International Christian University

The aim of this course is to help the students acquire an understanding of the materials and common practice of European music. It provides knowledge of music theory and the physics of sound, including notation, tonality, modalities, scales, rhythms, intervals, triads and various musical terms.  Music is like a language, so students are expected to practice it repeatedly to master its rules. By doing so, students will be able to make the basis for more advanced learning, such as chords practice, music analysis and arrangement. This course also examines European thought and science related to the principles of music theory.

This course explores modern Japan’s twentieth century environmental history, specifically focusing on how, when, and why birds and their habitat have been threatened by hunting, collecting, trade, war, pollution, tourism, and urbanization. How and why did some species become extinct, while others survived? The course is based on discussions about primary and secondary source readings, and occasionally material culture items such as postcards, postage stamps and posters. By the end of the course students should be familiar with important events, issues, and texts related to the environmental history of modern Japan.

This course provides a critical and comprehensive study of Western philosophical thought, starting with ancient and medieval philosophy, then modern and contemporary philosophy. Representative texts of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy will be closely analyzed and discussed.

Students develop skills in reading and understanding philosophical discourse by closely reading original texts.

This is a beginning elementary Japanese course. The purpose of this course is to develop basic knowledge of spoken Japanese to effectively communicate in everyday situations. Students acquire essential grammar, basic vocabulary, Hiragana, Katakana, and a total of 55 kanji. Although emphasis is placed on pronunciation, speaking, and listening, attention is also given to reading and writing. In addition, the course introduces general knowledge of the Japanese people and their culture.

This course examines important historical, cultural, and social influences on language in the United States. We begin with an historical introduction to the English language in the United States, and then turn to other language varieties, such as Native American languages and languages of major immigrant communities (e.g., Spanish, Asian languages). We will also survey major forms of language variation, including regional dialects (e.g., Southern American English), social dialects, and other forms of socially patterned variation (e.g., youth language and slang). Furthermore, we will examine important controversies such as bilingual education and African American Vernacular English, as well as discuss topics such as language policy, language rights, and recent efforts to restrict and revitalize minority languages. Throughout the course, we will try to not only study language in the United States, but will also explore what this particular setting can reveal about issues of language and society in other contexts around the world.

This course will require students to engage in critical thinking, synthesizing information from a wide range of sources (e.g., textbook, academic journals, videos) on a wide range of topics pertaining to the language situation in the United States and participate actively in class activities (e.g., discussions, debates). Students will also engage in an independent research project, the results of which they will present both orally and in written form.

This course explores feminist and queer methodologies, which have been attracting attention in the social sciences in recent years. This course is divided into the following four sections to understand the distinct but overlapping nature of feminist and queer methodologies: (1) feminist epistemology/methodology; (2) qualitative and quantitative feminist methods; (3) queer epistemology/methodology, and (4) qualitative and quantitative queer methods. Given the instructor’s expertise, a substantial amount of class time will be spent on queer quantitative sociology (queer demography). Through this course, students will learn that any social research method can be used from a feminist and queer perspective and articulate the interrelationship between theory, methods, and practice. 

This course aims to broaden knowledge in Medieval Japanese history. This is not a course that surveys the whole Medieval period in chronological order, based on a textbook with information that students should memorize. Rather, the course aims to think about the history of Medieval Japan from different perspectives; to think about the reasons of important historical developments, and to understand their context and mechanism. The topics of the course and the readings will change every year according to the focus of the class.

This course explores the meanings of encountering “the Other” by reviewing existing theories and research in intercultural communication. It also examines how encountering someone/something "foreign" builds, shapes, and transforms relationships and communication in our everyday life. Each student should ponder what kind of relationship he/she would like to make in this globalized society that we experience every day. In order to stimulate classroom discussion and promote student-centered active learning, we adopt some innovative instructional methodologies and strategies (e.g., collaborative learning and writing, group presentation, flip teaching, etc.).

This course is essentially a course in what is known as cultural (or cross-cultural) psychology. Cultural psychology is a subfield of psychology that emerged in the late 20th century as a response to the historic dominance of the Western--primarily, American--perspective in psychology. Of note, Japanese researchers played and continue to play a critical role in this field, as strong Japan-America ("Nichi-Bei") academic cooperation allows for easy comparisons and collaborations. But cultural psychology is much bigger than any two particular countries or cultures. Each and every society, and the societies within those societies, all contain powerful cultures that affect the very fabric of our thoughts, emotions, behaviors. In other words, we will look at the cultural roots of our beautiful and indispensable human diversity--the whole world over.

In addition to the topics mentioned in the basic description of the curriculum (perceptual and cognitive processes, human development, language, gender, social behavior, intercultural relations, and applied cultural psychology), we will examine the nature of culture itself. Throughout the course, we try to keep in mind big questions such as "What really is culture?" and "Why do human beings even have culture in the first place?" For more information on the kind of topics we will cover, please see the course textbook, "Cultural Psychology" by Steven Heine. Note, however, that topics will be organically updated to reflect current cultural issues and student interests.

Socio-cultural anthropology is the study of how people across the globe create, understand, adapt to, and transform their worlds. Located at the juncture between the humanities and social sciences, cultural anthropology merges the study of societies (social structures, institutions and political and economic systems) with the study of culture (belief and value systems, language, ritual and art).

Drawing from their own fieldwork experiences, historical archives, as well as from studies in the sciences and humanities, socio-cultural anthropologists describe, analyze and theorize a wide array of human experiences and relationships. The approach in this course is ethnographic and comparative: it studies peoples and places in depth, comparing places and peoples with one another, in order to gain a better understanding of what is general and what is particular about being human. Beginning with basic concepts in anthropology, ethnography as the core anthropological methodology, and some disciplinary history, the course then turns to a series of topics that anthropologists find important in understanding human beings: kinship and family; domination and subordination in everyday practice; identity and politics; and modernization, capitalism, and globalization.
 

The course explores some of the seminal texts in the discipline to understand how the fundamental questions asked by anthropologists have developed over the last century, and examines how these questions are refashioned in the contemporary world around urgent matters like technological change, global warming, migrants and refugee flows.