‘Enslaving the Mind’
by Professor Monte Cassim, Ritsumeikan University
The first leg of the Renkei Pax school program, entitled ‘Enslaving the Mind’ took place between 14 and 23 September 2016 at Ritsumeikan University, the home to the world’s first peace museum founded by a university. Twenty-two participants of fifteen nationalities joined their research endeavour. The program consisted of three elements, ‘lessons from the past’, ‘theatres of uncertainty today’, and ‘shaping our shared future’.
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Image: The Kyoto Museum for World Peace, Ritsumeikan University
The theme chosen for the workshop reflected the growing concern regarding human safety/security in the light of parastatal terror and response by states, the environment surrounding failed states, the co-option of minds by both governments and their opponents, as well as the impacts of the violence and violations that invariably accompany the above. Considering that these are situations we find in both developed and developing countries, the workshop encouraged participants to think about the conditions that lead societies into such situations, using the programme’s inspirational lectures and the collection of the Kyoto Museum for World Peace to stimulate thought.
Viewing the destruction of peace as a subject that affects all humanity, ‘Enslaving the Mind’ was taken up as the theme around which transferrable skills could be imparted to the participants. The three parts of the programme were structured to lead participants from awareness using lessons from the past (part one) through analysis of a current hotspot (part two) to synthesis and expression of their thoughts to create an outcome that would enable public engagement (part three). The outcome expected from this group work was the creation of a museum display and an interactive ‘game’, using one artefact from the museum collection per group. Instruction was given in this last part regarding how museum curators develop exhibition displays and how such games are developed.
There was some trepidation among the organisers as to whether, given the short time available, participants could reach the final desired outcome. These fears dissolved on the last day, when the groups made their presentations. It is now apparent that once participants understood the processes involved in creating the outcomes, i.e. conducting research around a theme selected for public engagement, creation of a strong narrative (storyboard) and expression of that narrative, either as a display or a game, the dialectic within and among groups led to a most creative result. In addition to this, the possibility of following up on this outcome through publication in academic journals (as some did with excellent reviews), and linking it to the 2017 programme in Liverpool on ‘Emancipating the Mind’, also appears to have contributed to the outcome. Needless to say, the quality of the speakers invited, the nature of the places visited, the systematic guidance by a diverse range of mentors, and the group dynamics among participants all contributed to inspire participants. This was reflected in their evaluation of the programme.
The event hosted in 2017 at Liverpool University from 17 to 26 August built upon the successes of the first leg of the project and developed them further through focusing on other aspects of peace, conflict, and injustice in recent history and the contemporary world. The centring of the program on the legacies and contemporary manifestations of slavery proved a stimulating one for both the students from Ritsumeikan and the other Japanese and UK institutions involved. The co-hosting of the event with the International Slavery Museum also built a link between that institution and Ritsumeikan and its students.
The written outcomes and reflections produced in Liverpool were of a very high quality and the generation of interdisciplinary, and Japan–UK research links, among the participants were a highly praiseworthy outcome of the Liverpool event. As the Renkei program evolves in the future this two stage workshop will serve as a good example of successful UK-Japan research partnership on peace related issues at the graduate level and will hopefully form a springboard for similar faculty focused projects in the future.
