Message from the Dean

Since its founding in 1889, Kwansei Gakuin University’s strength has been providing international studies and education for its graduates to become “World Citizens.” To carry on and enhance this tradition, the university established the School of International Studies (SIS) in April 2010 as the university’s eleventh school. The aim of SIS is to allow students to understand and to sympathize with people and communities in various regions, and to discover and try to solve their problems. The former needs a warm heart with a sense of ethics, and the latter needs a cool head with knowledge and skills, both of which are necessary for the “World Citizen.”
The SIS curriculum consists of three academic fields (“Cultures and Languages,” “Societies and Politics,” and “Economics and Management” ) as well as Area Studies (“North American Studies,” “Asian Studies,” “European Studies,” and “Global Studies”). Each junior and senior student at the SIS must take a Research Seminar class in which they have to write a graduation thesis. Each research seminar class belongs to a specific field and area, so students can study specific research topics in depth. On the other hand, academic fields and area studies are designed to have flexibility, so that students are expected to take classes from various fields and areas.
While studying foreign languages themselves is intellectually stimulating and challenging in itself, the SIS believes that language proficiency is a tool for understanding foreign cultures and engaging in communication. What is important is how language skills are used to contribute to people’s lives and to the communities of the world.
As mentioned above, the SIS is a rather new school. While faculty and staff members at the SIS will help students in their studies, I hope each student will be willing to write their own new page of history at the SIS. When entering the SIS building, you will notice a board carrying a message from Saint Matthew’s Gospel, “You are the light of the world.” A strong tradition of the SIS will continue to be built on the joint efforts of faculty, staff members, and students. Here I add one more message: “Ask, and it shall be given to you.” Please search for your academic curiosity and knowledge from our various course offerings mentioned before. We are here to assist you in exploring your four-year undergraduate study at the SIS!