卒業生からのメッセージ
Dr. Kudo has encouraged and supported me ever since I told him that I would want to pursue a career as a scholar in the U.S.A. So, I followed it. Soon after graduating from Dokkyo University, I moved to Minnesota to pursue a master’s degree and then to Illinois to obtain my Ph.D.—both in Communication Studies with emphases on Intercultural Communication and Critical Pedagogy. While I was a graduate student, I was also an instructor in the U.S.A. and a visiting scholar in Finland. I taught a variety of courses including public speaking, introduction to communication studies, culture and communication. Currently, I am a full-time university professor in the U.S.A who researches and teaches Intercultural Communication and Critical Pedagogy. I have published four academic books. I chose a university professor as my career because I wanted to pursue something that is both tangible and abstract, challenging and joyful, and serves various communities locally and globally. Being a professor has been a wonderful option for me, because I see it as an art of ambiguous possibility as well as an urgent communal act—given our current state of anti-intellectualism and technology-centric thinking. It has been interesting to research and teach communication because of its interdisciplinary nature and emphasis on meaning-making, which allows me to analyze the nuanced ways in which various kinds of institutions impose obstructions on our becoming, thinking, and speaking. I like how I can approach broad phenomena from different angles—for example, critically, qualitatively, and quantitatively. It is my pleasure to teach my students what I have learned at Dokkyo university and at other institutions of higher education I have attended abroad. It is so special to see my students become competent individuals, working/living locally and globally, and making a difference in a lot of people’s lives no matter what path they choose. I see my students’ voluntary and vulnerable class participation as a gift. I hope my research and teaching make it matter. |