Seoul National University

This general survey course is intended to introduce primarily international students to contemporary South Korean history, covering the period roughly from 1945 to the 1990s. Participation in this class does not require knowledge of modern or contemporary Korean history, nor fluency in the Korean language. After a brief overview of Korea‘s colonial past in order to contextualise post-1945 developments, the cours focuses on major political, social, economic, and ideological transformations from liberation to the end of the Cold War era.  

Key topics include the liberation and U.S. occupation period, the Korean War, authoritarian military regimes, and democratic movements. While the course is conducted entirely in English, including all required reading materials, it aims to introduce students to central concepts, historical figures, and key issues in South Korean history, thereby providing a foundation for more advanced study. 

This is an introductory course on scientific research methods for social welfare research. The course covers the process of formulating appropriate research questions and hypotheses; issues on conceptualization and measurement; components of research designs; basic techniques for testing hypotheses and relationships among variables; and ethical issues associated with conducting social welfare research. Topics include Human inquiry and science, the research process, problem formation, searching and reviewing literature, conceptualization and measurement and scales, assessing quality of measurement instruments, sampling, research designs, evaluation research.

Students will be required to prepare research plans according to a social research framework. 

This course provides English-speaking students with various kinds of knowledge about the Korean language including structural characteristics of modern Korean, the information on the writing system (i.e. Hangeul), socio-cultural effects on the Korean language, etc. The course is offered from a linguistic point of view, but does not require a specific linguistic knowledge. It is not a language training course, but will help gain a deeper understanding of Korean, which is very useful in acquiring a better command of Korean.

This course covers state-of-the-art mobile computing technologies and the development of application software for terminal devices. Due to recent advances in computing technology and wireless communication, multimedia information can now be processed "anytime, anywhere." These mobile computing systems consist of terminals (smartphones, tablet computers, etc.), wired and wireless networks, operating systems/middleware, and the integration of all these enables effective application services. Mobile computing is a key technology based on distributed computing and embedded system technologies, and is applied in ubiquitous systems, mobile commerce, mobile phones, and more. 

Topics include Life-Immersive mobile computing, Understanding behavior and contexts, Mobile data, Edge AI systems, AR and VR systems, Efficient ML models (pruning, quantization, neural architecture search, on-device training, knowledge distillation, application-specific optimizations). 

The evaluation will be based on four assignments, one mini-project, and the final exam. Students should be aware that there will not be a term project to design and develop a new mobile application. 

This course covers the functioning and development of the European Union from a legal perspective. We examine the forces that drive European integration and explore the relationship of law to integration. The course surveys EU institutions, doctrines, laws and politics with a particular emphasis on the design of rules and contemporary events and focuses on the dynamics behind a legally driven process of regional integration.  

Thematically, we consider, confront, and discuss the institutional set up of the EU (constitutional design, legal and political integration, separation of powers and the rule of law), the main doctrines of EU law, fundamental freedoms in EU, citizenship and political rights, competition law, questions of democratic legitimacy, EU enlargement and foreign policy, capital markets integration and monetary affairs. 

This course offered from the SNU Graduate School of International Studies covers an introduction to key issues in Korean society, with a focus on contemporary South Korea. Students engage with “big ideas” about modernity, the state, the nation, and democracy.  

Topics include Diversity and modernity; Discipline, violence, and modernity; The state, dictatorship, and industrialization; The Minjung movement; Memory and political movements; Democracy after dictatorship; Democracy and overseas initiatives; Identity and transnationalism.  

In addition to in-class quizzes and exams, students meet separately with the instructor in small groups twice during the term. These meetings are compulsory and count toward participation grades. 

This class provides an overview of Eastern art, examining the important achievements of traditional Chinese, Indian, and Japanese art. It examines the visual characteristics of ancient Eastern art, Buddhist art, painting, calligraphy, ceramics, and crafts, and aims to understand them within their historical and cultural contexts. Focusing on important themes highlighted in the history of art, it enhances understanding of the historical trends, representative works, stylistic characteristics, and traditional aesthetics of each artwork.  

Topics include Ancient Chinese Art: Pottery and Bronze; Buddhist Art: India, Central Asia, China; Ceramics: The Art of Clay and Fire; The Age of Painting and Calligraphy: From Portrait to Landscape; Literary Painting; The Emperor and Art: Court Art; Diversity of Ming-Cheng Dynasty Painting; The Beginnings of Japanese Art and Buddhist Art in Japan; Japanese Painting.

This course focuses on interpreting and designing moving images from a design perspective, rather than software-driven training. Over the past decade, production and distribution environments for moving images have rapidly transformed, making moving images a central mode of communication in visual design. As a result, the ability to understand how moving images are designed to shape meaning and sensation (moving image design) has become increasingly important beyond mere technical production skills.  If graphic design results in prints, then moving image design ends with movies, television, or video clips. In this class, students learn how movement is recorded and formed to articulate messages and learn techniques of shooting and editing with using special effects, exploring how time is created through image design. 

Each week, students screen and discuss a range of references and analyze them through five lenses—Context, Structure, System, Medium, and Sensory.  At the end of each class, the next lens is introduced, and students bring references in advance to support discussion. 

The course consists of two assignments: (1) a reference case study with a redesign plan (including an animatic), and (2) a final project in any medium with process documentation.

This introductory course fosters an evolutionary understanding of the human body, thought, emotion, behavior, society, and culture, and it is offered as a basic class open to students from any academic background.  

“Evolution” is the key concept for scientifically investigating the characteristic patterns of human thought, emotion, and behavior, as well as sociocultural phenomena. 
Drawing on intriguing findings from anthropology, cognitive neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, and behavioral ecology, we address a wide range of issues in individual lives and sociocultural contexts from an evolutionary perspective. 

Topics include Evolutionary inquiries for humans, Foundations of evolutionary theory, Overview of human evolutionary history, Evolutionary approaches to mind and behavior, Sex and mating, Family and kinship, Group life and sociality, Culture and religion.

This physical education course introduces the field of exercise science and explores it in relation to areas of health promotion. The course also provides a unique opportunity for students to test a career choice in fields related to health, exercise, and well-being through lectures from experts from different areas of science. This course is a foundational exploration of essential concepts and theories related to fostering holistic well-being, encompassing both physical and mental dimensions. Emphasizing a comprehensive approach to health, the curriculum delves into diverse strategies for enhancing and sustaining well-being, including exercise, lifestyle management encompassing aspects like sleep, nutrition, and stress. 

Topics include Foundations of health and exercise science; Anatomy and physiology for exercise science; Exercise prescription and programming; Yoga experience; Nutrition, hydration, and exercise: Fundamental of nutrition, Energy balance, Nutrient timing, Dietary supplements; Stress, the effects of stress, and stress reduction; Psychology of physical activity and exercise. 

Students should expect to create and group-lead a stress-reduction class, and produce and present a final project.