English

This course reflects on the limits of the field of Conflict Studies to help us understand and explain the international dimensions of violent conflict and how and why advanced militaries wage war. Invigorating a field of War Studies, we will explore various definitions of war and trace how different forms of 21st century warfare impacts our understanding of what war is. Reflecting on several case studies, the course further strengthens conflict analysis skills by studying how these different forms of warfare interact and have an impact on local conflict dynamics and civilian harm.  This course includes inter- and transdisciplinary (guest) lecturers working at the forefront of academic as well as policy debates on these topics. Conflict analysts are trained to translate these academic and policy insights to a broader public through writing a review and making a podcast series. This course equips participants with the knowledge and skills to analyze the changing character of war in the 21st century.

The course considers such matters as the iconography of major religious and mythological subjects, issues of style and the functions of works of art and architecture. Art works are considered in the context of influential factors such as historical period, geographic location, inter-cultural influences and the prevailing social, political and religious environments. This course offers a survey of art and architecture up to the end of 17th century, with a focus primarily, although not exclusively, on the Western world. It provides an introduction to the critical analysis of artworks, including painting, mosaic, fine metalwork, manuscripts, sculpture and building types.

This course offers an introductory study of ancient history, focusing on the Ancient Near East and Greco-Roman antiquity. The course explores the main political, socio-economic, and cultural developments in this epoch between ca. 800 BCE and 500 CE. The course utilizes textbooks, visuals, tutorials, ancient sources, and modern literature in order to offer insight into current scientific debates and to examine specific themes in Greek and Roman history. The course consists of lectures, seminar discussions, assignments, and group work.

The purpose of this course is to provide an overview of the various economic fields by investigating these fields in their historical and methodological context and the linkages between these different fields and to other related sciences.

This course considers the profound changes which marked British literature from the Restoration to the beginning of the Romantic Age and contributed to the cultural shaping of the country. The first half of the century (the Augustan Age) saw a revival of classical standards in prose and verse, appealing to reason to edify, amuse, and criticize. With the reopening of theatres in 1660, new forms of drama also emerged, especially the “comedy of manners,” which reflected on the corrupt morals and hypocrisy rife in the upper-classes. Satire and parody thus became the main literary weapons during the Enlightenment period. The rise of the middle-class, the development of newspapers, the increase in literacy, together with the domination of Empiricism in philosophy and science and a new interest in feelings led to the invention of the novel. The latter not only appealed to wider audiences than previous literary genres but offered unprecedented insight into contemporary British society and history. Finally, in the second half of the century (the Age of Sensibility), public concerns yielded to more private ones and reason gradually lost ground to sensibility and imagination, thus paving the way to Romanticism.

This course features studying a mathematics book in a seminar style, providing students with basic training to learn from mathematical literature independently and make presentations of knowledge.
 

This course explores the evolution of the American image from its colonial foundation to the contemporary setting of globalized media, infotainment and branding. The course examines the American image from three perspectives. The first is the country's "self-image," or how elites and the public perceive themselves, their government, the world and the role of the United States in it. The second is its "projected image," or how America crafts foreign policy and how, along with media and corporations, it engages in public diplomacy. The last is America's "perceived image," how publics around the world see and feel about the United States and the reasons for pro- and anti-American sentiments. By the end of the course, students will not only have a better sense of how the US sees itself, and how it is seen in the world, but will be equipped for further study in psychological approaches to international relations.

This course offers an in-depth discussion of key topics in the history of Brazilian art and its relation to other cultural spheres such as architecture, literature, and popular music. It examines the trajectory of avant-gardism in Brazil, starting with its consolidation in 1920s debates apropos of notions such as futurism, modernismo and
anthropophagy; its constructivist inflection in the 1950s, with the appearance of Museums of Modern Art and the São Paulo Biennial and provisional cultural alliances with cosmopolitan sectors of an emergent urban bourgeoisie; the growing social and political tensions that marked the resurgence of figuration in the 1960s and the
development of what artist Hélio Oiticica called his “environmental program”; and finally the dispersion of the avant-garde during the harshest years of the military regime and the rise of new experimental tendencies by Brazilian artists who either remained in the country or took exile abroad in the 1970s. The course also discusses the broader background of modernism in Brazil (as opposed to the narrower sphere of the avant-garde) and developments in the fields of architecture (such as the construction of Brasília) and popular music (such as musical Tropicalism) that proved impactful also to visual artists. Throughout the course, students investigate the issue of nationalism x internationalism in the arts, highlighting different strategies of critical assimilation of international tendencies by Brazilian artists and critics.
The course includes not only classroom lectures and discussion seminars, but also occasional visits to museums and architectural landmarks in Rio de Janeiro.

This course examines finance and climate justice, and the links between them. As the worsening climate chaos threatens the very existence of humanity, it is increasingly clear that a climate justice approach is needed for both climate change mitigation and adaptation. Climate justice approaches emphasize the need for a fundamental transformation of society and the economy, while applying the principles of social justice and economic equity. However, there is a growing realization that such a socio-economic transformation is not possible without radical changes in the sphere of finance. Going beyond the proposition that finance needs to be mobilized to fund "green" transition, this course examines the view that the entire global financial architecture must be transformed to safeguard a better, healthier, more stable, and a more just future for all. Special attention is given to central banks and their role in the financialized economic system, their relation to climate change and their role in hampering and/or promoting climate justice. Alternative economic and financial models, including de-growth and post-growth approaches, are examined. The course also highlights a critical role of geography in understanding both the climate justice issues and the operation of finance in capitalist economies.