English

The course develops an awareness of the structure and function of tropical forest ecosystems and provides an intellectually stimulating understanding of the biophysical, ecological and anthropic processes which characterize these environments. To develop an awareness of the human impacts on these important systems and the kinds of geographical tools available for monitoring, modelling, and mitigation of the worst effects of these impacts. 

This course promotes an understanding of core concepts in microbial growth and form, with an emphasis on diversity of function. It explores microbes, their major properties, and how they influence processes, such as global warming, acid rain, and nutrient cycling in the world. It examines how microbes interact with plants to influence crop production and spoilage, or affect the safety of the food we eat. The course also explores how microbes are exploited in the biotechnology industry, as well as how we might make new products in the future, using cutting edge technology, such as synthetic biology.

Jews and Christians in the ancient, medieval, and modern world were fascinated, scandalized, and inspired by religious difference and the challenges it posed to their intellectual, moral, and cultural projects. In this course, students focus on explorations of Jewish-Christian relations in various literary genre, and students discuss how they take up, question, and disrupt prevalent representations of "the other" and themselves.

The course provides the opportunity to engage with an issue that is of vital importance to the discipline of history as we know it, particularly at a time when regimes and practices of establishing and communicating truth based on evidence and objectivity are contested. Philosophers and anthropologists have argued that archives inherently select and organize their materials in ways that necessarily obscure fundamental elements of historical experience, with special reference to empire, colonialism, race, and slavery. The challenge that this radical critique poses to contemporary historians is carefully discussed. At the same time, special attention is given to the work of a growing number of historians, who have transformed the archive into a subject of historical research. 

This course explores why it is that the coming of age narrative is such an enduring form in US culture. It covers a range of different modes, including autobiography, fiction, film, and music and crosses over the past two centuries to capture the varied historical experience of entering into adulthood within the United States. It has a particular interest in identities, selves, and experiences whose testimonies are antagonistic to the developmental objectives of the genre in its most canonical renderings. Students are also encouraged to reflect on their own experience at university—their own coming of age tale—in order to elucidate and theorize the central critical issues of the course. 

This course traces the history of gothic, ghost stories, and science fiction literature through the 19th century, giving students the chance to consider the development of a range of dark and frightening imaginaries in this period. Exploring the political, psychological, and creative functions of these dark imaginings in writings by Charles Dickens, Hannah Crafts, George Eliot, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Jean Toomer and others, students consider the role and function of monsters, ghosts, werewolves, and the uncanny in 10th-century culture (and in culture at large). 

This course offers an introduction to key aspects of film history and film cultures in Spain from the Transition years to democracy (1973-1982) to the present day. Drawing on methodological topics such as film style, authorship, genre, and gender, the course has a dual focus: on the one hand, it looks at the challenges to the idea of nation that shaped film history after the Civil War and during the Transition in order to contextualize the transformations that Spanish cinema undergoes in the 1990s; on the other, the course explores the new configurations (digital, transnational) that have come to shape the label "Spanish cinema" in the 21st century, in the context of the global image markets.

This course examines the way systems thinking is used in sustainability studies, including in local, regional and international contexts. Students are introduced to some of the strengths, limitations and major challenges inherent in this approach to helping us address complex interdisciplinary problems.

This course introduces the concept "Design for X" (DfX), which is well established within product development. In any product development project, it is essential to ensure that the product satisfies the functions it is designed for. But many other issues are caused by, or affect the properties of the product: is the product reliable, sustainable, is it easy to assemble, and inexpensive to manufacture? In this course, the following "design for Xs" are included: design for manufacturing and assembly (DFMA), design for additive manufacturing (DFAM), robust design, design for environment (DFE), and design to cost (DtC).

This course introduces definitions, concepts, and debates relating to museums and heritage, and associated cultural organizations and industries. It draws on both theory and contemporary practice to encourage students to think critically and reflexively, and to interrogate the roles of museum and heritage institutions in the past, present and future. It poses questions, such as: What are the different roles played by museums and heritage, and the people who work in these sectors? Who and what are these institutions for? Who do they reach and speak to, and who is excluded or marginalized in the spaces and discourses of museums and heritage? Scholarly texts are combined with policy and industry materials, and lectures and seminars are augmented by visits to museums and heritage sites.