English

This course covers the interactions between geology and human activities and gives an overview of environmental problems and challenges in geosciences. It deals with water- and soil-resources, contaminated sediments, carbon capture and storage (CCS), the use of micropaleontology in environmental studies to establish reference conditions, impacts of mining activities, climate change from a perspective of natural variation, sustainable use of natural resources, and waste- and pollution control.

In this course, students gain in-depth knowledge of pricing and hedging of financial derivatives in equity markets, basic stochastic calculus, Ito’s formula, Black-Scholes models for European, American and path-dependent options such as Barrier, Asian and Lookback options. The course requires students to take prerequisites.

This course offers an in-depth exploration of cultural diversity in Oceania by analyzing the complex interplay among colonial encounters, postcolonial impacts, Indigenous epistemologies, and identity formation. It approaches these themes through the lens of the ocean, which has historically shaped connections, migration, trade, and cultural exchange across the region. Through theoretical discussions, case studies, ethnographic readings, and multimedia materials, the course examines how various colonial histories have influenced Indigenous societies and their ways of knowing, being, and relating.

This course develops technical composition skills and deepens artistic awareness in creating, manipulating, and analyzing music. It explores creative and technical approaches drawn from historical and contemporary art music, as well as various popular idioms. It covers melody writing, thematic development, harmonic understanding, and contemporary musical languages.

This is an intermediate English linguistics course which should be taken after studying the basics of linguistics. It provides students with the basic knowledge of English Language Teaching in secondary education in Japan from a practical point of view and investigates how one's knowledge of English (not only structural but also communicative) can be used to improve learners' abilities to use English. 

Course Prerequisites:  Enrollment in at least one or two of the introductory courses of linguistics offered at SILS (Introduction to Applications of Linguistics and Introduction to English Linguistics). 

This course examines politics in transitioning and young democracies. Drawing upon research on “new” democracies in various regions of the world, this course focuses on democratic consolidation, political accountability and quality of governance, while discussing how well political institutions function in new democracies. The course also examines some of the common challenges to governance in new democracies. 

The course begins with an introduction to public speaking for students to develop confidence and overcome fear when speaking before a group. Focusing on informative speech and persuasive speech, the course follows a "learn by doing" approach and all members of the class have many opportunities to test and develop their presentation skills before the entire class.

This course politics of environmental and climate (in)justice. It looks at modern theories of justice versus environmental reality, individualized property regimes versus collective good, colonialism versus te Ao Māori, positivism versus mātauranga Māori, universalism versus localism, and seeks just ways forward. Case studies will be drawn from Aotearoa and global experiences of environmental and climate injustice. It looks at the foundations of liberal political thinking and draws from critical and decolonial theory and te ao Māori in our search for useful tools to fashion just decolonial environmental politics.

This course discusses global health and health systems reforms in the Asia-Pacific Region. Africa, and OECD countries. The course also examines the financing, policy evaluation, and providing aspect of healthcare services. Key topics include health policy synthesis and evaluation; public policies reform addressing low birth rates; progress toward universal health coverage assessment; planetary health; multi-country data analysis; equity in health and social exclusion, and innovations in health financing system. The course emphasizes hands-on learning through extensive use of Microsoft Excel and statistical software package R.

Course Prerequisites: The course assumes basic knowledge of statistics. However, for those without prior experience, the course provides support to build a strong foundation in data analysis, statistical concepts, and the use of the R software package.

This course provides students with the conceptual framework and skills for describing and analyzing Modern English. Students learn to parse simple and complex constructions in English. Topics include word classes, the structure of sentences and phrases, clause types, complex sentences and discourse styles. Students analyze variations in English through time, and evaluate influences on the structure of English in bilingual/multilingual situations such as Singapore.