Teaching

Maymester Course

This unique class combines on-site research based learning and peer to peer interaction with our counterpart school, Singapore Management University (SMU).  All the students engage in producing foreign policy recommendations to the current US foreign policy team in the form of a Task Force Report after spending four weeks interviewing Asian experts and foreign policy makers in Washington DC, Los Angeles, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.  The brainstorming and debates among the students from both sides of the Pacific have profoundly influenced the way the report’s recommendations, and the friendship among these students is the side-benefit that will last the students’ life time.

The course consists of three components with the emphasis on active and peer-to-peer learning.  The first is in-class learning of the US foreign policy toward Asia analyzed from both American and Asian perspectives.  The second set is the exchange of views through on-line and in-person discussion with Singaporean students and as they together conduct interviews with policymakers and experts in Washington DC, Los Angeles, and in Southeast Asia.  The course links the USC students up with SMU students through on-line communication, and through actual visits to each other.  The final set comes from preparing and executing policy presentations and writing Task Force Reports.

Dialogues among students as well as interviews and discussions on security and foreign policy issues in the region provide the students with an opportunity for active learning.  They take an active part in the interview process where they ask questions to the experts and discuss issues with their peers.  The final product from the course is the students’ presentation and report on the US foreign policy trajectory of the US administration towards East Asia. The public presentation of their findings and recommendation take place at the last days of their course, and the students complete their report on the final day of the program.

Maymester Course

By combining in-class activities and a two-week research visit to Japan affiliated with Meiji University in Tokyo, this course takes full advantage of problem-based learning, as it blurs the line between the formal classroom and the classroom of everyday life.  Students will gain not just a theoretical grasp of societal transformation, they will experience it first-hand through coordinated field research, guest lecturers, interaction with Japanese students, and their own investigations that will constitute the major research paper for the course. Preparation for the research paper will be conducted through course readings, films, discussion, lectures, study tours, and, most importantly, personal experiences and interactions with informants in both the U.S. and Japan.

The focus of this course is Japan’s changing society and how “outsiders” analyze the dynamics of these social changes.  How has Japan’s sense of harmony “wa” affected the country’s politics, economy as well as society?  What kind of challenges and opportunities has Japan faced due to the norm of “wa”?  What does it mean to be an outsider in Japan?  How do outsiders see Japan?  The goal of study is to develop an awareness of diversity and how social norms affect people and societies.  After completing this course, students will have gained a significant familiarity with contemporary Japan (its culture, politics, economic and social problems) as well as basic competency in its geography and transportation networks.  Moreover, the course will provide students with insight for recognizing and analyzing problems of international misunderstanding within society and within their own minds.