Agricultural Sciences

The course explores the history of beekeeping, apiculture legislation, basic bee biology, plant science and pollination, genetics, metabolism and nutrition, pathology, bee welfare, colony collapse disorder, and several aspects of honey production, including its harvest and quality assessment. It includes theory classes as well as practical sessions at the UABee apiary and UAB laboratories.  

The Individual Research Training Senior (IRT Senior) Course is an advanced course of the Individual Research Training B (IRT B) course in the Tohoku University Junior Year Program in English (JYPE) in the spring semester. Though short-term international exchange students are not degree candidates at Tohoku University, a similar experience is offered by special arrangement. Students are required to submit: an abstract concerning the results of their IRT Senior project, a paper (A4, 20-30 pages) on their research at the end of the exchange term, and an oral presentation on the results of their IRT Senior project near the end of the　term.

This course focuses on structure, functions, and current issues in the agri-food economy from input industry to farm processing to distribution and retail in Denmark, Europe, and internationally. The course covers issues such as the Danish agri-food industry; the European agri-food systems and trends; the economic organization of the agri-food industry; quality, food safety, and the consumer; globalization of food markets; chain management and organization in agri-food chains; and agri-food cooperatives and organizations.

Animals figure in human society and culture in multiple ways, while frequently being marginalized or reduced to commodities, production units, status symbols, and tools. This course offers a critical exploration of how a shifting economic, scientific, political, and media-shaped landscape assigns various roles and values to animals in contemporary Western society and the consequences for the living conditions of animals and humans alike. The course integrates innovative critical animal studies research from a range of areas such as sociology, media and communication studies, philosophy, cultural studies, geography, gender studies, and critical race studies.

This course explores microbiological concepts relevant to agricultural, environmental, and food applications. Examples relate microbiological theory to the production and spoilage of foods and fodders, water quality, microbiological regulation of nutrient cycles, animal and plant health, and biotechnology. Students are introduced to common microorganisms and consider growth, classification, genetics, survival, and control by sterilization, disinfection, immunization, and antibiotics. As part of the theoretical and practical aspects of the course students gain experience with microbiological laboratory methodologies such as microscopy, sterile technique, and the isolation and identification of pure cultures.

Upon completion of the course, students are able to …..

1.. understand and apply key concepts and ideas relating to food and nutrition from a social science/human geography approach.
2.. understand and analyze food issues from a relational perspective, in terms of both its geographical dimensions as well as systems thinking.
3.. understand food as a contested domain, and being able to identify and analyze major issues of social justice and sustainability relating to food.
4. reflect critically on social and geographical issues of food, and develop and communicate an informed argument about them (academic skills).
5. apply a set of specific analytical tools with respect to food and nutrition issues.