In spring, the Center of Gender Studies at ICU will commemorate its second year and the first students of the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies (PGSS) will graduate in March, with many more interested students in line to take their place. All this is due not only to the passion and energy of the many lecturers and professors but also to the high quality and motivation of about thirty dedicated student staff members who have voluntarily organized reading groups and enthusiastically communicated with people from other countries.There cannot be many other university research centers which depends so much on the energy of students.
Since 2004, we have conducted an International Workshop each year. The first workshop focused on "Social Science Viewpoints" and the second on "Humanities Viewpoints". They each dealt with the issues of gender in Asia as well as peace, security and co-operation in the region. The third workshop, in 2006, will focus on "Natural Science Viewpoints". As the Natural Sciences deal with the universal laws of the natural world, it does not at first seem to be a discipline which has much in common with Gender Studies. However, it is precisely this universality present in the Natural Sciences which needs to be re-examined from a gender perspective. The male/ female division which has been used unquestioningly in biology must be re-considered in terms of its influence on the gender framework between men and women today.
The Natural Sciences can also be re-examined from a regional viewpoint. For example, various indigenous medical skills and knowledge are recently becoming recognized as part of medical practice. In the past century in Asia, the perception of proper medical practice has been restricted to western medicine. Skills and knowledge regarding human sex and reproduction (childbirth, abortion, gender-specific medicine, etc.) are unevenly distributed across the regions. Thus, traditional skills and knowledge still co-exist in a complicated relationship with those of western medicine. This issue has in recent years has become a focus of research as a new field. The upcoming workshop seeks to explore fresh possibilities for this approach. Researchers, activists and specialists will be invited from Japan and overseas and the program will include country-specific reports as well as sessions on different topics. Please check our homepage for further details which are scheduled to be released before the summer. Thank you for your continuing support of the Center of Gender Studies.
CGS Steering Committee : Etsuko KATO