TUFS Attends Annual SUN General Assembly and Visits the University of Venice

September 14, 2018

The 4th Annual General Assembly of the Silk-road Universities Network, of which TUFS is a member, was held at the University of Venice (Italy) from Wednesday, August 29 to Friday, August 31, 2018, with President TATEISHI and Associate Professor ODAWARA Rin in attendance.
SUN is a network formed in 2015 based on the ancient Silk Road philosophy - that of respecting different cultures, linking them together, and promoting fair trade, and is currently consisting of 78 member institutions from 30 countries, mainly located on the Silk Road (land and sea routes).
At the General Assembly, Associate Professor Odawara spoke on behalf of President Tateishi on the topic of "Tokyo University of Foreign Studies as a Frontier of Japan’s Globalization" and discussed human resource development at TUFS.

The Writing Contest of SUN (WRICOS), initiated in accordance with Silkroadia (the spirit of ancient Silk Road) to promote student-researcher exchange, was also held at the General Assembly. This year marked the third year of WRICOS, with Professor NIWA Izumi as a judge following last year’s contest. 13 students and faculty from TUFS participated in translating winning essays into Japanese this year.

President Tateishi and Associate Professor Odawara also attended the QS SUMMIT, held simultaneously at the University of Venice, where President Tateishi gave a lecture titled "Embracing the Diversity and Plurality of Human Society", explaining TUFS’ efforts to resolve the various issues facing today's global society.
QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) is an organization that publishes rankings of the world's universities and holds summits in different fields in various cities several times a year. This year's humanities summit was titled "Embracing Innovation for Constructive Global Engagement".

President Tateishi and Associate Prof. Odawara paid a courtesy call on the University of Venice prior to the SUN Annual Meeting and QS SUMMIT. They met with Rector Professor Michele BUGLIESI, Professor Susanna REGAZZONI (Specialty in Hispanic-American Language and Literature) and Professor Bonaventura RUPERTI (Delegate for Didactics of Department of Asian and North African Studies) to further enhance exchanges between the University of Venice and TUFS.

On Tuesday, August 28, the TUFS Global Community Meeting was also held in Venice. President Tateishi, Associate Prof. Odawara, two alumni from the Italian branch of Tokyo Gaigokai, and Professor Ruperti from the University of Venice participated in the meeting, where a wide range of topics were discussed and fruitful conversations took place.