Kaoru Yoneyama - Appointed in AY2020
Participant Profile
Kaoru Yoneyama
International Sociology, Intercultural EducationCompleted the Doctoral Programs in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the Free University of Berlin. She served as a Lecturer in the Department of Political Science and Japanese Studies at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, a Special Researcher at the Center for Global Education and Discovery at Sophia University, and a Project Assistant Professor at the International Center of Tokyo Metropolitan University before assuming her current position in 2020. *Profile and position are as of the time of the interview.
Kaoru Yoneyama
International Sociology, Intercultural EducationCompleted the Doctoral Programs in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the Free University of Berlin. She served as a Lecturer in the Department of Political Science and Japanese Studies at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, a Special Researcher at the Center for Global Education and Discovery at Sophia University, and a Project Assistant Professor at the International Center of Tokyo Metropolitan University before assuming her current position in 2020. *Profile and position are as of the time of the interview.
Encounters and connections with different people and cultures are where new possibilities are born
Research Theme and How I Came to It
My research on multicultural coexistence and intercultural understanding addresses the question of how diverse people with different cultural backgrounds can build a peaceful and sustainable symbiotic society. Currently, I am engaged in the academic field of border studies, with a particular focus on the dividing walls and fences built on borders, the background and meaning of their existence, and the effects they bring about. The impetus for this was that while my original research focused on people who cross borders, I also became interested in the approach of understanding the world from the perspective of borders. I also believe that having lived for a long time in Berlin, a city famous for its wall, was a significant factor.
The Appeal and Fascination of the Research Theme
Each separation wall built on a border has its own deep history and story. Like the Berlin Wall, many walls carry a violent and tragic history, but there is much to learn from the experiences of the people surrounding these walls, and they offer hints for a sustainable multicultural society, which is the question I raised at the beginning. Furthermore, I have been continuously inspired by Germany's experience of the fall of the wall and its reunification, from the time I lived there to the present day. In Germany, even 30 years after the fall of the wall, the pain of division remains in various forms as an "invisible wall." On the other hand, since reunification, new challenges have been constantly undertaken, whether it be environmental issues or the active acceptance of refugees. In this, I feel not only the lessons of the wall but also the strong creative power born from the efforts to overcome division, and I intend to continue paying close attention to it.
A Message to Students
I believe that encounters and connections with different people and cultures are places where new possibilities are born. For all students, I hope that during your university years, a time when your options expand, you will meet as many different people as possible, exchange opinions, broaden your own world, and at the same time, look at yourselves objectively and discover your own new possibilities in your relationship with society. I teach German, and I am confident that learning a new language will be a powerful boost for this discovery. Through the world of the German language, I encourage you to take a step toward new possibilities.
(Interview conducted in December 2020)