English

This course introduces students to the description, analysis, and interpretation of popular music. We will focus mainly on the music of popular music, exploring (1) how it is structured, patterned, and organized, and (2) how it achieves its effects. We will consider various stylistically relevant musical features, such as form, melody, harmony, timbre, rhythm, and sound design. Students will build their skills in identifying and describing salient features in popular works, and they will learn to produce their own critically informed close readings of individual popular songs. We'll also look at ways others have modeled these skills. A wide range of musical styles will be discussed, though the course is not intended as a historical survey.

This course examines the process of understanding human behavior in the workplace through the lens of psychological theories, perspectives, and approaches. 

This course introduces the science of ecology and its role in understanding environmental processes. The course covers both the major concepts and their real-world applications. Topics include models in ecology, organisms in their environment, evolution and extinction, life history strategies, population biology, ecological interactions, community ecology, ecological energetics, nutrient cycling, and landscape ecology.

Time series analysis concerns the mathematical modeling of time-varying phenomena, e.g., ocean waves, water levels in lakes and rivers, demand for electrical power, radar signals, muscular reactions, ECG signals, or option prices at the stock market. The structure of the model is chosen both concerning the physical knowledge of the process, as well as using observed data. Central problems are the properties of different models and their prediction ability, estimation of the model parameters, and the model's ability to accurately describe the data. Consideration must be given to both the need for fast calculations and the presence of measurement errors. The course gives a comprehensive presentation of stochastic models and methods in time series analysis. Time series problems appear in many subjects and knowledge from the course is used in, i.e., automatic control, signal processing, and econometrics.

Organizations of one form or another play an important part of society and serve many important needs. They vary greatly in size, complexity and the activities they undertake. To achieve organisational goals people working in organisations have to be managed. This requires understanding the behaviour of the individual in the workplace. The course explores three key areas. Firstly, the factors that influence individuals such as personality, attitudes, perception, motivation, learning, communication and job satisfaction. Secondly, the factors that influence the nature of groups and teams and the importance of leadership. Thirdly, the course explores the nature of organizations by analyzing issues such as goals, structure, design, control, culture and development.

Utilizing a multi-disciplinary approach based on infrastructural history, this course introduces students to modern and contemporary East Asia. While investigating the formations and transformations of empires and nations as sites of contests and tensions between different ethnicities, polities, and cultures, it also explores major cities in China, Japan, and Korea as the infrastructure of modernity rooted in the mobility of ideas, goods, capitals, and peoples. In doing so, it aims to gain an understanding of the dynamics of changes and continuities that shaped and are shaping the East Asian empires, nation-states, and societies. The major foci of attention are the intra-relations among the three East Asian nations, and the inter-relations between East Asian civilizations and Western civilizations from the late 19th century to now. 

This course examines various contemporary aspects of corporate governance, including issues relating to responsibility, accountability, sustainability, oversight, risk, ethics, and incentives. The course is multi-disciplinary, integrating concepts from the disciplines of accounting, finance, law, economics, and business ethics. A comprehensive overview of a myriad of issues, both theoretical and practical, arising out of the current international debate on creating effective corporate governance is provided. Next to acquiring a comprehensive overview of corporate governance, key learning objectives are to: (1) Develop a deep understanding of the key elements of corporate governance, (2) Acquire general knowledge of institutional differences in corporate governance as well as a general appreciation of many different codes of best practice worldwide; (3) Learn how to apply knowledge and understanding of corporate governance to real-world problems, and provide well-informed advice and judgments based on relevant academic research; and (4) Learn how to effectively communicate knowledge, advice and judgments on various corporate governance issues.

This course focuses on the relationship between religion and politics. To untangle this relationship, the course examines the role of four core processes – globalization, nation-state formation, colonialism, and gender – in giving shape to contemporary relations between politics and religion. In the first place, it offers a sweeping historical survey, starting with imperialism, the French and Haitian Revolutions, and modern state formation. This leads to contemporary geopolitics, religious nationalism (Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Confucian), and socio-cultural contests (over sexuality, abortion, education, and migration). The central goal is to understand how recurring questions of the political community (who has power, how, and why?) are informed by and inform struggles over the place, role, and nature of religion.  Questions are addressed in an interdisciplinary fashion, where politics, history, and religious studies encounter one another. The course consists of interactive lectures and seminar-style discussions, including ones that are student-organized and student-led.

An exploratory culture course for foreign students, Japanese Culture C offers insights into various aspects of the living culture of Japan. The course comprises of three basic approaches: Discussing certain cultural characteristics of the nation; reading some representative literature and conducting fieldwork at venues of cultural significance. Students can also enroll in Japanese Culture C; the course contents of both classes alternate between fall and spring semesters. Fall-only students can enroll in one class but may join fieldwork activities of the other class if there are openings available. 

This course examines the interconnection between the history and culture of the Tohoku Region, including the rebuilding efforts from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. It also addresses the variety of ways people have expressed themselves at different periods of history. 

This course is designed to analyze cancer from an evolutionary angle and to provide another way of thinking about cancer biology. The course covers the following topics:

• Basic genetics for studying cancer evolution
• Mutations
• Phylogenetic tree
• Why study evolution in cancers?
• Cancer evolution in colon, breast, lung, liver and other cancers
• Evolution in normal tissue