Korea University

This course investigates how the cinematic medium represents, inspires, and shapes our understanding of the human condition. As breakthroughs in digital media and computer science reconfigure our physical and mental parameters, the question of what it means and what is involved to be human presses with increasing urgency. 

Students will watch, read about, and discuss select films across sub-topics that address a spectrum of human forms and conditions including robots, artificial intelligence, cyborgs, clones, etc., paired with critical texts that either offer theoretical conceptualizations of the human or explore the medium-specific qualities of cinema.  

Students will collaborate and present on at least one choice topic and conduct in-class research/discussion, building toward a final paper or creative project on a subject of their choice. 

This course is an introduction to international negotiation. Topics include the basics of negotiation, diplomatic and business negotiation, communication skills, understanding and navigating cultural differences in international negotiation settings, strategic approaches to negotiation, and the role of English as a lingua franca. 

The course also examines and analyzes diplomatic negotiation in relation to the current era of globalization and the importance of bilateral and multilateral international negotiations between companies or governments. 

This course provides a broad introduction to the history of Western classical music by representative composers, examining the styles and structures of this music and its relationships within historical contexts.  

Students will learn about the lives of and listen to major works by composers such as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Brahms, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Debussy and others to be announced.  

This course is an introduction to the field of health economics, a rapidly growing field of applied economics. Economic concepts such as scarcity, incentives, marginal analysis, profit maximization, and cost-minimization will be used throughout this course. Students will analyze this important sector using economic analysis methods.  

Topics include the production of health capital; demand-and-supply analysis of health and medical care; the production of health; asymmetric information in insurance markets; the role of government in the provision of health care; economics of mental health and happiness; and health policy debates in developing countries. 

This course covers algorithm expression methods, functions and processing processes, analysis of difficulty, techniques for designing efficient algorithms, applications, and categorizes and utilizes previously developed algorithms by topic. 

This introductory course covers basic concepts and history of the press and mass media, the functions of mass media in modern society, and introduces basic research methods to equip students with skills to critically appraise media issues. Throughout this course, heavy emphasis will be placed on critical thinking and how to effectively interpret how media functions and its effects on society. 

This course introduces the principles and practices of public relations, focusing on strategic, digital, and socially responsible communication. 

Topics include the history of public relations; public relations communication practices in various organizations such as corporations, governments, public institutions, local governments, and educational institutions; ethics and public relations; research and theory in public relations; social media and emerging technologies; and career opportunities in the field.  

This course introduces students to various aspects of the socioeconomic, cultural, and political transformations that Japan has undergone since the end of the AsiaPacific War. It explores the historical trajectories of postwar Japan within the broader context of its transition from an imperial power to a post-imperial nation, as well as its involvement in the regional and global Cold War. Major topics to be discussed include: the Allied Occupation of Japan, political developments and social activism, “high-speed growth” and its shadows, national and transnational memory politics related to the Asia-Pacific War, and the impact and repercussions of “March 11.” While the primary focus of this course is on post-1945 Japan, we will examine how the remnants and aftermath of the Japanese Empire have influenced the complexities of the postwar period. In doing so, this course also considers the interactions between postwar Japan and other Asian countries, providing insights into Japan’s evolving role in East Asia. 

This course investigates the process of the formation of the socialist system and the characteristics of the socialist system from historical, ideological, and political-social perspectives, and examines the possibility of its existence as an alternative ideology despite the collapse of real socialism.  

The course places communism as an ideology into dialog with reality as the system manifested in the Soviet Union and North Korea. Students will analyze communism as “theory” or “ideology” while using works of Karl Marx, investigate how the Bolsheviks tried to build the “first socialist country on earth” in the Soviet Union, and investigate the North Korean case, comparing it to the Soviet experience as well as the early ideals of Marxism. 

This course is an introduction to the pre-modern history of East Asia up until the early 1800s, specifically focusing on China and its relations with Korea. In the first half of the semester, the course covers the political and cultural development that initially emerged in China proper and later spread to its neighbors, shaping the common bonds that bring East Asia together as a whole. In the second half of the semester, the course examines important transnational events and connections, most notably wars and commerce, with an emphasis on the 17th and 18th centuries when the social conditions of modern East Asia were shaped.