TOPICS

 衣笠キャンパス恒心館の1階ラウンジにて、GSの1回生が大集合しました。彼らは去年9月に入学してきた学生と今年4月に入学してきたばかりの新入生たちです。

　GSとはグローバルスタディーズ専攻のことで、日本を含め世界中の様々な国から学生が集まり、全て英語で学ぶ専攻のことです。今回、入学時期やクラスを越えてグループに分かれ、自分たちの選んだテーマについて発表した「Cultural Hour!」が開催されました。

　日本の伝統的なしきたりや文化について写真等を使って発表するグループもあれば、各国の民族衣装を着てファッションショーをしたり、日本と海外のよくある出来事を寸劇にして発表する等、発表の仕方も多様でありユーモアに溢れていました。学生達もそれぞれの発表に興味津々で、笑いの耐えない時間となり、異文化を理解するきっかけになったことでしょう。

　GSでは留学生と日本人学生が一緒に学んでいますが、新入生にとっては初めてのイベントで新たな人との交流ができたことと思います。25日の土曜日には全学部の1回生がクラスごとに模擬店を出店する新歓祭が開催されました。また5月には日本語で学ぶIR専攻の学生と共に合宿が行なわれます。今後も様々な人と関わり、大学生活を充実させてほしいと思います。

 2014年12月3日、故西川長夫先生（立命館大学国際関係学部名誉教授）の追悼記念講演会が開かれました。講師は本学部の卒業生でもある杉浦清文先生（中京大学）で、「西川長夫先生と〈私〉――国際関係のなかの〈文化〉とは」というタイトルで、西川先生との思い出を皮切りに、西川先生の『新・植民地主義論』から多大な影響を受けたというポストコロニアル研究について熱く語って下さいました。「ポストコロニアル」とは単純な「植民地後」という意味ではなく、植民地とされていた国、地域が、独立後も植民地主義的な支配（政治的、経済的な支配だけでなく、文化・心性にかかわる領域まで）の元に置かれ続けている状況を指すこと、そして現在、その「支配／被支配」の関係が、グローバル化の名のもとに「隠蔽されながら」さらに強化されていることが、カリブ海（世界で最初に西洋の植民地支配下に置かれた場所）の島々の事例や映像などを元に説明され、学生たちは真剣に聞き入っていました。最後に君島東彦副学部長が「ポストコロニアル研究の視点は、国際関係学部のどのプログラムにおいても非常に重要である」という言葉で締めくくられました。

西川長夫先生のご業績・最終講義「フランスの解体？―もうひとつの国民国家論」はこちらでごらんいただけます。

https://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/acd/cg/ir/college/bulletin/vol12-j.html#no.3（立命館国際研究「西川長夫教授退職記念論集」）

The Fourth Research Seminar of the College of International Relations in 2014 was held by Associate Professor Zsombor Rajkai on the ninth of December, at Koshinkan Room 733. The title of his presentation was “Familism and individualisation in transitional societies: Eastern Europe and socialist East Asia”. The presentation consisted of two main parts. In the first part, Professor Rajkai briefly introduced his academic activities and achievements from the 1990s up to now in two separate academic fields: history (Sino-Central Asian historical relations) and sociology (the different paths of modernisation of non-Western societies seen through family and social change).

Professor Rajkai then talked about a book he published in 2014, titled Family and social change in socialist and post-socialist societies: Change and continuity in Eastern Europe and East Asia. A detailed introduction to the contents of this book (the result of a three-year-long international research study led by Professor Rajkai himself) formed the second (major) part of his presentation. Among other things, he threw light upon the ambiguous and antagonistic co-existence of familism (strong family-centric values) and individualisation (pluralisation of individual and family lifestyles) found in these societies, seen through the change and continuity in demographic behaviour, family values, family solidarity, gender relations, state policy and marketisation. In relation to this, Professor Rajkai called for the necessity, and also outlined the possibility, of a modified second demographic transition theory, stressing that a modified theory would be more accurate in describing the current social transformation of these societies. Finally, Professor Rajkai outlined his upcoming research plan of making a typology of the diverse compressed modernities in an Eurasian context, by addressing not only (post-)socialist societies, but also capitalist non-Asian societies such as Japan, South-Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, etc.

On Tuesday 9 December Dr Nándor Papp, a visiting Professor at the College of International Relations, gave a special lecture on the topic: "From Yalta to Malta" – a subjective Eastern Bloc perspective of the Cold War.

Dr. Nándor PAPP graduated from Budapest’s ELTE University as a teacher of English and Russian. He has taught for more than 40 years at the biggest universities in the Hungarian capital, as well as abroad. From the mid 1980s, he was involved - as an interpreter - in state and government level negotiations towards Hungary’s reintegration in the West, membership of  NATO, and of the European Union. Between 2008-2011, he represented his country in Kiev, Ukraine, as a senior diplomat. 

Dr. Papp’s lecture guided the audience through some of the main chapters of the Hungarian "edition" of communism from the dark days of the 1950s, through the consolidation of the regime, Hungarian "goulash communism", and up to the cutting of the barbed wire between East and West and the Fall of the Berlin wall, which iconically marked the end of the bipolar world.  Dr Papp detailed the major events of the era and also gave a rare insight into actual daily life inside the communist bloc during the Cold War. His role as a participant and witness to some of the closing events in the  Cold War and his recollections of life as a young man and student during the 1960s and 1970s gave the audience a unique and fresh perspective on this era.

The lecture was well attended, with a lively and entertaining Q&A session and the faculty and students of the college look forward the Dr Papp's second special lecture in early 2015.

T French, Associate Professor, College of International Relations.