International Christian University

This course introduces key concepts and methods in the study of American society, culture, and history through the lens of science fiction film and television. How do cultural works mediate the historical development of state power, categories of social difference, and our everyday understandings of political belonging and conflict?

The study focuses on prominent works of American science fiction: The Twilight Zone (1960, 1961), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), Blade Runner (1982), Night of the Living Dead (1968), and Get Out (2017). These primary source materials will anchor our critical engagement with keywords in American Studies scholarship: nation, America, immigration, globalization, ethnicity, Orientalism, Asian, whiteness, white, Black, empire, state, racialization, diversity, and labor. Altogether, this course will familiarize us with the ideas that matter most for studying the United States through social, cultural, and political economic perspectives, while developing an analytical toolkit for narrative and film that you can use in a range of academic settings.

Students in this course should expect to watch one film every two weeks and to read five to 15 pages of American Studies scholarship every week. Students with or without prior study in American history and culture are welcome to take this class.

This course introduces the causes, consequences, and contexts of contemporary migration and ethnicity focusing on selected cases from Asia and the Americas. This course provides a sociological introduction to migration, migrant incorporation, and racial and ethnic relations. It considers how societies experience and manage immigration. Moreover, while migrants are a distinctive group, they are also part of a larger whole, with implications for how we comparatively understand ourselves. We examine key migration theories, concepts and contemporary debates focusing on the experiences of different groups of migrants. This course entails discussions on human mobility, power relations, and dynamics of structure, agency, adaptation and the interconnectedness of place and identity. Weekly readings will illuminate the social, economic, and political salience of migration and ethnicity.

This course is for students who will learn Japanese as a mother tongue, first language, or heritage language. The aim of this course is to provide a sound basis for studying Japanese at JLP for those students without formal training in Japanese language. The class meets for six hours per week. Students will be exposed to various spoken and written Japanese, and will acquire skills to study Japanese in an academic context.

Inequality is a fundamental part of every society that exists on earth. There is no society that does not manifest some form of it. This course investigates the construction and especially the reproduction of inequality in social life. The main theoretical point upon which this course is based is that although different forms of inequality can seem subjectively to have what Jürgen Habermas has described as “unshakable facticity,” they are in fact constructed and reproduced by humans in social life. Our objective, therefore, is to examine more deeply some of the different ways in which inequality is manifest, and then examine how it is constructed, defined, justified, and reproduced. To investigate this issue in detail, the course introduces theoretical concepts through lectures and readings, conducting three analyses of the construction and reproduction of inequality. The analyses will focus on pre-assigned topics. Students must submit a 1500–1800-word essay that describes their findings for the first two topics. The final analysis essay will be 1800-2100 words. All essays submitted for the course are expected to be thoroughly researched and documented, and cogently argued. These exercises will help students learn more about inequality while also developing their analytical skills.

This course critically examines various societal aspects of Asia, focusing on East and Southeast Asian countries. It provides an opportunity for students to explore their own ways of thinking about “Asia,” thus leading to a recognition of similarities and differences in views depending on one’s position.  

The course covers the following topics:  

1. Introduction to Asian Studies and Course Organization 
2. Asian Colonization 
3. Education Systems in East Asia 
4. Shadow Education in East Asia 
5. Higher Education in Asia 
6. Learning and Culture in Asia 
7. Minorities in Asia 
8. South-South Cooperation in Asia

This course provides a theoretical and practical introduction to the field of peace education. It examines philosophical, psychological, cultural, pedagogical, and curricular elements of peace education as well as program evaluation issues in peace education, and as such, students will develop an understanding of the theories and practices of effective peace education in schools, workplaces, communities, or other relevant contexts. At ICU, peace education can be placed within the larger interdisciplinary framework of international education, i.e., multicultural studies, development education, environmental education, peace studies, international service learning, community and social psychology, gender studies, and international relations. Peace education has emerged over the last sixty years as a platform to achieve the goals set out in the mandate of the United Nations to create a global culture of peace. Cultures of peace aim to promote respect for life and non-violent methods of resolving conflict using education (broadly defined) with a focus on teaching the values of tolerance and human rights. Education as a form of cultural violence is being increasingly examined by many national and international organizations. 

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

1) Understand, analyze, and compare basic principles and theories of peace education;
2) Apply the knowledge of the above principles and theories to specific peace education problems, questions, and/or issues, and
3) Understand the basic mechanics of evaluating peace education’s pedagogical or instructional strategies using empowerment evaluation methods.
 

Can politics be a "science"? This course encourages one to think like a political scientist and become a more discerning consumer of political information -- to “think big, but systematically” about the problems and puzzles facing Japan and international polities. As one studies the research process, from concept to design, they apply skills to tackle problems central to political systems like trust, corruption and gender inequality -- and think further about what democracy is, how it can be measured, and how it can be improved.