This course is focused on helping students develop skills to see through, think about, and communicate ideas about African arts. Students will combine visual, critical, and reflective modes of inquiry in approaching both African artworks and ensuing articulations—(audio)visual, literary, scholarly, and critical—of experiences/analyses triggered by those artworks. African arts will be considered from an experiential, contextual, and humanistic, perspective, and so, connections to geography, history, philosophy, and other arts will always be present. In this course students are thus expected to develop experiences, reflect and articulate them in oral, written, and/or (audio)visual form.

This course introduces students to the role of art in human experience in the African continent. Students will delve into the anthropological and conceptual basis of African artworks in different media—audio/visual, musical, cinematic, literary, etc.—to examine the dynamism and diversity of African life and systems of thought as articulated in artistic expressions. Through this holistic approach, students will delve into the crucial and complex role that arts play in African life. 

This course introduces students to the relevant role that exhibitions have played in the conceptualization of African arts and African art history during the 20th century, as well as how these exhibitions have in turn contributed to a reconceptualization of core concepts/issues in Western art history in the recent past. Students will start from a critical analysis of the politics of exhibiting cultures in museums and gallery collections through some of the most representative exhibitions of African arts during the 20th century. In the second half of the course, students will create their own virtual exhibitions of African arts as a means to experience the complexity and relevance of curatorial work and to reflect upon the implications of their own representations of Africa.

This course deals with the rich diversity of African cinema from an aesthetic and anthropological perspective. Students will focus on one specific film each week to delve into how cinematic artistic expressions articulate core issues of the human condition framed by specific socio-cultural and politico-historical circumstances. Questions of narrative and storytelling, representation and stylization, (inter)mediality, etc., in African cinema will frame their analyses of specific contexts of production. The course will disclose the different roles cinema plays in the African continent, provide a particular perspective to the topic of Africa-China relations, and help students consider the place of the audience in the African cinematic experience.

This course introduces students to the literature of Africa by way of its Nobel Prize-winning authors and their work, and will expose students to the major issues surrounding it. It will begin by questioning the very meaning of the term “African literature,” before examining some of its most salient features and issues such as its complex relationship with colonialism that made languages of Europe become the literary languages of Africa; the various forms of narration in Africa; colonialism and resistance; the tension between traditionalism and the African novel; as well as the complex relationship between African continental and diasporic literature. It will also look at major contemporary African literary Movements and their historical significance.

This course builds up on the introductory courses of our programme to pursue the exploration of Africa by focusing on the music cultures of the continent. Lectures will discuss the cultural and historical contexts in which various musical and performance genres have emerged. The griot traditions, mbalax and high-life of Western Africa; the azmari tradition in Ethiopia; Rai in North Africa; Rhumba in Central Africa as well as Mbaqana in Southern Africa will be discussed in the exploration of what we call in this course African soundscapes. The course will enable students to critically view and challenge existing perceptions of African music, Africans and Africa. No previous musical experience is necessary.

In recent years, Africa and China have renewed their relations at many different levels. From political engagement to increased trade and economic relations, and perhaps more importantly, to increased contacts between ordinary Africans and Chinese. The figures of Chinese living in Africa, and Africans living in China, have increased to a point that has no parallel in the history between these two regions. What are the implications of contemporary Afro-Chinese engagements? What does this mean for the future of these regions and the world? In order to provide answers to these questions, this course introduces the main debates around Afro-Chinese engagements and analyses some of the associated sociocultural, political and economic processes. Instead of simply reviewing the main literature on Africa – China relations, this course takes you into a critical and interdisciplinary journey in which crucial aspects of these relations are analysed through various texts and documentaries. Through discussion and analysis, this course will challenge extant narratives about Africa – China relations and will delve into the possibilities (i.e. opportunities and challenges) that this renewed engagement entails.

This course will introduce the complex nature of the African continent from a wider interdisciplinary perspective. Students will be exposed to Africa's geo-political particularities; complex history (pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial); diverse languages, peoples, culture and music, and rich literary and artistic traditions. The course is also designed to give an overview of major theoretical debates on Africa such as the questions of nation-building or the perception of Africa. It will also shed light on the current economic and socio-political challenges that the continent faces as well as the opportunities it presents.

This course will expose students to the major issues surrounding it. It will begin by questioning the very meaning of the term “African literature,” before examining some of its most salient features and issues such as its complex relationship with colonialism that made languages of Europe become the literary languages of Africa; the various forms of narration in Africa; colonialism and resistance; the tension between nationalism and the African novel; as well as the complex relationship between African continental and diasporic literature. It will also look at major contemporary African literary movements and their historical significance.

This course introduces students to the ways in which blackness has been constructed and represented in Asia.  While examining the historic involvement and place of Black people in the region, the course explores the politics and dynamics behind contemporary discourses and media representations of blackness. The course focuses on cases of regional and global media and literature considering them in light of narratives such as the ‘rise of Asia’ and ‘China in Africa’.

In 1800 only 6% of Americans lived in cities; in 2000 this number was more than 80%.  As a center of growth, power and cultural diversity, the American city has always occupied a crucial place in America’s vision of itself as a new nation.  “A cruel city, but a lovely one, a savage city, yet it had such tenderness”–this quote from Thomas Wolfe’s A Vision of the City is representative of the varied cultural representations of the American urban environment as a place where fortunes and lives are made or lost.  Through an examination of literature, art, architecture, photography, film and music, this course will take a closer look at some of the greatest as well as the “baddest” American metropolises, looking for a way to understand the people who live, commute, work, create, govern, commit crime and conduct business in them.

This course is divided into three major sections. In the first, the basic characteristics and features of the atmospheric environment are examined from the viewpoint of the basic physical and dynamical processes which occur in the atmosphere and between the atmosphere and the underlying surface. In the second, both the spatial and temporal dimensions of the resulting climate are explored at a range of scales to provide an understanding of the link between the processes occurring in the climate system and the diversity of climatic conditions which occur on Earth. In the last section, the interaction between humans and the climate system is explored. Various means of reconstructing and modelling the climate system are examined with a view to understanding the nature of past climates and the variety of potential future climates that might be possible.

Weather and climate play an important role in human activities and history.  In this course, we shall introduce to students the fundamentals of weather, climate and climate changes, to arouse their interests in the scientific and technological advancements. The course will encompass topics on: basic physical principles on weather phenomena like: wind, temperature, humidity, cold/warm fronts, thunderstorms and tropical cyclones; introductory weather analysis, forecast and climate. Through real life examples, students will get familiarized with the weather/climate science and interpretation of meteorological information, climatology and climate change.

The trend of globalization in business requires organizational members, especially managers, to
effectively accomplish international assignments, to collaborate with and lead cross-cultural teams,
and to manage the increasingly diverse workforce. Therefore, managers need to acquire cultural
competencies that go beyond traditional managerial competencies. We will focus on organizational
behavior and human resource management issues in multinational organizations.

This course surveys the history of the international scholarship on China from 1945 through to the present as it transformed around the major academic centres in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. We explore how these new paradigms have transformed China studies and brought the field into productive engagements with broader intellectual currents and debates.

This course introduces a critical approach to the comparison of Chinese and Western traditional cultures
in a wide variety of aspects, encompassing the ideas in relation to the origin of the universe, life and
death, human nature, mythology, epistemology, politics, economic activities, ethics, social structure,
relation of two sexes and law. The emphasis dwells on the system of values of the two distinct cultures,
and to what extent environmental factors contribute to the psychological differences. A number of
prominent issues raised by modern scholars will be addressed, including the absence of monotheism,
scientific revolution and epic poetry in historical China. The course discusses in particular the heated
and acrimonious debates on Chinese and Western civilizations in the New Culture Movement as well
as during the 1960s in Taiwan. In view of the rapid globalization in the contemporary world, students
are encouraged to reflect on concepts like multiculturalism and cultural relativism, and the possible
forms of intercultural dialogues.

Course may be taught in Mandarin.

The course will introduce the basic issues and methodology in the research of the modern Chinese
dialects. The focus will be on how comparative description is used to uncover clues to dialect
relationship and historical development, and on the sociolinguistic implications of the dialects in
relationship to each other and to modern standard Mandarin. Special attention will also be paid to
questions of how social history, geography, and population movement affect dialect history. Spoken
Chinese has been characterized by great diversity for most of China's history. This course will use the
diversity of the modern Chinese dialects as a lens through which to view and understand the diversity
of the Chinese languages in earlier times.

Course may be taught in Mandarin.

This course deals with the dynastic history of China from the seventeenth century to the twentieth
century.

Course may be taught in Mandarin.

Focusing on literary works since 1840s, this course examines new changes of classical-style literature
in the turbulent late Qing and early Republican era. Influenced by Western ideology and culture,
Chinese literature during this period has experienced fierce conflicts between new ideas and literary
forms. This course selects representative authors and works within different genres, such as poetry,
prose and fiction as case studies, in order to evaluate the significance of literary reforms during late
Qing and early Republican period. Based on recent research outputs and approaches, students will learn
to rethink the value of classical style in the transformation of Chinese literature.

Course may be taught in Mandarin.

This course will introduce students to the history and origin of the historical form of Mandarin—
Guanhua and examine the nature of Guanhua and Mandarin, as well as the relationship and mutual
influence between, Guanhua, Mandarin, Putonghua and the Chinese dialects from the perspective of
Sociolinguistics.

Course may be taught in Mandarin.

The course explores a set of interrelated topics on several major aspects in pre-modern Chinese history,
including politics, society, thought, and religion. It provides students with comprehensive knowledge
of the key institutions, events, and figures within a broader historical context. Through in-depth analysis
and discussion, fundamental methods in reading and criticism of different types of historical sources
will also be introduced. In addition, the course goes beyond the limits of mainstream historiography
and leads students to examine some important non-Chinese factors that have contributed to the
transformation of Chinese society over time.

Course may be taught in Mandarin.

By official count, Chinese population consists of fifty-six ethnic groups, but the study of Chinese
literature is dominated by the study of literary texts written by Han writers. Many minority nationality
writers, such as Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians, the Miao, and the Manchu, have all written very
important works of literature. This course will explore some of the major texts of ethnic minority
literature from China and consider such issues as bilingualism, ethnicity, otherness, and empire.

Course may be taught in Mandarin.

This course introduces the general characteristics of traditional Chinese culture giving special emphasis
to the theory that man, being an integral part of nature, is in harmony with nature. It also explores some
important aspects of traditional Chinese culture including science and technology in ancient China, the
leisure activities of Chinese intellectuals, and the influence of Buddhism and Christianity on Chinese
culture.

Course may be taught in Mandarin.

Overview of graphics hardware, basic drawing algorithms, 2-D transformations, windowing and clipping,
interactive input devices, curves and surfaces, 3-D transformations and viewing, hidden-surface and
hidden-line removal, shading and colour models, modelling, illumination models, image synthesis,
computer animation.

Introduction to computer organization and architecture; data representations; instruction sets; machine
and assembly languages; basic logic design and integrated devices; the central processing unit and its
control; memory and caches; I/O and storage systems; computer arithmetic.

This is an introductory course in computer programming. Students will acquire basic Python
programming skills, including syntax, identifiers, control statements, functions, recursions, strings,
lists, dictionaries, tuples and files. Searching and sorting algorithms, such as sequential search, binary
search, bubble sort, insertion sort and selection sort, will also be covered.

Arrays, linked lists, trees and graphs; stacks and queues; symbol tables; priority queues, balanced trees; sorting algorithms; complexity analysis.

An introduction to algorithms and applications of machine learning. Topics include: decision theory; parametric models; supervised learning (classification and regression); unsupervised learning (clustering, mixture models, principal component analysis); Bayesian methods.

Introduction to object-oriented programming; abstract data types and classes; inheritance and
polymorphism; object-oriented program design; Java language and its program development
environment; user interfaces and GUI programming; collection class and iteration protocol; program
documentation.

Operating system structures, process and thread, CPU scheduling, process synchronization, deadlocks,
memory management, file systems, I/O systems and device driver, mass-storage structure and disk
scheduling, case studies.

This course covers intermediate to advanced computer programming topics on various technologies and
tools that are useful for software development. Topics include Linux shell commands, shell scripts,
C/C++ programming, and separate compilation techniques and version control. This is a self-learning
course; there will be no lecture and students will be provided with self-study materials. Students are required to complete milestone-based self-assessment tasks during the course. This course is designed
for students who are interested in Computer Science / Computer Engineering.

This is a topical course that adopts multi-disciplinary perspectives to examine significant and complex issues in Hong Kong’s modern century. It serves as a gateway course that introduces students to the interdisciplinary approach to Hong Kong studies.

We examine both popular and scholarly materials that deal with the historical, political, social, and artistic aspects of Hong Kong and phenomenon in order to understand modern Hong Kong at its politico-cultural core, in its relations with Britain and the People’s Republic of China, and its symbolic function in the new global order.

The purpose of this course is to give students a good grounding in the key symbolic sites of Hong Kong in a global context. It provides you with the analytical tools for thinking more deeply about the way such sites are infused with diverse, competing and evolving political and cultural meanings.

Topics to be covered include the following sites and discussion revolves around their symbolic significance and their meanings to Hong Kong’s evolving identity: Peninsula Hotel, Kowloon Walled City, Public Housing Estates, Statue Square, Historic Mansions, Country Parks and Sitting Out Areas, MTR & Peak Tram, the Old Star Ferry terminal and Victoria Harbour, and Street Stalls and Markets.

This is a highly conceptual and advanced course in macroeconomics with an emphasis on open-economy
issues. It introduces the intertemporal models of modern macroeconomics that is built on microfoundations of individual saving and investment choices. It shows how the interaction of these decisions
determines the volume and direction of the current account and international capital flows. This basic
model is extended to address a number of issues, such as the effect of demographic change on capital flow,
international diversification, and the sustainability of external imbalance. The second half of the course
turns to conventional nominal exchange rate models under fixed and floating rates. These models are
applied to study the conduct of macro policies under different exchange rate regimes, effectiveness of FX
intervention, capital controls, and balance-of-payment crises.

Recent decades have been characterized by increasing awareness of environmental issues and the need to come to terms with them. This course will examine, in turn, many of the current major environmental issues related to the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere as well as looking at major threats posed by the environment itself in the form of natural hazards. In addition, the issue of a potential nuclear threat and the ever-increasing demand for energy are explored. Finally, the matter of sustainable development and intelligent management of the planet for present and future generations is addressed.

The consumption of the Earth’s resources has reached an alarming level, bringing intensive and pervasive deleterious impacts. This course surveys the major issues related to human-nature interactions, their current status as well as prognosis for the future. A synoptic view on the cultural roots of the exploitative utilization of our planet sets the backdrop for a systematic assessment of the diverse but interrelated components of the resource system. Major natural resources such as water, soil, forest, fishery and biodiversity are mainly discussed at the global scale in the light of their uses and misuses in different human societies, and the possibility for a more enlightened approach towards a sustainable future. Adopting a non-technical approach, this course appeals to students with a background in humanities, social sciences or science disciplines.

Polar Regions cover the Arctic and Antarctic areas of the Earth. These mysterious places were the focus of exploration and colonial contest in the early 20th Century. Today, Polar Regions are internationally co-administrated and where scientists of different countries are allowed to station and conduct research. The regions hold about 90% of the world’s freshwater resources mainly in the forms of glaciers, icebergs and ice-caps. It is known that rising temperatures are the causes of changing global climates, oceanographic currents, biomes and carbon reserve. As human activities are increasingly affecting Polar Regions which are environmental sensitive and vulnerable, it is important to understand these interrelationships and what can be done to protect the tundra. The course provides fundamental knowledge and discusses the geographic significance and issues related to future management of the Polar Regions.

The intent of the course is to explore the principles of landscape ecology as a framework for landscape-scale research, analysis and management. The course will provide the theoretical background for understanding and managing a variety of landscape types across different geographical regions. Students are introduced to the distribution patterns of wild animals and plants and to the factors that determine these patterns. In this course, emphasis is on aspects of biogeography, biodiversity and implications for conservation issues. Particular attention will be given to the importance of plants and animals within the context of their ecosystems or biomes and to the relevance of physical, biotic and human factors in shaping ecosystems. Emphasis will also be placed on the ecological and cultural contribution of plants and animals to sustainable human living on the planet.

The aim is to provide those students who are taking a first course in Earth System Sciences with a fundamental knowledge of how our diverse and living planet Earth works with weaving together an understanding of the dynamic and interactive processes in the Earth's lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and atmosphere. In addition, students should become familiar with the way the study of Earth Sciences blends observation, information, hypothesis, communication and decision making for a better understanding of the future of our planet.

This course introduces students to the development of European civilisation from its earliest beginnings in the Fertile Crescent through the classical age of Ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire, to the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. Selected highlights from these topics will be treated in the lectures and seminars, and coursework assignments will seek to establish linkages between modern western civilisation and its historical foundations. This course is valuable for history students, but should also appeal to others studying literature, art, music or philosophy. It will be especially useful for European Studies Majors. All students are welcome.

This course explores the history of Hong Kong since the early 1800s from several angles: British imperial history, Chinese history, world history, and as a place with its own identity. Topics include: the opium wars, law and the administration of justice, gender and colonialism, Hong Kong and Chinese nationalism, the Japanese occupation, the 1967 disturbances, Hong Kong identity, the fight against corruption, the Sino-British negotiations and the retrocession to Chinese sovereignty, and developments since 1997. The goals of the course are to familiarize students with the history of Hong Kong, introduce the ways in which historians have approached this history, explore how Hong Kong’s past has shaped its present, and help students learn to read and write analytically. No previous knowledge of history or Hong Kong is required.

This is a general survey history of the United States from the colonial era up to 1900. Emphasis will be primarily on the nineteenth century. Key areas of focus include: industrialization and economic growth, urbanization, frontier communities, immigration, slavery, the Civil War, socio-political reform movements, and the Spanish-American War.

This course covers aspects of the phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics of major African languages. It also deals with vowel harmony, tone, click sounds, the noun class system, verbal extensions, serial verbs, and other complex constructions. The course will highlight important sociolinguistic features of various regions in Africa and include specific examples.

This course aims to provide a theoretical understanding of bilingualism from a psycholinguistic and neuropsycholinguistic perspective, with emphasis on bilingual language development and mental representations of the two languages. Various aspects of bilingual behavior such as code-switching and language mixing and various factors that may affect bilingual behavior such as age-related differences, the influence of the first language, the role of attitudes, motivation and learning contexts will be discussed and examined.

Computational approaches are becoming increasingly popular in the social sciences and in the humanities, and linguistics is no exception. Large databases, computer models and statistical analyses – to mention better-known research paradigms – allow to revisit long-debated issues in the field, such as how languages are born, change, compete or die. This course provides an overview of the available methods and of their application to sociolinguistics, historical linguistics, phonology, syntax and other fields. Students will be acquainted with various approaches and eventually be able to assess the benefits of such approaches for their own research. During the tutorials, students will acquire basic skills in computational linguistics, such as extracting data from existing linguistic databases or modelling linguistic diversity.

The course covers the theoretical and instrumental study of the acoustic properties of speech sounds; classificatory criteria; speech analysis and synthesis; experimental techniques; and laboratory work.

This course aims at giving the student a comprehensive introduction to basic concepts used in the description of morphology and syntax, independent of any model of grammar. Exercises accompany the topics introduced. Example analyses are drawn from various languages. The following topics in morphology and syntax will be covered: words, morphemes and morphs, word classes, immediate constituents, phrase structure, functional relations, and sentence structure.

This course is an introduction to linguistics, the scientific study of language. The course begins with an introduction to the field, and with a discussion of what ‘language’ is. We then learn how speakers use language forms to convey meaning. This includes an introduction to the study of (i) sound patterns (phonetics and phonology); (ii) word structure and sentence structure (morphology and syntax); and, (iii) meaning (semantics and pragmatics). These are some of the more fundamental tools that linguists use to analyze language. We also introduce you to the main areas of inquiry in the field, including language variation, language and the brain, language acquisition and linguistic diversity. The aim is for students to get an overview of the diverse field, as well as understand and appreciate the foundations of linguistics.

This course examines various issues regarding cognition and language. Topics to be covered are: How is language processed and represented in the mind and the brain? Commonalities and particularities of cognitive and neuro-cognitive processing of different languages (e.g., English and Chinese). First and second language learning. What are the critical factors that facilitate language learning? The Chinese language and the brain; language and reading disorders. Applied cognitive psychology of language. Headline designs for newspaper, TV program, and advertisement. Cognitive basis of persuasion.

This course is an introduction to the linguistic and social dimensions of language contact and change. Topics include multilingualism, lexical and grammatical borrowing, code-switching, language shift and the emergence of new languages, among them the creole languages of Asia, the Americas and Africa. Presentations, film viewings, in-class discussions and online and offline exercises during lectures and tutorials will provide the opportunity to apply and learn concrete techniques of linguistic analysis. The course is especially relevant to students interested in East-West contacts, the Americas and Africa, colonialism and globalization, and linguistic and cultural change.

In this course, students will learn techniques and strategies for eliciting, recording, and archiving data about an unfamiliar language. These skills are necessary for adding to our knowledge of the world’s languages. Students will work with a native speaker of an unfamiliar language throughout the semester, both in class and in tutorial sessions, to identify interesting properties of the language, collect data, and ultimately write up a grammar of a subpart of the language.

In this course, students will learn techniques and strategies for different research methods in linguistics, including eliciting, recording, and archiving data, as well as several other experimental techniques and approaches to data collection. These skills are necessary for adding to our knowledge of the world’s languages. Lectures as well as in-lab demonstrations will be given, as well as assignments to solidify the students’ understanding of the methods. These will be discussed in the context of linguistic issues, both in class and in tutorial sessions, to identify interesting properties of the language, collect data, and ultimately write a report of a piece of original research to be carried out during the semester using one or more of the introduced methods.

This course is an introduction to morphological theory. The course offers an introduction to some of the current models of morphology, including Paradigm Function Morphology, Prosodic Morphology and Optimality Theory, among others, and considers how morphology interacts with other fields of linguistics such as syntax, semantics and phonology.

How and why how human beings acquired language in prehistory is fundamental to an understanding of who we are today. This course adopts a broad perspective on language and approaches it as one communication system among others, which emerged in our ancestors under specific conditions, and for specific purpose(s). In the course, concepts and methods pertaining to various scientific fields beyond linguistics will be investigated, including paleo-anthropology, archaeology, ethology and comparative psychology. Students will first reflect on animal and human communication contrastively, as well as on attempts to teach language to apes and other animals. They will then consider the question of the origins of language, with the underlying evolutionary processes and the cues we have of our distant ancestors’ lives and communicative abilities. This will then be compared to other cases of language emergence such as creoles, sign languages, and artificial languages in experimental settings.

Phonetics studies the sounds of speech, as a topic in itself and as a basis for studying other levels of language structure such as Phonology and Morphology. This course focuses on articulatory phonetics; the speech mechanism; the description and classification of sounds of languages; sounds in context; prosodic features; tone and intonation; and practical work.

Phonetics studies the sounds of speech, as a topic in itself and as a basis for studying other levels of language structure such as Phonology and Morphology. This course focuses on articulatory phonetics; the speech mechanism; the description and classification of sounds of languages; sounds in context; prosodic features; tone and intonation; and practical work.

The goal of the course is to introduce students to the basic concepts in phonology and various phonological systems of human languages. Students acquire experience in analyzing language data and formulating phonological rules.

This course aims at giving the student a comprehensive introduction to basic concepts used in the description of morphology and syntax, independent of any model of grammar. Exercises accompany the topics introduced. Example analyses are drawn from various languages. The following topics in morphology and syntax will be covered: words, morphemes and morphs, word classes, immediate constituents, phrase structure, functional relations, and sentence structure.

This course focuses on structural and cognitive aspects of meaning which are relevant to the description and theory of grammar. Examples will be drawn from Cantonese, Mandarin and English together with some other European and Asian languages.

The course introduces students to the study of the relationship between language and society. The course includes topics like language variation and change, language and gender, multilingualism and language contact, and language policy. Aspects like the distinction between language and dialect will be covered next to how language attitudes shape our communicative behaviour and the way we perceive speakers. The course has both theoretical and empirical content and includes many case studies and practical exercises from languages and regions around the world. This course is recommended for linguistics majors and is an important asset for anyone who seeks to understand how language affects how we relate to each other in society.

The course explores recent theoretical approaches to syntax, focusing on generative grammar.

This course focuses on distinctive aspects of the Cantonese language as spoken in Hong Kong. The language will be viewed in its areal and historical context. Grammatical topics will include parts of speech in Cantonese, verbal aspect, noun classifiers, and sentence-final particles, with a particular focus on aspects of syntax which diverge from written Chinese and Putonghua such as dative, passive and comparative constructions. Topics of sociolinguistic interest such as the use of Cantonese as a written language, ‘lazy pronunciation’ and the growth of ‘trendy language’ will also be addressed.

Language is inherently variable. No two people speak the same way, nor does one person use the same speech patterns in all contexts. This type of variation is not random, but structured, and depends on the identities of the speaker and their audience, the topic of conversation, the speaker’s attitude, and a variety of other social and linguistic factors. This course will introduce students to the field of variationist sociolinguistics, which is concerned with the systematic study of language variation and its relationship to linguistic structure and social meaning. This course will focus on phonetic, phonological, and morphophonological variation, but variation at other levels of linguistic structure will also be addressed. Students will learn to describe and interpret patterns of linguistic variation, discuss and evaluate primary studies of sociolinguistic variation, and implement research methods and computational tools for investigating variation. Students will synthesize these skills by conducting a small-scale original study of sociolinguistic variation as a final project.

- Linear algebra [vectors and scalars, inner product, vector projection, linear dependence and independence, matrix, determinant, matrix inverse, system of linear equations, matrix equation, Gaussian elimination, Cramer's rule, matrix rank, eigenvalue, eigenvector, matrix diagonalization, positive, negative and semi-definiteness, and their applications]
- Elementary complex variables [arithmetics of complex numbers, representations of complex numbers, De Moivre's theorem, roots of unity, complex functions, and their applications]
- Basic probability theory [axioms of probability, conditional probability, Bayes' theorem, the total probability formula, random variable, (joint) probability distribution, expectation, variance, independence, and their applications]
- Commonly used distributions [Bernoulli, Binomial, Geometric, Negative Binomial, Exponential, Poisson and Normal distribution, and their applications]
- Basic statistics [point estimates, sample mean, sample variance with known or unknown mean, confidence interval for a population mean with known or unknown population variances, inference for proportion, and their applications]

This course introduces a range of musical traditions from around the world and examines them in their social, cultural, and historical contexts. The course explores music as both a reflection and creation of society, discusses issues raised by cross-cultural research, and provides a theoretical framework for understanding the relationship between music and culture. Formal lectures will be supplemented by in-class demonstrations and hands-on experience of selected musical styles.

This course will examine jazz from its origins to the present and its relation to other forms of music, including blues, gospel, R&B, soul, etc. Different styles within the jazz genre will also be explored, including early jazz, swing, behop, cool jazz, hardbop, soul jazz, bossa nova, post-bop, and avante garde. Special attention will also be given to pivotal figures in the history of jazz, such as Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Ornette Coleman. Representative and monumental instrumental and vocal recordings from the past one hundred years will also be explored. Class time will be spent listening to, analyzing, and discussing a wide variety of recorded jazz performances and watching jazz videos. Visiting artists may also be invited to perform in class and lecture on relevant topics.

This course develops students' conceptual and perceptual understanding of the basic materials and structures of music, including rhythm and meter, intervals and scales, modes and keys, as well as melody, harmony, and contrapuntal practices. The course integrates ear training with the analysis of a wide array of musical examples. Students completing this course are expected to have established a clear and solid understanding of the rudiments of music, and be able to make practical demonstrations of this knowledge. The course will serve as a thorough review of aural and theoretical skills necessary for those intending to major or minor in music. It is also available as an elective to students in other departments who seek a solid foundation in music fundamentals.

Music moves us, and we know not why, and it is harder still to explain what we are listening to. Taking these issues as a point of departure, this course introduces students to a wide array of music, as well as a range of ways of thinking, talking, and writing about music. Attention will be given to the development of listening skills and the vocabulary necessary to articulate an engaged response to the repertoire studied. The majority of music dealt with will be drawn from the classical music repertoire, with supplementary examples from other musical cultures when appropriate.