English

This course first discusses seminal texts on labor and work from the history of philosophy, including, but not limited to, Marx, Weber, and Arendt. These readings provide an indispensable conceptual foundation. Subsequently, the course examines contemporary texts in normative political theory, critical theory, and philosophical anthropology that allow the course to discuss and assess pressing issues of labor and work under current social and economic conditions.

Tuberculosis remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Taiwan as well as in many middle and low income countries. The course focuses on the epidemiology and current control strategies of tuberculosis from a global perspective. It discusses the natural history of tuberculosis, key elements in tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment, transmission dynamics, evolving concepts in tuberculosis control at World Health Organization and International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, drug-resistance tuberculosis, and HIV-TB co-epidemic. The course consists of a series of lectures and in-class discussions, field trips (Taiwan CDC mycobacteria laboratory and Taiwan Anti-Tuberculosis Association), paper presentation, and final group-project report.

This course provides an advanced introduction to the anthropology of health, illness, and healing. Students are introduced to key theories and current debates at the interface of anthropology and medicine through a focus on cross-cultural approaches to illness, pain, healing, the body, and care. This course explores biomedicine as one among many ways of thinking through and constituting personhood, illness, and the body. It deals with the challenges that arise when biomedical expertise meets other understandings of illness and suffering; the multiple kinds of care provided in institutional, public, religious and domestic settings; the relationship between curing and healing; and the ways in which people grapple with affliction and uncertainty through narrative, through relationships, and through action. 

This course provides an introduction to finance. The course starts with a brief discussion of the functions of financial systems, an overview of existing financial assets, financial intermediaries and markets, and an introduction to firm types and firms’ financial statements. The first part of the course deals with the time value of money and its applications: understanding interest rates and valuing bonds. The second part addresses investment decisions by firms and explains the basics of project and firm valuation. The course then introduces the notions of risky assets, risky returns, and risk aversion and highlights the benefits of diversification. It presents the foundations of portfolio theory and the central model of equilibrium asset pricing, the Capital Asset Pricing Model, before highlighting some of their important applications. The last part of the course discusses the efficient market hypothesis and the contending theories of behavioral finance. Basic knowledge of probability and statistics is a prerequisite for the course.

The course Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practices introduces students to a range of topics in the field of entrepreneurship and links both entrepreneurial theory as well as practice. Critical questions like who, why, when, and where start-ups embark on their entrepreneurial journey, are covered during this course. The course seeks to introduce the students to the vast literature about entrepreneurship and business start-ups and it challenges students to connect this literature to actual cases. The course covers aspects like entrepreneurial competences, regional eco-systems, opportunity recognition, appropriation, female and minority entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial success, etc. From a more practical standpoint, it explores how to put together an entrepreneurial team, develop approaches for evaluating the market reception, and discover the value creation potential of one’s venture idea.