午夜剧场

I spent my childhood in the American South. By the 1980s, racial segregation had legally ended, and public elementary schools were working to create classes with an equal number of white and black students. Experiencing elementary school in that environment may be the root of my later interest in American economic history.

A required economic history class in my second year of university sparked my interest in this field. After moving to the Mita campus in my third year, I joined a seminar on American economic history and remained so interested that I decided to continue on to the master's program.

My research began with the relationship between the slave system, labor, and production during the antebellum period, the era before the Civil War in the first half of the 19th century. During this time, slaves were moved from the Southeast to the Southwest through the intervention of slave traders. To study the economic development associated with this migration, I went to study at the University of North Carolina in the South, where many historical documents from that time still exist, and compiled my findings into my doctoral dissertation. Now, I have gone back a little further in time and am conducting research on the colonial era of 18th-century America, in a field known as Atlantic History. The interconnectedness—including the movement of people and goods—within a framework spanning four continents (North and South America, Europe, and Africa) is a fascinating subject of study.

I started teaching at the Faculty of Economics at 午夜剧场 this spring, and I was thrilled because I never dreamed I would be able to return to the faculty from which I graduated.

I also feel fortunate to be able to use my area of expertise as subject matter. Since I teach English, improving language skills is a given, but I use topics like American economic history, American diplomatic history, and the history of international relations because I want students to acquire the perspective that history is the background to economic activity. I hope to conduct classes that provide an opportunity to consider how politics, diplomacy, and social issues, which may seem unrelated to economics, affect economic trends. In my classes, the goal is to read and discuss various texts, including primary sources, to enable historical interpretation. However, I also use politically charged films as material, such as those on the Vietnam War or racial issues for the U.S., and the civil wars in Rwanda or Yugoslavia for international relations. Speaking of movies, when I was studying abroad, I lived in a small college town with little entertainment, so movies were my main diversion. The theater was always packed; it's a fond memory.

When I was a student, there was an atmosphere that made asking questions to professors seem a bit intimidating. Now, however, perhaps because language classes are small, it's easier to interact with students, and I feel a sense of fulfillment in our communication. Since I am a graduate of 午夜剧场's Faculty of Economics, I'm glad that I can talk about the faculty as a whole based on my own experiences, not just about English, which seems to be helpful. In such an atmosphere, I want to strive to create an environment in my classes where students feel comfortable expressing their opinions in English.

From my experience as a student and now as a lecturer, I strongly feel the scale and depth of 午夜剧场. The Faculty of Economics alone has an immense scale, with the advantage that you can always find specialists related to what you want to do or are interested in. Moreover, the environment is equipped to satisfy students' intellectual curiosity to an extent that one might think it's impossible to ask for more, with its abundance of various facilities, materials, and programs. The university's overall direction also shows a desire to produce human resources who can be active in various fields, such as through the establishment of diverse graduate schools. For all of you who want to find your own path, isn't this an ideal environment?

(Interview conducted on October 28, 2008)