English

This course traces certain aspects of the postwar Japan, focusing on the planning and reconstruction of cities damaged during the Second World War in comparison with Great Britain. 

This course introduces students to the basic concepts of fluid mechanics. Starting with fluid properties and fluid statics, students’ progress to the conservation laws which allows them to analyze various fluid problems encountered in engineering practice. The second half of the course introduces students to basic fluid flow concepts. Students learn how to apply the prior concepts and laws to pipe flows, hydraulic machinery and pipe networks. At the end students should be able to estimate frictional losses for flows in pipelines, design pumping systems and apply the obtained knowledge to other engineering applications.

This practice-based course introduces students to the photographer’s workflow, emphasizing both technical proficiency and critical engagement with contemporary photographic practice. Students learn essential skills across the image-making process, including digital capture, basic editing techniques, and the production of archival-quality prints. Instruction combines demonstrations, tutorials, and research assignments designed to build technical fluency and conceptual awareness. Beyond technical training, the course situates photography within historical and theoretical frameworks. Students consider the ubiquity of the photographic image in an era of social media, examine how digital technologies have reshaped photography’s role as an artistic medium and as a mode of everyday expression. To inform their own practice, students research, analyze, and present findings on the work of established fine-art photographers, and artists who are leading the use of digital imaging. Through guided group crits of assignments, students learn to give structured feedback as they build a visual vocabulary and deepen their understanding of fine-art conceptual photography. Assignments include three creative projects of increasing difficulty, in-class technical assignments, an artist presentation and a written review. 

This course examines migration to New Zealand from England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales between 1800 and 1945, situating it within the broader context of British and Irish migration and New Zealand’s role in the Age of Mass Migration. It covers factors in Britain and Ireland that encouraged emigration, conditions in New Zealand that attracted immigrants, and the migration and settler experiences of specific groups.

From an ecocritical approach, this course explores the ways in which literature and culture represent, and interact with, the natural world, ecological consciousness, and social transformation. It examines how these issues and concerns are reflected in literary texts. This course also discusses a variety of critical approaches and literary responses to the period commonly referred to as the Anthropocence/Capitalocene, considering how literature can become a tool to promote environmental sustainability, multispecies dialogues, and social justice.

This course analyzes how whales and the practice of whaling is portrayed across a variety of film and print sources by Japanese and foreign directors and authors.  In Japan, whale meat is still available in restaurants and supermarkets, and while national whale consumption is falling, the majority of the Japanese public supports the country's whaling industry. In contrast, the idea of hunting whales or consuming them is anathema to much of the western world, where whales have in recent decades become a symbol of the environmental movement. The techniques and ideas utilized in the course aims to help students form educated opinions about whaling issues, and serve as for examining other controversial issues in the future.

This course explores social issues related to diversity in Japan, with a particular focus on racial and ethnic minority groups. The course examines how these groups’ identities have been socially constructed within Japan’s broader identity formation process and how their social circumstances and public discourse have evolved over time. The course emphasizes critical self-reflection of one's own identities and perspectives -how the social contexts and discourses are embedded in one's life and how these factors have shaped their identities and perspectives. 

In this course, students explore animation and motion blending using a real-time digital game environment. Students engage with and experiment with a range of digital methods such as key-framed animation, motion capture blending, real-time rendering, game-based interaction, digital world building, and alternative forms of digital narrative. The first 6 weeks of the course focuses on learning new techniques and processes, how these are applied, and free exploration and experimentation. The second half of the course focuses on applying the learning to a project that demonstrates high proficiency with advanced digital processes and the application to a meaningful narrative.

This seminar explores China's place within the larger maritime world, beginning with the voyages of Ming dynasty eunuch Zheng He and culminating in the South China Sea dispute. The course focuses partly on states and societies that claimed China’s coastal regions and the oceanic spaces surrounding it, and partly on the networks, institutions, and economies linking China to a wider maritime sphere. Readings will be drawn from both primary sources and scholarship on topics such as the Zheng organization on Taiwan, steamships, overseas migration, fishing, smuggling, and reform and opening in the late 20th century.

This course teaches fundamental knowledge of manufacturing technologies focusing on mechanical removal processes and MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical System).

Machining is denoted as a series of material-working processes which enable the manufacturing of industrial products having various shapes and functions. The fundamentals of four typical material-removal machining methods are introduced: cutting, grinding, polishing and non-traditional machining. The course emphasizes new technologies which can improve the accuracy, quality, and function of the products.