Joint Degree Master in Transcultural Studies
Kyoto University | Graduate School of Letters
Interested students are invited to online Q&As on July 19, 2024, during which they can ask questions about the Transcultural Studies major and how to apply for a position in the joint degree program.
Continue reading “Online Student Orientation (2024/07/19)”
Every year in February or March, the Graduate School of Letters sends a student delegation to its European partners in Strasbourg and Heidelberg to learn about exchange possibilities, participate in joint workshops, and get to know fellow students. This program is organised by the Division of the Joint Degree Master of Arts in Transcultural Studies, a collaborative degree program of Kyoto University and the Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies (HCTS). Graduate students in this program also join the workshops.
Continue reading “Kyoto-Heidelberg-Strasbourg Workshop 2024”
The Transcultural Studies Division holds a special seminar entitled “Japan’s Ocean Borderlands: Nature and Sovereignty, offered by Professor Paul Kreitman from Columbia University on February 19, Monday.
Continue reading “Book Talk: Japan’s Ocean Borderlands: Nature and Sovereignty (2024/2/19)”
The Transcultural Studies Division holds an intensive lecture course entitled “Learning the Power of Observation” (Foundation I – Seminar (VMC)), taught by Filmmaker Kazuhiro Soda on July 31 and August 1-4.
In this intensive course, he will explain how and why he takes his particular approach to documentary filmmaking, covering all phases of filmmaking from filming to editing to marketing. It will give students an opportunity to learn how a documentary filmmaker thinks and works. Examining actual day to day problems he faces, students will also learn and study various issues around documentary, such as ethics, economics, reality vs fiction, subjectivity vs objectivity, etc. At the end of the course, each student must write and submit a final paper which discusses such issues analyzing my films and methods.
Date & Time: July 31, August 1-4 10:30-12:00, 13:15-14:45, 15:00-16:30
Location: Lecture Room 9, Basement Floor, Research Building No.2 (Map㉞)
Language: English and Japanese
Poster
Welcome all students who are interested in cinema and media studies.
Prior registration is required.
Click here to register.
If you have questions about it, you may contact Prof. Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano at wadamarciano.mitsuyo.6w[a]kyoto-u.ac.jp.
Interested students are invited to online Q&As on July 14, 2023, during which they can ask questions about the Transcultural Studies major and how to apply for a position in the joint degree program.
Continue reading “Online Student Orientation (2023/07/14)”
The Transcultural Studies Division will hold a special seminar entitled “The Memory of the Second World War in Asia and Europe” offered by Dr. Takuma Melber from Heidelberg University.
Date & Time: From March 6, Monday to March 10, Friday 10:00-16:30
Location: Lecture room 5 (第5講義室), Faculty of Letters Main Bldg. (MAP⑧)
Language: English
Registration on KULASIS for academic credits is already closed. Please contact JDTS coordination if you want to register for this seminar or you have questions about it, you may contact at info[a]cats.bun.kyoto-u.ac.jp.
The Transcultural Studies Division of the Graduate School of Letters wishes all students and faculty a
Happy New Year!
Continue reading “Happy New Year 2023!”
The Transcultural Studies Division holds lecture series as a part of the course, “Transcultural Asian Cinema” conducted by Prof. Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano.
Continue reading “Transcultural Cinema Forum (2022/10/11～2022/11/18)”
Interested students are invited to online Q&As on July 15, 2022, during which they can ask questions about the Transcultural Studies major and how to apply for a position in the joint degree program.
Continue reading “Online Student Orientation (2022/07/15)”
Kyoto University and Heidelberg University now welcome applications for the 2021 enrollment (Kyoto side) in the international Joint Degree Master of Arts Program in Transcultural Studies (JDTS). The online application system opens for students graduating from Non-Japanese universities on October 1st, 2020.
We invite students in the humanities and social sciences to apply who have already graduated or will graduate in March 2021 and are interested in continuing their studies in a competitive, international joint degree master program at two leading research institutions in Japan and Germany.
Application Time Frame
Oct. 1-15: Degree equivalence screening for graduates from non-Japanese universities
Nov. 1-20: Application window for all applicants
December: Results of first application step, online interviews
January: Final results and notification of successful applicants
March: Enrollment at Kyoto University, Graduate School of Letters
Detailed Application Information
https://www.cats.bun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/jdts/application/
Online Application System
https://www.cats.bun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/apply/
(login possible Oct 1-15, Nov 1-20)
Video Tutorials
For Graduates from Non-Japanese Universities
For Graduates from Japanese Universities
Study Program Outline
Building on the strengths of both institutions, this jointly conducted, research-oriented English-language graduate program offers students access to an interdisciplinary field in the humanities and social sciences to study and research transcultural dynamics between and within Asia and Europe in a global context. The study program is situated at two partner institutions, the Graduate School of Letters (GSL) of Kyoto University and the Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies (HCTS) of Heidelberg University. Students enrolled in the program begin their studies at one of these two partners, their home institution, but spend an equal amount of time at the other university. After two years of study and supervised by international faculty of both, the GSL and the HCTS, students submit a single master thesis to receive a Master of Arts degree jointly awarded by both universities upon completion.
The transregional outlook of the JDTS is based on the perspective that cultures are not contained within ethnically closed, linguistically homogenous and territorially bounded spheres. Instead they are constituted through transformations and entanglements that follow from contacts and relationships between various agents, concepts and institutions. Transcultural Studies combine methodological and theoretical approaches from a broad spectrum of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences.
The study program expands the regional and disciplinary competences students have obtained in their Bachelor degrees or another Master degree. Students of the JD Transcultural Studies acquire empirical knowledge on historical and contemporary moments of exchange as well as on theories and methodologies to frame and analyze such processes. The JDTS is primarily designed to train its students for a successful career in international academia.
• Student Quota:
10 students between both partners per year (5 students enrolled at Heidelberg university as their home institution, 5 students enrolled at Kyoto University).
• Degree Granted: Master of Arts
• Standard Duration:
2 years (one year at the home institution and one year at the partner).
• Next Date of Enrollments:
Spring 2021 (at Kyoto University)
Please consult our application FAQ if you have questions or direct inquiries not answered there to apply[a]cats.bun.kyoto-u.ac.jp.