English

Friedrich Nietzsche infamously declared that God is dead. Later, Carl Jung diagnosed the distinctive illness of the twentieth century as that of a godless age in search of meaning. The twentieth century witnessed a rejection of old, official myths (God, the immortal soul, the nation state, etc.), which are supplanted by new ones that first emerge in so-called low, popular culture. Fantasy texts address various crises of meaning, by providing readers and audiences with new myths, new gods. This course explores the connections between fantasy, popular media and crises in the conception of the modern self, as mapped through events such as WWII, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, the triumph of late capitalism, and present-day fundamentalist terrorism. Sigmund Freud asserts that fantasy fulfills unconscious wishes, or 'lacks'. What do our enduring popular myths of roughly the last 100 years reveal about us, individually and collectively? Why are characters like Aslan, Superman, Batman and Bilbo Baggins such enduring figures of the modern imagination, easily translating from medium to medium (cheap paperbacks and comics, to film and TV)? Do they represent a hunger for old authority? Or, could they be archetypes of new humanist liberation? The course addresses these questions and others through analysis of a selection of key comics and fantasy texts.

This course focuses on the functions of the animal cell integrated into tissue, covering and discussing regulation of Cell-to-Cell Junction, Cell-Cell Communication, Cell Signaling Pathways, Cell Division and Cell Death.  

Recommended course prerequisites at ICU: Foundation of Biology and Basic Concepts in Cell Biology. 

The notion of risk is central to areas such as economics, finance, medicine, and law as well as branches of philosophy such as ethics and epistemology. It is also a prominent part of ordinary everyday decision making. Risk is standardly understood in a probabilistic way, on which the risk of a given outcome is connected with the probability that the outcome will occur. In some recent philosophical literature, however, the dominance of this probabilistic approach has been challenged, and certain non-probabilistic conceptions of risk have been proposed. This literature serves the starting point for this course, but students go on to consider a much broader range of literature, drawing upon sources in psychology, risk management and legal theory. Specific topics to be covered vary from year to year but may include the ethics of risk imposition, risk-taking in extreme sport, the legal distinction between attacks and endangerments, and whether there is such a thing as a "de minimis risk" - a risk that is so small that it can be rationally ignored.

This class studies the potential of graphic design in terms of productivity and usability while also questioning what value system we can convey through design. It explores the role of promoting through visual communication and adding value to digital products.  

This class researches what potential there is in graphic-driven product design when decoupled from productivity and usefulness. What happens when we consider the ideas of design and products as “useless machines” rather than productive tools. What do products look like that encourage formal experimentation, self-reflection, meaningful interpersonal communication, and logging off? What are the value systems embedded in our interfaces and goods, and how do they perpetuate ideologies? What sort of productive opportunities can be found in being adamantly unproductive?   

This course combines academic inquiry with practical hands-on experience. Students should be comfortable using design software and producing graphic outcomes (these can range from digital outcomes like webpages or videos, to physical materials such as books, posters, textiles, etc.) 

The following activities will take place in-person and online via several platforms: Reading discussion, Topic/lecture/discussion, Project critique/discussion, Group exercises, A weekend workshop, One-on-one meetings, Group meetings.  

Students should also be prepared to complete two individual projects and a group projects and be aware that these projects may comprise up to 70% of the final assessment. 

This course covers working principles and models of basic circuit components such as resistor, capacitor, inductor, diode, and transistor. Students learn to analyze the complex electric circuit problems composed of multiple circuit components using abstractions and various mathematical methods and gain an understanding of the working principles of various logic, memory, and amplifier circuits. The course provides students the ability to understand/modify/write LabView code that can be used to test electric circuits. Topics include Network analysis, Node voltage, Mesh current, Superposition, Impedance, RLC circuit, Diode, MOSFET, Amplifier, Logic and memory devices, Bipolar junction transistor (BJT), BJT small signal model, Lab work via LabView. 

This introductory course provides a survey of Western history from the ancient period through the nineteenth century. It is designed for students who wish to pursue more specialized topics in Western history in the future and/or who plan to major in history.  Students are introduced to key historical figures and events, while the course also emphasizes how perceptions and expectations of both individuals and collectives (such as nation and religion) have evolved over time.  

Lectures proceed chronologically and are complemented by in-class activities that center on a variety of primary sources. Through these materials, the course uncovers the historical complexity of important concepts that are often simplified or taken for granted, such as liberty, equality, progress, and truth.  Ultimately, the course invites students to consider how they, as historical actors, wish to engage with knowledge and the world around them. 

This course examines how literary and visual works from different periods from across the world engage with Empire, slavery, and their legacies. The course introduces students to the complexities of race, class, gender, and their representations in a variety of expressive forms.

There are two distinct parts to this course. The first few lectures provide students with a general overview of connectionism: its origins as an attempt to model the functioning of the brain, and the various classes of algorithms created starting from these foundations. The second part focuses on the last 10-15 years. The course provides a general framework for designing machine learning models that deal with complex structured data, introduces graphical models and Bayesian networks, and describes inference and learning algorithms for them. The course also addresses the case of neural networks, i.e. to describe possible strategies for effectively training them in real-world scenarios.

This course discusses a range of contemporary security challenges providing a set of key concepts that help you develop an in-depth understanding of the post-Cold war geopolitical and strategic environment. It seeks to provide students with the analytical tools for analyzing and assessing respective policy responses, and for developing critical perspectives that go beyond the mere explanation of political practice. In doing so, the course draws on a range of International Relations theories, illustrating ways in which various approaches can serve as a framework for analyzing global and regional security. The course places particular emphasis on the dichotomy between problem-solving and critical approaches to the study of global security and this is also reflected in the way it is assessed: the policy brief challenges students' problem-solving skills whereas the essay and the tutorial discussions give students room for critical reflection.

This course allows for a close examination of the Caribbean's creole identity by assessing Caribbean literary and cultural works from the 20th- and 21st centuries. Film, music, religion, literature, and food are explored to specifically examine the influence of slavery on Caribbean culture.