English

The labor migration from Southern European countries to Germany, which started in the mid-1950s, had an important socio-economic and socio-cultural impact on the countries’ societies and influenced their film culture. German filmmakers began to feature the difficult lives of ‘guestworkers’ in films such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Katzelmacher (1969). In the 1990s, second - and third – generation Turkish-German directors such as Fatih Akın and Thomas Arslan marked the end of the so-called ‘guestworker cinema’ and started to create a transnational and diasporic cinema featuring a culturally hybrid Germany. Berlin (especially Kreuzberg) has always been one of the favorite settings in all of these migration movies. The transformation of Berlin’s first ‘guestworker ghettos’ to culturally hybrid urban districts over the course of 60 years is very well reflected in all of these cinema cultures. This interdisciplinary course crosses and connects the academic fields of migration studies, film studies, and cultural studies. In the first part of the course, we will explore how migration, immigrants, and diasporas are represented in cinema. The second part of the course then gets more specific and we approach the representation of Berlin in these migration movies.

This course examines the application of legal considerations to the activities of organizations. The focus is on a practical approach to legal issues and problems that arise. If I want to start a business what structures are available to me, such as forming a company? When is a legal contract formed, how can it be breached and what remedies may be available? What rights do employees have in the workplace, particularly in relation to dismissal, redundancy and discrimination? How does the English Legal System work? How can my valuable original work be protected from imitation and what are copyrights and patents?

Oscillatory motions and waves are prevalent in natural phenomena. They appear in many physical systems of various materials and scales. The first half of this course explores the properties of simple harmonic motion and a wave equation that describes waves on a string and sound waves. The second half of the course applies Newtonian mechanics to a system of many particles. The course begins an investigation from a rigid body and then relax this condition slightly. Finally, the course studies a system of particles with many degrees of freedom, namely fluid. 

By the end of the course, students are expected to gain familiarity with and understand oscillation phenomena, which include the simple motion of a pendulum and the propagation of waves and their basic properties. Also, students will have acquired knowledge of the basic properties of wave equations and their solutions. The mechanism behind the standing waves, sound waves, beats, the Doppler effect, and shock waves should become clear. Students are also expected to be able to solve the mechanics of static equilibrium for various configurations, including that in fluid with buoyancy. Young's modulus and bulk modulus as a determining factor of wave speed in medium should be clear. Familiarity with a general form of the hydrodynamical equation of motion from which hydrostatic and Bernoulli's equations are obtained under special conditions is also expected.

This course introduces key concepts affecting national education systems in the contemporary era of globalization. Since modern education systems were built by independent nation-states in the 19th and 20th centuries, the institutions that were created have come under severe strain by economic, social, technological, and demographic forces unleashed by 21st-century globalization. Governments everywhere are under pressure to prepare students for this new era.  Students will be required to conduct their own research into aspects of globalization as they affect education in two or more nation-states. Each week, students will discuss a text about the topic of the week. One student will lead the discussion with a presentation, and then further materials and ideas will be presented to the students to challenge them to think as deeply as possible about the issues raised.

This semester-long course introduces the Zen culture of Kyoto to Japanese and foreign students of Doshisha University.  It especially focuses on the main teachings, philosophical values, aesthetics, practices, and applications for daily life. By doing specific activities, writing assignments and oral presentations, students increase their knowledge and the meaning of what they have learned from their interactions and shared experiences.  The course compares between the different branches of Japanese Zen, and the Zen manifestations in other countries to strengthen final debates and discussions as well as to aid in the formation of group research projects for final evaluation.

This course introduces emerging technologies (ET) and international law. Topics include characteristics of the technology era, technology law and governance, convergence and interplay of politics, international norms and regulations, and evolution and future of emerging technologies.

This course focuses on various aspects of disaster science and their practical application for disaster mitigation and risk reduction. The course discusses the basics of disaster history; hazard generation and mechanisms and their impact; related emergency response; medical needs, and post-disaster reconstruction. 

An exploratory culture course, Japanese Culture D is offered for foreign students to learn about and share insights into various aspects of the living culture of Japan. The course comprises of three basic approaches: 1) The discussion of certain cultural aspects of the country; 2) Reading literature, and 3) Fieldwork at places of cultural significance. Those who took Japanese Culture C in the fall semester should take Japanese Culture D in the spring semester since they make a pair. Culture B and D courses overlap in part due to the nature of certain special events taking place during the semester.

The course aims to provide a new perspective of the culture of Japan by examining the interconnection of various elements including the history and culture of the Tohoku Region; rebuilding effort from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and certain ways people have expressed themselves on different occasions.

The class comprises of lectures and discussions accompanied with fieldwork opportunities. Twelve years after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, disaster prevention and mitigation has come to hold an important place in the culture of this nation. Japanese Culture class has been contributing to this cause since soon after the 2011 event and will continue to do so during this semester as well, albeit in a small way.

The course is about leadership, strategy, and change in a global context. It confronts students with strategic issues of today with the aim to improve leadership skills to deal with these issues in a more effective and creative way. Organizations and companies are confronted with strategic issues such as increasing speed of innovation, cultural diversity, need for differentiation, increasing competition, rising energy costs, and stricter regulations on CO2 emissions. These issues are not isolated. They are connected to a world of rapidly changing technological, political, economic, and environmental developments. The course introduces examples of leadership that changed the rules of the game, such as Ellen MacArthur’s ambition to change the world towards a circular economy, by building a framework for an economy that is restorative and regenerative by design. And Jamie Oliver, the British Chef who tried to change the food culture in the USA through his TV show the Food Revolution. This type of leadership is not about charisma or personal characteristics, but about personal dedication to a goal or vision far beyond personal interests. This type of leadership is embedded ‘in context’. This implies that leadership is not a personal characteristic but a part of a relationship among people in a community, where qualities like trust, playfulness, and creativity are involved. The case studies form an input to reflect on personal leadership issues. Students are invited to share and discuss their personal sources of inspiration. A field trip is part of the course.

Competency in structure and function of genomes as well as their evolution is essential in modern biology. This course gives students an advanced understanding of current scientific research in molecular mechanism of gene regulation, evolution of genomes and experimental approaches to study the function of genomes. The course focuses on the contribution of molecular biology and genomics to our knowledge of regulation of the gene activity in eukaryotic organisms and concepts of gene expression evolution. Critical analysis of original experimental data provides the intellectual framework for students to discuss the design of experiments and to draw appropriate conclusions from any results.