English

This course provides an interdisciplinary examination of online dating and hookup culture. Moving beyond a public health focus on sexually transmitted diseases, it explores the communicative, psychological, and sociocultural dimensions of online dating platforms. Topics include online relationship development, motivations for app use, platform design, gender politics, queer world-making, and sexual racism, with case studies drawn from diverse global contexts. The course develops the ability to critically evaluate the opportunities, challenges, and broader social implications of dating and hookup apps. Some required readings involve quantitative reasoning.

This course offers an in-depth empirical analysis of key issues in contemporary world politics. It examines challenges of international cooperation in response to various growing global issues in the 21st century. Topics include: China and US relations; Post-Soviet Russia and the reconfiguration of Eurasian geopolitics; the European Union and the challenges of a common foreign and security policy.  

This course examines health and illness from a cultural perspective. Specifically, It analyzes the social meanings associated with health and illness, medical knowledge production, medical decision-making, and global health in cross-cultural contexts. Students will have a chance to delve into issues related to the social processes of framing illness, the medicalization of life in China and elsewhere, the complexity and uncertainty surrounding medical decisions, and the cultural aspects of health practices across the globe.

The course will cover basic concepts and contents on sustainable development (SD), its current state and bottlenecks, and the proposed transition pathways. Students will be guided to first study one SD issue in single locations, then cross-examine their findings against more holistic, comprehensive perspectives. Conflicts and dilemma among various goals will be identified, and the reasons explored by probing into deeper human shared values systems. Synthesizing this knowledge, experience and skills, the students will further move on to more comprehensive, real world problems involving multiple SDGs.

This course offers a study of the fundamentals of data protection and the principles of cybersecurity. Topics include cryptographic techniques to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity of data, analysis of vulnerabilities, threats, and attacks in systems and networks, and design and implementation of appropriate defense, detection, and response measures. This course also explores the legal and regulatory frameworks related to data protection and how to apply them in practice.  

This course explores the intricate relationships between media, culture, and public discourse across global contexts. It delves into the concept of the public sphere as a foundational element of democratic societies, examining how media platforms and political actors shape public discourse and influence public opinion. Through a critical examination of both historical perspectives and contemporary challenges, students gain a comprehensive understanding of how global media operates within and impacts the public sphere.

This is the first semester in a mainstream calculus sequence. It covers limits of one variable functions; continuity and differentiability; implicit differentiation; differentiation of trigonometric, exponential, and logarithmic functions; higher derivatives; applications of derivatives: related rates, linear approximations, the Mean Value Theorem, l’Hopital’s Rule, maxima and minima, curve sketching and optimization problems; definite and indefinite integrals, Riemann Sums, the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus.

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to Mathematical Logic, serving as a toolkit for clear thinking and a foundation for advanced studies in philosophy and sciences. We will begin with the basics of argumentation and traditional syllogistic logic, then move to the core of modern symbolic logic: Propositional Logic and First-Order Predicate Logic. Students will learn how to analyze the syntax and semantics of these systems and construct formal proofs. The course also covers essential mathematical tools such as basic Set Theory and mathematical induction. Furthermore, we will explore the frontiers of logic, including an introduction to Type Theory, the connection between logic and computation, and the relation of logic with computation and modern Artificial Intelligence.

This course examines the foreign relations between the People’s Republic of China’s and the Third World during the Cold War. The course will place a particular emphasis on the following topics: China’s position in the Cold War, the role of ideology, decolonization and the response of the Cold War powers, and the political economy of the Third World during the Cold War. A particular emphasis will be placed on Sino-African relations and less so on Latin America.