This course offers an introductory overview of marketing, including the strategic marketing process, seeking marketing opportunities through environmental analysis, consumer and organizational buying behavior, market segmentation and target market selection, pricing, integrated marketing communications and marketing channels. The ethics and social responsibility of marketing will also be covered.

The course is designed to help students learn about and apply the basic concepts and practices of modern marketing as they are used in a variety of business settings. The course makes extensive use of real-world case examples and skill developing activities to explore the major decisions that marketing managers face in their efforts to balance the organization’s objectives and resources against needs and opportunities in the marketplace.

Regardless of academic background or career interest, Marketing Management should help the student by providing valuable knowledge and insight about a business function that profoundly affects both organizations and society as whole. 

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This course examines the concepts and processes in the practice of intercultural communication. In an era of globalization, the ability to communicate across cultures has become a necessity in virtually every domain.

The course will provide a comprehensive overview of general cross-cultural communication principles, but for convenience sake many of the illustrative examples and specific points of focus in the curriculum will involve Chinese-Western comparisons.  The course is designed to prepare undergraduate students for careers as international professionals by focusing on the cross-cultural factors that influence communication in domains such as business, academia, travel, diplomacy, and technology exchange.

During the course, we will analyze the barriers for successful communication, including cultural differences and how a communication style can be developed to provide more successful intercultural encounters. The course participants will engage in many simulated cross-cultural scenarios, so as to gain practical experience relevant to working with people from a variety of different backgrounds.

See the syllabus of record.

As political, economic and social integration of China and Western cultures increases in the 21st century, it is increasingly vital that we attempt to attain a greater mutual understanding between East and West. One path to this goal is to make a comparative study of Chinese and Western core concepts, taking advantage of the growing body of ethnological, sociological and psychological evidence for cultural differences.

This course attempts to present a contrastive analysis of the defining concepts of Chinese and Western culture through the lens of different academic disciplines, including sociology, anthropology, language, semiotics cognitive science, and cross-cultural psychology.  The approach is interdisciplinary and comparative, leading students to explore central concepts in Chinese and Western philosophy, values, interpersonal relationships, communication patterns, thinking and behavioral norms.

Emphasis will be on specific examples of various cultural phenomena, and will draw on both scientific research and illustrative informal data in order to generate classroom discussion and open analysis. 

See the syllabus of record. 

This course uses a blend of approaches from the humanities and social sciences to introduce the histories, societies, and cultures of East Asia. Its goal is to build a broad understanding of the modern historical development of China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. Students first study the premodern legacies that shaped each of these civilizations and intertwined their societies. Then the course will turn to the crises of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the quests for resolution, and the pursuit of national identities in a rapidly emerging and often violent modern world order. Sources for study are primary historical sources, fiction, and memoirs along with academic readings. Historical themes include imperial domination and revolutionary resistance, nationalism, communism,  democracy, feminism, and the wars of the 20th century (WWI, WWII, and the Cold
War). In addition, students analyze the role of historical memory in relation to topics such as comfort women, Nanjing, and Hiroshima. At least one field class allows students to interpret a course topic within the local context.

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Economics is the study of the use of scarce resources to satisfy human needs and wants. The goal of this course is to recognize the scarcity, choice and tradeoffs that exist everywhere, to develop a set of tools to conceptualize this, and to apply these tools to understand human actions. In doing so, students learn to pay close attention to current economic events. Through this course, we will recognize that the world and the economy are very complex and will try to simplify just the right amount to help deepen our understanding.

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This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the essential research and writing tasks common to most academic contexts.  This course will provide key techniques, guidelines and suggestions to improve students’ academic written communication.

Students will become familiar with various academic formats and styles, with particular focus on designing and implementing an academic research project. After completing the course, participants should possess a basic repertoire of research and writing skills such as: summarizing and paraphrasing; drawing evidence from the scholarship of others; finding and evaluating print and electronic source materials appropriate for academic research projects; developing original arguments to support a thesis; critically evaluating their own and others’ work, and; collaborating with other writers throughout the writing process. The course will be task-based, and will require a series of brief, self-designed research papers to practice the required techniques of different academic formats.

See the syllabus of record. 

The global environmental crisis is the planet’s biggest existential threat, and will have an incalculable impact on all societies and economies.  For students interested in environmental policy, social impact, entrepreneurship, risk management and sustainability, this course will provide a foundational understanding of the environmental policy decisions that will shape their future careers.

With a focus on US-China cooperation, the course will provide case studies of specific international accords and local regulations, as well as the latest scientific and technological advances.  Upon completion of the course, students should have a grasp of such questions as how to determine the biggest environmental threats and opportunities, how to measure effectiveness of policy and business decisions, and how to conduct thoughtful, inclusive analysis. 

The curriculum will also include site visits in Beijing, and guest lectures from local environmental experts.

See the syllabus of record.

This course covers American history from the end of the Second World War to the present time. Topics to be covered include the Cold War with the Soviet Union, wars in Korea, Vietnam, and the Middle East, the 60s civil rights movement, the rise of religious conservatism, globalization, multiculturalism, and the “culture wars” that continue to rock the country to this day.

The post-war period was a time of enormous change in American society, seeing monumental shifts in economics, politics, race relations, gender roles, and other areas. American society during the last half of the twentieth century experienced a great deal of both dissent and consensus. Yet longstanding questions continued to face Americans during the last half of the twentieth century. How democratic is the American system? Who in American society has the power to effect change? What role should the government play in American life?

The course aims to paint a broad picture of post-WWII America, including a diversity of voices and perspectives. While providing a useful overall perspective for analyzing American culture, the course also will attempt to challenge the notion that there is one unified American story.

See the syllabus of record. 

The United States and China are two of the most powerful countries in the world, and their relationship is arguably one of the most important bilateral relationships. Negotiating this relationship has enormous consequences for the future of the international order. The purpose of this course is to help students to understand the relations between China and the United States, from the First Opium War to the current trade wars.

The course will familiarize students with the history and the current issues of Sino-US relations, and provide the background knowledge to critically understand and analyze Sino-US relations through conceptual and theoretical perspectives. Through analysis of historical bilateral interactions, the course will look into the grand strategic rivalry between China and the United States caused by China’s rise and the reactions of the US government.

Finally, the course attempts to develop students’ ability to understand the broader issues of international relations in the 21st century, such as international conflicts, cooperation, war and peace, and global governance.

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Ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax stated, “As we live, so do we sing.” Those words have never been more applicable to Americans after World War II. This course examines the historical significance of popular music in the United States from the mid twentieth century to the present. We will examine a variety of musical genres ranging from the blues, rhythm and blues, country, folk, soul, rock, disco, and hip-hop. As we examine the various genres, we will need to identify some of the individuals who were instrumental in shaping the landscape of what became American popular music. Such figures as Woody Guthrie, Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington, Buddy Holly, Robert Johnson, Ma Rainey, Elvis Presley, Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul and Mary, Bruce Springsteen, Lauryn Hill, Tracy Chapman, and Jay-Z and many others. All of these individuals helped to shape and define the American popular music scene. All of the musical innovations and opportunities experienced by them are tempered by social, political, economic and religious variables. 

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This course will provide a comprehensive introduction to general theories and methods related to cross-cultural psychology. Given the context of the course, the topics and reading materials will concentrate on issues of Chinese psychology in comparison and contrast with psychological phenomena of cultures outside of China.

Readings and method will draw upon significant cross-cultural psychological research found in sources such as Richard Nisbett’s The Geography of Thought and Michael Harris Bond’s The Psychology of the Chinese People.  In addition, the course will emphasize empirical approaches to cross-cultural study and explain the importance of culture in human cognition, language, education and child development.

Through comparative studies of Eastern and Western psychological data, students will gain an understanding of interconnectedness, difference, and diversity in a global society, and learn how to analyze the major cultural influences on human behavior, describe quantitative and qualitative methods for cross-cultural research, summarize how culture influences thinking and mental processes, explain the differences between collectivistic and individualistic cultures, and understand the relevance of knowledge of diverse cultures to cross-cultural interactions.

See the syllabus of record.