2023 Special graduate degree programs Specially Offered Degree Programs for Graduate Students Tokyo Tech Academy for Leadership
Graduate Seminar in Liberal Arts
- Academic unit or major
- Tokyo Tech Academy for Leadership
- Instructor(s)
- Akira Watanabe / Lorinda Robertson Kiyama / Mitsue Nagamine / Shunzo Majima / Mariko Anno / Mika Ebara / Yuri Matsuzaki / Kenshu Kamura
- Class Format
- Exercise (HyFlex)
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - 7-8 Thu (S6-305,, J3-309B)
- Class
- -
- Course Code
- TAL.L442
- Number of credits
- 010
- Course offered
- 2023
- Offered quarter
- 3Q
- Syllabus updated
- Jul 8, 2025
- Language
- English
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
This course is designed and delivered to cultivate the following abilities, attributes, and perspectives which are appropriate and required for ToTAL students. Through collaborative inquiries and dialogues between instructors and participating students, the nature of liberal arts education and its role for citizenship and leadership is critically examined, and each student will gain the intellectual foundation to continuously pursue his/her liberal studies and develop his/her own guiding philosophy for professional career and personal life.
This course is designed, developed, and offered jointly by ToTAL and the Institute for Liberal Arts.
Course description and aims
By the successful completion of this course, the students will have
1) the attitude to continuously develop interests in a wide range of academic and intellectual areas other than one’s own discipline,
2) the ability to broaden their intellectual foundations in liberal art,
3) the attitude to seek the broad and transdisciplinary perspectives on science and engineering, and
4) the ability to develop an attitude to examine one's own field of study with a multi-dimensional framework.
Keywords
Liberal Arts, Broad Perspectives, Transdisciplinary attitude
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
This course is offered by the ToTAL faculty members who also belong to the Institute of Liberal Arts. Each week, a faculty member will be in charge to give a lecture about a topic related to their research and then discuss about it with students. (Akira Watanabe, who is a 3 times chess champion of Japan, will talk about the game of chess and its importance for his career and the way of thinking). In case you are not able to attend a class, you should inform the instructor in advance. The order of lectures is subject to change.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Course Guidance: Lorinda Kiyama（Associate Director of Tokyo Tech Academy for Leadership, Psychology） | Assignments to be announces in class |
| Class 2 | Liberal Arts Lecture 1: Mitsue Nagamine on Stress Psychology Group and Class Discussion | Assignments to be announces in class |
| Class 3 | Liberal Arts Lecture 2: Mika Ebara on Linguistics Lecture followed by Group Discussion | Assignments to be announces in class |
| Class 4 | Liberal Arts Lecture 3: Akira Watanabe on Latin American Studies and Spanish Language, Lecture followed by Group Discussion | Assignments to be announces in class |
| Class 5 | Liberal Arts Lecture 4: Akira Watanabe on the game of chess and academia, Lecture followed by Group Discussion | Assignments to be announces in class |
| Class 6 | Liberal Arts Lecture 5: Akira Watanabe on Mexican Migration to the US, Lecture followed by Group Discussion | Assignments to be announces in class |
| Class 7 | Liberal Arts Lecture 6: Akira Watanabe Group and Class Discussion for the reflection of the whole class | Reflection of the whole class Preparation for the final essay |
Study advice (preparation and review)
Textbook(s)
No textbook. Necessary materials are distributed in class
Reference books, course materials, etc.
To be announced in class
Evaluation methods and criteria
1) Active class participation (including group discussion, assignments, responses, and others) 70%
2) Final essay 30%
Related courses
- TAL.L443 ： Mindfulness for Leadership
- TAL.C603 ： The Psychology of Leadership
- TAL.W401 ： Introduction to Leadership
Prerequisites
There are no specific prerequisites.