This course introduces students to the theory and practice of global development, the history of this idea, and the evolution of key definitions, theories, measures, and debates. The discussions will draw upon a variety of perspectives and approaches that will cover many of the complexities in the practice of development. As we will see, the field of Development brims with exciting ideas and contentious debates. We will cover these debates, whether they are about key definitions, assumptions, measures, and policy prescriptions. Ultimately, this class will equip you with the skills to participate more constructively in contemporary debates about Global Development and its policy prescriptions.

The objective of this course is to provide students with the most basic Hanja (한자 漢子) or Chinese characters. The study of Chinese characters is necessary for anyone wishing to study Korea and its language in depth, for at least two reasons. Firstly, a huge part of Korean literature and historical texts were written – partly if not exclusively – in Chinese characters. In fact, until the 1990s many newspapers and academic publications used the “Korean mixed script” (국한문혼용 한자 / 國漢 文混用) which combined both Chinese characters and the Korean alphabet (Hangǔl 한글). Secondly, learning Chinese characters is a powerful tool for expanding your vocabulary. For example, if you know that the Chinese character 學 (hak) means “study”, it is much easier to memorize (or deduce the meaning of) words made up of this same character: 學 生 haksaeng (student), 學校 hakkyo (school), 學年 hangnyǒn (grade), 學費 hakpi (tuition fees), 文學 munhak (literature), etc. This course, designed for students with no prior knowledge of Korean, is therefore an ideal complement to other Korean language courses given at Korea University. Intermediate-level students willing to enrich their knowledge of the Korean language are welcome as well. Students with no prior knowledge of Korean are requested to follow Korean classes for beginners in parallel since simple sentences in Korean will be introduced from the second week of teaching onwards.

This course intends to provide an overview of Korea's history, from prehistory times to the 20th century. Special attention will be paid to Korea's regional environment and in particular its relations with China and Japan. No prior knowledge of Korea or its language is required. Students are expected to attend all classes (20% of the final grade) and make a presentation (30% of the final grade) during the last week of classes. A final exam (50% of the final grade) will be organized on the last day of teaching.

The goal of this course is to familiarize students with Korean culture, literature, film, music, and society. Classes will consist of lecture, readings, and films and will be structured around small group and class discussions. Through this course, we will examine larger issues such as the legacy of colonialism, gender and social status, the Korean War and its aftermath, economic development and modernization, nationalism, etc. Through this examination we hope to consider broader and more inclusive approaches to understanding Korean culture and society.

This course introduces common methods and algorithms used in machine learning. Lectures focus on supervised learning with an emphasis on using current cross-validation methods. Supervised topics include a variety of linear regression methods, including ordinary, subset, and shrinkage. Supervised linear models are revisited in the context of classification and extended to quadratic discriminate analysis. Basis expansions and kernel smoothers are also explored in the regression and classification settings, along with classification/regression trees, and support vector machines. Finally, if time permits, unsupervised methods include cluster analysis, principal components, and independent component analysis. In all instances, the methods will be applied to data sets with widely varying topics. To succeed in this course, students need decent knowledge of statistics (such as probability theory, intermediate statistics, or regression analysis) and programming skills (intermediate level of R or Python) prior to enrolling. All students are encouraged to bring their laptops to every class.

Economic theory consists of microeconomics and macroeconomics. The Introduction to Macroeco- nomics course introduces you to the latter field, which looks at economies as a whole. Typical questions in macroeconomics include how to minimize short-term fluctuations or sustain long-term economic growth. Over the course of the semester, we will cover topics such as measuring national income, economic growth, unemployment, inflation, money, international trade and exchange rates, short-term fluctuations, the effectiveness of monetary and fiscal policy, and the Phillips curve.