English

This course is about the political economy of development. Topics: contemporary debates about the meaning and measurement of poverty and development in emerging economies such as India and China; the socio-economic dynamics of poverty and current approaches to development policy, including new models of development finance and aid, the use of social policy as a development tool and the critical role that gender, climate change and technology play in the development experience.

This course focuses on common principles at the heart of the functioning of modern communication networks and shows how the same notions related to connectivity, resilience and fragility, centrality and influence arise in several different domains. It introduces mathematical tools from graph theory, random graphs, dynamical systems, optimization and game theory, and covers a wide variety of applications including: opinion dynamics and learning in social networks; economic and financial networks; communication networks and the Internet; consensus and gossiping; spread and control of epidemics; dynamics and control of transportation and power networks.

This course covers the recent history of psychology, focusing on the main schools of thought, key historical figures and events, and with a focus on important conceptual issues relevant for psychological research, linking present day research with the underlying historical debates.

This introductory statistics course develops a sense of numeracy and presents a number of principles and tools to support appropriate quantitative analysis. There is a strong emphasis on using Excel to perform calculations, to manipulate data, and also to demonstrate principles of statistics. Topics include statistical modeling; exploratory data analysis and summary statistics; probability theory; random variables; probability mass and density functions; binomial, Poisson, exponentials, normal, and uniform distributions; sampling distributions; confidence intervals; hypothesis testing; determining sample size; simple linear regression; and measures of correlation. Assessment: classwork (30%), final exam (70%).

This course provides an introduction to the purpose and techniques of qualitative research methods. The main topics cover the major steps of a complete research process, from formulating a research question, conceptualizing a problem, to writing a research report. The course covers the foundations of qualitative research, the relationship between theory and evidence, how to design research, and how to collect and analyze qualitative data. In discussing various kinds of qualitative research methods, the ethical implications of social research are also considered. Classical and contemporary studies in sociology are used as examples to illustrate the issues involved in social research.

This graduate-level course provides an overview of the global luxury and fashion business, and an in-depth understanding of market drivers, business models, and brand management strategies. Adopting a case-study approach, the course presents strategic brand management in luxury and fashion companies as a balancing act: keeping the traditions, breaking them up, balancing old and new, staid and stylish, nurturing the brand heritage and at the same time staying fresh, relevant, and contemporary in the global marketplace. The course examines current debates about fashion and luxury strategies and discusses topics such as the impact of the industry consolidation, the emergence of new business models, new retail channels and new media, and pros and cons of brand extension. Traditional lectures alternate with case study discussions and presentations from guest speakers. Students carry out one group assignment aimed at practicing methodologies of competitive intelligence, product management, and brand management. Students complete a field assignment requiring commitment and intense group work. This course includes a group assignment, peer evaluation, and a written final exam. To successfully complete the course a basic knowledge in marketing and management is strongly suggested.

This course explores the foundations of modern portfolio theory. Topics include risk and return, risk preferences and asset allocation, portfolio optimization and its equilibrium implications, index models, CAPM, multifactor models, the efficient market hypothesis, behavioural finance, empirical evidence on security pricing, and bond prices and yields. Alongside this students examine term structure of interest rates and bond portfolios.

This course explores the reception of Classical Greece from the post-classical period to the 21st century. The course surveys changing perceptions of the ancient world through a variety of political uses of ancient Greece, or artistic and literary responses in subsequent historical periods within the geographical and linguistic realm of Greece. The course introduces students to the important topic of reception history as well as to materials and methodologies that are necessary for the study of ancient, Byzantine, and Modern Greek history, including literary and material evidence.