English

Designed for sophmore students and above, this course requires no previous knowledge of literary criticism. Introducing textual analysis through hands-on exercises, the course exposes students to various perspectives for reading literature and culture through lenses of class, gender, power, knowledge production, economics, health, globalization, etc. The course covers important debates in literary and cultural studies, developing skills for analyzing texts to help them succeed in literature courses. Over two semesters, six professors introduce a variety of critical lenses for viewing literature and society. Students engage with a range of literary and cultural objects to gain new perspectives on our world and better prepare them for future courses in DFLL. Students may take one or both semesters. 

This is the second semester of the course. 

How do states cooperate with each other? How do they engage in conflict? Do these strategies of engagement change over time? These are some of the most important questions in the field of International Relations (IR) and they lie at the center of this course. Researchers and practitioners have asked those questions throughout human history – the increasingly competitive landscape of international security in the last decade makes such questions all the more potent. Starting with the onset of World War I and ending in the near future, this course explores the nature of conflict and cooperation over approximately the past 100 years. It introduces students to the different actors, processes, and technologies that shape these dynamics. This involves themes and topics such as why and when states start wars, how they may be prevented, how powerful states build international orders and for what reasons, whether international institutions are autonomous from states or subservient to them, the consequences of the rise of populism on interstate politics, and the nature of the current conflict between Russia and the West.

This course provides students with a foundation in geographical data, mapping, spatial analysis, and writing skills. It explores the organization and manipulation of geospatial data, cognitive mapping, and basic statistics, and addresses locational considerations (e.g. coordinates and space), map projections, and map design. It also introduces technological tools and methods available to map, analyze and disseminate geographical information. The course is mainly tutorial-based but includes lectures and local fieldwork, providing an interactive and applied learning environment to explore technical and technological geospatial methods and approaches. In doing so, it enhances students’ geospatial awareness and provide them with skills to examine relationships, interactions, and interdependencies between human and physical components of the environment. 

This course is an introduction to how anthropological analysis can contribute to an understanding of climate change, environmental justice, and human perceptions of nature. Although anthropology primarily focuses on social relations, environmental anthropology has historically been preoccupied with the interaction between natural and social processes. Through a mix of theory and ethnographic examples from around the globe, the course introduces newer perspectives on climate change and nature and cosmology, environmental justice, multispecies relations, care, conflict, and climate activism. The course includes a one-day collective fieldwork near Copenhagen and presentation of findings, collective reading and presentations of the work of a key author, and joint of essay writing based on fieldwork and theory.

Narratives about antiquity have reverberated through history. The stories the Greeks and Romans told about themselves and their past shaped the complex societies in which they lived. Today, narratives about the origins and fall of classical societies continue to be used to make claims about where modern societies came from, how they should be run, and how far we have come from our origins. This course examines influential narratives from the ancient world and their reinterpretations in later periods, from the 19th century to the present day. Possible topics include the origins of Greece and Rome and their entanglement in ancient and modern ideas of nationhood, culture and race, and the fall of the Roman empire and the lessons that have been drawn from it. This course shows that narratives of antiquity have always been embedded in contemporary culture, society, and politics, and that they continue to shape the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves.

This elementary Chinese course is for beginners with no previous knowledge of the language. It aims to introduce Chinese language and culture through practical use of the language to students. The learning activities develop students’ listening, speaking, reading and writing skills and gradually build up students’ confidence in using Putonghua for daily communication. In order to establish a solid foundation for long-term study, the learning of Chinese characters is an essential part of this course.

This course aims to develop a basic level of spatial planning literacy among urban studies students. It's divided into three modules: contemporary issues in spatial planning, the history and evolution of spatial planning and spatial planning as a process; and contemporary issues in spatial planning. Through various case studies, the course sensitizes students to various pertinent spatial planning issues in the specific institutional and legal context of Hong Kong.

This course explores the role of seapower and empires in the development of modern warfare, strategy, and international relations. Students examine the role of sea power in imperialism and the relationship between East and West, the role of technological innovation in the ability of sea power to affect war and politics both at the global and regional levels, the role of maritime geography as a structural impediment and enabler in the projection of power, and the conceptual complexities involved in the terms empire and imperialism as tools for understanding the strategic challenges that face the world today.

This course examines how firms can gain competitive advantage from their operations. Typically, this requires the firm to achieve, at a minimum cost and high quality: responsiveness and adaptability to customer needs and desires, rapid time to market, process efficiency, and sufficient/responsive capacity. A problem solving framework is developed that enables students to undertake managerial and technical analysis that aims to result in the desired competitive advantage. Both service and manufacturing case examples are covered in order to illustrate some of the main concepts.

This course provides basic set operations in set theory and examines how to prove propositions, with a focus of setting operations and links to the proofs. Students study systematic operations in set theory and apply such operations to extended mathematical proofs.