Four Academic Courses

Cultural Resources Studies Course

Throughout this course, students will obtain fragmentary, high-volume, and diverse information contained in cultural resources as faithfully, comprehensively, and objectively as possible from the actual materials. They will then integrate this information while confirming its relativity through digitization, mathematical methods, and data science techniques. In particular, students will analyze cultural resources, which have traditionally been treated as a single entity in the fields of art history, cultural studies, philology, literature, anthropology, historical archaeology, etc., based on the assumption of interrelationships.

Faculty Introduction

Sample Graduate Thesis Titles

Master’s Program

• About the Rakuchurakugaizu Screen Painting with Elephants (Kyoto National Museum Depository)
• Characteristics of the Tenpyo Culture as Seen in the Designs of Jeweled Mirrors
• A Quantitative Stylistic Analysis of Saikaku’s Works: Focusing on his Posthumous Collection
• A Study of Prehistoric Humans in the Coastal Areas of the Gulf of Oman: Focusing on the Lithic Assemblage and Location of Shell Heaps

Doctoral Program

• A Phylogenetic Study of Village Culture: A Case Study of the Hida Region Early Meiji Era Product Journal Hidago Fudoki

Linguistic Data Science Course

Incorporating the methodologies of data science and computational science, we work to elucidate linguistic phenomena that cannot be adequately examined by conventional research, and thusly develop new and complex areas of linguistic research. In particular, we discover novel and cutting-edge potential for linguistic research in the comprehensive investigation of linguistic ecology by processing large amounts of linguistic data.

Faculty Introduction

Sample Graduate Thesis Titles

Master’s Program

• A Quantitative Study on the Estimation of Authorship of Mobile Phone Emails
• A Semantic Analysis of the Syntax of “There is—”: On its Gradability
• A Descriptive Study of the Southern Dialect of Lingshi County
• A Comparative Study of Emotional Expressions in Japanese and Chinese: Focusing on Syntax and the Restrictions of the Use of Pronouns

Doctoral Program

• A Study on the Relationship between Language Change and Extralinguistic Elements from a Mathematical Approach

Behavioral Data Science Course

We set human behavior as the focus of cultural research and apply the results and methods of sociometry, cognitive psychology, and other behavioral sciences to cultural research. We define culture as a repetitive behavioral pattern of human agency, and objectively describe it based on quantitative data to explain why certain patterns of behavior reproduce and persist. Based on this, we predict and design new patterns of behavior.

Faculty Introduction

Sample Graduate Thesis Titles

Master’s Program

• Utility and Evolution of Tolerance Strategies in Nomadism
• Comparison of Japanese and Chinese Physical Culture in Performing Arts: A Multimodal Analysis of Manzai and Xiangsheng
• Conception of a Psychological Distance Scale for Families: Japan’s Position in East Asia
• Cognitive Mechanisms of Tool Use Based on Exploratory Behavior

Doctoral Program

• Research on the Holistic and Integrative Workings of Music Therapy and the Interrelationships among Its Various Components

Fundamental Data Science Course

In light of the fact that traditional disciplines at the forefront of data science are severely limited in their efforts due to the diversity and complexity of existing information, we construct a methodology for data science based on a new perspective grounded on knowledge accumulated by each discipline, transcending the frameworks and methodologies of mathematics, information, and statistics, and focusing primarily on culture.

Faculty Introduction

Sample Graduate Thesis Titles

Master’s Program

• The Potential for a Rabies Invasion in Hokkaido: An investigation by Mathematical Model
• Research on Determination of Information Units for Document Content Comprehension
• Characterization and Comparison of Soccer Teams Using Sequentially Recorded Data
• Research on Similarity Calculation Methods for Complex Data

Doctoral Program

• A Basic Study on Cultural Informatics and Ideological Modeling Analysis Methods: Concepts and Methods in Cultural Informatics