The Anthropocene is often associated with the climate change, ecological crisis, the sixth extinction, etc., or in brief, with an apocalyptic end. The recent acceleration of digital technology added more strength to the eschatological imagination which underlines the philosophy of history in the past centuries. In this sense, the Anthropocene is posed as a problem of modernity and it consequently calls for a new movement of overcoming modernity. This talk will address this impasse of modernity and introduce "technodiversity" as a response.

Zoom Webinar
Friday, 2 June 2023, 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm JST

Plastic is essential for so many of the things we value in today’s world. But excessive and unplanned use of plastic worsens the conditions driving climate change and threatens the land, the seas and the lives of animals and humans. Speakers on this panel will highlight issues including the chemical challenges plastic poses for the environment; the lives of waste-pickers who minimize the harm caused by discarded plastic; among others.

Zoom Webinar
Monday, 5 June 2023, 5:00 - 7:00pm JST

Climate change, industrial development, and population growth continuously increase the need for freshwater worldwide. Unconventional wastewater and saline sources must be tapped to reduce the stress on natural resources. However, producing freshwater from unconventional streams requires significantly more energy than traditional ways. This lecture discusses challenges and opportunities of these methods and the water-energy nexus.

Zoom Webinar
Tuesday, 13 June 2023, 10:30 am - 12:00 pm

This lecture will present a neural model of two of humans’ most fundamental cognitive feats, i.e., the ability to interpret linguistic instructions in order to perform novel tasks with no training, and the ability to describe solutions to new tasks with full sentences.

Zoom Webinar
Friday, 16 June 2023, 4:00 pm -5:30 pm

The world is on the brink of genuinely fundamental reform of the century-old arrangements for taxing multinationals. The aims are to reduce the scope for tax avoidance by companies and put a brake on international tax competition between governments. But what exactly will change? And will the proposed reforms achieve their objectives?

Zoom Webinar
Thursday, 29 June 2023, 4:00-5:30 pm

Songbirds use learned vocal signals to communicate information about their species, their identity, and even their emotional state. We study how the songbird brain decodes this information to allow songbirds to use song for recognition, mate selection, and forming long-lasting social bonds. By doing so, we gain broad insight into the neural basis of vocal communication across animal species, including in humans.

Zoom Webinar
Monday, 3 July 2023, 3:00-4:30 pm

Tokyo College’s postdoctoral fellow Dr. Chunyan Li, and visiting scholar Jenni Schofield, who are both members of the Gender, Sexuality & Identity Group, interviewed two core members from Colorful Heart, Yuta ONAGA and Mikako UMAMORI about their experiences in Colorful Heart and insights about LGBTQ health and rights in Japan.

LI Chunyan, Jenni SCHOFIELD
2023.05.26

Cryptocurrencies—Bitcoin being the leading and best-known example—excite strong reactions. Some see them as, at best, inherently worthless, ultimately doomed to be exposed as such; and, at worst (with spectacular collapses, such as that of FTX in November last year in mind), as a vehicle for the unscrupulous to poorly-informed investors.

Michael KEEN
2023.05.11

Students at the University of Tokyo were invited to co-organize the session “Opportunities for nature positive future – session for early-career scholars and students for the Fifth Science-Policy Forum for Biodiversity and the Eighth International Conference on Sustainability Science. The event was held on December 11-12th, 2022 as an official 2-day event of the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) in Montreal, Canada.

Swetha SOUNDARARAJAN
2023.05.01

The seasons have turned, and in April, we welcomed the new academic year. This is the fifth spring for Tokyo College.

HANEDA Masashi
2023.04.26

Tokyo College aims to generate new knowledge to contribute to the creation of an inclusive society and spark deeper public engagement with the University.