About Scottzemi

Overview: Seminars at Waseda University are year-long courses that allow third-year students to work intensively with one professor on a particular theme. The theme of Scott Seminar (also known as "Scottzemi") is information and communication technologies. After finishing the third-year class, fourth-year students continue to work with Dr. Scott to write their senior thesis, a key graduation requirement in the School of Human Sciences. Scottzemi is unique as all students study exclusively in English including their senior thesis.   

History: When I joined the School of Human Sciences in 2001, I was not assigned a seminar as there were a limited number of these classes at the time. In 2002, a group of seven students (see photo on left) petitioned to have a seminar taught in English and as luck would have it, one seminar space opened up and thus Scottzemi was created in 2003 at the request of the students. In this way, student interests and motivation have played an important part, not only in the creation of this seminar, but in some of its major projects like overseas' study camps. 

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Schedule

The first semester is spent reading articles related to information and communication technologies. Although we are interested in the tools of communication, we generally focus on how people use these technologies to communicate. Common topics include smartphone use by Japanese young people, comparing the use of social media by American and Japanese teens, and gender differences in the use of communication technologies. Each week, students read an article, write an assignment on its contents, and then talk about it in class all in English. The small seminar format allows us to work together to better understand the article's contents. 

In the second semester, students work on an Individual Research Project (IRP). Each student chooses a topic that interests them--usually one of the topics covered during the first semester. The IRP helps students develop their research and writing abilities, skills they will need when writing their senior thesis and in their future careers. 

In addition to our classroom studies, we do a variety of activities during the year, including dinner parties, field trips, and study camps. In past years, we visited the Japan Center for Michigan Universities (JCMU) in Hikone, Shiga. 

​Scottzemi is taught in English, and all readings, homework, correspondence, IRPs, and senior theses are done in English. Students should be prepared to study in an English-only environment. We do not study the English language or linguistics, per se, but use English to learn about topics directly related to  information and communication technologies. Students interested in studying the English language or linguistics should select a different seminar.