English

This course teaches students the concepts and tools necessary to inspire better manage innovation with the goal to help you pre-empt the high failure rates associated with innovation in the real world. Emphasis is placed on more contemporary forms of innovation such as open innovation. Interactive case studies, a group project, and innovation exercises form an integral part of the course as innovation cannot simply be taught but must be experienced. 

This course covers basic concepts in theoretical linguistics while it focuses on how different kinds of meaning are conveyed as well as how they interact and/or are controlled by other factors, drawing examples mainly from English and Japanese. The course covres basic concepts such as word, phrase, sentence; natural language and logical language meanings; logical symbols and formula; valence and thematic roles; lexical (or sense) reactions; contextual information; implicature, presupposition, speech act theories and illocutionary acts; politeness, and discourse. 

This course focuses on brain-behavior relationships and aims at increasing one's understanding of how healthy humans (or brains) function and how brain disease, brain injury disorders, such as, traumatic brain injuries, stroke and dementia, express themselves and interfere with the demands of daily life. Relevant topics in this context are behavior, higher cognitive functions (e.g., memory, attention, executive functioning, language), emotion, and adaptation. During the course, students collect knowledge on: (1) the clinical phenomenology of the most important cognitive and behavioral disorders seen in humans; (2) the underlying brain-behavior relationships in these disorders; (3) the interrelationships between various cognitive dysfunctions, emotional-, and behavioral problems; and (4) assessment methods, diagnosis and treatment. Students also gain experience in the selection, administration, and interpretation of commonly used tests, measuring the above-mentioned domains of higher cortical functions, affective functions, and behavior.

This course examines the psychology of human sexuality and intimate relationships through the scientific examination of thoughts, emotions, and behavior, both individually and culturally. It looks at the biological, cognitive, emotional, and socio-historical factors that contribute to the psychology of intimate relationships and sexuality. It covers topics such as variations of sexual behavior, sexuality identity, sexuality, relationship theories, interpersonal attraction, love and partner selection, attitudes, taboos, values & morals, variations of sexual behavior, communication, conflict, infidelity, etc. It also addresses key issues with regards to the psychology of abuse and domestic violence. 

This course introduces Bachelor students to the evolution of African literary canons from the late 19th to the 21st centuries. Emphasis is laid on acquainting students to central debates that have preoccupied African writers and how these debates have unmasked the complexities of African societies before and at the dawn of colonialization. In exploring the texts, developing basic skills such as reading, interpreting, analyzing, and critiquing novels, short stories, drama, and poetry is a major objective of the seminar. Further, debates regarding the historical and cultural contexts of the literary productions shall be engaged in the course of the seminar. To have a better appreciation of African literatures, texts, and critical discourse from the African Diaspora shall be part of the literary corpus. The course also discusses major theoretical approaches to literature such as, structuralism, narratology, new historicism, and African feminist critical perspectives. The postcolonial theory is, however, a major critical discourse in the seminar.

The course provides an introduction to the main problems in epistemology and metaphysics. Topics vary by year, and may include defining knowledge, skepticism, testimony, disagreement, modality, universals and particulars, causation, free will, and social/feminist metaphysics and epistemology.