Fifteenth Asian Bioethics Conference and Eighth Kumamoto Bioethics Roundtable, Beppu and Kumamoto, Japan, 1-9 November 2014

Visit of the participants to Nagasaki Peace Park to discuss ethics of nuclear weapons and peace.

Presidential address of Prof. Aamir Jafarey from Pakistan.

In Beppu

 In Kumamoto

Dr. Michael Jothi Rajan (India), Darryl Macer, Prof. irina Pollard (Australia) and Sebastian Mahimai Raj (India) at Kumamoto Castle

Japanese Research Group from the HIGO programme of Kumamoto University in Arizona

 

AUSN Visiting Professor Takao Takahashi giving a lecture on the Genealogy of Shinto and Bioethics to AUSN scholars, during a research exchange visit.

The picture illustrates the point – AUSN Visiting Professor giving a lecture on the Genealogy of Shinto and Bioethics to AUSN scholars, during a research exchange visit. There are interesting parallels in belief systems in Native American cosmologies and ethics from around the world, that affect our ethos and behavior.

Global public health concerns have also been the center of much media attention. The public health emergency of Ebola has been a feature that has often been discussed in our AUSN classes and is a theme for all of our reflection and papers.

In the Navaho Nation, Tonalea Chapter House

This is  a delegation visiting from University of Kumamoto in Japan, which included some professors and a group of graduate students who wanted to learn more about Native American ideas, We had very interesting discussions, also looking at Japanese ancestral religions and comparing that to different religions and ideologies, and mythologies of people have. 

Seasons Greetings after Eight months of Classes at AUSN

As we approach December 2014, eight months of teaching students in AUSN has proven to be an exciting adventure for the faculty and for the students who have joined us. There are over 50 students now enrolled in the masters programs of a AUSN and some of them have completed more than half of their degree already! The international community has appreciated the global nature of AUSN programs, with the combination hybrid programs providing the best of residential and group online learning. The 60 faculty from famous universities all around the world who have joined together to make this endeavor a truly international festival of learning have been the decisive factor in AUSN’s success.

Some students are working on the research for their Master’s thesis. We are currently reviewing proposals for the research, and some of these will go for review in the AUSN Institutional Review Board (IRB) that is registered with the Office of Human Research Protections and the FDA of the United States government. We also implementing our strategies for consultation with the communities and partners that will be involved in such research studies. Some of our students are choosing to do their thesis on theoretical work, crossing boundaries of traditional concepts that have been long accepted, and thinking about how we can move forward in the creation of new disciplines and new fields of knowledge production.

In fact this is similar to the whole idea of AUSN that we would produce a new generation of scholars able to synthesize knowledge from many traditional disciplines, and work together with people around the world. We all hope that this will work together for many different communities to think about how we can make the world better. Although the world’s attention has been focused on the climate change talks in Lima, Peru this month, although we can see the difficulties of having 190 Nations from around the world agree on a text which agrees on reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, we need to build upon the common goal that peoples around the world have to provide a good future for their children and grandchildren and the ecosystems that we are members of that have nurtured us. We have also been blessed by the presence of visiting researchers, including AUSN research fellows, who conduct research around the world, and come to AUSN for visits from collaborating institutions around the world.

How do we think about the future? 2014 has been a busy year for AUSN also in the holding of conferences and in entering into collaborative agreements, as you can see from the previous news reports that I’ve shared in the previous months and in the growing list of collaborating institutions.