English

This course offers students a conceptual and geographical grasp of key debates within human geography. Most notably, the course explores how geographers have understood and examined issues of social difference, identity (gender, sexuality - along with race and ethnicity), morals and ethics, bodies and emotions, the geopolitics of nation-states and borders, the politics and process of international migration, and the social geographies of the city. Using a range of contemporary examples from both the Global North and the Global South, the course helps students understand the ways in which geographical debates have shaped our knowledge of culture, place, and politic

Focusing on "finance" as an essential element for societal systems transformation to achieve a sustainable society, this class explains the current role of finance in the sustainable development and environmental fields and their theoretical background. It focuses on the two types of environmental finance: 1) Finance related to international cooperation in which developed countries and others financially support developing countries to promote environmental measures in developing countries, and 2) The growing trend toward greening the financial system and the economy from the perspective of stabilizing the financial system. Beyond international environmental conventions, there is now an increasing number of initiatives by financial institutions and companies to address sustainability. 

This class introduces the expansion of environmental finance and its challenges today; introducing trends related to the United Nations; current discussions on sustainable finance and responses to climate and nature-related risks by financial institutions and companies, and the relationship with international environmental conventions. This class also discusses the expansion of environmental finance and its related governance.

This course introduces various population theories, concepts and facts to develop a critical understanding of the inter-relatedness of the demographic, social, cultural, economic and political issues between Hong Kong and Mainland China and its sustainable development.

This course introduces the history, evolution, and contemporary practices of clinical psychology. Students use the scientist practitioner model to study underlying theoretical frameworks and the skills and practices of clinical psychologists. Ethical and professional issues covered include classification and diagnosis, clinical research, assessment, case formulation and treatment planning, interventions, and prevention. The materials are discussed in the context of typical work settings of clinical psychologists (e.g. mental health, forensic or neuropsychological) and across varied client populations (e.g. children, adults, couples). The course requires students to take prerequisites.

This course teaches liberal arts students to understand the basic notions of probability theory and statistics, and to be able to comprehend the meaning of an elementary statistical analysis. While some mathematics is unavoidable to handle probabilities and statistics, the course focuses on comprehending simple analyses concerning randomness, subjective and objective probabilities, parameter estimation, confidence. After a short introduction of elementary probability theory, the most important discrete and continuous distributions, the law of large numbers and the central limit theorem, it discusses the basics of statistics, parameter estimation, confidence, and Bayesian statistics.

This course explores conceptual, theoretical, and accumulated knowledge of international security and conflict studies. It focuses on:

• The rise of emerging powers: How do emerging powers  change the international security order?
• Asymmetrical threats: terrorism and insurgency activities;
• Proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and conventional weapons; and,
• Emerging importance of new domains (space and cyberspace).  

This course is mainly divided into two phases.  The first phase deals with contemporary nature of intra- and international conflicts; observing conceptual and empirical aspects of today’s conflict and discussing case studies in Asia, Middle East, and Africa as regions; and terrorism, proliferation of weapons, and ethnic and religious tensions as issue areas.  The second phase deals with security policy and strategy, investigating phase-dynamics approach (peacetime management, crisis management, deterrence, intervention, post-conflict operations) to security policy, specific sets of policy in each phase, then to evaluating the actual cases.

This course introduces students to the principles of environmental pollution. Students explore the major types of pollution in air, water, and on land. Students think about the impacts and issues posed by environmental pollution. Finally students reflect on the strategies used to prevent and control environmental pollution.

This course discusses the biological principles that have led to a new understanding of the causes of aging and how these basic principles help one to understand the human experience of biological aging, longevity, and age-related disease. 
The class studies how the rate of biological aging is measured; explores the mechanisms underlying cellular aging; discusses the genetic pathways that affect longevity in various organisms; outlines the normal age-related changes and the functional decline that occurs in physiological systems over one's lifespan, and considers the implications of modulating the rate of aging and longevity.

This course offers a practical introduction to the study of human flourishing and well-being. Drawing on principles from positive psychology, including the PERMA model, the course explores positive emotions, engagement and flow, relationships, meaning, and achievement. Emphasis is placed on applying research findings through an individual well-being project that supports personal development and thriving.