English

This course offers an introduction to cultural criticism by looking at how critical thinkers have made connections between culture and society and analyzing a selection of novels and other texts in which key concepts of criticism are explored imaginatively. Through theoretical reflections, the course answers the question: what is the relationship between literature and other forms of art and the culture and society from which they originate? Each week of the course is organized around a key idea or concept in cultural criticism. Assumed previous knowledge includes an elementary knowledge of literature, literary history, and literary theory.

Through this course, students will be able to master blockchain core principles (distributed ledgers, consensus mechanisms, smart contracts) and their reshaping of trust/value networks, valuate applications, business logic, and risks of digital currency, DeFi, CeFi, asset securitization, and cross-border payments,  understand China's "technology encouragement, financial prudence" framework and key policies while comparing global regulatory strategies, conduct multi-dimensional analyses of major events (FTX collapse, Ethereum Merge, digital RMB pilot) to develop independent judgment, gain hands-on experience creating and managing digital assets on Ethereum testnet, understanding private key custody, gas fees, smart contract interaction, and on-chain transparency.

From climate change to mass extinction, the reach of the human species is inescapable across the natural world. At the same time, ranging from our microbiome to our mental health, the natural world is inescapable in our own lives. Despite tremendous technological advances, nature and humanity are inextricably entangled. This survey course explores the many ways that humans and nature have collided, and the many ways our species has understood other species and non-living things. Ranging widely across space and time, students explore how humans created the idea of “nature” as something apart from themselves and the ramifications of that idea, how we might do history from the standpoint of other species, the effects of pre-modern and modern humans on the natural world, and environmental inequalities around how toxic pollution or other environmental harms are differentially borne according to race, class, and gender.

This course covers key concepts in cultural security studies approaches (strategic culture, role theory, ontological security, historical memory) and understand key disciplinary debates, such as material vs. non-material explanations for behavior; culture as practice vs. ideas; and whether cultural variables link directly to policy decisions. Even more importantly, the course applies these theories to real world events to better understand how culture, history, and identity contribute to international politics in the past and present. In doing so, students learn and apply interpretive methods to critically engage with identity discourse as it is espoused by elites and political leadership.

This course provides analytical tools to understand the causes and consequences of the digital revolution. The course first examines its historical and technical foundations, then analyzes the economic and social transformations it has brought about. These perspectives enable students to critically reflect on their own digital practices in light of broader societal changes and their implications for individuals and societies. This reflection is further developed through independent reading of recent books on the topic.

The course involves specialization but also a broadening of earlier courses in biochemistry and basic cell biology in the Biomedicine programme. Different themes in cell biology are covered each week, such as intracellular signal transduction, gene regulation and non-coding RNA, specialized cells and basic tissue types, cell cycle and cancer, cell interactions, the extracellular matrix, and the movement of cells. The course focuses on the molecular and cellular mechanisms that control cells and the basic functions of their surroundings. The course acts as a bridge to future courses in e.g. neurobiology and immunology as well as human organ systems and homeostasis by discussing specialized cells and their role in different physiological and pathophysiological situations. In addition to knowledge of cell biology, the course provides experience in extracting, interpreting and presenting information from research articles and training in solving problems in cell biology experimentally through the application of cellular and molecular biology methods. The course contains training components for GLP and quality assurance in the development and production of drugs. The course also provides training regarding working in groups and giving and receiving constructive feedback. Entry requirements include Biology and Chemistry of the Cell 30 credits and completed courses in Biochemistry and Cellular Metabolism 7.5 credits and Genetics and Genomics 7.5 credits, or at least 37.5 credits from completed first-cycle courses of which at least 15 credits in Eukaryotic Cell Biology, 15 credits in Chemistry/Biochemistry and 7.5 credits in Human Genetics.

This course presents the systems and hardware foundations of modern machine learning, bridging neural network workloads, compiler optimizations, and advanced AI hardware. The course covers cutting-edge AI hardware, including GPUs, TPUs, and wafer-scale accelerators, highlighting the design trade-offs between cloud and edge deployment. Topics such as efficient ML (quantization, pruning), algorithm–hardware co-design, federated learning, and system support for large language models (LLMs) are also presented. Through lectures, tutorials, and hands-on programming lab sessions, students gain practical skills and a systems-level understanding of ML deployment, preparing them for advanced research or industry roles in ML system design.

Forensic psychology can be thought of as an umbrella term to bring together two different streams of research in psychology and law: legal psychology is the application of psychological research and methods to the process of law, and criminological psychology is the application of psychological research and methods to the understanding of criminal behavior. This course introduces students to some of the main topics and questions in forensic psychology, so that students can appreciate the different perspectives, methods, and applications involved in the discipline. The course focuses on the application of research findings to the criminal justice system, and the understanding, treatment, and reduction of criminal behavior.

This course explores how environmental factors such as pollution, waste management, climate change, and urban planning affect and shape the health of individuals in our societies. It touches on the environment-health nexus within the sustainable development goals and global agendas, and it explores the theoretical approaches to understanding the environmental determinants of health. It also explores case studies and empirical research conducted in both developed and developing countries and dives into the social inequalities in environmental exposures and health. Methodologically, this course provides analytical skills such as collection, analysis, and interpretation of quantitative (statistical literacy) and qualitative (e.g., Photovoice) data and generic research skills including reading and critically summarizing and presenting research papers.

Covid-19 is an infectious disease caused by a type of virus, manifesting itself in individual human beings; but the covid-19 pandemic was not just a health issue, but a social and economic phenomenon. This course explores the economics and politics of the covid-19 pandemic and the policy response (health-related, economic and social) in the UK and other countries. It does not cover specific medical or scientific aspects of covid-19 as a disease, but beyond that discusses a wide range of topics relating both to the direct and indirect impacts of the pandemic on societies and economies across the glob. There is a particular focus on how and why policy decisions were taken; and on the longer-term implications.