Seoul National University

This introduces Korean traditional music—genres, aesthetics, and performance styles. The course uses music as a medium through which we can better understand Korean culture, and makes use of audiovisual materials and live performance to enhance course content. The course is open to both Korean and International students who have an interest in Korean traditional and contemporary musical cultures.

This course offers students an opportunity to think, speak, and write in English about diverse issues of modern and contemporary society, using readily accessible genres and forms of cultural and social texts, including popular literature, literature for children and adolescents, graphic novels, movies and TV dramas, music, art works, journalistic writings, internet postings, etc. The class may either be organized around a single overarching theme or cover a series of different yet preferably interrelated themes.

This course is a workshop-based class on the topic of culture in multimodal communication. Students explore tools for understanding and analyzing different modes of communication. Particularly, the class focuses on how meaning is made through the interaction of two modes (language and image) in an important modern cultural medium, graphic novels. However, students apply the knowledge gained from this class to other forms of multimodal communication in the world around them.

This course focuses on cultivating analytical insight on legal disputes as a social phenomena. Systemization of the legal theories with the assistance of social science, and the analysis of social phenomena with the established legal theories are the two major cores of this course.

The course provides a survey of the modern Korean novel from its beginnings to 1945 but focuses on major works of fiction written after 1960. The course also demonstrates why and how Korean writers have tried to achieve "national literature" while trying to dispense with the limitations of nationalist discourse, which often suppresses the issues of gender and minorities, and even democracy itself. The course also provides a brief mapping of the contemporary literature of North Korea. 

This course consists mainly of the translation from classical Chinese into English, and hence students must have at least a working knowledge of both these languages. The secondary focus of this course is to develop academic writing skills, knowledge of translation theory and practice, and enhancing students’ knowledge of the historical and cultural background of the texts read in class. This course introduces the characteristic features of traditional culture of China, and investigates their significance on the contemporary Chinese society. Specifically, the course focuses on the relationship between the traditional cultural heritage and the contemporary China. Besides, it covers general ideas of the main texts on Chinese literary, history, and philosophy. In addition, some archeological and anthropological research are introduced for relevant issues. This course also introduces students to key ideas in translation theory and practice, which are relevant to anyone working in a multi-lingual environment. Students are encouraged to consider the problems of both the source text and the target language, and guided in strategies towards overcoming these difficulties. This course also introduces English language academic writing, aimed at students of Chinese language and literature.

The texts read in class consist of selected chapters of the Ming dynasty classic historical novel, the Dongzhou lieguo zhi 東周列國志 (Romance of the Kingdoms and States of the Eastern Zhou) by Feng Menglong 馮夢龍 (1574-1645). The period in history covered by this novel (771-221 BCE) is crucial in the history and culture of East Asia, and it provides a highly readable, interesting and historically accurate portrayal of the era. This novel is also important in that it consistently stresses the cultural importance of these events, and their ongoing significance for later Chinese history right up to modern times. In addition to translation, students will be expected to discuss issues raised in the text, and to defend their ideas in discussion in class.

This course is offered to non-science majors. This course explores the universe and its relationship to man from the viewpoint of ancient people to that of modern astronomers on space satellite. It emphasizes relevance of astronomy in natural sciences, engineering, humanism, and art.

This class presents a modern overview on the cosmos, as well as the multiple interrelations between humans and the universe. Topics include the basics of astronomy, planets and solar system, the sun, stars, galaxies, tools of astronomy (telescopes, satellites, etc.), spaceflight, life on earth, extreme objects (white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes), and cosmology.

This is an introductory course for students who took general biology in first year and deals with major issues in modern cell biology. The main theme of the course is to understand how individual cells can maintain life and reproduce for the next generation. Emphasis is on (1) structural-functional relationships of the cellular organelles as well as molecules; (2) flow of genetic information inside cells and tissues, and (3) cell cycle control, intracellular signal transduction, and carcinogenesis. Toward this end, the course also deals with the subjects of cellular physiology; basic genetic mechanisms; differentiation; development of multicellular organisms, as well as inborn genetic diseases.

The course covers practical methods and techniques for constructing and presenting portfolios.

This course addresses a number of questions on the causes and consequences of terrorism. The course examines terrorism conceptualizations, the role of religion and ideology, participant profiles and recruitment tactics, organization dynamics, government counterterrorism, and other consequences of terrorism. Course topics will address common social science conceptualizations of terrorism; the challenges with conducting research on terrorism; major theoretical explanations for terrorism dynamics; the effectiveness of state counterterrorism activity: and, relevant case studies. The course analyzes such questions as: Are terrorism and terrorist organizations analytically useful categories? Is terrorism an effective tactic? What makes someone travel abroad to join a terrorist organization? What causes organizations to choose different forms of terrorism? When do states support terrorist organizations? When are state counterterrorism activities effective against terrorist organizations? Causality verses correlation, endogeneity, and theoretical logic are also examined. 

This course introduces the field of communication through the study of its basic concepts, theories, history, and specific, relevant issues. Furthermore, it acquaintsstudents to various forms of communication including journalism, visual communication, interpersonal, and telecommunication.