English

This course explores various philosophical proposals that attempt to conceptually capture the activity of bullshitting and the mental state of those who engage in it. It addresses suggestions from the psychological debate related to the recipients of bullshit, focusing on the susceptibility to and the detection of bullshit. The focus of the seminar is on interdisciplinary discussion of the weekly seminar readings. Using Harry Frankfurt’s essay “On Bullshit,” questions include what is this phenomenon of misleading speech referred to as bullshit? How can bullshitting be distinguished from lying and deceiving? What are the bullshitter's goals? Who is particularly susceptible to falling for bullshit? And how can bullshit be recognized, exposed, or even overcome?

This course features an active learning of laws through international moot court and simulation. It also provides opportunities to do legal research, legal writing and oral advocacy. For instance, students write memorials and practice oral pleadings on a timely legal dispute case. 

What will the city of the future look like? To what extent are our models of city-making sustainable? Is the road that we are taking leading us towards an environmental utopia in which societies will grow in balance with nature, or are we paving the way for the collapse of our civilization? These are the key questions that will drive students' exploration of the different ways through which, today, sustainable urban development is understood and practiced across the world. Students use the tools of geography to examine the most critical socio-environmental issues faced by cities (climate change, consumption, happiness, environmental degradation, etc.), and discuss both the theory and practice of urban sustainability.
 

This course introduces students to a variety of sociological debates that surround human body. It explores various theoretical perspectives of how we experience and live in our bodies , including theories by Foucault, Elias, Goffman, Judith Butler, and others. It focuses on the roles our bodies are prescribed to, or play in our everyday interactions, how they are socially constructed. The main topics of this course range from exploring the mind/body relationship, the historical accounts of how attitudes to our bodies have been changing, the politics of the body, including gender and racial inequalities, disabilities, medicalization, and commodification of bodies. Processes behind sexualization, ageing, and dying are also discussed.

The course looks at the different facets of international conflict mediation, with an emphasis on the treatment of armed conflict. In the first part of the course, the course locates the debate on mediation within the scope of Peace and Conflict Studies, especially on the concepts of conflict management, resolution, and transformation; as well as the concepts of peacekeeping, peacemaking, and peacebuilding. The course highlights the particularities of mediation in relation to other mechanisms for the peaceful resolution of disputes, in particular negotiation, exploring the construction of the debate on mediation in the Conflict Resolution literature and its main associated concepts. From this movement, the course covers what mediation is; who are the people or organizations who act as mediators; when mediation should be introduced to deal with conflicts; and how, and through which mechanisms and tools, mediation is exercised. As an important part of this debate, the course discusses the creation and consolidation of norms around mediation at the international level, particularly in the context of UN and regional organizations. In the second part of the course, students study cases, themes, and state-of-the-art discussions on international mediation, including, for example, the mediation of ceasefires and DDR processes; local knowledge and methods of mediation, decolonial critiques and voices from the Global South; debates on international mediation, gender, and race; and mediation in cases of conflicts and environmental crimes. The classes are structured in two parts: in the first half, debates on theoretical and conceptual issues based on the selected bibliography; in the second part, seeking to understand the content of the first part of the class in the light of activities anchored in practical cases, official documents, peace agreements, technical publications from organizations and research centers dedicated to mediation, etc. 

This course covers quantitative evaluation of public policies using regression-based evaluation methods to change students' perceptions of the world and causal claims that are made by others. The first part of the course provides students with an introduction to regression analysis, including Stata. The course then discusses various strategies to potentially overcome omitted variable biases and other forms of endogeneity, with a particular focus on panel data econometrics. Throughout, the focus of the course rests on identifying strategies that allow for causal interpretation rather than mathematical derivations of theoretical results. Econometric challenges are discussed in reference to real-world policy questions and the relevant literature. Assessment is based on a final exam, weekly exercises, and presentation and discussion of journal articles. The course has no formal prerequisites, but a familiarity with basic statistical concepts and calculus is useful. It is also recommended, although not required, that other courses covering econometrics are taken in parallel.

This course examines the issue of human rights in relation the idea that multicultural coexistence is accepted as a political and social fact, and, through this process of examination, aims to design institutional conditions that can respect special cultural experiences on the one hand and secure universal humanity on the other. 

Course topics explore diverging opinions on human rights in theory and practice: universality and relativity of human rights; development of human rights toward social and cultural rights; freedom of expression and antidiscrimination law; abortion, euthanasia, and human rights of women; immigration, refugee and border control; humanitarian intervention and sovereignty. 

This course reflects on the limits of the field of Conflict Studies to help us understand and explain the international dimensions of violent conflict and how and why advanced militaries wage war. Invigorating a field of War Studies, we will explore various definitions of war and trace how different forms of 21st century warfare impacts our understanding of what war is. Reflecting on several case studies, the course further strengthens conflict analysis skills by studying how these different forms of warfare interact and have an impact on local conflict dynamics and civilian harm.  This course includes inter- and transdisciplinary (guest) lecturers working at the forefront of academic as well as policy debates on these topics. Conflict analysts are trained to translate these academic and policy insights to a broader public through writing a review and making a podcast series. This course equips participants with the knowledge and skills to analyze the changing character of war in the 21st century.

The course considers such matters as the iconography of major religious and mythological subjects, issues of style and the functions of works of art and architecture. Art works are considered in the context of influential factors such as historical period, geographic location, inter-cultural influences and the prevailing social, political and religious environments. This course offers a survey of art and architecture up to the end of 17th century, with a focus primarily, although not exclusively, on the Western world. It provides an introduction to the critical analysis of artworks, including painting, mosaic, fine metalwork, manuscripts, sculpture and building types.

This course offers an introductory study of ancient history, focusing on the Ancient Near East and Greco-Roman antiquity. The course explores the main political, socio-economic, and cultural developments in this epoch between ca. 800 BCE and 500 CE. The course utilizes textbooks, visuals, tutorials, ancient sources, and modern literature in order to offer insight into current scientific debates and to examine specific themes in Greek and Roman history. The course consists of lectures, seminar discussions, assignments, and group work.