English

This course provides an introductory overview of Korean history up until the early 1800s, with a special focus on the Chosŏn era and its foreign relations. The course explores Korea’s ancient history, cultural developments, and interactions with neighboring countries, offering insights into the foundation of Korea’s social and cultural identity. Class activities include visits to museums or historical sites in Korea, providing opportunities to deepen understanding of Korean history and culture. 

This special topics, seminar-style course selects one or more topics related to West Asian civilization and language and consists of in-depth coverage, analysis, and discussion of issues related to the topic. The topic of this course may change each time it is offered. For example, the Spring 2025 semester topic was Islam and Inequality: A Historical Perspective, focusing on socioeconomic inequality.  

The aim of this course is to understand why income and wealth inequality varies across space and time by focusing on one of the richest, but also one of the most unequal democracies of our time: The US. While in theory all citizens in a democracy have the same voting power - so one would expect democratic governments to act to keep inequality as low as possible - there are quite significant differences in economic inequality over time and space. Why is this? To answer these questions, the course examines different theories of inequality and different policy areas that affect inequality. It looks at long-term trends in inequality and the structural features of capitalism that tend to push inequality upwards. The course examines the wide range of policies in what is loosely termed the 'welfare state' that tend to mitigate the inequalities generated by market capitalism. Students discuss how demography, gender differences, migration and ethnicity relate to inequality. And they try to understand why elections sometimes produce governments that redistribute income and wealth from rich to poor, and sometimes produce governments that do the opposite. Finally, the course reviews how rising inequality - a clear trend in the rich world since the late 20th century - affects politics and democracy.

In this online course, learn how to construct graphs and visualizations according to the theory Grammar of Graphics. Learn how to create visualizations yourself using the software R and its package ggplot2. A central part of creating visualizations is making choices. Through the choices you make, your visualizations are more or less intelligible and also highlight different aspects of the data. An important element of the course is therefore to review visualizations by other course participants. Topics covered in the course include introduction to R and ggplot2; choice of color, symbols, scales, and perspective (2D, 3D); summation and abstraction; interactive visualizations; maps and spatial data; visualization of statistical models.

This course provides an examination of the cultural frameworks and social aspects of kinship systems, gender roles, personhood and human sexuality, analyzed through ethnographic examples from a diverse range of settings. It aims to equip students with the analytical tools to engage in theoretical debates concerning core concepts such as kinship, marriage, gender, sex, the person, and the relationship between nature and culture, as well as exploring how the experiences of kinship, sex and gender vary according to the regimes of politics, law and materiality in which they are embedded. The course charts the history of anthropological debates on kinship, relatedness, sex and gender, and familiarizes students with a range of contemporary approaches to these themes, placing ethnographic materials into a critical dialogue with recent developments in feminist theory, queer theory, the anthropology of colonialism, cognitive science, and psychoanalysis.

This course aims to deepen students' understanding of the United States by exploring diverse topics through an interdisciplinary approach.

The topics and materials covered in class includes historical events; traditional concepts rooted in the nation's founding ideals; a wide range of famous and lesser-known works of American literature, and even the lyrics of 1930s blues. All of these are relevant to contemporary America. Furthermore, this course encourages students to develop an interest in and critically explore racial issues in the United States, particularly in the ongoing era of the Black Lives Matter movement.

 

This course provides a detailed analysis of some of the key themes and issues in the UK's political system. It provides an overview of the relationship between the different aspects of the political system and shows how these have evolved in the last twenty years. It focuses on both the formal institutions of Parliament and the non-elected actors who influence the UK's political process.

This course provides an overview of the history of international relations from the Napoleonic Wars to the eve of World War I. The main objective of this course is to assist students in understanding the key elements of diplomatic history necessary to study contemporary world politics. The course also prepares students for upper-level courses in the Political Science and International Relations department. 

The course presents the conceptual and methodological elements that characterize the ethnopsychological approach to clinical psychology. Students are guided in the analysis of some content, applied research and some conceptualizations aimed at acquiring those methodological competencies designed to intervene in clinical situations. The lectures are interactive and require active participation on the part of the students. Experts with long-lasting experience in clinical services are involved in order to show certain practices regarding the course content. The course provides basic knowledge of ethnopsychology and the development of the following competencies: Competence to recognize and manage cultural differences; competence to recognize and manage one's own cognitive filters; competence to identify methodological practices regarding an ethnopsychological intervention; cultural competencies in Health Service.

This course examines the specific immune system at the molecular level, dealing with the structure and function of the soluble and cell surface proteins involved, and to study the roles of the various cell types which participate in the immune response. This course covers a range of topics in molecular and cellular immunology, including the immune response and acquired immunity; antibody structure and function; antibody diversity and clonal selection; genetics of immunoglobulin expression; the complement system; antibody techniques; monoclonal antibodies; hypersensitivity reactions (allergies); the activity of T cells; major histocompatibility complexes, their role in transplant rejection and non-self recognition; HIV and AIDS.