Natural disaster has many aspects to consider, and it is important that researchers from various specialized fields cooperate to conduct disaster studies. As the prerequisites and techniques vary on the basis of the field of specialization, however, it is not easy to conduct interdisciplinary research, particularly in the case of research that integrates both humanities and sciences.
 
Since 2017, IRIDeS Assoc. Prof. Yuichi Ebina who is specialized in modern history of Japan and historical disaster research has been in charge of planning and managing an annual symposium that coordinates arts and sciences. The Third Symposium, “New Developments in Disaster Science from Historical Lessons III: Japanese disaster culture,” was held open to the public on July 21, 2019, jointly by IRIDeS and the Inter-University Network Project on Preservation of Historical and Cultural Resources Tohoku University Base. During the Symposium, the keynote speech was given by Prof. Emeritus Nobuo Shuto from Tohoku University, who is a pioneering researcher in the field of tsunami engineering, and panel discussions on disaster culture were developed among researchers both from the arts and sciences, including Assoc. Prof. Ebina and other historians and engineers. The Symposium was a great success with 136 participants.

Regarding the Symposiums, Assoc. Prof. Ebina said, “Each time, we are opening up possibilities in new fields and sensing a great response. There is also increasing participation from outside IRIDeS. On the one hand, differences among different areas of expertise are becoming clearer. For example, researchers of the arts and sciences could interpret the same data differently from each other.” Assoc. Prof. Ebina highlighted that it is important to develop research through discussions held between researchers from different standpoints.

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