English

This course introduces students to descriptive and analytical methods in structural geology. Geological maps are used to help students analyze structural features (e.g., folds, faults, contacts). 

For this excursion-based course, we will visit the Museum of Modern Electronic Music (MOMEN), considering questions around legacy,  historiography, and representation in the telling of electronic dance music’s histories. We will also avail ourselves of experiential opportunities on offer at the museum, such as DJ workshops and artist talks. In addition, we will visit the Robert Johnson nightclub in nearby Offenbach, which will afford firsthand experience as well as an opportunity to think about nightlife ethnography. In the seminar leading up to the excursion, we will explore the histories of German popular electronic music and Detroit techno, discuss nightlife fieldwork, and consider what might happen when museums and electronic music meet.

As possibly the oldest representation of embodied difference, monsters have always served as warnings not to stray off the beaten path. They might warn against the dangers that lurk in unknown territories or against engaging in aberrant behavior so as to avoid degenerating into something monstrous oneself. Monstrosity is thus not only a matter of those fantastical beings that we find in science fiction and fantasy narratives, but has always been attached to human bodies as well, or those who are designated as inhuman or less than human. In this seminar, we will engage with literary representations of monstrosity that blur the lines between the real and the fantastical and thematize monsters as both supernatural and otherworldly, as well as real material beings. Analyzing such literary constructions of monstrosity thus allows us to delve into an unconscious realm of social anxieties regarding human difference and non-normative embodiment with special attention to the intersections of race, gender, and disability.

This course will focus on the teaching of two types of Chinese folk dance: Xinjiang dance and long-sleeve dance, including their historical and cultural background as well as the basic moves. Students will practice the basic dance techniques and will learn an excerpt from a performance of each of these two types of dances and rehearse for the performance at the farewell party.

To provide the students with the basic knowledge of Chinese folk dance and to offer them an opportunity to practice the basic moves and present a performance.

This course examines the nature of the operating environment for international business today.  Students review the scale, scope, and trends in international business activity and evaluate the various methods that firms can use to assess, enter, and develop non-domestic markets. Students consider the relevance of factors such as culture, psychic distance, host and home country perspectives, and "green" issues on the organization and management of international business. Emphasis is placed on the business environment in key regions of the world, notably the European Union, North America, East and SE Asia and the transition economies of East and Central Europe. Finally, students examine the impact of the evolving world economy, regional integration and globalization on today's international firm.

This course offers a study of the foundations and applications of the interdisciplinary field of consumer behavior. It explores the internal, cognitive, and emotional motivations that drive individual consumers. It also discusses how external and exogenous influences affect buyers, taking into consideration socioeconomic, generational, gender, and cultural idiosyncrasies.

This course introduces how to prevent or mitigate natural disasters, especially those related to a large earthquake. It discusses the mechanism of hazards (earthquakes and tsunamis) and the disasters caused by these natural phenomena as well as the limitations of disaster sciences or hardware preparedness such as sea walls. The course also discusses the importance of education and communication.  The course features a group research project and presentation on disaster prevention. 

This course introduces students to the inter-disciplinary field of peace and conflict studies, and the range of practices that have developed to make peace in different parts of the world. These include international peacekeeping, mediation, peacebuilding, conflict transformation, and peace formation, among others. In particular, the unit sets such practices in the context of the key political science and international relations’ dynamics of power, international and state design, rights, resistance, and socio-political agency. It does so in the context of inter-disciplinary, multi-methodological, approaches, as well as a wide range of empirical case studies. The course outlines insights from a range of disciplines (social psychology, economy, anthropology, philosophy, sociology and geography) and places them in the context of insights from different conflict-affected regions around the world where various methods associated with peace processes have been applied.  

This course introduces archaeology as it is practiced in Japan, focusing on its concepts, methods and achievements. It traces the cultural transition of prehistoric Japan in relation to environmental change and adaptation strategy. It includes fieldwork in ICU pre-Jomon and Jomon sites.