01. From CGS: April 2004 Archives

Download The first issue of the CGS newsletter

The first issue of the CGS newsletter has been published on April 1. You can read abstracts of many articles in newsletter and full-texts on the webpage. First newsletter features the profiles about twenty CGS staff members who are interested in Gender Studies from various academic fields. There are also many articles about Japanese law, ordinance, trial and TV drama from the perspectives of Gender Studies.

We plan to publish newsletters biannually. Your comments and reactions will be welcome.

Tanaka, Kazuko : Director of the Center for Gender Studies [CGS NewsLetter 001]

The Center for Gender Studies (CGS) at International Christian University (ICU) opened in April 2004.

The CGS has three primary goals: (1) to facilitate a network of Asia-based researchers in the fields of women's studies, men's studies and gender studies, (2) to go beyond the mere absorption and translation of Western-based studies and to make Asia-based studies available worldwide, and (3) to develop a tri-fold genderstudies model that incorporates not only the social sciences and the humanities but also the natural sciences.

s073837: David Jeffries [CGS NewsLetter 001]

　The phrase 'military prostitution' resounded across the room, across imaginations of water and of violence, around conceivable images of young soldiers and communities of women. As I listened to Professor Katherine Moon's lecture regarding this 'military prostitution' and its presence in Korea, my mind expanded. As Moon spoke, I began to stretch my imagination to picture the current situation in Iraq. My two-dimensional questions of 'what is happening with the soldiers and with the country', bends further now to gain more depth, as I begin to wonder of the perspectives of women, or of a single woman in Iraq?perspectives of which I suddenly realized I have yet to hear, or read. I began to wonder what is being negotiated beyond my non-mobilized, male imagination in spaces of women and war. Regardless of what I am able to conceive, what things might surely be happening in Iraq...in Korea...in Japan...or in my home country, the United States regarding women and prostitution? My ignorance on these issues of prostitution, and how prostitution is related to the military, humbled me as a male who dares to say that he cares for women's issues, as a male who dares to call himself a feminist in the year 2004. Far beyond this humbling, however, Professor Moon also reminded me during her lecture of my privilege as a male, a privilege that allows me to slip past the narratives of these women, whose voices compile stories that are also, in some way, relative to my own life. After all, as women, as prostitutes, as nationals, and as mothers, these women share the world with me. They are family members to others as my mother and sister are family to me. These women and myself belong to the community that I most often forget about: the international community. Listening to the voices of some of these women through Moon's lecture has brought me back to the fact that I do indeed share space with such women, and that I must, therefore, take part in these issues surrounding military prostitution.

h061202: Kawasaka, Kazuyoshi [CGS NewsLetter 001]

On December the nineteenth 2003, Ms. Kamikawa came to ICU to give a lecture of the commemoration seminar for the Human Rights Day. In 2003, she became the first person in Japan to register as an election candidate with a gender different from that listed in her official family register. She was elected as a councilor of Setagaya Assembly officially announcing that she is a transgender. Transgender is "A person with Gender Identity Disorder (GID) suffers from the discrepancy of one's identity: between one's body and one's identified sex". The World Health Organization acknowledges it, according to her homepage.

h031313: Nitta, Yuko [CGS NewsLetter 001]

"The local volunteer Mitaka citizen group is currently making a tentative plan of City Ordinance of Equality of Both Sexes. This ordinance aims to make a society where both men and women can equally demonstrate their individuality and it includes an Anti-Domestic Violence and an Anti-Sexual Violence Clause. In February, some students from ICU Gender Legal Study Group participated in the group's conference and discussed the tentative plan with other members.

Languages: Hibiya, Junko [CGS NewsLetter 001]

ICU is now planning to launch the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies (PGSS) in AY2005. In the contemporary development of learning, “gender” is considered to be an important concept and analytical framework. It is necessary not only for the Humanities and the Social Sciences, but also for the Natural Sciences to investigate from the gender perspective in order to develop new academic understandings. Up to now at ICU, there have been several gender related courses. From AY2005 ICU is preparing to offer the curriculum with the consistency and continuity and to integrate the gender courses in an organic way, aiming to meet the request of the students who are interested in gender and sexuality studies.

As the plans above are still tentative, please get in touch with CGS PGSS preparation office for more detailed information.

SS: Oishi, Nana, IS: Tanaka, Kazuko [CGS NewsLetter 001]

ICU Center for Gender Studies announces that our First Annual International Workshop will be held in November 2004. Entitled “Creating ‘Knowledge’ on Human Security and Gender: From Asian Perspectives,” this workshop sets its focal point on “Human Security,” integrating “Peace, Security, and Conviviality”, which we conceive as the best representation of the essence and our goals of the workshop.