Domestic Organization Collaboration

Kunitachi City Community Center Collaboration

In March of 2016, a "Memorandum of Collaboration" was officially created between the Kunitachi City Community Center in Kunitachi, Tokyo, where Hitotsubashi University is located, and the Graduate School of Language and Society (GENSHA). While a cooperative agreement had already been established between Kunitachi City and Hitotsubashi University for several years, the aim of this memorandum in particular was to establish a concrete collaboration for the continuation of several joint projects currently underway, in order to realize their highest potential and further develop the seedlings of future development opportunities.

Since 2013, a few teachers and graduate students, with the help of the community center, have voluntarily created small projects with the cooperation of local citizens. Stepping outside of the boundaries of the university, how can we connect the diversity of academic work carried out at graduate schools and the local activities of communities to the rest of the world in a natural, fun, and mutually beneficial/flexible way? We would be pleased if this experiment, with the new assistance provided by this collaboration memorandum, could become even larger and extend even further.

The GENSHA, celebrating its 20th anniversary as of 2016, is a small department comprised of 16 faculty members; while Kunitachi City Community Center may resemble the graduate school in its close and intimate size, it has a much longer tradition as a staunch figure of public action. What we can learn together through collaboration is surely much greater than our individual abilities.

Currently, the main collaborative activities include the "Graduate Student Course" and the "Hitotsubashi University Collaborative Course."

Graduate Student Course

Graduate students of the GENSHA, and occasionally graduate students from other Hitotsubashi graduate schools, are dispatched as lecturers to the community center 2-3 times per year to provide serial lectures (each consisting of 2 lectures.) The course aims to promote exchange between citizens and graduate students through lectures and discussions, to contribute to the lifelong education of citizens, and to inspire graduate students in their research/expansion of their field of study and help them gain experience in their careers. The selection of lecturers and lecture content is solicited from time to time, and decided via consultation between the community center(s) and the graduate school. The faculty of the graduate school will provide guidance with detailed lecture content/structure, and approval shall be obtained from a representative of the community center in order to confirm that the lecture is in accordance with the interests of both parties.