English

This course explores how humans and other group dwelling species solve challenges by living in groups. Topics include game theory, cooperation, human communication, imitation, the relationship between gestures and speaking in human evolution and development, and why culture is important for sociality.

The course provides students with specialized knowledge of the most recent scientific and technological developments within neurobiology. Students learn about the basic mechanisms and experimental strategies within different fields of neurological research. The course consists of two parts: 1) fundamental and basic neurobiology, and 2) brain diseases and treatments. The course covers the following fields: the functional neuroanatomy of the brain; cellular and molecular neurobiology; neurodegenerative diseases; network-related diseases.

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in promoting ideas of multiculturalism and in codifying minority rights, both at the global level, and within regional bodies. This course considers important issues relating to this development, paying attention to the European context. The course addresses three questions: (a) why minority rights have emerged as a priority issue, and how this relates to broader changes to the functions of the international community in the post-Cold War era; (b) the categories that are being used to identify different types of minorities, such as “indigenous peoples”, “national minorities”, and “migrant workers”, and how these are viewed as raising different types of challenges; and (c) the complex consequences of this process. This course provides students with an overview of the legal and political issues pertaining to minority rights at the European scale. The concepts of minority and of discrimination are scrutinized and consideration is given as to which groups constitute a minority in legal terms and how political claims are made to counter discrimination in different political regimes.

This course introduces a wide range of issues in cross-cultural studies by looking at how China, as a country and a cultural phenomenon, is understood, read, studied, interpreted, and imagined in Britain from the early 18th century to the early 20th century. The texts studied are principally produced during this period of about two hundred years on a range of topics about China - from its history to its people, from its society to its politics, from its language to its aesthetics. In tracing the history of the English idea of China, the course examines such issues as how and why China has been understood and presented differently at different historical moments. The course relates some of the typical English formulations about China and their implications to the contemporary conditions of cross-cultural understanding and the on-going process of globalization. Themes to be followed throughout this course include: the formation of our knowledge about different cultural practices, the role of the cultural other in the construction of the self, the ideology of interpretation and representation, truth and fiction, consumerism and Orientalism, colonialism and modernity.

This is an introduction to the discipline of Conservation Biology. This course discusses ecological and evolutionary concepts that are relevant to diagnosing and treating the decline of populations, species, and ecosystem health (including population dynamics, island bio-geography, and conservation genetics). It covers the advantages and disadvantages of different conservation tools and approaches, as well as other important considerations for setting up a conservation plan (for example, what is the end goal and why; do you focus on a species or habitat; and how do you measure progress). The course considers the reality of implementing scientific theory into conservation practice, and why the incorporation of societal, political, and/or economic considerations is important to the success of conservation programs. In addition to class presentations on selected topics, students produce a conservation action plan for a selected case study. At the end of this course, the students are able to: describe and discuss processes that lead to declines in populations, biodiversity and ecosystem functioning; explain the relevance and use of ecological and evolutionary theories and principles for conservation biology; discuss how the concept of context dependency applies to conservation biology; discuss the strengths and weaknesses of different conservation approaches; explain how an interdisciplinary approach is essential to addressing conservation challenges; conduct a situation analysis for a conservation case, using data from the scientific literature, highlighting the drivers of decline, direct threats and traits of the population/ecosystems that may assist and/or hinder conservation efforts; critically evaluate conservation approaches for appropriateness and feasibility for different case studies; construct a conservation action plan for a case study, based on relevant literature, a situation analysis and critical evaluation of different conservation approaches, and communicate the plan to a lay audience.

This course introduces students to major influential ideas and diverse perspectives on welfare and public policy. The course facilitates students' ability to challenge assumptions about the aims of policy and the functions of welfare by examining diverse ideological and political agendas in an international context.

Fundamental importance is assigned to speakers' introspective judgments of sentence acceptability in syntactic research. However, such judgments can be gravely compromised by instability of different kinds, which calls into question the empirical reliability of such data. This course presents objective and practical methods to collect and analyze acceptability judgments. Topics include experimental design, data visualization, statistical analysis, and the application of experimental methods to theoretical questions. This is a hands-on course, and students are expected to lead discussions on primary research.