TIUA Electives

Fall Course Descriptions

American History II: The Making of Modern America

This course examines the history of the United States during the years 1970-2000. Topics to be covered include the Vietnam War, the end of the Cold War, and the rise of a “New World Order,” the new economy of the late twentieth century, and the society and culture of the United States during these years. We will examine the role of the United States in an age of global capitalism, asking both: How does the world see the United States?, and how do Americans see themselves? In this course, we will use readings, music, film, and lectures to study the history of the American people in the last quarter of the twentieth century.

American Society

An in-depth assessment of the American people - both native and immigrant, their culture and character as these are reflected in their social structure, values, and subcultures.

How and why do people in the United States act like they do? How are their ways of life similar to and different from life in Japan? In this course, students will examine contemporary American society from a sociological perspective as they explore three topic areas: education, social inequality, and dating and weddings. Course activities include lectures, discussions, films, guest speakers, group research projects, oral reports, debates, and role playing.

American Society and Culture Through Music - A

This course is designed for students to gain a better understanding of American culture through the survey of the music of America from its earliest sources to the twentieth century touching upon traditions sacred and secular, popular and classical. Special emphasis will be given to music as a reflection of culture. Students will be given opportunities to develop their English language skills by participating in discussions, writing papers, making presentations, and studying the lyric content of the music performed in class.

American Studies (Sections B & C)

The goal of this course is to study American culture and society through an analysis of traditional and contemporary American values, social institutions, and means of expression.

Cultural Anthropology

Through this course, the student develops an understanding of the anthropological point of view and knowledge of how it is practiced in the field and applied to resolve present day problems. It defines the concept of culture and focuses on the cultural aspects of economics, social interactions which include marriage and family, and beliefs. Comparisons of different cultures are used to emphasize the variations of these systems that form different cultures and their complexities.

Human Resources Management

Human Resource Management (HRM) is the field of management that deals with the assessment, development, payment, and placement of an organization’s employees - the organization’s human resources. As the world enters the 21st century, business leaders and managers have come to realize that “people management” is as important as “capital management” and even “financial management”. But human resources need more than to just be managed. Employees need to be motivated to perform. Also, employees need to be directed and led toward the accomplishment of the organization’s goals. This course addresses each of these important human resource topics: the management, motivation, and leadership of today’s work force.

International Politics

The purpose of this course is to introduce the student to the range and complexity of interactions that characterize International Politics, the diversity of actors engaged in these interactions, the forces that structure the actors’ options and choices, and some of the sources of tension and concern in the contemporary international system. The course addresses both positive and normative issues. By placing the student “in the shoes” of decision makers it invites the student to identify and examine the options available in crisis and non-crisis situations, and to analyze not only why a particular decision was made but what decision ought to have been made and why.

In order to encourage maximum student participation, learning activities in the course include interactive exercises (negotiations, etc.), simulations, role-playing, and other case-method approaches. This encourages students to learn and apply theories as well as to more clearly understand the specifics of particular situations.

Introduction to Linguistics

Language is central to our identity as social and cultural beings. It is pervasive, complex and creative and at the same time, elusive, effortless and rule-governed. At some level, everyone is fascinated by language and, yet most of its proficient users have little understanding of the intricacies of how it works. The study of language touches a variety of academic disciplines from sociology and anthropology to psychology and neurology, but the one discipline solely devoted to it is the field of linguistics.

This course provides students with a survey of the basic issues in the field of linguistics. Topics studied include the nature and origin of language, phonological systems, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, discourse analysis, language and the brain, first and second language acquisition and the interaction of language and culture. The course will focus primarily on English (and to some extent Japanese) to provide examples of the topics and issues covered and will attempt to draw attention to linguistic comparisons between the two languages.

Rites of Passage in Japan and the U.S. (Joint Course, WU/TIUA)

This course focuses on the events of birth, marriage, and death as they are socially construed by way of symbols, rituals, and myths. Initially, attention is directed to theoretical foundations and the constructs of symbol, ritual and myth themselves. Readings are drawn from anthropology, communication studies, linguistics, and sociology. Thereafter, focus turns to each of the events—birth, marriage, and death—and the ways that various cultures make them meaningful. The constructs examined earlier in the term are applied to selected case studies from Japan and the United States.

Volunteerism

Volunteerism is viewed by Americans and others as one of the most positive aspects of American culture. In this course students will attempt to define volunteerism, explore the values and motivations that underlie the American “volunteer spirit,” examine statistics on volunteerism in America and in Oregon to see who volunteers and how, learn what makes a good volunteer and a good volunteer project, and conversely understand when service is bad. They will also study a model of progressive stages through which a volunteer moves and apply this model to a movie about Dorothy Day, a famous American volunteer. They will also apply this model to themselves after completing several one-time all-class service projects and an on-going small group service project that deals with a social issue such as homelessness and hunger, teen parents, care of the elderly. Students will end by comparing the relationship between the federal government and NPOs in America and Japan and comparing the views of the two governments on mandatory service-learning in the public schools.

Students’ understanding of course concepts will be assessed by their grades on reading worksheets and short reading reaction papers, participation in volunteer projects and their reflective volunteer project journals, and a final opinion paper or debate about mandatory service-learning in the public school.