English

The course tackles a highly topical issue - nationalism and its relationship to gender - enabling students to critically engage with current public debates on the global surge of right-wing populist forces and, more specifically, with recent gendered developments in anti-immigration politics in European societies. The course engages with feminist theories of nationalism, which have conceptualized the ways in which women are mobilized by nationalist movements as well as the relationship between feminisms and nationalisms across different contexts including Europe, the Americas, and Asia.

At the crossroads of new academic trends and exciting critical debates in research areas such as Postcolonial Studies, World Literature or Translation Studies, this team-taught course introduces students to the theory and practice of Comparative Literature in its 21st-century context. We compare seminal works originally published in English, Italian, French, German, Russian and Japanese, via a series of key transversal themes. All texts studied are available in English translation.

This introductory course reviews the current problems of violence and exploitation under the perspective and works of the foremost classical and contemporary thinkers. The course requires the development of intellectual curiosity and critical thinking that underpins the reflection of the different concepts, theories and proposals of the authors. As a learning outcome, the class will be able to identify expressions of violence, vulnerability and exploitation present in their daily reality while addressing possible alternatives of conflict resolution, recognition and solidarity that promote different forms of relationships between human beings.

Nearly all continental surface of the planet shows interactions between geomorphic processes and biota, called biogeomorphic interactions. These interactions are often so strong that patterns and landforms emerge that otherwise would not form (such as on planet Mars). This course covers key concepts from ecology and biogeomorphology that allow analysis of all environments from the mountains to the sea. This is not only useful for geomorphology and ecology, but also for application in societal settings where ‘nature’ can be restored to increase protection against floods, and debris flows, This course provides an overview on biogeomorphic interactions and analyze three typical environments from the mountains to the sea in depth, for example vegetated high mountain slopes, rivers and dunes or tidal flats. All systems are studied to determine the roles of physical boundary conditions and geomorphic processes, different plant species and their interactions with the landscapes, and applications with societal relevance in all these environments. The reading and lecture materials will be applied in practicals, small projects, and excursions. Key concepts to be explored include ecological concepts related to species and their functioning in a landscape (functional traits, trade-offs) and their potential to improve their own environment (ecosystem engineering), and the development of the entire living landscape (succession, geomorphic and ecologic pattern formation).

This course provides an introduction to the theory and practice of Russian-to-English translation. It introduces key theoretical approaches to interlinguistic translation, with a particular focus on contemporary theories; it identifies key linguistic and cultural issues that are particularly relevant for translation from Russian into English; and it helps students to practice and develop both their own translation skills and their skills at critical analysis and assessment of approaches to translation, multiple translations of individual texts, and specific translation choices. Weekly lectures cover issues of theory and genre; seminars provide the opportunity to discuss these issues in detail and to compare different translations of individual works; and translation practicums provide the opportunity to discuss weekly translation portfolio assignments and engage in further translation work (e.g., of unseen text excerpts similar to the translation portfolio assignments).

In his course, student learn about reinforcement learning through an integrated approach that traces core algorithmic concepts from their theoretical foundations to state-of-the-art implementations. It covers tabular and deep reinforcement learning topics and couples classical and modern approaches to provide students with a unified understanding of how RL algorithms have evolved and are applied today.

This course sits at the forefront of cultural criminology and legal humanities, offering students a deep exploration of the relationship between culture and criminal justice. It engages students in critical discussions on how culture shapes, and is shaped by, law covering topics such as art theft, cultural looting, AI and technology, performance in trials, and the role of technology in legal processes. The first half of the class examines criminal justice through the lens of art and culture, exploring literature, theatre, and art that engage with justice themes, and developing analytical skills through performance analysis and creative writing. The second half reverses the perspective, analyzing art through a criminal justice lens by considering issues such as censorship, policing culture, and the legal frameworks that regulate art and cultural expression. The class fosters cross-disciplinary thinking and equips students with new methods of critical analysis for criminology, law, and justice studies.