Experience in Long-Term

Participation in RJE3 program gave me an opportunity to increase my knowledge and skills in mine major field of studies and in other spheres. My main research interest is spatial analysis in stone age archaeology which allows to study economic and social aspects of prehistorical cultures. During the courses of RJE3 program I learned about community and public aspects of archaeological studies and the specific of archaeological research in Japan. Furthermore, during the Hokkaido Summer Institute classes I participated in lectures about natural environment, politics, economics, culture and history.

The classes that I chose touched questions of history, geography, culture, ecology, etc. Some classes helped me to increase my knowledge in different areas (for example, “Special Lectures on International Relations” and “Religious Studies”), and some of them opened some new field to me and gave new information (“Music Psychology” and “Regional Geography”). Well structuration of materials, regular feedbacks and professors’ attitude in general helped me to understand the materials of the classes. As the result of these classes I made presentations and essays about wide range of topics.

 Especially I want to talk about the course “Ainu and Indigenous Studies”. During the semester me in collaboration with students of Hokkaido University worked on research projects related to large infrastructure projects (in particular river dams), archaeology and culture property management. For this project we investigated cases of river dam building and related culture property monitoring in various regions (Russia, United States of America, China, Japan). Later we prepared a project of museum exhibition for Biratori community. This course is remarkable for me because of collaboration not only with students, but also with members of Biratori community. Community members was in the constant contact with my group and extensively gave feedback on our research and projecting results. This circumstance made this course highly practical oriented and incomparable with my previous research experience.

 In conclusion, I can say that participation in RJE3 program will be highly useful for my future research. First, I can use my knowledge and skills in my future research. Secondly, this program gave me experience of teamwork, which is necessary in modern academia and in archaeology especially.

Peace!