January Term Japan Travel Courses

Some recent travel programs included:

MUSC 243: Film Music in Japan.  This travel course focuses on Japan’s rich history of innovative film music. The course begins on campus with a study of Japanese music and its use in film, then travels to Japan for two weeks, where students tour important historical and cultural sites, attend musical and theatrical performances, and visit a film studio. Along the way, students gain an understanding of Japan’s musical breadth and aesthetics, its noteworthy film composers, and its dynamic cultural and political history. No musical experience required. 

PSCI 330: Comparative Legislatures.  Comparative Legislatures explores the major differences between the presidential-congressional system of government in the United States and the prime ministerial-parliamentary systems used in other parts of the world. Comparative Legislatures focuses on the factors influencing a particular non-western country’s implementation of parliamentary democracy. A travel course, this class offers the opportunity for students to consider the unique geographic, cultural, social, and political characteristics that shape the U.S. and comparison country by travel both to Washington, D.C. and to a major parliamentary democracy for in-depth participant observation of the differences between the two systems.

MATH 270: Traditional Japanese Mathematics. This travel course will focus on the geometry that arose during Japan’s 18th century cultural blossoming, despite its self-imposed isolation from the scientific revolution in Europe. The course begins on campus with a study of the techniques, important scholars, and historical context of traditional Japanese mathematics. During the travel portion of the course, students will visit key historical sites in Japan, view mathematical artifacts, and absorb the cultural aesthetics that still seem intimately connected with this country’s traditional geometry. Offered alternate years.

RELS 248: Religions of Japan. This course travels to Japan and provides a historical and cultural exploration of Japanese religious ideas and practices. Though the main focus will be on the religious tradition of Shinto and the many forms of Buddhism in Japan, the course will also con- sider the influence and impact of folk religion, Confucianism, Daoism, Christianity, and the wide array of new religious movements that have emerged in recent history. A particular focus of the course will be on the manner in which religion has so profoundly shaped multiple aspects of Japanese life, including the arts, politics, popular culture, and views of the natural environment.