Catalog
Bates Fall Semester Abroad
Associate Professor Strong (Japanese) and Assistant Professor Boucher (Psychology)
During fall semester 2007, Bates students, including entering first-year students, can develop a critical and personal sense of Japan through a study of Japanese language, culture, psychology, and environment. Based in the vibrant, culturally rich city of Kanazawa on Japan's western coast, the program includes travel to Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hiroshima as well as hiking trips in the mountains and along Ishikawa's rugged Noto Peninsula.
The program begins in late August with a one-week orientation on the Bates campus, which provides information on social conditions in Japan, teaches some basic sentence patterns and phrases, and prepares students to get along in Japanese society. Between September and December, students undertake language instruction as the Ishikawa Japanese Studies Center and take two courses in English taught by Bates faculty. No prior experience with Japanese language is required.
BSAJ 003. Intensive Japanese I.
Open to first-year students. Staff.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
BSAJ 004. Intensive Japanese II.
Open to first-year students. Staff.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
BSAJ 011. Cultural Psychology.
This course surveys the field of cultural psychology—the study of the dynamic interplay between human culture and psyche—with a particular focus on Japanese culture. Students examine the various ways that psychologists define culture, survey the methods cultural psychologists use to collect and evaluate data, cultivate the capacity to think critically about psychologically findings pertaining to culture, and develop an appreciation of both human diversity and commonality. Open to first-year students. H. Boucher.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
BSAJ 012. Nature and Environment in Japan.
One of the puzzles of modern Japan is the coexistence of traditional convictions of the aesthetic and spiritual value of nature with an acceptance of urban and industrial development. This course examines the way nature is constructed and valued in traditional literature, landscape gardens, and religious texts from the Zen tradition. Students investigate the state of "nature" in contemporary Japan; the status of the environmental movement; and the way the nature aesthetic is invoked, revised, or disregarded amidst the pressures and demands of technology and the modern state. Open to first-year students. S. Strong.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations