English

This course uses economic theories such as trade specialization and investment strategy to create a foundation for international economic analysis. Primarily, the course focuses on the impacts of globalization, its roots, the current state of global trade and the concept of “de-globalization.” As well as this, it discusses the link between free-trade and growth, and why we do not see this connection in certain developing countries.

This course offers a study of software system design using the C programming language. Topics include: basic data types and flow constructions; structure of a C application; pointer manipulation; dynamic data structures; memory leaks; concurrent tools; tools for detecting memory leaks; Linux kernel, processes, and filesystems; main libraries; concurrency. Pre-requisites: Programming; Systems Programming. 

This is an introductory course in Nuclear Astrophysics, a subject in its own right that often drives major scientific and technological advances in modern day research both in nuclear physics and astrophysics. The course builds upon (and adds a layer of complexity to) the existing Nuclear Physics course and provides an option for choice of specialized topics within Nuclear Physics (but also Astrophysics).

The course introduces seminal examples, key texts of game theory and relevant critical theory. Students consider the creative aspects of writing for games including: narrative and storyboards, world building, shooting/scripts, characters and avatars, players, virtuality and corporeality, queer feminist game play, play addiction, and algorithms and chance.

The course gives students a first look into one of the most fundamental functions of any organization, its operations and its relationship with strategy. The operations function of a business, whether manufacturing or services, has the responsibility of making whatever it is the organization sells (product or service). Students study this core function extensively and see the vital role it plays in strategy as well as analyze some of the important decisions that must be made by operations managers when it comes to design, planning, and control and improvement of the organization’s industrial engineering system.

This course is for students interested in the policies and management of the natural environment and its resources. The transferable nature of the skills elements involved may make this course attractive to other students wishing to pursue a career in government agencies or consultancy. The course provides students with a toolkit of quantitative and qualitative techniques used in resource planning and analysis, together with case studies with which to gain experience of their application.

From sparkly vampires to blockbuster monsters, gothic tropes appear to be all-pervasive in contemporary culture. As Catherine Spooner claims in CONTEMPORARY GOTHIC (2006), like "a malevolent virus, Gothic narratives have escaped the confines of literature and spread across disciplinary boundaries to infect all kinds of media, from fashion and advertising to the way contemporary events are constructed in mass culture." This course introduces students to Gothic’s literary expression in the British 19th century, before exploring the many ways in which this dark heritage continues to affect contemporary cultural production. Focusing on three key texts from the 19th century, FRANKENSTEIN (1818), THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE (1886), and DRACULA (1897), this course discusses their adaptation, appropriation, and influence on popular narratives such as those found in fiction, film, tv, fashion, and music video. 

The course covers theoretical and comparative approaches to key topics including electoral and party systems, voter choice and turnout, models of voting behavior, public opinion, and political behavior through a gendered lens. Throughout the course, students identify and describe various types of electoral and party systems, distinguish between the different theoretical models of voting behavior, and relate those models of voting behavior to country case studies. 

This course looks closely at cultural representation in museums, what they display, to whom, and how. Students first gain an understanding of how museums are organized and the concerns each department faces in terms of cultural representation. Then, they embark on an exploration of the current critical issues facing museums as they represent cultures, both that of the communities in which they reside and other peoples. Nowhere are these issues more palpable than in the National Museum of Scotland, with its large, varied, and historical collection, tasked with representing Scotland's relationship to the global world for a local and global audience. Using the galleries of the National Museum as guide and case study, students examine how nine specific conversations in museology - capitalism, community, citizenship, technology, scientific norms, race, colonialism, ethnology, and memory - are constructed, negotiated, and challenged in the museum.

This course introduces the social, ethical, legal, and professional issues involved in the widespread deployment of information technology. It stimulates students to develop their own, well-argued positions on many of these issues.

Students think about the social and ethical implications of the widespread and sustainable use of IT; develop awareness of the laws and professional codes of conduct governing the IT industry; explore IT industry working practices, including the need for continuing professional development; develop information gathering skills; and adopt principled, reasoned stances on important issues in the topic area.