English

The contemporary world is facing many challenges in promoting peace, justice and reconciliation, ranging from armed conflicts to social inequality, from environmental degradation to interfaith tensions. These complex challenges continue to afflict many parts of the globe. In this context, some fundamental questions may be asked: how do we define life?; What does it mean to live a life of integrity?; How does my life relate to just, sustainable and inclusive peace?; How do the ideas for making the world more just and peaceful shape our own lives and careers of purpose and vice versa? Seeking to explore these questions deeply, this course presents foundational theories behind peace and social justice and applies these concepts to specific fields of inquiry and practice, including: colonization, violence, oppression, racism, sexism, human trafficking, poverty, climate change and complex issues of peacebuilding, humanitarian aid and development. Various strategies and attempts to create social change for the greater good through different individual and organizational platforms are analyzed and assessed too. Throughout the course, students gain an understanding of the strengths and constraints on theory and practice in the context of the creation of a culture of “human flourishing”, particularly in post-conflict societies, and engage in a variety of topics with self-reflective approach.

This course examines skills in chemistry for application to life and medical sciences, engineering, and further study in chemistry. It covers nuclear and radiation chemistry, wave theory, atomic orbitals, spectroscopy, bonding, enthalpy and entropy, equilibrium, processes occurring in solutions, and the functional groups in carbon chemistry. Students develop experimental design, conduct and analysis skills in chemistry through experiments that ask and answer questions like how do dyes work, how do we desalinate water, how do we measure the acid content in foods, how do we get the blue in a blueprint, and how do we extract natural products from plants? 

This course buildes competency in understanding and interpreting a range of different research methods and results. Through the analysis of various research papers, students will need to use critical thinking and logical reasoning to either agree, disagree, or seek further clarification of conclusions provided in the research discussion sections.

This course explores the significant achievements of behavioral economics, focusing on theoretical and empirical evidence. Unlike traditional economics, which assumes human rationality and standard preferences to understand decision-making and behavioral changes, behavioral economics expands human decision-making models based on new insights from psychology and other fields and introduces the concept of policy design and evaluation based upon insights into human behavioral change. Students will gain a thorough understanding of the fundamental concepts of behavioral economics; be able to critically evaluate the traditional economic theories on human rationality; and be able to compare and analyze the usefulness and policy implications of behavioral economics with those of traditional economics. 

Prerequisites: Microeconomics, Basic Calculus 

This course provides the tools to analyze, as citizens as well as practitioners and workers, international affairs in the contemporary world. It explores international issues, based on research and practice, through economic, strategic, political and social lenses. National and international political issues are of particular interest. Indeed, all actors, should they be public, private, non governmental, etc., face questions related to power, financial means, culture and organization. Hence, this course begins by studying global and transversal issues to lay the foundations for examining regional and national issues. Theories of international relations are used as far as they shed light on the practice of world affairs as well as history, geography, economics, strategy and other social sciences. The course attempts to cover the most important issues, actors and geographical areas pertaining to international affairs.

What is the optimal consumption choice for a consumer given her preferences and income? When will a manager of a firm decide to expand production? What are the costs for the government when it supports the farmers with a per unit subsidy and is such a subsidy socially efficient?  Should monopolies be regulated and if so, how? When does it make sense for a firm to introduce a variable-wage payment scheme? Which attitudes to risk exist and how does this influence behavior? Such questions are treated in this course. The course is specially designed for non-economics students. Assumed previous knowledge: Students are expected to have a good command of secondary school calculus (including simple derivatives).

This course introduces theories in critical communication and technology studies and applies these theories to contemporary debates around big data and AI, examining multiple and situated contexts of technology within mediated environments. The course invites students to delve deeply into critical perspectives and explore where and how data systems re-arrange and re-organize existing human practices.  

This course examines political dynamics of development and resistance. It covers contemporary struggles over development as well as some of the historical trajectories underpinning those. It introduces the ﾠpolitical dynamics of development and resistance at local, national, regional, and global levels, and the relevance of decolonial thought. It explores how different political development objectives inter-relate, and how they are institutionalized, experienced, and acted upon, not least through resistance struggles, contestations, and calls for reform or change. 

This course consolidates and expands both receptive and productive skills through a variety of learning tasks, to be carried out individually and/or in group. It aims at fluency and accuracy and it fosters independent learning.

Making Micro Documentaries immerses students with little formal filmmaking or arts backgrounds in the process of shooting short unscripted films or documentaries. It examines methodologies for devising, producing and distributing short films, and how they can be used to support and enhance the student's own academic output. The course asks participants to use their own devices for audio and video capture, editing and post-production. During the course, students will shoot a series of micro movies to explore how moving images engage with, and represent, the real world. The practice-led program will be framed by critical analysis and historical contextualization.