YoRAP: An Initiative by Young Researchers

Yuji KATO
Office Manager, CGS
【The article below is the same as the article that appears in the fifteenth issue of the CGS Newsletter.】

From the 2011 winter term, CGS started YoRAP, a system in which events would be organized by CGS Research Institute Assistants (RIAs). CGS office coordinator Yuji Kato explains how this new system came about and summarizes the six events that have been held so far (as of June 2012).

Since CGS was established in 2004, it has hosted two to four lectures and other events each term. Although we always endeavored to consider the opinions and wishes of students and RIAs in planning the events, this became difficult as organizational restructuring at CGS has taken priority in recent years. RIAs, in particular, were feeling increasingly stressed because they had little opportunity to present their research or to see all their efforts at CGS come to fruition. In a bid to rectify this situation, CGS initiated the Young Research Action Project (YoRAP) from the 2011 winter term, a new system that enables RIAs to become event coordinators (ECs). Consequently, six events were organized by RIAs in the first half of 2012.

CGS and the RIAs were delighted to have organized events that were not only diverse in content and form, but also considered individual interests and showcased the knowledge and research at the center. The EC system will be continued in the second half of 2012.

Lecture
Making New Television Programs: A Director's Perspective--Sexual Minorities and the Media (EC: KATO Yuji)

Date: Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Participants: 70
Lecturer: IMAMURA Yuji (Director, Program Production Department, NHK Osaka

Film Screening
Dialogues with Sexual Minorities through Film: Each Step as Myself (EC: KATO Yuji)

Date: Saturday, January 28, 2012
Participants: 40
Lecturer: SHIMADA Akira (Movie Director; Representative, Rainbow Action)

Lecture
Being "酷兒(Queer)" and Taiwanese Literature (EC: SHINDO Ryuichi)

Date: Saturday, February 25, 2012
Participants: 30
Lecturer: Ta-wei CHI (Assistant Professor, Graduate Institute of Taiwanese Literature, National Chengchi University)

Conference
(Im) Possibility of the body and the claim to "survival": Within the dialogue of Queer Studies and Disability Studies (EC: ISERI Makiko)

Date: Tuesday, March 20, 2012 (public holiday)
Participants: 50
Speakers: IINO Yuriko (Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo); SHIMIZU Akiko (Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, The University of Tokyo); HOSHIKA Ryoji (The Center for Barrier-Free Education, Graduate School of Education, The University of Tokyo)
(This was the first CGS event with simultaneous transcription.)

Lecture
Gender and Sexuality as an International Human Rights Issue (EC: KATO Yuji)

Date: Thursday, May 17, 2012
Participants: 130
Lecturer: INABA Masaki (Administrative Director, Ugoku/Ugokasu [Global Call to Action against Poverty Japan]; Director, Global Health Programme, Africa Japan Forum)
(This lecture was co-hosted by the General Education subject "Gender in Everyday Life.")

Lecture
The Viability of Basic Income: Perspectives from Students and Women (EC: HORI Shingo)

Date: Thursday, May 31, 2012
Participants: 50
Lecturer: KATADA Kaori (Assistant Professor, Department of Social Work, Saitama Prefectural University)
(This lecture was co-hosted by the pGSS subject "Gender and Social Structure.")

* Detailed reports on the events listed here will be published in the CGS journal Gender and Sexuality, vol. 8 (forthcoming, spring 2013).