University of Hong Kong

People spend a considerable amount of time at work. The workplace thus provides a useful site for investigating various aspects of language and communication. This course discusses a range of features of workplace discourse and illustrates the impact social factors may have on the ways in which language is used in this context. The course also discusses and compares different methodological approaches and a variety of theoretical frameworks used for an analysis of workplace discourse. These tools are then used by the students to analyze naturalistic data.

This course surveys the art and architecture of Europe and Byzantium during the Middle Ages, a thousand-year period from ca. 400 to 1400. Exploring medieval art and visual culture chronologically, we will consider a number of topics central to medieval society including monasticism, saints and their relics, pilgrimage, and court culture. The course covers the wide range of medieval artistic production, from various forms of painting and sculpture to wood and ivory carving, mosaic, metalwork, textiles, and architecture.

A Problem Based Learning (PBL) approach is used with emphasis on real-life cases connecting human nutrition, well-being and environmental health. Topics include impacts of certain dietary habits and demands on food systems (e.g. demand for cheap sources of calories, rise of meat consumption, demand for year-round luxury foods) and the depletion of soil and increased fertilizer use. We consider how toxins, known as xenobiotics, affect human health and how sensory decisions are influenced by the environment.

This course introduces the complex nature of the African continent from a wider interdisciplinary perspective. Topics include Africa's geo-political particularities; multiple histories; diverse languages, peoples, culture and music, and rich literary and artistic traditions. The course is also designed to give an overview of major theoretical debates on Africa such as the questions of nation-building or the perception of Africa. It will also shed light on the current economic and socio-political challenges that the continent faces as well as the opportunities it presents.

This course introduces the fundamental tools in probability and statistics for quantitatively assessing risk and emphasizes applications of these tools to actuarial science problems. Course topics include: probability (combinatorial analysis, algebra of sets, mathematical theory of probability, conditional probability, statistical independence, Bayes' rule); random variables and probability distributions (random variables, discrete and continuous distributions, joint and marginal distributions, conditional distribution, independence of random variables); mathematical expectation (expectation, mean and variance, moment generating function, covariance and correlation; special distributions (Bernoulli and binomial distributions, geometric and negative binomial distributions, Poisson distribution, hypergeometric distribution, exponential and gamma distributions, normal distribution, quantiles); transformation of random variables; functions of random variables; sampling distributions (sum of independent random variables, sampling distributions of mean and variance, law of large number, central limit theorem, Chi-square distribution, student's t-distribution, F distribution; and introduction of estimation (point estimation, bias and precision). Assessment: assignments and final exam.

The course introduces the discipline of criminology from a sociological perspective. The course investigates how and by whom crime and criminal behavior are interpreted, and pushes beyond the easy (but always insufficient) answers of common sense; introduces a sociological imagination about criminology - to learn how to think sociologically about the problem of crime; and looks at some of the essential knowledge about crime and criminal behavior. What distinguishes criminology from common sense understandings of crime and criminality? What is crime and how is it measured? How are perceptions and responses to crime inter-related? Crime is not a fixed and objective entity, but very much open to definition. The phenomena of crime and deviance have been seen, experienced, and defined differently in different historical periods, in different cultures, and in different political settings. This course puts crime in historical, cultural, and political contexts. Assessment: essay, group presentation, final exam.

This course examines the politics of contemporary Japan, and focuses particularly on political changes since 1993, including the new electoral system and party realignment. This course surveys the core political institutions of the postwar era, explore the interaction of political leaders, political parties, the bureaucracy and interest groups, with an emphasis on the outgoing transformation of the Japanese political system.

This course introduces basic writing skills and career opportunities in the field of financial journalism. It focuses on reading financial documents, understanding macroeconomic issues, interpreting statistics, reporting on companies, and covering competition in a global economy. Students report and write business stories. Students are required to read the South china Morning Post and The Wall Street Journal Asia every day during the semester. Assessment: assignments (40%), discussion (20%), presentation (20%), and a final exam (20%). Attendance is required.