English

This course examines the relationship between Buddhism and gender in a broad variety of historical and Buddhist thematic contexts. To accomplish this, we will immerse ourselves in Buddhist texts and teachings, analyze material and visual culture, and delve into the lived experiences of Buddhist practitioners spanning from Early Buddhism to the present day, across a range of Buddhist traditions, cultures, and geographical settings. In so doing, we will explore topics including the role and status of women, the construction of Buddhist masculinities and femininities, the gendering of religious roles, institutions and practices, and activism towards gender equality in Buddhist communities. 

In this course, students study animal physiology, emphasizing how to compare and contrast the physiological processes across different animal groups that govern their day-to-day function. Students gain an appreciation of how response strategies are used to cope with different external environments and how physiological plasticity is key to maintaining and adjusting physiological processes in terrestrial and aquatic animals.

This course offers an exploration of radical film and television in French Surrealism, Soviet Montage, Hollywood, and Third Cinema. It explores how cinema and television have provided a space for the representation of both radical ideas and radical aesthetics; introduces students to a wide range of radical texts from French Surrealism to Soviet Montage, from Hollywood to Third Cinema, analyzing feature films, documentaries, and television drama, and examines what is at stake in the attempt to challenge mainstream aesthetic norms and political ideologies.

This course debates issues in green transition in Africa with a focus on governance of natural resources at and between local, national, and international levels. It develops an understanding of key concepts including theories related to governing natural resources towards a green transition in Africa and discusses specific cases from Africa related to green transition with a focus on utilization and/or conservation of Africa's natural resources. The course critically discusses actors in Africa's development and the role they are playing in green transition by governing natural resources in Africa. It considers issues related to green transition linked to discussion about scarcity and abundance, debates conservation in Africa related to the role of state, marked and civil society, and discusses impact and coping strategies related to climate change in Africa.

This course examines the rapid transformation of cities by information technology and socio-economic innovation; growth in citizen-generated data and the internet of things; and emerging theory, methods, and frameworks for understanding Smart Cities.

This course provides a broad-based understanding of classic and contemporary theory and research in Physiological Psychology, including the development of the nervous system; the biological basis of human and non-human animal behavior, typical and atypical neuropsychology; evolutionary theories of behavior; the roles of hormones, genetics, and epigenetics in behavior; and critical evaluation of cognitive neuroimaging techniques.

This course explores debates around gender and sexualities as a way both of deepening knowledge about the politics of gender continentally, and of exploring the complexity of different African contexts’ engagement with broad discussions on sexual rights. The course is divided into two sections which broadly focus on South Africa, Kenya and Uganda. The first section addresses concepts on gender and sexualities through an examination of how sexualities were remade as a result of colonial conquest as well as how debates over gender and sexualities shifted post-‘independence’. The second section looks at contemporary debates in gender politics and sexualities. These include debates of the (de)criminalization of sex work, culture and sexuality, reproductive health rights and sexual rights, and gender and the media. DP requirements: Students are expected to attend all classes, and to submit all required assignments by deadlines identified in the course curriculum. Assessment: Continuous assessment (essays, projects, tests, etc.) counts 100%.

This is a research-oriented course for cybersecurity, a broad, fast, evolving discipline. The course covers important concepts but it not meant to be comprehensive. The following topics will be covered:

• The applied aspects of cryptographic primitives (randomness, hash, MAC, encryption, digital signatures)
• Cryptographic protocols (key exchange, authentication, anonymous communication, privacy-enhancing technologies)
• Network security (TCP/IP, DNS, BGP, TLS, DDoS, wireless, email, MLS)
• Advanced topics: _ security (IoT, SDN, blockchain, web, software, systems,...)

Course prerequisites: Basic knowledge in discrete mathematics, programming, and networking is strongly recommended. Class participants are also expected to comprehend research papers and conduct a research project. 

This course surveys the history of Europe and the Mediterranean world from the 12th to the 15th centuries. The course takes thematic cross-sections which enable students to understand not just the crucial events that shaped the period (such as the Crusades, the fall of Constantinople, the Black Death, the threat of Mongol invasions and popular rebellions), but also the mentalities of the people who experienced them. The thematic structure of tutorials allows comparison within each theme, covering not just Europe but also the Byzantine and Islamic worlds. Possible themes may include political structures, popular devotion, religious dissent, transmission of intellectual thought, violence and warfare, marriage, childhood, the persecution of minorities, assimilation and co-existence, and travel and exploration.

This course examines gender and sexuality in a Scottish context. As binary understandings of gender and sexuality are increasingly shown to be outdated and outmoded, developments in our understanding of gender and sexuality are making headlines and becoming a regular part of our daily discourse in both our social and working lives. This course enables students to apply their knowledge of identity politics to a dynamic range of relevant texts. The texts examine the decline of traditional, industrialist, "hard man" masculinities in Scotland. Through an exploration of dynamic, contemporary and highly acclaimed texts, this course examines broken masculinities, resistant femininities, and resurgent Scottish LGBT+ fictions. A select range of relevant secondary sources accompany this exploration of primary literature, introducing students to iconic theorists, as well as relevant contemporary critics examining Scottish literature from a gendered perspective.