About

The dual structure comprising the III and GSII began its existence in the year 2000. It is a flexible network-like organization for graduate-level research and education that seeks to bind together the various fields of research related to “information” previously carried out separately in different departments of the University of Tokyo. It is structured in such a way that its two main components (III and GSII) work in tandem while retaining their separate identities as organizations devoted to research and education respectively. Together they form a creative and innovative structure for the pursuit of advanced research and education in all areas of the broad academic field of information studies.

Information is bringing about radical change in all areas of human civilization, including consciouness and behavior, life and the body, society and culture, technology and art, industry and the political economy, law and policy, and international relations and the environment. The very structure of academic knowledge is also being transformed. There are calls for a “restructuring of knowledge” based on the common language of “information”. It is therefore the mission of the III/GSII to pursue advanced research and education that reformulates “knowledge” around the node of “information”. By exploring all aspects of a broadly conceived field of “information studies”, the aim is to contribute purposefully to the “restructuring of knowledge” with a commitment to the public nature of knowledge.

The Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies (III) is a “research organization”. Its membership is composed of faculty (academic staff) drawn from various departments of the University of Tokyo whose work relates in different ways to the concept of information. By bringing together researchers from such a diverse range of disciplines, the III seeks to create a dynamic new “circle of knowledge” from which fresh and innovative perspectives will spring forth.

Research on information used to be conducted separately within individual academic disciplines each with their own objects of analysis and methodologies. The aim of the III is to develop interdisciplinary research through the organic linking of existing fields whilst also respecting and exploiting the potential of each disciplinary paradigm. Because information studies is such a rapidly developing field, it provides the basis for close cooperation among researchers irrespective of which side of the academic divide (natural sciences vs. humanities/social sciences) they come.

In addition, all faculty members affiliated to the III maintain a keen interest in developing partnerships with individuals and organizations outside the university, with a view to decreasing the isolation of academic knowledge from the wider society and making the university more open.

There are two types of faculty in the III. “Core faculty” belong to the III exclusively, while “mobile faculty” come from other departments of the university and take up posts in the III for fixed terms lasting several years. This faculty rotation system creates the conditions for fresh stimulus and innovation. The pursuit of a wide variety of interdisciplinary research projects provides a broad horizon from which original contributions can be developed without the restrictions of existing disciplinary boundaries.

The Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies (GSII) is an “educational organization”. Its membership is composed of students receiving advanced training in one of a range of graduate programs. The GSII’s purpose is to help fulfill society’s need for highly skilled personnel possessing not only advanced specialized knowledge but also the broad perspective encouraged by the inherently indisciplinary nature of information studies. It draws students from a wide range of academic and social backgrounds united under the common banner of “interdisciplinary information studies”. It is a center of excellence devoted to learning about information that transcends the division between humanities/social sciences and natural sciences.

Students enrolled in the programs of the GSII receive intensive research supervision from faculty members of the III (both “core faculty” and “mobile faculty”). Courses offered in this graduate school are taught not only by III faculty but also by faculty in other departments of the University of Tokyo. The adoption of a subsidiary supervisor system allows students to receive a broad interdisciplinary education encompassing multiple aspects of the study of information.

Within the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, there is only a single department (the Department of Interdisciplinary Information Studies). This unitary structure provides for an advanced level of interdisciplinary learning and maximum flexibility in the system of faculty supervision. Within the single department there are five different programs (also known as “courses”) each of which retains its own identity while also maintaining close ties with the others.