Ecology and Society in Rural Japan Based in rural Japan, this pilot program brings students, faculty and the local community together in an immersive learning environment spanning the mountains, rivers and coastlines of rural Japan. A small group of students will study history, ecology, anthropology, literature and economics while planting rice, cutting bamboo and harvesting oysters in an experimental program that reimagines liberal arts education from the roots up. The 2026 theme, Thinking Like a Watershed, explores the relationship between water and human society at multiple scales. How have river systems shaped the way people have lived, and how have human interventions throughout history rechanneled the flow of water through watersheds? And what would it mean to live with water sustainably? The program is sponsored by the Weatherhead Institute for East Asian Studies and is generously funded by the Unson Foundation, a philanthropic foundation that exists to study the most challenging social and environmental problems generated by capitalism and to help build new social systems that will foster long-term human wellbeing.