English

Through rigorous analysis of policy theories, historical transitions, and contemporary challenges, students develop sophisticated frameworks for understanding and governing complex change. The course bridges academic theory with real-world application, and equips students with analytical tools used by policymakers, consultants, and researchers worldwide.

This course offers a critical examination of migration policies and governance tools in Western countries, drawing on sociological, political science, and empirical case study approaches. It interrogates the mechanisms of control, dominant discourses, and power dynamics that shape contemporary migration flows. The course focuses on state administrations, associations, international organizations, private actors, and civil society, as well as their interrelations. During the different sessions, it explores the evolution of migration policies and their connections to colonialism, nationalism, and globalization from a comparative perspective. It also provides a broad understanding of contemporary issues—such as securitization, the externalization of borders, the criminalization of solidarity, and the commodification of migration. The course analyzes how stereotypes and discursive frameworks shape public policies and social perceptions, influencing the design and implementation of migration policies, often in ways that reinforce exclusionary practices. It then examines the instruments used to regulate migration, including border technologies (such as AI and biometrics), legal frameworks, outsourcing practices, and the roles of NGOs and private actors. Finally, the course highlights forms of resistance led by migrants, solidarity networks, legal challenges, and sanctuary cities. Firsthand accounts from activists offer insights into grassroots strategies for contesting exclusionary policies and imagining alternative governance models.

The course provides an introduction to key areas of analysis in contemporary sociology. Students learn about critical research and debates within the discipline, and of how sociology engages with topical real-world issues. The course centers on the ways in which power relations, social and economic inequalities, forms of identity and difference are shaped in contemporary societies – focusing on both political and socio-economic structures and everyday experiences and identities. These issues include: class, capitals and social mobility; race, ethnicity and culture; gender and sexual identities; politics, social movements and the nation-state.

This course examines the interactions between markets and politics. Is globalization responsible for the rise of populism in the West? How will the power struggle between China and the United States shape global business? This course introduces students to the key concepts and theories of IPE in order to analyze and understand these pressing issues and questions facing policymakers and citizens. Topics include globalization, international trade, finance, debt, foreign direct investment, development, international migration, and consequences and controversies of globalization.

This course explores the foundations of data science from three perspectives: inferential thinking, computational thinking, and real-world relevance. It focuses on critical concepts and skills in computer programming and statistical inference, in conjunction with hands-on analysis of real-world datasets, including economic data, document collections, geographical data, and social networks. This course also delves into social and legal issues surrounding data analysis, including issues of privacy and data ownership.

The curriculum and format are designed specifically for students who have not previously taken statistics or computer science courses. Students with some prior experience in either statistics or computing are welcome to enroll and often find that this course offers a new perspective that blends computational and inferential thinking. Students who have taken several statistics or computer science courses should instead take a more advanced course.

The course studies two very important changes on the political map of Eastern Europe focusing on the period from the fall of Communism in 1989 to 2007 (the independence of Kosovo): the break-ups of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. It explores the reasons behind the brutal Yugoslav wars and the "velvet divorce" of Czechoslovakia, and offers an insight into films, art happenings, images, and texts created during the period in question. Contextualized within these two very different and yet comparable cases of political demise, these cultural products are examined as complex responses to the events, but also as strategies (aesthetic, political and psychological) to deal with the crisis and the imminent transformations. The course explores these cultural outputs as effective tools in voicing and shaping emerging identities and mapping out the real and symbolic geographies of the region.

This course provides students with an overview of the trans-Atlantic slave trade as it affected societies in West Africa and the New World, from the 16th century to the early 19th century. The course is taught thematically, so that major themes are interrelated in both social and political history on both sides of the Atlantic. In Africa we look especially at Angola, Dahomey, the Gold Coast, Kongo and Senegambia while in the New World there is a focus on Barbados, Brazil, Haiti, and Jamaica. Finally, the course will also consider the impact of this history in Europe through discussions of the rise of consumer societies and the relationship between this and the Abolition movement. By the end of the course, students will have enhanced their critical understanding of this major historical event and will have developed detailed knowledge of specific case studies which sharpen this knowledge.

This course offers an engaging introduction to creative music and sound production through the use of digital tools and techniques. Students will encounter a range of genres and formats, and gain practical experience with industry-standard tools and techniques including basic sound recording, manipulation and mixing. 

This course uncovers the realities of diplomacy in action. Students explore how nations negotiate, respond to crises, and manage relationships behind the scenes. From drafting urgent communiqués in the early hours to navigating the complex rules of protocol, students gain insight into the skills and strategies that shape international affairs—and discover what it truly takes to succeed in the field.

The course teaches what diplomats do and how they do it with an exceptional group of LSE faculty including Professors who have served as the former Deputy Foreign Minister of Mexico, the Chief Economist of the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, an advisor to the Prime Minister in 10 Downing Street, a Senior Advisor in the U.S. Department of State, and acting High Commissioner (Ambassador) to India and Pakistan.

This course is the undergraduate introductory course in child development. Topics include: Major theories of child development, Research methods in the field of child development, Biological processes, physical and perceptual development, Cognitive and language development, and Socioemotional development.