On November 4th, 2009, the fourth year students of the Department of British and American Studies gave presentations in English on their graduation thesis topic. This was an excellent opportunity for the graduating students to present their ideas, thereby deepening their understanding of their subjects as well as providing them with a good opportunity to review the work of others.

The first international workshop was held on November 20th, 2009. Associate Professor Erin Chung, of Johns Hopkins University, Visiting Professor Kunio Ishida, of Nanzan University, Professor Emeritus David Mayer, of Nanzan University were invited as panelists to discuss "Immigration Issues as Seen through Comparisons between Japan and America". The workshop was completely in English and featured three student representative questioners—a Japanese student, a Japanese-Brazilian student, and a Chinese international student. Each student posed a question in English to a different panelist and aided in a lively discussion of the issues discussed.

Globalization is a process where goods, money and people flow freely between borders. As a result, countries can no longer be economically, socially and culturally independent and are inevitably influenced by other countries in the global network. A country's immigration policy--deciding who to admit and who to refuse entry or to deport--is an critical issue directly related to a nation's identity. We invited three distinguished lecturers to examine this issue from different perspectives and to discuss the future of immigration policies around the world.

For decades, since the end of WWII, the U.S. and Japan have had a strong connection, both military and economic. Changes in America greatly influence Japan, as evident in 2009, a year of great political change for both countries. This workshop focused on the history of Japan-US relations, the future of America, and the future of the relationship between the two countries.

Jan. 18th, 2010 - Guest lecturer Professor Christopher D. Tancredi, of the Institute of Cultural and Linguistic Studies at Keio University gave a lecture on the linguistic topic of "Condition B as an Epiphenomenon". Professor Tancredi, a researcher in the field of universal grammar, stimulated the students' interest in generative grammar by introducing them to the latest theories.

On February 22nd, 2010 Professor Bonnie D. Schwartz and Associate Professor Kamil Ud Deen both of the University of Hawaii at Manoa were invited to speak on topics related language acquisition. Professor Schwartz lectured on "Let's Go on a Hawaiian Tour (of Child L2 Acquisition)" and Associate Professor Deen spoke on "Binding in Thai: The Case for Nativism". To aid the students' understanding of the lectures, Professor Masatake Arimoto and Professor Keiko Murasugi of Nanzan University's Department of British and American Studies provided short introductory lectures on the topics discussed. A very important part of the program was the overall introduction of the GP program given by a member of the GP Student Committee. This represented an important step in our path towards encouraging our students to speak out in English.