English

This course introduces students to the uneven scope, scale, and pace of change in contemporary Britain. Students interrogate the ways in which different narratives of continuity and change emerged in and about the 20th century in Britain, and the purposes they have served. By exploring different areas of life – from politics, voting, and protesting, to working, shopping, belief, and love – students engage with alternative ways of understanding this period in British history. In this course students tackle big historiographical debates in the field and develop a more complex understanding of the political turmoil, economic uncertainty, and social upheaval of the 20th century.

The course provides an overview of the main developments in monetary and financial history from 800 to the 18th century, taking the students from the simple beginnings of medieval European monetary history to the emergence of the complex financial arrangements characterizing the modern world. Historical developments in major European and non-European countries (England, Spain, Italy, France, Germany) are discussed and compared. The course introduces students to the main concepts of money and finance (commodity money, inflation and deflation, financial development, financial integration, monetary policy etc.).

This course focuses on the biographies of individuals intimately connected to Japan who through choice and circumstance have come to lead extraordinary lives. The course, through analysis of numerous life histories and a range of theories that help us understand them, offers insights into the nature of cultural homogenization and social differentiation and the particular ways these processes are defined and reinforced in the Japanese context.

This course introduces contemporary Sino-Japanese relations, enhancing one's understanding of the dynamics between the two countries over the decades. The course first presents the broad view of bilateral relations and its structure within the historical perspective, and then examines more thoroughly the key issues in China-Japan relations. The course wraps up with a view at China-Japan relations in the regional perspective. 

Classes are organized as interactive lectures. One or two sessions in the course are dedicated to a debate simulation on a territorial dispute between China and Japan.

This course provides students with an understanding of the basic concepts used in the preparation of financial information and will introduce them to the forms of financial statements that managers need to be familiar with. In addition, the course introduces students to appropriate forms of finance and the means of raising money to fund enterprises, the financial planning this entails, and forms of feedback and accountability to actual and potential fund providers.

This course considers the major economic problems of developing countries. It discusses alternative explanations of underdevelopment and theories of development; major domestic and international aspects of development including population growth, capital accumulation, and international economic relations; and sustainable development.

This course accompanies the build up to the 2024 United States election, election night, and its aftermath by offering a lecture series with different speakers from the Department of Political Science, other departments at the University of Oslo, and from outside the university. Besides the question of who will most likely succeed in the presidential election, the course introduces the way in which presidential elections work, the role of other electoral races that take place in parallel (e.g. for members of Congress), how the election will shape U.S. politics, and what impact the election will have on different policy fields both in the United States and globally.

Short stories are sometimes revised into longer texts. This can happen for various reasons, ranging from aesthetic refinements to commercial considerations (for instance, the 1950s trend to rework multiple science fiction short stories published in genre magazines into “fix-ups” so as to capitalize on an expanding book market). This seminar will address a selection of American short stories from the second half of the 20th century and their subsequent adaptation, expansion, or incorporation into novel or novel-like formats. Analyzing the individual texts and the changes they undergo from one version to the next will enable us to consider issues of form, genre, narrative, and intertextuality. Texts will include The Martian Chronicles (Ray Bradbury, 1950); Go Tell It on the Mountain (James Baldwin, 1953); Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes, 1966); Tracks (Louise Erdrich, 1988), and Four/Five Ways to Forgiveness (Ursula K. Le Guin, 1995/2017).

This course examines the myriad and often conflicting ways that sex and sexuality have been represented throughout the history of Western cinema, with an emphasis upon Hollywood and American independent film. It begins with early representations of sex and bodies and consider the significant impact and legacy of the Motion Picture Production Code, a ‘morality code’ that was enforced in the United States from the mid-1930s to the 1960s. It then moves on to a diverse range of films and genres including comedy, horror, the musical, exploitation film and art film. It explores ideological, social, ethical and artistic debates within film studies, while also addressing some important subgenres, historical trends, and specific films and filmmakers.