Japan

This advanced Japanese course develops kanji vocabulary effectively while deepening knowledge regarding various issues related to Japan and Japanese society. Students are split into groups to engage in activities, discussion, and group work concerning such selected topics as history of kanji and structure of kanji compounds. The program offers various theme courses and students may take multiple sections. 

This course studies the basics and recent advances in ecology and evolution. 

The course covers the following topics: global change and plants; biogeography and global biodiversity patterns; animal group and social behavior; plant morphological plasticity caused by biological interactions; gene and genome duplication; heterospecific mating interactions; sexual selection and sexual conflict in animals; mathematical modeling of predator-prey dynamics; eDNA analysis and its application to ecological monitoring; dynamical-data analysis in ecology; physiological ecology of plants; ecology and evolution in tumors; dendrochronology, and adaptive evolution of plants in extreme environment.

This course reviews and masters elementary Japanese grammar and sentence patterns and develops a well-balanced lower intermediate level proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students learn the 50 most important sentence patterns of the intermediate level, master 3000 basic words and 600 to 750 kanji. They read short written passages on various topics that consist of sentence patterns, grammar and new vocabulary, make speeches on topics familiar to them, and write well-organized passages.

This course provides a firm foundational understanding of the development and history of photography;  themes and genres in modern and contemporary photography, and some first-hand experience of the challenges involved in producing a photographic image. The goal of the course is to develop a deeper understanding of the photographic medium—its relationship to technological development, and its aesthetic, cultural, and political relevance. 

This course introduces the politics, history and international relations of modern South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka). The course emphasizes communal (i.e., ethno-religious) conflict. The course covers colonialism and the independence struggle; partition; development; communalism and secularism, and the international politics of South Asia since independence. 

The globalization of markets and industries has created new growth opportunities for companies by accessing resources and serving markets worldwide. At the same time, managing across different cultures, administrative systems, geographic distances, economic structures pose its own managerial challenges. This course is designed to help integrate the existing knowledge of the functional areas of business into an internationally oriented view of the firm by evaluating the global environment and speculating on the future international direction of the firm. This course addresses the strategic and organizational challenges involved in managing activities across borders and introduces theories of international trade; differences in political economy and culture; barriers to trade; foreign exchange; business government relations, and the strategic alternatives available to companies operating in the global economy. It goes on to consider strategic options for the major functions of marketing, manufacturing, materials management, research and development, human resources, and finance, relating them to the firm's overall global strategy.