English

Language is often considered a “tool” of communication, but what kind of “tool” is it? What are some other ways of perceiving language? Do people with different mother tongues and cultures tend to think and behave differently? How do misunderstandings in intercultural communication happen? How can we develop a competence that will enable us to reach better understanding of ourselves as well as people from various cultures? These are some of the questions examined in this course. The course introduces some major topics concerning language, culture, and intercultural communication.

This course offers a study of American literature through a selection of short stories related to major American cultural themes. Students acquire analytical, reading, and argumentative tools for written and oral expression, and learn the methods of literary criticism. 

This course on the British 19th century focuses on London and beyond. London is the neuralgic center of 19th-century England, and a key subject of study for Anglicists - making it an ideal location for a multidisciplinary, civilizational, artistic, historical, and literary approach. Complementary insights highlight the specificity of the capital in the 19th century. But London is also an invitation to travel, both spatially (the foreigners who visit London, but also, conversely, the Empire/Commonwealth elsewhere, and the orientalism they generate) and temporally: today, London is a figure, it lends itself to all the "neo" crazes, and Victorian London seems resolutely modern.

This course introduces students to key geographical debates, theories, and concepts. Students gain a broad understanding of the interaction between human societies and the spaces in which they exist, looking at a range of economic, cultural, social, and political processes at a variety of scales. The course explores four key themes: environment; colonial afterlives; bodies, identities, and difference; and people and mobility. Through these themes students examine why geography matters to a series of contemporary debates and concerns, including globalization, climate change, social inequality, capitalism, and the future. A variety of local, national, and international case studies are used to examine these substantive issues and to consider issues of social justice, values, and ethics. 

This is a first course in real analysis and a concrete introduction to group theory and the mathematics of symmetry. Students study fundamental concepts of Analysis (completeness, epsilon-N, continuity, epsilon-delta) and Group Theory (groups, group actions, symmetries).

This course considers how scientists, journalists, and film makers communicate about climate change; what measures are used by activists, social media users, and "green influencers" to convey urgency and persuade others to engage; and how the challenges and solutions of the climate crisis can be visualized using stories, short videos, memes, news, infographics, and other media. It introduces people whose job it is to communicate about climate change and discuss issues such as trust, greenwashing, attention, engagement, mobilization, urgency, and apathy. The course is built on active participation: students collect and analyze a variety of climate change communication and team up with others to create a media product as part of their exam.

Through visits to ten of London’s most important institutions, this course examines the development of how institutions curate culture from Renaissance "cabinets of curiosities" to the modern "white cube" gallery space. The course equips students with the historical, theoretical, and practical knowledge necessary for studying culture through institutional collections. Students analyze the techniques and practices museums use to collect, organize, and display their objects; consider the messages these institutions send through their architecture, patronage, and methods of display; and they delve into some of the most important issues affecting cultural institutions today like decolonization, repatriation, and social impact. Aside from the introductory class, the course takes place off campus, with seminar groups visiting a different institution in each meeting. 

This course examines human experience as a source of truth, knowledge, and belief about war. Representations of human experiences of war play a significant role in human culture and society, often defining social memories and collective understandings of war. As such, this course examines how human experience is transmitted and interpreted via historical sources as well as cultural objects such as films, novels, and video games. It also engages students with key social, political, and moral arguments about the representation of war experience in the media, museums, monuments, and commemoration rituals. 

The course covers the last generation of the Roman republic, primarily focusing on the political and military events between 88 and 43 BCE. It traces the process which led to the replacement of the traditional system of shared aristocratic government by a hereditary monarchy. Central themes include the rise of the late republican dynasts, above all Marius, Sulla, Pompey, and Caesar, the role of the army in politics, the gradual destabilization of domestic politics, and the challenges posed by the expanding empire as well as its socio-economic impact. The current debate about the nature of the "fall" of the republic – accidental or inevitable - is also analyzed and placed in a wider historiographic context.

This course explores the use of music in Hollywood Cinema up to the present day.  The focus is on how music has worked to both support and undermine the dominant ideology of Hollywood Cinema. Students discuss the concept of the Classical Hollywood Score and how it has functioned in partnership with the Classical Hollywood Narrative.