Associate Professor Kumiko Kiuchi has returned from her stays in Ludwig-Maximillian University Munich and University of Cambridge supported by the WRH Faculty Research Abroad Program. This is a report on the activities and results of her stay.

 

 

 

Awardee	Kumiko Kiuchi
Destination Institution	①Ludwig-Maximillian University Munich ②University of Cambridge
City and Country	①Munich, Germany ②Cambridge, UK
Host Researcher	①Professor Christof Mauch ②Professor Matthew Gandy
Travel Period	2024/10/14　～　2025/3/8
Project Title	Study of Ontological Landscape Analysis Based on Augustin Berque’s “mesology”

 

 

During my research visit funded by the WRH, I conducted my research at the Rachel Carson Center of the Ludwig-Maximillian University Munich and the department of geography at the University of Cambridge.

My proposed project seeks to illuminate the reception of the mesology of Augustin Berque in the context of urban space in English-speaking countries. Thanks to being based in Europe, I had much better access to resources and made significant progress in my research. In the background of my research on Berque lies my larger research project of studying the representation of the artificial islands and reclaimed land in Tokyo Bay in light of the history of urban planning and environmental history. This research stay allowed me to connect with a number of scholars who work on the waterscape and non-human in the urban landscape and to discuss my research.

At the Rachel Carson Center, Professor Christof Mauch, the chair of the Center, introduced me to scholars who work on the River and Island Studies in urban context. The network of the Center also allowed me to become acquainted with Professor Simone Müller and her colleagues who run the research project “UM(WELT)DENKEN” at the University of Augsburg, as well as with Professor Pietro Omodeo of University of Ca’Foscari, Venice. The Center functions as a global hub of researchers who stay for both short and long terms and creates an environment that truly fosters their research collaborations on site. The Center also inspired me to think about place-making for collaborative research environment.

During my stay at the geography department of the University of Cambridge, thanks to the strong support of Professor Matthew Gandy, my host professor, I was able to present my research not only at Cambridge but also at the Urban Lab, part of the Bartlett School of the University College London. Through my presentations, I was able to meet a number of both junior and senior scholars in the field of human geography with interdisciplinary interests and approaches to urban space, some of whom have expressed interest in an international joint research projects. Collaborations with Professor Gandy have opened up a prospect of publishing my research in English. I am currently turning my presentations into articles and chapters.

During my stay in Cambridge, I received two invitations. At the English Department of the University of Athens (Greece), I delivered a lecture on rita and Samuel Beckett to output my research conducted at the Future for Humanities Research Center (2021-2023). At the section of Japanese Studies of the University of Lille (France), I gave a lecture on Tokyo Bay, and a seminar with a screening for the students in Japanese studies. I am grateful for the initiatives of Dr Stamatina Dimmakopoulou and Dr Cyrian Pitteloud respectively.

Throughout my research stay, I came to value in-person and face to face meetings more than before. I met over 30 scholars and every one of them listened attentively to my research and offered advice and support to advance my research. I look forward to turning this rich research network of scholars I have gained into larger international collaborative research projects. This research visit became a significant turning point in my research career. I would like to thank to all those who offered support for my research stay.

Related links:
– World Research Hub (WRH) Program
– Kumiko  Kiuchi (Science Tokyo STAR Search)