On September 7th, our 2020 UMAP-COIL Joint Program participants joined the 5th Lecture on Zoom, in which Dr. Don Bysouth, Specially Appointed Associate Professor at Kansai University, gave a lecture on "Popular Culture and SDGs". Dr. Bysouth touched on different aspects of Japanese popular culture including anime, music, idol, sub culture, and mass media by showing various video clips.
After introducing different sides of Japanese popular culture, students were asked to think about how Japanese they could be incorporated to promote SDGs. They had breakout sessions with their peers to discuss potential solutions and also shared their thoughts/ideas with everyone after coming back to the main room. Dr. Bysouth concluded the lecture by pointing out the importance of understanding each country's culture in spreading awareness of SDGs.

 

 

 

This was the last lecture for the students and they will present their group projects which they have been working on for the past 2 weeks. The final presentation will take place on the 14th of September.If you would like to read more about the past lectures, please visit the links below:

 

Pre-program workshop and Lecture 1: https://www.kansai-u.ac.jp/Kokusai/IIGE/news/detail.php?seq=96
Lecture 2: https://www.kansai-u.ac.jp/Kokusai/IIGE/news/detail.php?seq=103
Lecture 3: https://www.kansai-u.ac.jp/Kokusai/IIGE/news/detail.php?seq=106
Lecture 4: https://www.kansai-u.ac.jp/Kokusai/IIGE/news/detail.php?seq=109