Department of European Cultural Studies

Since 2006, the Department of European Cultural Studies has expanded its scope to cover philosophy, literature, history, general linguistics, theory of culture, oral literature and cross-cultural art theory from three traditional fields of philosophy, literature and history in Germany and France. We have made this change in research fields in order to follow recent research trends. In accordance with this change, our research style has also been altered to one of tackling each subject from those new and various viewpoints. Students in the master’s program are required to register for a subject in Western Classics or Historical Linguistics as this department’s common compulsory subject because we believe that study of this major should be based on either of them. Students select other subjects according to their fields of specialization under their advisors’ guidance. Research guidance provided by advisors is indispensable for students writing a master’s or doctoral thesis. Our research guidance takes into consideration the research situation in Japan and the world, and has a reputation for kind and detailed instruction.

This department's principal goal is to nurture and produce prudent researchers with broad academic knowledge.