Sociology

This course fosters students' understanding of the fast-emerging trans-national English-speaking culture by exploring such socio-linguistic themes as language and gender, language and race as well as cultural diversity. It provides students with skills needed to make them into international citizens and leaders in today's global society. This course introduces how English has become a global language, what changes and variations English has come through, and what issues such changes have generated. The English language is playing a pivotal role as an important tool to communicate in today’s globalized world. As it spreads out throughout the world, linguistic changes have appeared in different varieties of English and the new varieties are received differently in different parts of the world. Students learn about linguistic descriptions of the new varieties of English, attitudes towards New Englishes, and issues related to learning and teaching of the English language. In addition, students take a peek at what
is happening to languages whose speakers are decreasing in numbers (as opposed to English whose number of speakers is increasing).

This course reviews organizations and workplaces with a focus on how to enhance relationships with the organizations. Organization Theory is a branch of social sciences that is particularly interested in the why, how, and when multiple individuals join efforts to reach a common goal. It is a multidisciplinary subject drawing from disciplines such as arts and humanities, educational sciences, psychology, evolutionary biology, economics, and politics. These multiple lenses through which we view organizations make Organization Theory a fascinating and relevant topic to explore and examine at any stage of your study program. The main topics covered in this course are organization-environment relations, organizational design types and culture, leadership development, HRM and well-being, and managing diversity and inclusion at work.

Since the industrial revolution, the global population has flowed extensively and rapidly into the cities, and more than half of the world's population has lived in cities today, and the population of more than 10 million megalopolises is growing. The various aspects of urban life have already constituted an important collective experience of contemporary human life. This course focuses on the contemporary 21th century Taiwan metropolis that brings together a large number of people, goods, money and information, representing the possibility of various development imagination. This course objective is to analyze the issues of urbanization as a large number of people and objects coexist at the same time. These issues include questions of infrastructure, transport network, land use, public safety, class differences, multicultural and even biodiversity planning and design issues. Issues of city governance and growth constitute a major challenge which this course attempts to provide practical solutions for. Simultaneously, this large number of people, the aggregation of things, also lead to the expansion of risk, how the contemporary city of extreme weather and man-made disaster is not only an unavoidable subject but also a threat. There is also a complication of a gradual increase in health care needs as the consequences of the large migration into cities. Throughout this semester students will analyze, research, discuss and draft up proposals to these urbanization issues found in Taipei, Taiwan. By the end of the course, students will have completed proposals to the Taiwanese government that address these socials issues and will post physical copies of their proposals in the main lobby of Taipei City Hall.

The course focuses on the main connections between migration and learning processes, especially as they concern second generation immigrants; multicultural family models, with special attention to international adoption; developmental processes of children and adolescents with foreign origins (or internationally adopted); contemporary debates on multiculturalism and interculturalism. The course highlights: tools and strategies useful in planning training courses on intercultural education in extra-school contexts; the categorization processes related to the formation of stereotypes and prejudices; strategies for overcoming ethnic conflicts; historical, social, and cultural factors that lead to racist attitudes and behaviors. The first part of the course explores the main concepts and knowledge connected to multicultural societies. It aims to promote understanding and reflection on new possible approaches for active citizenship. The topics covered in the course are the following: globalization; multicultural societies and intercultural approach; stereotypes, prejudices, and the vocational approach; racism and cultural relativism; migration in the literature, the German and Italian case: a comparison; diversity, differences, valorization of differences; assimilation, segregation and integration; intercultural education: construction and evaluation of outside-school learning paths, conflict management. The topics are explained and discussed through traditional lectures and then the students are expected to develop the topics in which they are particularly interested through workgroups geared to the production of a multimedia presentation to be discussed and defended in class with the instructor and the other participants. students. The presentation is part of the final assessment. The second part of the course is tailored on the specific topics of this course and focuses on the pedagogical analysis of migration in the German and Italian cases.