Succession and Evolution of Civilization

Humanities and Social sciences are expected to contribute to actualizing a sustainable future and build upon the civilization founded by our predecessors. In order to meet these expectations, we at ICR are promoting Digital Humanities, and aim to redesign the values of Humanities and Social Sciences by striving to digitally archive academic resources, promoting open access, developing technology for information sharing, measuring ways to integrate research methods and evaluation standards as well as nurturing interdisciplinary research that utilizes the above. For example, at the Research Center for West Asian Civilization, we investigate historic processes from the start of settlements and agriculture, to the emergence and development of writing system, religion, urban societies and regional states, and aim to create a global research center that looks to history for solutions to problems facing modern society. In the field of Indian, Buddhist and Tibetan studies, focusing exclusively on scribal culture, we work to shed light on philosophy, thought, ethics and religion from a historic perspective while deliberating on ancient records. We are collaborating with overseas research institutes like the Asia-Africa Institute (University of Hamburg) to carry out empirical research based on primary data that has been handed down to us on mediums like stone, plants, paper etc. The aim of the collaboration is to decode the vast quantity of textual data and preserve these resources by using latest digital tools.