Doctoral Building Narratives Connecting Research and Society

Academic unit or major

Entrepreneurship courses

Instructor(s)

Mariko Shiozawa / Akira Izumi

Class Format

Lecture

Media-enhanced courses

-

Day of week/Period
(Classrooms)

Class

-

Course Code

ENT.C673

Number of credits

100

Course offered

2026

Offered quarter

4Q

Syllabus updated

Mar 5, 2026

Language

Japanese

※ Courses with parentheses in the course number have different subject codes depending on the student's year of admission.

Syllabus

Course overview and goals

The purpose of this course is for doctoral students, who belong to a laboratory and have their own research themes, to acquire "story-building" skills. These skills are essential for connecting their research themes with social issues to forge their own futures and careers. Specifically, students will learn to verbalize the value of their experiences (research themes, expertise, and interests) and determine who benefits from them. The goal is to acquire "story-building" skills to communicate effectively with people outside their specialized fields, such as during job-hunting, while also giving deeper meaning to their ongoing doctoral research.
Many students may already have an assigned research theme and feel the need to consider how their results connect to society, yet find it difficult to secure the time to do so. By developing a "story" that bridges this gap and delivering presentations in their own words during job-hunting, students will find expanded opportunities to excel in various sectors of society, including private and public sectors outside of academia. This course fosters practical communication skills that connect specialized education at Science Tokyo with entrepreneurship education.

Course description and aims

By taking this course, students will acquire the following:
1. Build a "story" that bridges the gap between themselves and society by connecting their own research themes with their personal motivations for choosing a university (what they want to do, what they like, and what they excel at) and the social issues they wish to solve.
2. Understand the necessary perspectives for story-building and become proactive in consciously gathering and updating information on a daily basis.
3. Take the first step in their own career development by communicating their stories to others in their own words and fostering a sense of ownership (as "personal issues") through the feedback received.

Student learning outcomes

実務経験と講義内容との関連 (又は実践的教育内容)

In this course, a lecturer with extensive practical experience in brand management within private companies will provide practical guidance based on their expertise. Students will learn to construct a "story" centered on solving social issues and develop the ability to finalize it into a presentation format.

Keywords

Story-building (Storytelling), Solving social issues, Presentation, Case studies of predecessors, Entrepreneurship

Competencies

• Specialist skills
• Intercultural skills
• Communication skills
• Critical thinking skills
• Practical and/or problem-solving skills

Class flow

Students will first understand the logic and frameworks for story-building and learn methods for gathering information on social issues. Subsequently, students will analyze case studies of senior students through a process of "Understanding (Interpretation) → Generalization → Identifying Key Learning Points". In the latter half of the course, students will construct their own "stories," refine them through small-group workshops, and ultimately finalize them into a presentation of approximately 10 slides, designed for job-hunting scenarios.

Lecturers (Arbitrary order; tentative)
SHIOZAWA Mariko
Specially Appointed Associate Professor, Collaboration Center for Design and Manufacturing, Center for Entrepreneurship Education, Science Tokyo
IZUMI Akira
Specially Appointed Professor, Career Development Section, Center for Entrepreneurship Education, Science Tokyo

External Lecturers
ITO Masato
Former Director & CTO, Informetis Co., Ltd.
＃One additional external lecturer (To be announced)

Course schedule/Objectives

Study advice (preparation and review)

To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) and another 100 minutes improving own stories for each class.

Textbook(s)

No textbook.

Reference books, course materials, etc.

All reference books without the following 3 movies are written in Japanese, so please refer to the syllabus in Japanese.
• Garr Reynolds (2014), Presentation Zen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVR7GK4ViUw
• Nancy Duarte (2011), The secret structure of great talks
https://www.ted.com/talks/nancy_duarte_the_secret_structure_of_great_talks
• Simon Sinek (2009), How great leaders inspire action
https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action

Evaluation methods and criteria

Evaluations will be conducted based on the following items:

- Feedback Sheets (30%)
Distributed during the first four sessions.
Evaluation will focus on key takeaways and their application to personal experiences or current challenges.

- Presentation Materials (50%)
A presentation consisting of approximately 10 slides, prepared throughout the seven sessions.
The content should be designed for potential job-hunting scenarios.

- Class Participation and Engagement (20%)
Evaluation of active participation in class discussions and interactions with other students.

Related courses

• ENT.C601(LAC.C601) ： Doctoral Career Design

Prerequisites

Lectures are delivered in Japanese, so students should have Japanese language skills enough to understand the content of the lectures.
Assuming that all students will give a presentation in the final session, the maximum enrollment is limited to 20 students.
Students are required to submit their research themes and a summary of their research content before the course begins.

Other

The corresponding GA（Graduate Attributes） for this course is GA1D.