Selected Readings in Classical Japanese Literature

SocSci Research Methods in Education

Transcultural Problem Solving

Weekly Writing Practicum

Welfare Regime and Cross-Border Migration in Japan and Asia

アニメ聖地巡礼・ゾンビ・VTuberを研究することから見える社会

マンガ研究ことはじめ　方法論を学ぶ

Fourth Semester Modules

The fourth semester focuses on writing the MA theses and includes a colloquium, where students present the progress of their research and receive feedback from supervisors and peers.