English

This course introduces students to the key ideas of sociology by examining the relationship between individuals and societies. The course explores how social processes shape individual lives, and how changes that occur around us influence our sense of self. It draws on C. Wright Mills' idea of the sociological imagination. Mills makes three claims: that individuals live within society, that they live a biography or a personal history, and that this takes place within a distinct historical sequence. It is the sociological imagination that provides a means of mapping and understanding the relationships among these three elements, and allows us as individuals to relate our personal lives to the often impersonal social world around us. 

This course introduces the language and methods of the area of Discrete Mathematics and show how discrete mathematics can be used in modern computer science (with the focus on algorithmic applications). Topics covered include (1) sets, relations and functions; (2) basic logic, including propositional logic, logical connectives, truth tables, propositional inference rules and predicate logic; (3) proof techniques, including the structure of mathematical proofs, direct proofs, disproving by counterexample, proof by contradiction; (4) basics of counting, including counting arguments, the pigeonhole principle, permutations and combinations, solving recurrence relation; (5) graphs and trees; (6) discrete probability, including finite probability space, axioms of probability, conditional probability; and, (7) linear algebra, including vectors, matrices and their applications. The course is offered in a blended-learning format. Students are provided with a set of video lectures that they can watch multiple times. Student contact time is in a tutorial format aimed at reinforcing the principles introduced in the online lectures and giving students time to do exercises under the supervision of tutors. Co-requisites: MAM1004S or MAM1005H (unless a pass has been obtained for MAM1004F or MAM1031F or equivalent).

This course teaches students an understanding of human rights as embedded in specific historical circumstances, and looks at their codification in international law as the product of heated political debates and struggles. In order to do so, it articulates itself in three interlocking learning units. The 1st unit is historical: it traces the genealogy of the concept and focuses on the birth of the “human rights regime.” Unit 2 looks at specific cases and rights, and Unit 3 examines critical readings of human rights as an instrument for “Western hegemony,” or as inadequate in other ways. The course covers the historical development of human rights, civil and political rights, economic, social and cultural rights, the right to health, women's rights, intervention, LGBTQ rights, and critiques of human rights. 

The course provides students with a clear understanding of how basic economic principles, technical constraints, and sustainability goals shape the design, operation, and outcomes of markets for energy commodities, namely, electricity and natural gas. The course first illustrates how the price of energy is set at the wholesale and retail level and how this price accounts for technical constraints and environmental policies (taxes/cap-and-trade).  Then, the course explores how market agents interact in these markets and, most importantly, the potential consequences of such behavior on society at large (e.g., on the level of prices paid by final users and on investments in renewable technologies, etc.). While students acquire skills for making optimal techno-economic decisions in other courses, this course takes them a step further and they learn that the outcome of their individually optimal choices strongly depends on the decisions made by others (competition and cooperation are both possible). In line with the inherently multidisciplinary approach required for the energy transition, the course offers students from different tracks the opportunity to productively work together and learn from one another. Useful prior knowledge derives from the following courses: Mathematics and Systems Analysis (GEO1-2411), Science of Energy Technologies (GEO1-2203), Policy Evaluation and Design (GEO2-2113), and Principles of Economics (GEO1-2255 or GEO1-2435).

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. The objectives include: Critical Analysis: Train students to critically analyze how culture and social structures both shape and are shaped by the physical environment. Spatial Awareness: Help students understand the spatial dimensions of social phenomena, exploring how territories impact social interactions and cultural expressions. Cultural Appreciation: Foster an appreciation for cultural diversity by examining how different cultures manifest within specific territories, and how cultural practices are influenced by geographic locations. Research Skills: Develop research skills by teaching students how to investigate and analyze the relationships between social structures, culture, and territory through empirical studies and literature reviews. Globalization Impact: Explore the effects of globalization on local cultures and identities. Emphasize how global forces interact with and sometimes challenge local customs and territorial boundaries, fostering critical thinking. 

This course focuses specifically on the spatial and cultural dimensions of contemporary life. It begins by exploring the historical development of the discipline and its intersections with other social sciences, then moves toward a more focused examination of how territory and culture interact within the context of consumer society. Particular attention is devoted to understanding how consumption shapes and is shaped by both physical and digital environments. Consumer culture is not approached merely as an economic phenomenon, but as a complex system of practices and meanings that contribute to the production of social identities, symbolic landscapes, and territorial imaginaries. From shopping malls and theme parks to social media platforms and algorithmically curated spaces, students investigate how consumption environments function as sites of cultural production and negotiation. Throughout the course, students engage with theoretical perspectives and empirical case studies that highlight the interplay between material culture, globalization, prosumption, and the hybridization of space. The physical and the digital are not treated as separate spheres, but as interconnected and co-constructed domains that define how individuals navigate, appropriate, and give meaning to their social worlds. By combining lectures, seminar discussions, and multimedia materials, the course fosters a critical understanding of how contemporary spatial practices reflect broader cultural transformations. In doing so, it encourages students to reflect on the ways in which space and culture co-evolve in the context of late modernity, shaping both inclusion and exclusion, identity and belonging.

This course examines the anonymous song-poetry which stands in contrast to the 'court' tradition of panegyric and learned poetry of the 17th century. Neglected by most of the early collectors, it has been regarded by some critics as containing some of the most powerful Gaelic poetry extant. The course considers (1) questions of definition, range and subject matter, authorship and transmission; (2) the evidence of the orain luaidh, which raise all these questions in acute form; (3) the relationship between these 'sub-literary' compositions and the rest of the Gaelic tradition; and (4) the assessment of these songs from a literary point of view. The lecture in the first hour will be delivered in English. The tutorial in the second hour is available in either Gaelic or English, dependent on individual degree programs.

From his emergence on the international stage with the Italian and Egyptian campaigns of the late 1790s to his death in 1821 and beyond, Napoleon Bonaparte’s career, first as all-conquering general, then as Emperor and finally as exile inspired an unprecedented explosion of visual imagery throughout Europe. From epic canvases of the enlightened hero on horseback and caustic caricatures of a demented ‘little Boney’ to physical mementos of the Emperor and booty plundered during the wars he waged, these images and objects offer important insights into how contemporaries understood and expressed their experience of revolution and regime change, of conquest and colonisation, of victory and defeat. Surveying the history of the Napoleonic period and its aftermath through its visual and material culture, this course draws upon local and international research collections to explore the interaction between image-making and empire-building in the early 19th century and to interrogate the relationship between art and politics in the making of modernity. In so doing, it also asks how historians can bring visual culture to bear upon their study of the past.

This course explores five principal plays by William Shakespeare—Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Henry V, King Lear, and The Tempest. It introduces students to Shakespeare’s language, poetic form (particularly the sonnet), and dramatic genres—including comedy, tragedy, history, and romance. Reading the plays in roughly chronological order, we situate them within the historical and social contexts of Elizabethan and Jacobean England. We also examine the enduring appeal of Shakespeare, considering him not only as a poet and dramatist, but also as a man of the theatre and a cultural icon whose influence has shaped literature, performance, and global imagination for centuries.

This course brings teachers and students from different disciplines together to understand and combine the roles different disciplines to support a healthy society through public health. The overall objective of this program is to develop a comprehensive understanding of public health, and to acquire specific skills to apply this knowledge. This course includes practical examples, and this includes field visits within the Dutch setting. For example, the course investigates public health services like newborn, child and youth services, vaccinations, screening, and how these services provide support to vulnerable populations that are usually underrepresented in health dialogues. These examples are used to reflect on other global public health practices to understand a broad range of community health issues in the socio-political and cultural contexts in which they occur. Students participating in this course act as “experts” in their field and work in an interdisciplinary team to understand health systems in place. Students much be upper division standing in a related major.

This course examines the dynamics, roles and politics of culture, art and creative agency in the reproduction and transformation of society. It focuses on the ways art and artists respond to, dismantle and reimagine beyond the discursive and institutional formations that construct difference as ‘problematic’, and the injustices they give rise to. This is an empirically and practice-based course that interrogates the relationships and tensions between knowledge, aesthetics and pedagogy through examination of ground-breaking works of art and scholarship across a range of pressing social justice issues and national contexts. It is interdisciplinary, convening readings from sociology, anthropology, art history and social movement studies. Course materials are gathered across theoretical traditions of feminism, Black, indigenous and queer studies, as well as post-colonial and decolonial studies. There is no ‘textbook’ or singular approach to this area of study. Coursework requires equal measures of weekly scholarly and weekly arts-based work: it involves a variety of exercises using a range of visual art techniques, and students are welcome to experiment with sonic and performative practices for the final project. Completing work on a weekly basis is essential.