English

This course offers an overview of how American legal institutions defined and enforced public rules based on race and racial categories. It begins with a discussion of the American constitution, then proceeds to the law of slavery, Native American removal, restrictions against Chinese and Asian immigrants, and race-based segregation. The course delves into the American Civil Rights Movement, followed by studies of desegregation and notions of “colorblindness.”   

This course explores how various forms of art, especially painting and architecture, have served to establish and strengthen the political cohesion of the young American nation. After defining key concepts, the course focuses on landscape painting in the 19th century, which was dedicated to the majesty of American landscapes. On the architectural level, it studies classicism as well as specific American forms of architecture. The course provides an opportunity analyze an artistic work in its historical and cultural context through the prism of building a national identity.

The course covers financial statements mainly from an investor's perspective. It provides the information in financial statements and technical tools for analyzing and valuing companies and communication. This course is designed to take the students beyond the routine filling of boxes with standard financial ratios. The primary focus of the course is not on the accounting rules, but the use of accounting information. We will use firms' publicly available financial statements to assess current performance, forecast future performance and estimate fundamentals of the firm.

This course provides the ability to analyze businesses focusing on their yielding cash flow. To conduct more reasonable analyses, the appropriate balance between quantitative analyses (e.g., financial ratio analyses) and qualitative analyses (e.g., strategy analyses) is essential. Furthermore, the course covers topics regarding financial forecasting, investment analysis, and business valuation. For the sake of a better understanding of the theories needed and the techniques in practice, cases are provided in the proper classes. Assessment: final exam (40%), group presentation (25%), class assignments (20%), quiz (15%). Prerequisite: Intermediate accounting knowledge