English

The first half of the course explores classic epistemology. It begins with the argument for skepticism about the external world, and in seeking to solve this problem considers a range of positions and arguments in epistemology, including: the JTB account; the causal theory of knowing; reliabilism; internalism and externalism; contextualism, and semantic externalism. The second half of the course focuses on modern formal epistemology. Moving from a qualitative to a quantitative concept of belief, it explores Bayesian epistemology – a powerful account of rational degrees of belief or credence. Students consider a series of puzzles for Bayesian epistemologists: the sleeping beauty problem; imprecise probabilities; awareness growth; and the surprise exam paradox. 

This course involves guided reading, research, and discussion. It treats some of the classics of American literature and examines how each text generated controversy in its own time and continues to do so in the present. From these texts, along with some theoretical readings, the course develops an understanding of cultures of censorship in the United States and their relationship with colonialism and dominant notions of civility. 

This class examines the relationship between food, our bodies and our socio-cultural lives; the essential elements that bring the taste out of bland food, and how technology has reshaped food consumption. The course also looks at how food figures in global politics as well as how Asian food has become globalized, even as Asia accommodates Western fast food.

This course teaches how economic and psychological factors affect economic decisions of individuals, focusing on their bounded rationality. Each class is composed of two parts. The first half of the class explains the basic concepts and principles of Behavioral Economics; the second half introduces a few research articles to bolster student discussion of related research questions. 

This course provides foundational knowledge, understanding and practical skills aligned to complex challenges of the modern era from an Earth Science perspective. It covers geoscientific data collection, analysis and visualization, hazard analysis, and spatial mapping.

This course provides an essential toolkit for solving real-world problems that arise in various industries, such as the financial and tech sectors, healthcare, manufacturing, and planning. Through an engaging set of lectures and classes, students develop problem-solving and modelling skills, and learn insights necessary for strategic decision-making.

How does government work? This course focuses on public policy and management, especially on their recent development and on changes in public service delivery under NPM (New Public Management) and NPG (New Public Governance). Through cases of various nation states and local governments, the course discusses main issues about public management, focusing on its historical and theoretical background. Special attention will be paid to centre-periphery relationship and possibility of devolved government. The course also discusses recent topics such as privatization, deregulation, decentralization, devolution and agencification. 

At the end of the 19th century, Britain was in many ways at the pinnacle of its power, having established global supremacy thanks to advances in industrialization and its vast colonial empire. However, cultural texts from the period project a number of profound anxieties about deviancy, degeneracy, decadence, and indistinct threats from adversaries both at home and abroad. Sociopolitical reasons for these uncertainties include the suffragette movement, socialist and anarchist action, campaigns for national self-determination in the form of e.g. Irish Republicanism or the Indian National Congress, as well as geopolitical tensions and technological changes. In this class, we examine narratives that represent, respond to, and process late Victorian cultural anxieties with a particular view to the violence that results from perceived threats to cultural hegemony. We situate a number of late Victorian novels in relation to emergent contemporary concepts such as (social) Darwinism, the unconscious, and (homo)sexuality, exploring how these concepts both shaped and were shaped by cultural anxiety. Additionally, we adopt frameworks from more recent theoretical approaches such as postcolonial and trans*queer studies to understand how cultural anxieties negotiate the boundaries between normative structures and their Other. Primary texts include Oscar Wilde: Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories, 1891, Florence Marryat: The Blood of the Vampire, 1897, Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness, 1899.
 

This course introduces students to a variety of strategies for approaching a selected play text through performance. The course includes a study of the theatrical and non-theatrical documents relating to the play, the playwright, and the cultural context in which the play was produced. Where appropriate, students may study other representations of the play and the playwright in theatre, cinema, radio, and television, for example. Towards the end students develop a performance project based on the play.