A Grain of Rice on the Sole of Your Foot | Junichi Ushiyama, Assistant to the Dean of the Graduate School of Media and Governance
2023.10.31
The thing they call a "Ph.D."...
is often described (or perhaps ridiculed?) this way.
What's the meaning behind it?
[If you don't get it, it's a constant bother]
But
[Even if you do get it, it won't feed you]
It's a clever way of putting it, or what should I say...
It's a truly somber reality.
Since you started with such high aspirations,
you're determined to get that Ph.D. no matter what.
But it's incredibly difficult to just discipline yourself and focus on your research.
It's lonely, you need money...
Even when you go out to socialize for a change,
thoughts like "Is there something wrong with that analysis?"
or "When will the peer review results come back?"
are always lingering in the back of your mind.
So, once you actually obtain your Ph.D., are you freed from such worries?
Not at all.
After all, there are few positions in academia.
You have no choice but to steadily build up your achievements and raise your presence,
but there's no telling how much you need to accumulate to reach "stability."
The reality is that you can't survive on the feeling of "I love research" alone.
The path for Ph.D. holders is likely many, many times more difficult
than you, the readers, can imagine.
But, and yet.
Does that mean the future is completely bleak? Not at all.
How do you envision the future that lies beyond enhancing your research capabilities?
The key lies in your imagination and your ability to execute.
The graduate students at SFC
are instilled with a mindset of constantly crossing boundaries.
They understand, as a matter of course (I think), the importance of not just "deepening" their knowledge but also "broadening" it.
That's why
they can infinitely expand their fields of activity in response to social conditions and demands,
and if there's no field for them, they can even create one.
I truly believe this.
I want to make this Graduate School of Media and Governance
an environment that nurtures "grains of rice that will feed you when you get them"—
individuals equipped with the power to move forward, ignoring the rough seas of academia.
This is my current wish and goal, having been appointed Assistant to the Dean of the Graduate School of Media and Governance.
I look forward to working with you for the next two years.