2022.03.28
Fumitoshi Kato, Dean, Graduate School of Media and Governance
Congratulations to all of you graduating from the Graduate School of Media and Governance. Over the past two years, you have faced constraints not only in your research activities but also in many aspects of your daily lives. I offer my sincere respect and congratulations for successfully completing your work and earning the conferral of your degrees. In particular, many of you in the master's programs were impacted by COVID-19 from the moment you enrolled and have now reached your commencement under these circumstances. Our international students, too, must have felt very constrained, with interactions limited to online formats. For those in the Doctoral Programs, the final stage leading up to the degree examination is inherently stressful, and to have accomplished it under these difficult conditions is something to be proud of.
Although the circumstances were unavoidable, I followed your progress with a heavy heart. As we champion a field-oriented approach to learning, I am sure that you all devised various creative solutions to navigate this situation.
As opportunities for face-to-face conversation gradually return, I am reminded once again of the importance of communication. Whether online or in person, we think and deepen our reflections through our interactions with others. Dialogue stimulates our imagination, which in turn leads to further creative expression. As you complete your studies, please take a moment to reflect on how you have been shaped by your relationships with many people. Those relationships will continue to be with you, even as they change form.
Please accurately grasp the movements of our ever-changing world and face them with the intellect and initiative you have cultivated in graduate school. I wish you all the best in your future endeavors.
Now, as you may already know, the Master's Programs of the Graduate School of Media and Governance present the "Kato Award" and the "Aiso Award" each semester. Named after the founding deans of the Faculty of Policy Management and the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies at the Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC), these awards honor the achievements of unique and valuable research. The recipients were decided by the Graduate School Committee after deliberation on recommendations from each program.
At the commencement, we present a certificate in addition to the diploma. I would now like to introduce the award recipients along with their master's thesis titles. Congratulations.
Fall Semester 2021
[Kato Award]
● Erina Hinata, "Development of Crisis Management Training Materials for Teachers to Improve School Safety: Practice and Analysis Using Tabletop Exercises"
[Aiso Award]
● Masaki Arai, "Vibratory-Vibrant-Weaving: Development of a Surface Texturing Method by Applying Acoustic Vibrations to a 3D Printer"
● Yu Kurihara, "Elucidation of the Host Recognition Mechanism in the Temporary Social Parasite Ant Polyrhachis lamellidens Using Behavioral Tests and a Molecular Biological Approach"
● Daiki Sekiguchi, "A Study on the Construction Process of an Architecture-Type Playground Environment"
● Masahiro Miura, "An Informatic Analysis of Group II Introns in Prokaryotic Genomes"
Spring Semester 2021
[Kato Award]
● Jihye Kim, "Analysis of gender stereotypes and discrimination shown in the textbook
[Aiso Award]
● Shoichiro Sato, "Comparative approaches to music and evolution: Developmental, cross-species and cross-cultural analyses"