English

This course is an upper intermediate listening and speaking course in Putonghua, focusing on students’ fluency in speaking and appropriateness in usage. In addition to daily situations and semi-formal situations, students will also be introduced to various aspects of Chinese culture and society. 

This course combines seminars and site visits to take students on a cultural, literary journey through the many layers of Berlin. The course takes a historical look at 1920s Berlin, the liberal republic and how the Fascist government came to be. It then goes on to post WW2, when it became a frontline of the Cold War. Students explore the fall of the Wall in 1989 and the birth of Berlin in a new era as a center of creativity. 

In this course, students gain insight into a variety of approaches to ensuring that children grow up healthy and with opportunities to become contributing members of society. The historical roots, current issues, and future challenges related to children’s well-being are addressed. Students gain diverse knowledge and form opinions on a broad spectrum of related topics, including family life, the influence of the turbulent 20th century on youth and education, regional and national differences in educational systems, preventive youth health care, public policy on social services and divorce support, parental leave, and day care provision. Students learn about alternative educational approaches, such as those developed by Maria Montessori, Rudolf Steiner, Célestin Freinet, and A. S. Neill. Site visits to relevant museums and exhibitions deepens students’ theoretical learning. The course incorporates guest talks in order to foreground the place of family, schools and child development across societies and cultures.

A knowledge of the past and the long reach of historical processes is vital to an understanding of the modern world in terms of both physical landscapes and the evolution of economic, social and cultural landscapes. Past imperial and colonial practices and their legacies are key to understanding contemporary global inequalities (e.g. uneven economic development, resource access, population structures) and the societal challenges facing developing countries. Historical geography focuses on the dynamic relationship between space and time offering a geographical analysis of the past and an historical analysis of geographic patterns. This course charts the evolution of human society across the globe examining the emergence of regions and places with distinctive identities and characteristics in an increasingly globalizing world. In doing so it introduces key concepts in historical geography that illuminate processes of continuity and change, linkages, and ruptures and the intersections between power and society.

This course introduces the principles and practices of public relations, focusing on strategic, digital, and socially responsible communication. 

Topics include the history of public relations; public relations communication practices in various organizations such as corporations, governments, public institutions, local governments, and educational institutions; ethics and public relations; research and theory in public relations; social media and emerging technologies; and career opportunities in the field.  

This course explores how some of the myriad constructions and representations of sex and gender that emerged during the Weimar Republic (1919-1933), were performed in private, in public, and in the spaces where the two spheres intersected. Specifically, the course highlights how individuals and artists reacted to and expanded upon societal expectations concerning gender roles, during a period when Berlin became a global center of cultural innovation, artistic exploration, and scientific discovery. The stage and burgeoning film industry offer important documentation and a departure point to explore how German society grappled with the political implications of the First World War. In addition, both offer opportunities to explore how consumerism influenced the ways in which individuals chose to fashion their identities and the spaces around them.

This course introduces key social, cultural, and religious aspects of Jewish thought and practice from antiquity to our own time. This course focuses on Judaism as a major world religion that has shaped Western Civilization. Rabbinic textual traditions that underpin Jewish religious thought—especially the Mishnah, Talmud, and Midrashim—are explored. Calendar, festivals (esp. Day of Atonement, New Year, Festival of Booths, Passover, Hanukkah), and rites of passage (e.g., birth, circumcision, Bar/Bat Mitzvah, marriage, divorce, death) are studied both within the classroom as well as, when appropriate, in visits to local Jewish synagogues and museums. Contemporary Jewish movements and the history of their traditions come into view along with their different beliefs and practices (e.g., kashrut, Sabbath, worship, prayer).

This course examines sensory and perceptual processes, with an emphasis on psychophysical and scaling methods and experimental techniques. Contents include: psychophysics and scaling, sensory systems, perceptual development, constancies and illusions, and attention.

This course examines major religious traditions in the world from a phenomenological and historical point of view. Topics include Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism and local religions. 

This course examines different farm management and agribusiness management practices and approaches in the agricultural and horticultural sectors. Drawing from multidisciplinary perspectives, the course provides students with understanding of the key approaches, issues and themes relating to strategic management in agribusiness (theories, planning), organization theory (explanatory approaches, design principles), interorganizational coordination (cooperation, chain management), fundamentals of innovation and knowledge management, basics of information and knowledge management, and business ethics and corporate social responsibility.