Yonsei University

The idea of imagination remains one of the most captivating and extensively discussed subjects throughout Western intellectual history and contemporary scholarship. It is an interdisciplinary topic interrogated in various disciplines such as phenomenology, politics, aesthetics, philosophy, psychology, theology, to name a few. The class examines imagination in its diverse applications and interpretations in how human beings in various cultural contexts encounter, experience, and conceive the world. It gives attention to distinctive ways non-Western cultures employ imagination in meaning-making, understanding and interaction with the world. It demonstrates imagination as a bedrock of cultural traditions, a resource for theological inquiries, social ethics, and transformations. The objectives are to explore the role of human imagination in the process of reality construction, interrogate how contextual understanding of ultimate reality shape imagination, gain in-depth knowledge about these debates on the theory of imagination in various disciplines, and develop imaginative skills to analyse and reflect theologically upon human reality.

This course investigates a period defined not by unity, but by rupture. We navigate the massive divide between Old English (Anglo-Saxon) and Middle English. When you look at Beowulf, you might ask, 'Is this actually English?' It is a valid question. 

What is 'Medieval English Literature'? The genre name suggests a unified culture and a recognizable language, but the reality is far more complex—and far more interesting. 

The linguistic and cultural distance is so vast that it forces us to rethink the origins of the English literary tradition.  

We also tackle the puzzle of 'Englishness' itself. If our language comes from Germanic tribes, and our greatest legendary king (Arthur) is Welsh, and our romance heroes are French, what does it actually mean to be 'English' in the Middle Ages? 

We explore these contradictions through questions like: 

- Why do Vikings appear as the heroes of 'English' poems? 

- Why is the dialect of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight nearly unintelligible compared to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, written at the same time? 

- Was the medieval era truly the 'Dark Ages,' or is that just Renaissance propaganda? 

No prior knowledge of Old or Middle English is required. Students will read texts in the modern English translation but will also experiment with reading the original languages. 

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 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 introduces key topics on i) thermodynamic states and properties, ii) thermodynamic systems and their applications, iii) the 1st and 2nd law of thermodynamics, iv) power systems, and v) refrigeration systems. It covers energy conservation, reversible and irreversible processes, and thermodynamic efficiencies. Students learn how to design, analyze, and improve thermodynamic systems based on key principles which are introduced in this course.

This course introduces students to the fundamentals of yoga. During this course, students gain an understanding of the basic concepts and theory related to yoga, while learning and practicing basic asanas (poses). This course is predominantly participation-based and includes discussions and a final group (or individual) project. After completing this course, students are able to develop their own practices that can be applied in various aspects of daily life.