English

This course develops an understanding of physio-chemical and ecological aspects of the freshwater systems, especially for Taiwan rivers; explains the causes and consequences of human modification of fresh waters, and their implications for conservation of aquatic biodiversity and maintenance of human well- being; describes the techniques which may be used to quantify the status of (and monitor the changes in) instream and riparian ecological niches; and introduces the range of management strategies that can be used to reduce or mitigate human impacts on freshwater ecosystems and maintain water quality; and the concept of drainage basin management. Assessment: final exam, coursework, assignments, projects.

This course is a study of countryside planning and the contemporary issues, functions, and conflicts of different landscapes, ranging from traditional rural to peri-urban settings. The course examines cultural landscapes, local, national and international policy, planning processes, governance, actor analysis, EU physical planning approaches, landscape analysis and multifunctional landscapes, nature and water management, recreation, cultural heritage, national parks, rural development programs, agricultural diversification and social farming, peri-urban agriculture, counter-urbanization, and rural-urban relationships.

The course discusses the various expressions of popular culture within 20th-century art and media. Collaboration between different media is emphasized. The main focus is on contemporary western culture, the latter years of the 20th century, and the expressions of postmodern culture, although several episodes in the cultural history of the whole century are studied historically. Advertising, television, music videos, movies, literature, and music are analyzed. Theoretical tools are introduced from the foundations of intermedia studies, cultural sociology, hermeneutics, and semiotics. Several examples are presented for analysis and discussion. Students identify basic concepts, ideas, and terminology in intermedia studies, and describe popular cultural conditions that account for some of the processes that shaped the postmodern art of the 1900s and its relationship to popular culture. 

This subject examines Romanticism from the perspective of the massive, though long neglected, cultural force of women writers and readers in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It locates the emergence of feminism in this historical context, when, in the wake of the French revolution, changing notions of literature, culture, sexuality and emancipation gave rise to the first concerted articulation of feminist ideas in modern European culture. Through close readings of some of the best writers of the last two centuries, including Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, Charlotte Smith, Mary Robinson, Mary Wollstonecraft, Anna Barbauld, and others, students gain a firm understanding of the literary, philosophical and cultural foundations of Romanticism and early Feminism movement that have played key roles in the construction of the modern world.