English

This course is designed to study and review the global efforts to pursue sustainable development. Such efforts have developed the concrete three pillars (Poverty Reduction/Environmental Sustainability/Social Protection) of sustainable development. Especially, the United Nations (UN) has led to establish sustainable development knowledge and capacity for policy-makers, bilateral and multilateral agencies and civil society with local partners in developing countries. The course explores the basic concept of environmental issues and problems and principles of environmental policies that contribute to achieving the sustainable development goals. It is critical to understand the real environmental issues that are complex and challenging to tackle, finding practical solutions. Students will be participating in the discussion and debate on the sustainable development and its environmental components. Special focus is on the issue for developing countries, whose challenge is to harmonize the economic development and environmental conservation. Specific issues on climate change and sustainable development will be covered in depth.

This course examines the field of environmental sociology. In particular, it examines how societies build a sense of human/nature divide into their concepts of collective identity and how the struggle to responsibly utilize natural resources is a vexing social problem. It focuses on environmental social movements globally, analyzing how this growing site of social conflict interacts with other inequalities. It also explores the social transformations being enacted globally to build sustainability, improve human/animal coexistence, address environmental racism, and to think about climate change risk beyond the nation-state.

This course examines group theory and ring theory, with a view towards commutative algebra, algebraic number theory and representation theory.

The course introduces students to the extraordinary variety of Irish literature produced during the 20th century.  Students study major writers such as James Joyce, W.B Yeats, J.M Synge, Elizabeth Bowen and Seamus Heaney, and place their work in the context of a period that included such traumatic events as colonial occupation, a war of independence, partition, civil war, and a protracted period of social violence in Northern Ireland. The course is organized thematically around significant events, cultural movements and social phenomena. No prior knowledge of Irish literature or history is assumed.  

Contemporary Jewish identity is commonly refracted through the prism of two seminal historical events: the Holocaust, and the establishment of the State of Israel. However, at the dawn of the 21st century, closer examination reveals that Jewish identity is today an increasingly diverse and ever changing entity. This unit will probe and explore the reasons for this heterogeneity, identifying and interrogating the intersections between the religious, cultural and political currents shaping today's Jewish identities in diverse communal and state settings.

This course is about the analysis of data within economics, and the interpretation of empirical results. The course provides an introduction to the application of economic theory to data; develops an understanding of simple and commonly used econometric techniques; imparts an ability to understand and interpret results both statistically and economically; and introduces students to widely used software in applied economics (STATA).

Why do people move from one country to another, and what are the economic and political implications of the movement of people? This course introduces students to the economics of immigration; how and why people decide to migrate; what the impacts of migration are on labor markets, public services, and other aspects of the countries to which they move; and what drives public attitudes and political decisions on immigration management and control. It also examines the evolution of "free movement" within the EU, its impact on the Brexit referendum, and where next for UK immigration policy. This course is primarily empirical (covering the causes and effects of immigration and of attitudes to immigration) rather than normative (ethical questions about the desirability or undesirability of immigration from a philosophical perspective). 

The course provides an introduction to the modern German polity. In the first part students survey the historical and cultural contexts in which German politics is embedded. The second part turns to the institutions and policy-making processes in the Federal Republic, including the Europeanization of German governance. The third part focuses on policy content by discussing important issues and policy fields in greater depth. This course is about key debates and arguments relating to German politics and society. It is assumed that students familiarize themselves with the basic elements of the German polity. 

The course covers many of the core topics in animal biology. The emphasis is on animal diversity, evolution, terrestrial and aquatic ecology, and the impact of human activities on terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems.

The course is structured around four core texts, each of which relates to the "ontological argument" for the existence of God.  These texts are: Anselm, PROSLOGION; Descartes, MEDITATIONS (selection); Spinoza, ETHICS, Part I; and Kant, RELIGION WITHIN THE LIMITS OF REASON ALONE (selection).  The "ontological argument" provides a guiding thread for reflection on how these four philosophers approach religious faith philosophically, and for critical discussion of conceptions of enlightenment and modernity used to characterize developments in European philosophy from Descartes onwards.  Particular attention is paid to ideas of illumination or enlightenment within each core text, through a consideration of literary features such as metaphor alongside rational arguments.