English

Originating in romance and comedy, the marriage plot became a major element in the novel. In its classic versions the marriage plot permits the satisfaction of desire: of characters and readers alike. It may also be involved in the negotiation of complex moral choice and in the resolution of difficult social issues.  This course examines how the marriage plot functions across the history of the English novel. The first half of the course examines important 18th and 19th century examples of the marriage plot. The second half of the course asks how, in the social circumstances of the 21st century— including the availability of divorce and changed concepts of gender—novelists deploy or adapt the marriage plot.

This course surveys the history of Indian philosophy both classical and modern. The course begins with lectures on the Rig Veda and the Upanishads, followed by a presentation of the main metaphysical and epistemological doctrines of some of the major schools of classical Indian philosophy such as Vedanta, Samkhya, Nyaya, Jainism, and Buddhism. The course concludes by considering the philosophical contributions of some of the architects of modern India such as Rammohan Ray, Rabindrananth Tagore, and Mohandas Gandhi.

This course provides theoretical and practical knowledge of individual behavior in the context of social marketing and behavioral science. It takes on a multidisciplinary approach drawing from psychology, consumer research, marketing science, and behavioral economics that allows a holistic understanding of how people consume and behave. Based on these theoretical frameworks, the course introduces a range of tools to foster behavioral change, such as social marketing or nudging, and examines how they are applied in practice. Applied consumer research is at the core of this course and its potential and limits in understanding and ultimately changing individual behavior are studied. The course provides an opportunity to practice formulating research questions and proposing social marketing and behavioral science solutions to address real-life social and environmental problems. It also engages critical discussion on the use of behavioral and marketing techniques by policy-makers and the private sector.

The course introduces the study of global crime and justice, a developing field of inquiry which examines the impact of global changes on issues that pertain to crime and punishment. The purpose of the course is to both study criminal phenomena and the available responses to them on the global level as well as to explore the ways in which these issues supplement but also challenge our conventional thinking about crime and punishment. In that sense, the course covers key problems that pertain to global crime and justice and also provides the students with the necessary skills to critically assess the challenges posed by supranational phenomena and the adequacy of responses that we currently have.

This course provides an overview of science fiction criticism and its history. It considers what form "scientific’" endeavors took on in the Middle Ages and how these might have informed the "fiction" of the time; it will place modern and pre-modern texts in critical conversation in order to rethink the history and future history of the genre and of the book. Most of all, this course develops new insights into a diverse selection of medieval texts and illuminations, and, through these, allows students to explore critical and theoretical topics such as periodization, otherness, space and place, and the possibilities and problems of genre fiction. 

The course provides a general and comprehensive approach to world affairs while introducing the international legal perspective. It covers both the essentials of public international law and particular legal regimes such as coercion, use of force, human rights, State territory, and space law with respect to selected world affairs and international conflicts. The course highlights the interaction between international politics and law and the role of international law in the world governance. It’s focus both on theory and practice and on interdisciplinarity allows a better understanding of international negotiation, norm-making, legal argumentation, and interpretative techniques.

The theme of this seminar is “identities,” focusing particularly on racial, ethnic, and national identities. Through readings and discussions about contentious issues around identities, the course aims to critically examine basic social science concepts, such as: communities, groups/collectivities, nation-states, race and ethnicity, home, and ultimately, the boundaries that define “us” and “them.” The course collectively thinks about questions such as: What does it mean to be Japanese, and what does it take to become (and cease to become) Japanese (part of Japanese nationhood)? 

This course provides an introduction to the various fields within English linguistics, including theoretical, interdisciplinary, and applied branches, and helps students understand what types of linguistic phenomena are of interest and how such phenomena are observed and analyzed in each of the fields. Topics include phonetics/phonology, morphology, syntax/grammar, semantics, pragmatics, discourse analysis, neurolinguistics, first/second language acquisition, dialectology/sociolinguistics, cultural linguistics, corpus linguistics, natural language processing/artificial intelligence, and other related topics. 

Volcanic eruptions can influence earth systems on a number of scales, from individual landforms to landscape development and global climatic change. Volcanic hazards can have global-scale social impacts and directly threaten the approximately 800 million people that live within 100 km of an active volcano. This course provides students with knowledge about volcanic environments, the hazards they pose on many scales, and potential benefits to societies.

This course introduces students to South Korean sexuality issues through the lens of sexuality, addressing topics such as colonialism and migration; industrialization, family, and sexual harassment; popular culture, media, and masculinity; militarization and conscription; and South Korea’s blooming LGBTQ+ movement. The methodology to approach these issues in the class is not to judge the phenomena only with one standard, but to articulate the multi-layers intersecting each issue. The course examines how historical change from liberated Korea in 1945 to the present-day was both motivated by and determinative of various gender dynamics, using secondary critical readings by scholars to better understand the relationship between society and sexuality in a chronological fashion. Students will learn about how Koreans have recognized diverse sexual orientations and gender roles over time.