English

This course examines historical and current health policy issues and their impacts. It covers health policies mainly in the U.S. and Taiwan, but also looks at global health topics. The first part of the course discusses health care systems, such as the public insurance structures in the U.S. and Taiwan, health care reforms, and the long term care systems. The second part introduces health behavior related topics from the economic perspective, including the prescription drug market, the effects of smoking and drinking age regulations on health, the factors and consequences (education, employment, crime, etc.) of risky health behaviors, and the impact of environment on health.

In this course students study the politics of developing nations from the perspective and theory of political development. Additionally, students examine and discuss the patterns of political rule and political economies of chosen state systems. The class focuses on several case studies from Latin America, Africa, and South Asia.

Has contemporary culture taken a funny turn? This course offers you the chance to find out. Students look at the recent proliferation of comic novels and short stories, as well as stand-up comedy, sitcoms, and film, in order to ask questions such as: why is this funny? how is this funny? should we be laughing at this? and what does this type of comedy say about the contemporary moment? You will also study the theory and philosophy of comedy, using this to inform our understanding of what comedy and laughter do, culturally, psychologically, ethically, and politically.

The course critically evaluates rock music's musical content and contemporary cultural and social roles; ideally, the course serves to develop your general intellectual capacities of the music industry from the 1950s to 1960s (the so-called "rock and roll" era, arguably the most turbulent yet important period in popular music history). It's NOT a music course, per se, but we are listening to a lot of music as we consider the effects of recorded sound on popular culture. Thus, this is the quintessential "media and culture" course. We study the origin and growth of the recording industry and music business, consider the impact new technology had (and continues to have) on the development of popular music and examine the mutual influence between rock music and other media (film, television, radio, etc.). Following a loose chronology, we begin with an introduction to listening and some musical fundamentals, gradually developing a vocabulary with which to discuss and experience selected works from the history of rock. We trace the evolution of specific musical styles and investigate issues related to culture, performance, technology, and reception. Reading assignments introduce the distinct musical styles, performers, and works that comprise each genre and a certain time period. They also cover the relationship of rock music to American and global popular culture, historical representation, and authenticity.

This course provides a basis for handling and analyzing business data. This course also gives a chance to learn R, which is becoming a default analytics platform. This course presents students with real datasets and gives opportunities of ‘learning by doing’ through hands-on experience. Specifically, we study basic concepts in business analytics, and techniques and skills related to data exploration, data utilities, conducting statistical tests, data mining, and causal inference modeling. Topics include web data crawling and analysis, big data, regression models, panel model, classification model, causality model, instrumental variable model, and matching model.

What is myth? How do myths deal with fundamental human concerns about who we are and the world we live in? What is the relationship between myth and religion? This course is an introduction to the major myths of the classical world using the full range of primary source material: literary, artistic, and archaeological. This course is offered in semester 1, and the course GREEK AND ROMAN RELIGION taught in semester 2 builds on it. Both can also be taken as a year-long course.