Korea, South

This course explores Middle Eastern and African politics and society, with special focus on energy; natural resources; Islamic civilizations; geopolitical situations, and terrorism. The course also delves into the domestic and foreign policies of each state in the region, as well as their relations with each other. 

This course introduces students to our current understanding of life processes at the molecular level. It covers various topics related to the structure and function of proteins, nucleic acids as the storage molecules of genetic information, the dynamic nature of cell membranes, and generation of biological energy. This course provides the foundation for students to learn more advanced subjects such as neuroscience, gene therapy, development of new crops, drug discovery, and protein engineering.

This is an introductory and interdisciplinary survey course on Korean culture and society. The course provides a comprehensive understanding of Korean culture and society and its larger attendant issues, such as class and gender in traditional Korea, its history of colonialism, Korean War, and their aftermaths, the politics of national division, economic growth and modernization of South Korea, its contemporary cultural expressions, to name a few, in their proper context. Through examination of cultural, historical, anthropological, literary, and cinematic texts the course develops a more inclusive, yet heterogeneous and wide-ranging, view of Korean culture and society. 

This course covers twenty-first century Korean popular culture - from the Hallyu (Korean Wave) phenomenon to cultures of popular protest, including the Minjung movement; culture industry and mass culture; consumption cultures; fandom cultures; globalization of Korean food, as well as emerging cybercultures. Utilizing an anthropological perspective, the course situates these phenomena within issues of class, gender and ethnicity in South Korea.

This course examines contemporary literary works, phenomena, and 'events'. Topics include Why do we read Literacy?, How to read Poetry, How to read a Novel?, what is poetic, Korean Literature as World Literature, Adventure and Survival Epic, Fantasy and Science Fiction, Literature in the Age of Climate Change, Disaster, Apocalypse, Dystopia, and Inside and Outside literature. 

Operations and Production are the resources and the processes, respectively, by which an organization transforms inputs (e.g., labor, material, and knowledge) into outputs (products and/or services). Operations/production managers are responsible for designing, running, and improving the related systems to efficiently deliver on the production/service goals. This course focuses on the basic concepts and tools employed by operations/production managers to provide their organizations with competitive advantages in terms of operations strategy, process design, quality, supply chain management, and resource planning and utilization.

This course examines the world through works of short fiction. Each work provides a distinct and exhilarating experience, but all the works share their concern with forms of alienation, protest, and redemption. The course begins with Franz Kafka's classic tale of grotesque individual alienation, The Metamorphosis, but quickly turns to Nobel Laureate Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, which tells the tragic story of cultural crisis in the context of colonial conquest. Isak Dinesen's beautiful short story of redemption, "Babette's Feast," provides an interlude before moving onto chilling gothic short stories by two recent masters of the genre, Mariana Enriquez and Yoko Ogawa. Finally, the course concludes with the Korean novelist Han Kang's lyrical meditation on conflict, defiance and suffering, The Vegetarian.

This course examines the diversity and specificity of contemporary popular arts using aesthetic perspectives. We analyze popular arts as a everyday experience as well as a collective experience using the main concepts of aesthetics such as art, aesthetic experience, and aesthetic sensitivity, and thereby cultivate liberal humanity that connects cultural experiences with critical theories. Through classes that look back on popular arts as easy, familiar, and entertaining, from critical and reflective approaches, we seek to gain a new perspective on the popular 'art'. To this end, we survey previous studies, debates, and perspectives on "popular art". We also look at representative examples which show the transformations of genres and medium, and examine how they have forces the aesthetics to adjust its methodologies and perspectives. Popular art is not only for the masses, but also an art given to the masses. And it is often created by the masses themselves. Through the multifaceted analysis and understanding of the stereoscopic aspect of these popular arts, we gain a new dimension of public, culture, art, and sensitivity.