English

America was an invention, not a discovery. It is as much an idea or an art project as it is a place or a polity. This course investigates the many and fragile meanings of something called “America” in literary history. Students investigate the first contacts between Indigenous peoples and European colonizers in the early modern era, the monopolization of the term “American” by the United States in the nineteenth century, and more modern interrogations of what America might be and what it represents. The course moves through North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean as it investigates how empire, colonialism, slavery, transnational dynamics, and cross-cultural transformations among Indigenous, European, and African civilizations impacted the literary and cultural legacies of “America. The course questions how America was invented, and often contested, in literary forms and genres that range from colonial records and natural histories to poems and more contemporary forms. In the many ways of writing about America, what did the place and term come to mean to different people at different times in the past? What was America then, and how does it help us understand what it is today?

Why is ‘gender’ a global far-right obsession? How do algorithms amplify anti-feminist hate? This course combines theory and action—from dissecting memes to designing resistance campaigns. It examines how anti-gender movements weaponize digital platforms to spread disinformation, enforce patriarchal norms, and target marginalized communities. Through feminist, postcolonial, and disability justice lenses, students analyze global case studies—from #TradWife influencers to algorithmic oppression in the Global South. Students engage with theorists like Butler and Haraway, conduct hands-on research (e.g., TikTok comment analysis), and design counterspeech campaigns. Centering a transdisciplinary and decolonial approach, the course equips students to critique structural exclusion and imagine emancipatory digital futures.

This course will seek to present the current state of health in the global health field, its role in improving the health of the population, and its future prospects with detailed data and  case studies. It covers global health-related concepts, including global health, global health governance, global health research, health diplomacy, etc. It introduces pecific practices in global health governance and global health practice in diffferent areas.

This introductory course in Corporate Finance provides a systematic foundation for understanding howfirms make financial decisions in modern capital markets. The course examines how corporations evaluate investment opportunities, raise capital, and manage risk to maximize firm value. Students will study core concepts such as the time value of money, interest rates, bond and stock valuation, investment decision rules, and the fundamentals of capital budgeting. The course also reviews essential accounting principles to ensure students can interpret financial statements and link accounting information to financial decisions.

The course explores the psychology and science of creativity, examining creative thinking, cognitive processes, creativity and the brain, individual differences, and psychological barriers to creativity. Students explore how creativity is measured and develop strategies to enhance creative potential through research-based activities and projects.

This course introduces the fundamentals of marketing with a customer-centric approach, examining both the traditional 4P's—Product, Price, Place, Promotion—and the consumer-focused 4C's—Consumer wants and needs, Cost, Convenience, Communication. It explores skills in competitor analysis, digital and non-digital communication, and strategies to create customer value.

Through the reading of scholarly texts, collective analysis of sources, and personal research, this course aims to address European integration through the lens of gender and how gender issues impact European integration. The course highlights the contribution of women’s networks to bringing European societies closer together, but also examines the place of feminism and reflections on gender in the development of European values, which today help to set Europe apart globally. Particular attention is paid to the different experiences of gender and feminism in Western Europe and in Central and Eastern Europe during the Cold War and after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The concept of “climate justice” suggests that climate change is not only a problem of science or technology but more fundamentally a problem of political power. This course introduces students to major concepts and debates in a humanist approach to climate change and examines a range of existing solutions to the crisis. 

The first part of the course, “The Politics of Climate Change,” introduces students to major concepts and debates in a critical approach to climate change, considering the origins of climate change and its intersection with economic and social inequality. The second unit of the course, “Climate Justice in Practice,” examines a range of existing solutions to climate change, considering their advantages, drawbacks, and tactics for implementation.
 

Chemical ecology is the study of how chemicals, called semiochemicals, mediate interactions within and between species. Such interactions are very diverse, including, within species, mating, intraspecific competition, social status and foraging and, between species, predation and parasitism, defense and mutualisms such as pollination. This course examines how the different semiochemicals originate and how they are used and detected by organisms. Examine how chemists and biologists study these interactions and how some of these interactions can be used to assist humans, by manipulating organisms in the nature. Students are encouraged to develop their own interests, and the course is not limited to one particular organismic group. Both biologists and chemists are encouraged to join the course. Pre-requisites include BIO2001 Cell Biology and CHE2001 Organic Chemistry.

Maps hold power. They represent a reality that is shaped by those creating the map and have been used as instruments of empire, governance and surveillance. This seminar looks at both the embedded power dynamics of maps as well as their contestation. The title of the seminar shall serve as a guidance in which “un-”,“mapping” and “power” are the main foci of the seminar. It starts by understanding how power is embedded in maps and explores how to analyze maps as political instruments. Students then look at various cases of mapping as critical and creative practices that challenge dominant cartographies from around the globe. In addition to building a solid understanding of power dynamics entrenched and contested through practices of (counter-)mapping, the course aims to offer students the opportunity to explore different methods of mapping and provide insight into how they could be used in the study of political science. Therefore, the course incorporates different exercises and group work through which students explores techniques of mapping, counter-maps, critical mapping, mental and narrative maps and get an overview of basic tools.