English

Through lectures/seminars, students will explore the ways in which philosophers have sought to understood and respond to the demands of Christian faith from both within and without that faith.Students will explore the social and psychological context of such faith, and the ways in which one might understand Christian notions of love, purity, devotion and sainthood, amongst others. Students will explore the ways in which some thinkers have seen Christianity as deepening our sense of the human condition whilst others have seen Christianity as degrading of our condition. The course is text based as, in this context, this is one of the best ways in which students can come to a deepened intellectual understanding of the matters under consideration.

The primary focus of this course is on the core machine learning techniques in the context of high-dimensional or large datasets (i.e. big data). The first part of the course covers elementary and important statistical methods including nearest neighbors, linear regression, logistic regression, regularization, cross-validation, and variable selection. The second part of the course deals with more advanced machine learning methods including regression and classification trees, random forests, bagging, boosting, deep neural networks, k-means clustering and hierarchical clustering. The course will also introduce causal inference motivated by analogy between double machine learning and two-stage least squares. All the topics are delivered using illustrative real data examples. Students also gain hands-on experience using R or Python (programming languages and software environments for data analysis, computing and visualization).

This course provides an understanding of the theory and the tools necessary to make good financial decisions. The course covers modern capital market theory and its applications to corporate finance. The course is divided into four parts: role of capital markets and the objectives of financial management; valuation of financial claims; risk and return; and corporate finance decisions including capital budgeting, financing, and divided policy.

This course is designed to explore key issues and current debates in the field of Marketing and International Marketing. The course explains theoretical concepts in the discipline of international marketing and the importance of how to think globally in business. In addition, the impact of political, legal, economic and cultural factors on marketing activities across countries will be discussed. Students will learn to analyze marketing plans and consumer product strategy at the global level.

This course offers an introduction to social movement studies, a dynamic field of academic studies that has grown in prominence for the past several decades. It focuses on the protests that have emerged and developed in the United States since the 2007-2008 financial crisis, as the United States has been home to a wide range of movements and counter-movements that have attempted to define or redefine notions such as equality, justice, and democracy. Throughout the world the 2010s and 2020s have been characterized by innovative or renewed forms of contentious politics that directly challenged the political status quo and neoliberal hegemony. Topics include Occupy Wall Street; the Tea Party; the 2011 occupation of the Wisconsin State Capitol; the January 2021 attacks on the federal Capitol in Washington, D.C.; the 2012 Chicago teachers' strike and the 2018-2019 teachers' strikes in predominantly Republican states; the recent successful organizing efforts at Amazon and Starbucks; the different iterations of the Movement for Black Lives; far-right rallies under the Trump presidency; campaigns against campus sexual assault in the early 2010s; the worldwide #MeToo movement and anti-feminist reactions fueled by the so-called men's rights movement; the 2016 No Dakota Access Pipeline protests and the Green New Deal; and corporate misinformation campaigns, behind-closed-doors lobbying, and judicial battles waged by Big Oil companies against environmental justice movements.

This course covers the following: 1. study of 20th-century British literature (prose, poetry, and drama) in its socio-political context; study of individual authors (in weekly lectures) 2. study of major cultural themes running through the century, e.g., literature of war; imperialism; feminism; modernism; postmodernism; political writing, 3. several trips to theatre productions during the year, 4. extensive use of archive recordings of authors, and video.

This course provides a survey of Irish-language poetry composed during the twentieth century. Using Louis De Paor’s bilingual edition of poems from the period, Leabhar na hAthghabála | Poems of Repossession, the course discusses questions of thematic and stylistic continuity as well as evidence for evolution within the poetic tradition of the Irish. Common themes and conventions in the Irish language poetry of the 20th century as well as an understanding of how these themes underwent development and were re-articulated over the course of the century are acquired. Such themes include gender discourse, post-colonialism, and the politics of language. Introductory use of literary theories and secondary sources is also included.

This course is designed for both international and Japanese students who are interested in the cultures of sports, health, and longevity in Japan and other countries.  The goal of this course is for students to learn how to participate in and enjoy sports as a way of becoming healthy and increasing longevity in their own lives.
 

The course will be taught not as a series of lectures but through student presentations and peer-review based evaluations and suggestions.

Engineering Innovation introduces students to the concepts of innovative thinking and innovation practices. Using lectures, case studies, team exercises and guest speakers, the course teaches life skills in innovative thought and action that students can use in careers ranging from starting companies to executing research and development projects in large companies. Students examine the innovator’s mindset and explore the culture of innovation. In a real- work, hands-on way, students learn how to be innovative and understand why innovation is integral to commercial success in the 21st Century’s digital revolution. Innovation strategies and tactics are evaluated from the perspective of ideation; that is, transforming innovative problem-solving ideas into viable solutions that are produced, sold, consumed, and or implemented in society. Students develop an understanding of the importance of innovation – and how innovation is applied. A best practices approach is used to demonstrate how innovators conceive and implement impactful solutions for a variety of problems. Students learn how technology can serve as both a pathway and a roadblock in organizations committed to operating with an innovator’s mandate. Students are taught practical and applicable skills that can be applied in enterprises ranging from startup ventures to Fortune 100 companies.

This course provides research training for exchange students. Students work on a research project under the guidance of assigned faculty members. Through a full-time commitment, students improve their research skills by participating in the different phases of research, including development of research plans, proposals, data analysis, and presentation of research results. A pass/no pass grade is assigned based a progress report, self-evaluation, midterm report, presentation, and final report.