IN-EAST News
14.09.2017 - 13:53
Who’s Who – Takemitsu Morikawa
Takemitsu Morikawa, Acting Professor for Comparative Sociology and Japanese Society, will join us this fall. Welcome!
Karen Shire has a leave of absence for still one year and is stationed at Ochanomizu University in Tokyo.
Takemitsu Morikawa about himself
My studies began with Economics, Economic History and the History of Social Thought at Keio University in Tokyo, where I was the recipient of a full scholarship. I then embarked upon a doctoral degree at the University of Kassel in Germany which was supported by a PhD scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). I successfully completed my doctorate in sociology magna cum laude in 2001. My PhD thesis “Handeln, Welt und Wissenschaft. Zur Logik, Erkenntniskritik und Wissenschaftstheorie für Kulturwissenschaften bei Friedrich Gottl und Max Weber” (“Action, World and Science. On Logics, Epistemology and Philosophy of Science in Friedrich Gottl and Max Weber”) won the 2002 Nihon shakaigaku shi gakkai (Japanese Society for the History of Sociology) young scholar award.
After my doctorate, I worked as a research fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in the Department for Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies of the University of Tokyo until 2004. Following this, I led the project “Interkulturelle Vermittlung. Zur Bedeutung und Wirkung von Mori Ôgai im Prozess der kulturellen Modernisierung Japans” (“Intercultural Mediation. On Mori Ôgai's Significance for and Influence on the Process of Japanese Cultural Modernisation”) in the Interdisciplinary Workgroup for Cultural Research at the University of Kassel, which was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). I then moved to the Department of Sociology at the University of Lucerne where I led the project “Transformation der Liebessemantik in Japan. Von der Frühen Neuzeit in die Neuzeit” (“The Transformation of the Semantics of Love in Japan. From the Early Modern to the Modern Era”). This project was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF).
I began teaching in 1998 as a part-time lecturer in Sociology, Japanese Studies and Philosophy. Following my habilitation in 2012 at the University of Lucerne, I have taught as a senior lecturer (Privatdozent) and guest associate professor at universities across Europe and Japan. These have included the Universities of Kassel, Heidelberg, Lucerne, Zurich, Basel, Vienne, Fribourg (CH), Freiburg (D) as well as Osaka University, Toyo University, Keio University and the University of Tokyo.
My research focuses on cultural theory, the philosophy of the social sciences, the sociology of culture, the sociology of knowledge, and world society research (especially cultural identity), cultural memory, political (regional) conflicts, media studies and democracy studies. My new research project ‘Forgive-Reconciliation-Forget’ appears to be the first to approach the subject of forgiveness from a sociological perspective. The subject of forgiveness is by no means new to the humanities and social sciences (theology, philosophy, psychology), but it is also relevant to political science and law. I hope to continue my teaching interests in historical and cultural sociology (especially media and arts), cultural change and identity, and intimate relationships at the University Duisburg Essen.
My most recent publications include:
Wissen und Konstruktion des Anderen. Beiträge zum post-poietischen und postkolonialen Paradigma (Knowledge and Construction of the Otherness. Contributions to post-poietic and postcolonial paradigm). Kassel 2008, second, up-dated version. 2017.
Doppelbesprechung: „Es ist alles schon einmal dagewesen.“ Die deutsche Kultursoziologie zwischen Vergangenheit und Zukunft. In: Soziologische Revue (2017) 40(1): 98–106.
Kultursoziologie in Japan (Cultural sociology in Japan). In: Moebius, Stephan et al. (eds.) (2016): Handbuch Kultursoziologie. Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien (DOI 10.1007/978-3-658-08000-6_17-2).
Husserl – Cassirer – Luhmann. Von der Phänomenologie zur symbolischen, historischen Kultursoziologie (Husserl – Cassirer – Luhmann. From phenomenology to symbolic historical sociology). In: Keller, Rainer / Raab, Jürgen (Hg.): Wissensforschung – Forschungswissen. Beiträge und Debatten zum 1. Sektionskongress der Wissenssoziologie. Weinheim: BeltzJuventa 2016.
Liebessemantik und Sozialstruktur. Transformation in Japan von 1600 bis 1920 (Love semantics and social structure. Transformation in Japan from 1600 to 1920). Bielefeld 2015 (Kultur der Gesellschaft Bd. 13; Series Culture of Society, Vol. 13).
Die Welt der Liebe. Liebessemantiken zwischen Globalität und Lokalität (The World of Love. Love Semantics between Globality and Locality). Bielefeld 2014 (Kultur der Gesellschaft Bd. 7; Series Culture of Society, Vol. 7).
For contact details, please visit
https://www.uni-due.de/in-east/people/morikawa_takemitsu.php