English

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.

The course is an introduction to three important tools of applied mathematics, namely ordinary differential equations, Fourier-series, and partial differential equations. Some basic theoretical properties are proved and solution methods presented. Ordinary differential equations: linear differential equations of order n, the Cauchy problem, Picard's existence theorem, solution by power series and equations with singular points.  Fourier series: convergence point-wise, uniformly and in the mean-square, Parseval's equation. Partial differential equations: the heat equation and the wave equation solved on a finite interval by separation of variables and Fourier series and their solutions compared, the Dirichlet problem for the Laplace equation on the rectangle and the disc, the Poisson integral formula.

This course surveys the major approaches of human personality, covering classical and contemporary themes, such as psychodynamic theories, behavioral models, humanistic theories, trait theories, social learning theories and personality perspectives indigenous to cultures in Asia.

This course, via an emphasis on analytical thinking rather than memorization, introduces the major developments in ancient Chinese history from early human settlements to the fall of the Han dynasty (ca. 2000 BCE–220 CE). We explore the rise of early states, the growth of bronze-age cultures, the formation of imperial government, and the spread of classical philosophies.  

The course also examines the role of nomadic societies, especially the Xiongnu and their early predecessors, in shaping the political and cultural landscape of early China. 

 Students learn to analyze both archaeological evidence and historical texts to better understand how ancient Chinese and steppe civilizations interacted and co-evolved.  

Students are encouraged to engage critically with historical sources and debates, and to focus on interpretation, context, and historical reasoning rather than factual recall. The goal is to understand the formation and structure of ancient Chinese civilization. Students gain a comprehensive understanding of the political, social, and ideological development of ancient China from the Neolithic period to the Han empire. Emphasis is placed on the formation of centralized states, classical philosophical traditions, and the institutional foundations of early empires. Students also analyze interactions between sedentary and nomadic societies. Through the case of the Xiongnu and their predecessors, students explore the dynamics between the Chinese states and the steppe world. The course emphasizes frontier politics, military confrontation, cultural exchange, and the construction of regional order in early East Asia. 

This course studies the history of English literature, exploring key texts from each literary period, and examines English literary texts from cultural and social perspectives. In particular, the course analyzes literary classics such as Beowulf and works by Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, John Milton, Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Mary Shelley, Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Oscar Wilde, E. M. Forster, Virginia Woolf and Kazuo Ishiguro, situating them in their cultural and social contexts.