English

This course examines how complex multicellular systems are constructed using both animal and plant systems in a comparative way that reveals common strategies and striking contrasts. It covers the multidisciplinary nature of approaches used, including classical embryology, biochemistry, genetics, transcriptomics, live-imaging, cell biology, physiology and computer simulation. Topics include fundamental concepts, morphogens, establishing body axes, cell polarity, differentiation and commitment, evolution in the context of development, mechanics and morphogenesis with examples from model systems, stem cells and cancer. Practical work includes experiments addressing gene expression, organ identity and homeotic conversions, and uses CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing to demonstrate approaches to the study of developmental biology. 

Lectures and seminars cover reproductive and vegetative development, genome analysis and gene regulation, light and hormone signaling, environmental stress & disease, and applied plant biotechnology. Laboratory exercises cover plant development, anatomy and mutants, transgenics and genotyping, gene cloning, DNA and protein bioinformatics and model organism genome databasing, and protein expression.

This lecture course provides a primer in visual literacy across media, introducing key terms and methods for critically reading the visual world including iconology, formal analysis, art history, ideological analysis, and semiotics. Students gain fluency in understanding how images work in cultural context to communicate meaning, to express a sense of self, to convey pleasure, to sell things, and to distribute power. Questions of the effect of specific visual technologies are also engaged, particularly their impact on perception and conduct. Examples are drawn from fine arts, advertising, film, popular culture, and new media. This is an introductory course that fosters creative, conceptual, analytical and critical thinking with regards to visual communication. The course provides the primary references of the visual arts and graphic design fields as well as its corresponding terminology. It also introduces different creative practices and to contextual dynamics that have shaped the history of visual media from prehistoric times to the present day. Finally, the course gives a glimpse into contemporary theoretical approaches that address issues such as sustainability, social impact, diversity, inclusion and heritage. How do images convey meaning? How can they mislead us? What is the difference between seeing and looking? In other words, does sight guarantee insight? This course delves deep into visual strategies, contexts of viewership, and the ways in which to critically navigate the world around us with the tools.

This course examines the impact of food policy and of regulatory framework on price, production, and trade flows, incomes, rural communities, the environment, agriculture, food processing, and retailing. Students in the course analyze the development and impact of food policy in Europe, the US, and in other selected countries. On completion of the course, students are able to: discuss the different approaches to policy analysis; employ different theoretical approaches to the study of food policy; describe contemporary food and agricultural policies in selected developed market economies; assess the impact of contemporary food and agricultural policies in selected developed market economies; and assess the implications of current policy developments for the Irish agricultural and food sectors.

This course examines the rich tradition of critical film theory and provides students with an understanding of its main concerns and debates, concerning “minority” identities and subalternity. Addressing key discussions about media representations of “minority”, the course looks at the politics of representation and its impacts, both on- and off-screen. It looks at how media works to construct “the Other” in different contexts and delve into important work which have inspired minority cinema, subaltern cinema, avant-garde cinema, local cinema, and independent cinema among other counter-movements, as well as recent re-conceptualizations and exploration of representations marginalized identities, positions, and experiences, local and abroad. Special focus is placed on important works in Hong Kong and Asia for critical examination and comparative studies. Through critical exercise and reflection on notions such as power, diversity, equality, and freedom, the course aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 by engaging directly with the SDGs 5 (Gender Equality) and 10 (Reduced Inequalities). Same course as UGEC3215.

This course provides an understanding of social and political aspects of economic dynamics and functioning as influenced by globalized forces. It is a study of how economies are integrating and disintegrating amidst social and political changes that take place in the global communities.

This course examines concepts and principles of database management systems. Topics covered include basic concepts, system structures, data models, database languages (SQL), relational database normalization, file systems, indexing, query processing, concurrency control, and recovery schemes.

This course examines four English Renaissance revenge tragedies, along with screen and stage adaptations. Through close readings and discussions, we situate each play in dialogue with questions of gender, law, and history. We also trace how the genre of revenge tragedy evolved across the period. The plays to be discussed are: Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy, William Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus and Hamlet, and The Revenger’s Tragedy.

This course examines the creative and critical roles that exile, diaspora and migration have played in art practices from the last few decades of the twentieth century to the present. It introduces a range of works by artists of divergent backgrounds who have variously engaged with either forced or voluntary cross-border movement and relocation. Apart from distinguishing and clarifying terms, like exile, expatriate, (im)migrant, tourist, nomad, refugee and diaspora, which have been used to describe mobile subjects and communities, the course attaches importance to the affective material capacity of art to cultivate affinities and alliances that are often neglected in the human-centered construction of identity, home and belonging. Moreover, the course considers how recent art practices evoke situations of displacement and dislocation, which make it possible to unsettle and rework systems, orders and power relations that underpin the persistent hegemony of the Global North in the production of knowledge and discourses about nations, cultures, histories and otherness. Artists looked at may include but are not limited to: Emily Jacir, Walid Raad, Nil Yalter, Danh Võ, Yto Barrada, Yinka Shonibare, Lida Abdul, Fiona Tan, Chiharu Shiota, Shirin Neshat, Sonia Boyce, and Tania Bruguera.

This course provides an understanding of the theory and processes of negotiation in a variety of settings. This course develops negotiation skills by addressing a variety of negotiation topics experientially by 1) preparing for and simulating a range of negotiation situations and 2) analyzing students’ negotiation outcomes and strategies. The course integrates students’ experiences with negotiation theory in a weekly debrief. Readings complement the classroom experience and reinforce key messages from the experiences.