Keio University

This class focuses on travel writing from English and German speaking countries after 1945.  From the 1970s onwards, travel writing has displayed a strong tendency towards hybridity. The course covers works such as Bruce Chatwin's "In Patagonia;" The Middle Passage" by V. S. Naipaul, and W. G. Sebald's "The Rings of Saturn." 

The course also deals with some eminent representatives of German-speaking travel writing like Roger Willemsen and Christoph Ransmayr, whose works will be read against the background of the aforementioned classics. Last but not the least, this course will give a short overview of the history of travel writing, discussing the role of ethnology and topics like orientalism, primitivism and postcolonialism.

This course examines the way Japan was, and continues to be, perceived in Europe and North America. The course analyzes a series of historical documents from European and North American sources and investigates how the view of Japan has developed in these countries over time.  Three questions are at the core of this investigation:
- Which images and stereotypes about Japan can be found in these documents?
- How much did these images and stereotypes change with time?
- How much did they stay the same?

In addition, the class entails group presentations about certain key periods in the history of Japan's encounter with Euroamerica.

Programs written in programming languages ​​such as C or Java are translated into assembly language or machine language programs by a special software called a compiler. This course explains the basic concepts and formalization of programming languages, explaining how the programs we usually write are executed inside a computer and how the compiler is configured for that purpose. Compilers can generally be divided into two parts: a front end and a back end. This course focuses on the front end, which comprises of three parts: lexical analysis, syntactic analysis, and semantic analysis.  

This course increases knowledge of concepts and theories in consumer behavior, and of methods for analyzing consumer behavior. The goal of this course is to understand how these concepts and approaches relate to marketing decision making. A set of important topics on consumer behavior is selected for discussion.

This course aims to understand the structural "power" of the media through examining how the media, people, and society affect one another. In addition, the course addresses public relations and communications so that students can foster media and digital competency to use “owned media” safely and effectively.

The course addresses the following topics:

1. Media and power: the danger of a single story; case studies
2. Media and gender
3. Media and ethnicity; case studies
4. Discourse analysis 
5. Interactive communications in the Digital and SDGs age; case studies
6. Interactive Communications and Global PR campaigns

This is an introductory course on modern Artificial Intelligence designed for Keio University. The course is composed of two parts taught in consecutive semesters: material introduced in part A forms a foundational basis for part B (this course), which develops these ideas further and introduces a selection of more recent results based on guided reading of relevant publications. The two courses taken in sequence form a coherent introduction to neural Artificial Intelligence. The first course focuses more on theory and fundamental concepts, with implementation of basic techniques in Python. The second course (this one) aims to cover more practical engineering topics using modern practices, as well as introducing some of the most influential recent advancements based on a selection of research papers. Part B of the course also introduces some topics in more depth, based on the interests of the instructor. One of those topics is Natural Language Processing (NLP) in the era of Deep Learning, as well as advanced methods in representation learning.

This course introduces students to the field of Artificial Intelligence, focusing on Deep Neural Information Processing Systems. Since this is a rapidly developing field, it focuses on the most important trends and core ideas. The course follows historical trends in AI with a focus on neural networks, seeing how the current ideas emerged out of decades of research in the field; it then discusses current neural architectures and algorithms and introduces modern perspectives. Completion of this course leads to an appreciation and understanding of neural AI systems and anticipation of future developments in research and applications of AI, and Deep Learning in particular. In addition to theory, there will be emphasis on programming skills in Python. The course will implement deep neural AI systems and train students on standard data sets.

It is recommended that students complete both courses (A and B) in sequence. However, it is possible to take this course as a standalone, after consulting the instructor during the first lecture. In such cases, students should review the material from part A in their own time, as this course builds on previously introduced concepts.

A war of ideas is being waged within the private sector. Efforts to obfuscate the truth collide with attempts to reveal the reality beyond the headlines. Long-Term Capital Management, Enron, Lehman, names of former so-called “high-flyers” now reduced to grim labels that serve to remind the wary of how quickly the elite can fall from grace. This course focuses on the interplay of truth and fiction in the business world and the critical thinking skills needed to unravel this twisted web.

This class is built in two “halves." During the first half of the course, the class will be exposed to many forms of analytical style used in the social studies and the field of history in particular—to (a) better understand both the language and terminology used in discussions of the subject matter and (b) improve their critical thinking skills. By using these analytical tools, the second half of the course focuses on case studies to see the interplay of fact and fiction on both the floor of investment banks and in the real estate markets of the US. 

This course aims to develop specialized knowledge in the theories of firms in modern economy, such as: a) analysis of internal organization of firms alternative to markets; (b) employment relationships and how employers motivate employees (the manager-worker agency problem), and (c) managers and incentives (the owner-manager agency problem). By the end of this course, students are expected to exercise an application of knowledge of economic theory to economic organizations.

Operating systems (OSes) such as Linux and Windows abstract bare-metal hardware and provide a more manageable virtual computer. The history of OS is old, and the modern, commercial OS consists of many fundamental concepts and implementation technologies. This course aims to educate on the basic concepts and implementation technologies of conventional OSes and deepen an understanding of their internal structure, particularly the internal structure of Linux and Windows. If time permits, cutting-edge operating systems and techniques will also be introduced. Along with the constant change in computer usage, the functions required in the OS constantly change, thus the study of OS provides hot research topics. 

This course introduces methodologies in geographical research, including research design, data collection and organization, interpretation, and analysis of results. Emphases are placed on how to undertake field surveys and how to analyze geographic information by exploring topics such as urban sustainability and the impact of COVID-19 on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The course enables students to acquire familiarity with, and practice of, quantitative and qualitative research methods in urban geography. Different ways of presenting and interpreting research results from geographic perspectives will be examined. The course also explores how to draw inferences from maps, graphs, and other sources to seek spatial patterns, relationships, and connections.

By the end of this course, students will be able to:
(1) Understand the “field” – that is a complex social, environmental, and economic space in which we apprehend the world.
(2) Understand the “fieldwork” – that is a vital geographical tool for investigating the characteristics of the real world.
(3) Undertake geographical fieldwork that involves formulating a geographic inquiry question, gathering data, analyzing the results, and reaching conclusions.
(4) Understand the interconnectedness of human, social, economic, and environmental sustainability through conducting a field-based student term project.