Last update: April 30, 2020

AMST 2120 (811) Hip-Hop Culture: African Origins to Urban America

This course examines hip-hop culture and its relation to American & African American Culture in general. We will examine the historical origins of hip-hop culture from the Griot oral tradition in Africa up to the current global impact on youth consumption, imitation, appropriation, and customization (in particular, Japanese youth) of trends that have been spawned by the hip-hop culture in the U.S.A. We will also look at how hip-hop culture is a multi-dimensional phenomena and not simply a "style".

ARTH 2096 (811) Eurasia: Connecting European and Asian Art and Culture

Even though we are living in a globalizing world, our common knowledge of cultures other than our own is limited. Since every culture has its own uniqueness, it can often cause misunderstandings during interpretation. Located on the eastern side of Eurasia, Japan can be seen as a reflection of Europe itself in many ways. By comparing the cultures and historical incidents of these parts of Eurasia, they echo resounding similarities. This class connects European and Asian cultures into the singular continental culture of Eurasia - through cross cultural comparisons of significant moments in history and places of significance. Upon completion of this course, you will be able to compare the social and historical contexts of Europe and Japan, while being able to create your own critical analysis’s on this area of study. Although, not required, it is recommended to take “Japanese Culture” course before taking this course.

ARTH 2800 (811) Japanese Art Before and After WWII: National Identities in Modernization

This course introduces Japanese art from the early 20th century to present day, focusing on traditional aspects of Japanese cultures. Through this course you will study Japan’s relationship with modernization and its influence on arts and cultures such as; painting, sculpture, manga, movie, animation, performance art, and more. The artists who will be discussed in these courses will be; Hayao Miyazaki, Osamu Tezuka, Leonard Tsuguharu Fujita, Yasujiro Ozu, Yoko Ono, Yukio Mishima, and Yasumasa Morimura. Special attention will be paid to the historical context of Japan’s modernization, World War II, and their influences on Japanese contemporary art. The aim of this course is to help you develop literacy on Japanese modern/contemporary art and culture. Upon completion of this course, you will be able to understand the social and historical context of Japanese art and culture. Enabling you to create your own critical analysis’s on this particular field of study. Previous knowledge of Japan’s history or art is not required for this course.

ARTH 2800 (812) Japanese Graphic Design History

Japanese Graphic Design History explores the rise and development of commercial art and advertising art into graphic design in the Japanese context from the Meiji Restoration to the contemporary moment. This course examines the aesthetic, market-based and sociopolitical milestones that have influenced design while simultaneously exploring the pantheon of both renowned and underexplored Japanese graphic designers. Students will read relevant slices of design theory—the history, criticism and literature—from Asia, Europe and the Americas in order to contextualize Japanese Graphic Design History and the localized developments of Modernism, Postmodernism and the current Neoliberal Era. This course approaches the analysis of graphic design from an all-encompassing perspective, examining the design of everyday commercially designed objects such as matchbooks to posters for cinema and theater to the design of Japanese typefaces to the design of corporate identities. Students will gain a nuanced understanding of why and how our designed world looks the way it does through history-rich talks, graphic design studio visits with famous graphic designers, and trips to graphic design exhibitions. This class is the lone course offered globally that explores the robust history of Japanese Graphic Design in total.

ARTU 2400 (811) Picture Books

Throughout the semester, you will learn about picture book structure and how to compose a picture book. You will create a hand-bound picture book of your own illustrations or other art, with or without words. You will learn how to lay out the artworks on book pages. The medium is up to you (e.g. watercolor, acrylic, pastels, pen, woodblock print) and so is the type of book (e.g. children’s book, poetry, journal). Under the instructor’s supervision you will make mock-ups and explore the best binding method for the book. The history of book publishing in Japan and around the world will be covered in class.

ARTU 2400 (812) Design + Art: Visualizing Sound

A hands-on studio course exploring analog, digital, and hybrid approaches to the visual representation of sound across visual art, visual design, typography, and photographic approaches. Basic Adobe Creative Suite familiarity recommended.

ASST 2000 (811)/GUS 3000 (811)/SOC 2130 (811) The Evolving City: The Humanities Perspective

Tokyo will be our laboratory, with students studying the changing landscape of the city from anthropological, sociological and cultural perspectives, focusing on the narratives of people and their communities.

ASST 2000 (812) Japan Outside of Tokyo

Temple University, Japan Campus is an urban institution in the middle of the densely-populated city of Tokyo. This course is designed to show students aspects of where most Japanese people live - away from Tokyo. Over the course of 10 days, students will experience every day life in a rural area in the north of Honshu. We will discuss agriculture, small and middle-sized businesses, education, environmental concerns, aging populations, regional identity, regional history, and a variety of other interests.

CLA 2020 (811) International Career Strategies

The aim of this course is to help students develop a professional mindset. It is designed to explore the career competencies and strategies that are necessary to confidently and successfully transition from college life to the workplace or graduate school. Emphasis is placed on developing the skills necessary in an international career. Participants will use these skills throughout their working life as professionals, managers, executives, or entrepreneurs. This is not a lecture course. It is an interactive workshop giving business majors, in particular, a chance to develop and realize their career potential through exploring career options, preparing a strategy to launch a fulfilling career and improving written and oral presentation skills. The course should increase the student’s ability to: Present professionally (in writing and in person), realistically assess talent and job potential, think critically and creatively about career options and start an international or domestic career search.

CLA 2030 (811) Technology in International Business

Explore the role of information technology as a business enabler and take a look at management information systems' impact on business models and society. Evaluate the organizational fit and suitability of various technologies and interpret the interaction between information technology, customers, processes, data, human resources, and the overall internal and external environment of international businesses. Understand the ethical challenges of information technology and explain the evolving role of management information systems in the organization, and the role and careers of MIS professionals.

JPNS 3010 (811) Kanji III

Kanji or Chinese characters are an integral part of Japanese orthography system, which is considered as a key factor to learners' reading comprehension and vocabulary building. However, Kanji is considered to be difficult and rather time-consuming to acquire especially for learners from alphabetic orthography systems such as English speakers. This course is a continuation of Kanji II and designed to promote students' understanding and mastery of additional 500 Kanji or more at the intermediate level. By mastering additional 500 Kanji, students will acquire the Kanji proficiency equivalent to JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) N3 or N2, and also improve their reading and writing skills in addition to vocabulary building. In this course, students are expected to apply their understanding of Kanji principles and knowledge to learn intermediate Kanji. They will start learning Kanji representing abstract ideas and Kanji with complex radicals. Also, they will learn two- or three-Kanji combination words rather than individual Kanji as well as synonymous or antonymous expressions. Their progress and mastery will be monitored and tested by regular quizzes throughout the course. As part of learning process, students will be encouraged to try The Kanji Proficiency Test (Kanken) Level 7 to 6 depending on the degree of each student's mastery of Kanji.

JPNS 3010 (812) Japanese Communication and Culture II

This course is designed to enhance students' understanding of the intersection between language and culture in Japanese society. The course will provide students with opportunities to address questions regarding Japanese communication styles and/or language use which they might have encountered in Japanese speaking communities and to recognize how Japanese language used in real life situations is diverse. The course will cover a wide range of topics that address language use and variations in Japanese society, such as language and gender, honorifics, dialects, the use of English, and so on. Students will be encouraged to share their own observations and thoughts of Japanese language and its speakers in class.

JRN 3701 (811) Journalism and Japan's Geopolitical Impact on the World

Asia's geopolitical impact on world affairs continues to expand in significance and tenure. What role do the press play in informing and deciphering the vast interaction of politics, business and culture? This course aims to introduce students to timely issues through attending real press conferences, discussion and practical journalistic writing. All students taking the course are given free student membership at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan and the Japan National Press Club.

PSY 3620 (811) Clinical Sexology in the Japanese Context

This course introduces the topic of clinical sexology offering discussion about various sexuality phenomena, which shape the contemporary Japanese society. Modern Japan is facing dramatic changes regarding sexual expressions, gender roles and expectations, as well as sexual behaviors, which challenge the time-honored stereotypes about feminine and masculine sexuality in Japan. This course also offers a comprehensive analysis of Japanese sexuality from clinical, psychological, social and cultural perspective, and it introduces cross-cultural models of clinical interventions, applicable in the Japanese context. In addition, the clinical and counseling tools applicable in cross-cultural sexology will be discussed in order to offer the students an opportunity to enrich their psychological studies.

PSY 3620 (812) Social Psychology in the Cross-Cultural Context

In order to better understand how the social environment influences individual thoughts, feelings, behaviors, we will focus primarily on the cross-cultural context in this seminar course. Topics will be wide ranging and may include, among other topics, The role of the cross-cultural context relating to the self and identity, emotion, cognition, development, and interpersonal and intergroup interaction. We will start by considering an overview of research on differences and similarities in social behavior across cultures as well as issues in doing cross-cultural social psychological research. Your main coursework will stem from and culminate in a literature-review-based research proposal. Base on it you will lead group discussions on selected readings, collect pilot data to address methodological issues in your design, present your proposal to the class for critical feedback on design and presentation style (self-recording and reflection), and submit a written proposal in APA Style.

PSY 4696 (811) Cross-Cultural Themes in Psychology

The main focus of this capstone is a timely topic important to many fields in psychology, addressing a need for academic analysis of rapidly changing social and cultural interactions in the global context. The course will allow students to see and analyze the linkages between concepts, theories, research findings and professional applications from the cross-cultural perspective with special emphasis put on the contemporary psychological phenomena in Japan.
This course also offers a comprehensive analysis of various clinical, social and cultural perspectives, related to globalization, international mobility, human relationships in public and private spheres, online psychology/virtual reality, cross- cultural psychopathology, etc.
This capstone is particularly useful for students planning graduate work in psychology or considering studying/working overseas, and those who would like to develop the deeper understanding of multi-layered mechanisms, which underlie the cross-cultural phenomena in psychology.
This is a writing-intensive course and students are required to explore relevant literature, critically analyze academic sources and findings, raise questions, and prepare an academic paper on their particular topic of interest.