English

This course centers around literary translation workshops in which students will be asked to provide constructive feedback to peer work as well as take turns facilitating the workshops.

By the end of the course, students will have produced:
1) a dozen or so translations of selected excerpts (approx. 400 words) from reading assignments (short stories, essays, etc.):
2) written responses to a number of reading assignments:

Given the workload, emphasis on attendance/participation, and class format, this advanced course is recommended for students who:
1) have previously taken writing and/or literature courses at the university level;
2) are capable of handling reading assignments of significant length in English and Japanese;
3) enjoy actively participating in and leading group work and class discussions;
4) are able to work in an organized manner (including submitting weekly assignments beforehand online)

English will be the primary language of instruction/communication in the classroom. However, students will be expected to be able to handle literary texts in both English and Japanese.

This course provides an introduction to smart city planning. It covers the history and concept of smart cities, future city trends, diverse smart technologies, and smart city policies. Topics include a comparison of European smart cities, technology and urban planning, smart city projects in economic development planning, smart mobility solutions, autonomous vehicles, smart mobility projects in Korea, smart energy transitions, and smart city projects in participatory planning. 

The course introduces the use of materials related to artistic expression, color, and perspective to create a 3-dimensional illusion and technology for dating and attribution of objects of art. Scientific principles of various forms of art are explored.

This introductory studio course presents photography as a medium of documentation, critical communication, and personal expression related to social issues and intimate involvement. It builds photography skills including composition, light, and technical expertise. Alongside developing skills, the course considers questions of identity and expression in photography and examines how photographs have been used as markers of cultural identification. The course challenge students to question, explore, and express their own identity through photography and to take inspiration from their host city environment, in synergy or contrast with their own identity. It deepens the ability to think critically and express thoughts through images and related texts by analyzing and interpreting experiences in Italian society. Through various photographic exercises and assignments, the course explores digital photography as a tool to interpret and narrate different aspects of the city and one's personal experience of and with it, reflecting on identity in a visual way. Lectures cover technical aspects related to shooting and editing, conceiving and amplifying projects, and addressing different audiences. The course also offers an overview on Italian and international photographers and different approaches in contemporary photographic practice. Classroom discussions, assigned readings, and photo responses, combined with the personal experience of the photographic medium, help to develop critical skills to understand how photographs work aesthetically and conceptually in various contexts, how they are used in contemporary society and culture, and how they become means of personal exploration.

From recurring economic crises to political upheavals, pandemics to armed conflicts, and the looming climate catastrophe, this course explores how social science perspectives can advance our understanding of the phenomenon of crisis. It provides an overview of divergent social-theoretical perspectives on crises and discusses respective concepts for assessing current socio-economic developments. On the basis of classical and more recent literature, the course examines the emergence and political constitution of crises as well as their transformative and innovative potential. The second part of the course focuses on exemplary contemporary crises and shows which insights social science research offers to makes sense of and cope with our disruptive reality. In addition to developing knowledge about crises and the state-economy-society nexus, the course also provides an opportunity to approach various formats of academic writing, transfer conceptual knowledge to other empirical fields of interest, and concisely present ideas.

This course provides theoretical and practical knowledge of the role and impact of global marketing & new product development (NPD) on business activities in Japan.

The main objectives of this course in marketing are:
・ To learn the principles and key concepts of global marketing.
・ To deepen the understanding of the uniqueness and commonality of Japan in a global market.
・ To explore approaches to designing and implementing global marketing strategies for Japan, emphasizing the impact of environmental factors.

On new product development, students are expected:
・ To understand an overview of the new product development (NPD) process and its success principles for the Japanese market.
・ To understand how to turn consumer insights into prototypes and bring viable products into the market in Japan.
・ To develop analytical and intercultural communication skills to share insights for product opportunities in Japan.

Incentives economics (also known as economics of information and contract theory) studies interactions between economic agents in the presence of information asymmetries, such as sellers being better informed than buyers about product quality, or workers knowing better than employers the cost of exerting effort in a given task. Incentives economics is part of the core toolkit of modern graduate-level micro- and macroeconomics. This course introduces basic models featuring risk-sharing, private information and moral hazard, and covers a selection of applications among the following: workers compensation, corporate finance, equal pay communes, pricing, insurance, and higher education.

The course illustrates the ecological, resource, social, and cultural conditions and foundations for a sustainable and just future economic system. This process combines systems thinking and an interdisciplinary understanding concerning how these conditions and foundations are connected and interact. The consequences of different future, sustainable economic systems are also investigated and analyzed. The many perspectives, questions, and discussions in the course give students a long list of areas to focus on in the project work that leads to a practical project.

This course examines urban family life and relationships within the family as well aspects of the Japanese education system, including kindergarten, various schools, and universities. The course also addresses the ‘Self,’, cultural identity and the Japanese system in domains such as family, gender, community, education, workplace, sports, and media.

This course examines fundamental questions about the nature of wars and conflicts in international politics through an interdisciplinary perspective. It incorporates insights from political science, anthropology, psychology, and history to better understand the current security environment and make sense of the phenomena of wars.