Peking University, Beijing

This class is about writing and academic inquiry, with a special emphasis on literature. Good arguments stem from good questions, and academic essays allow writers to write their way toward answers, toward figuring out what they think. In this writing course, students focus on the creation of complex, analytic, well-supported arguments addressing questions that matter in academic contexts. 

As goods and services are produced and distributed, they move through a set of interrelated operations or processes. The design of these operations for strategic advantage, investments in improving their efficacy, and controlling these operations to meet performance objectives is the domain of Operations Management. Taking the process view of the organization we will examine, using case studies, readings and models, a variety of industrial applications. In the first part of this course, by studying how the manager can improve the efficacy of processes, we will develop a unifying theme to the subject. In the second part of this course, the focus will be on inventory theory and its application to supply chain management. In contrast to the first part of this course that developed a broad brush approach to the process view of operations, we will take a more analytical and detailed approach in model development in the second part of this course.

The basic purpose of this course is to deeply understand mathematical thought and values behind classical knowledge in mathematics.

The course is for learners with intermediate Chinese and a vocabulary of more than 600. It aims to expand students’ vocabulary and develop their Chinese ability. After studying, they can use the language accurately when tackling everyday scenarios and address regular topics with short speeches, including writing and speaking.

This course examines the history and practice of electronic music from the early twentieth century to the present. It will explore a wide range of genres—from experimental forms like musique concrète and drone composition to popular traditions like rock and various forms of electronic dance music (EDM)—as well as the evolution of instruments, techniques, and lines of influence. Through the course students will develop a broad perspective of the history of the field and an understanding of musical techniques that will meaningfully inform their own listening and creative practices. The primary goal of the course is to establish an understanding of the development of electronic music, including prominent composers, musicians, technologies, instruments, aesthetic ideas, and genres. A secondary goal is linked to the methods and organization of the course as they set out these points of orientation. The course will introduce a wide and representative sampling of different sources for the study of electronic music: in addition to recordings of musical works and performances, these sources include artists’ statements, historical surveys, documentary film, science fiction, specialized musicological study, music criticism, writings on aesthetics and the philosophy of art, and virtual software for modeling analogue synthesis.

History of Russian literature from 20th c. to present.

This course mainly explains Plato's dialogue (Fido and Socrates' Defense) and Descartes' First Collection of Philosophy and other classic Western philosophical texts, so that students can understand the way philosophers explore the world order and the inherent tension of philosophical life.