English

This course explores key topics in understanding British electoral behavior, election campaigning, and political communications, in particular the changing role and influence of public opinion on politics and vice versa. Topics covered include the nature and measurement of public opinion; theories of electoral behavior, and an introduction to the use of quantitative methods in political science; the nature, operation and impact on politics of the British electoral system; influence of the media on public opinion and politicians' attempts to communicate with the public through the media; the tension between "image" and "substance" in modern democratic decision making; and the democratic implications of modern trends including falling turnouts, lower engagement with politics and the parties' adoption of a political marketing philosophy. Each of these issues is set in context by examining their contribution to explaining the significance and/or outcome of various key elections in Britain since the 1930s.

This course examines the processes involved in cognition, learning and thought. Includes the study of attention, perceptual processes, memory, knowledge representation, language, decision making and problem solving.

This course introduces the principles of terrestrial ecology. Major topics include diversity and distributions of terrestrial environments, soils and nutrient cycling, animal-plant interactions (pollination, seed dispersal, herbivory), disturbance ecology and succession, energy flow and food webs, population biology, and fragmentation. The course has a strong quantitative focus. The course also covers ecological processes in rural (agricultural) and urban terrestrial environments.

The imagining of history is such a prominent trend in popular culture that students need to be equipped to deconstruct representations of the past and to interrogate their own working assumptions about history imbibed from film and literature. This course explores three examples of how historical events and themes have been imagined in the world outside of professional historical scholarship. Students will examine how these subjects have been "brought to life" in film and literature. Students also have the opportunity to consider wider questions and problems which link together the three subjects addressed in the course. This is not a course designed to test the accuracy, in a narrow sense, of "historical fiction" in literature and film. Students rather examine the ways in which the past has been presented, interpreted, and re-interpreted in various genres; to uncover the assumptions or agendas that shaped creative decisions and the responses of audiences to genuinely popular representations of the past; and to reflect critically upon the qualities that make for a great work of historical imagination or reconstruction, qualities which cannot easily be replicated by the conventional methods of historical inquiry.

This is an introductory course to literature in Ireland in the English language. It gives students a general overview of literature in Ireland in the English language and a detailed knowledge of a limited number of specific texts. Students read a range of Irish literary texts with a particular focus on literature written since the Revival period that began in the late 19th century. It is divided into the following sections: contexts, poetry, drama, and fiction. Key texts include ones by W. B. Yeats, James Joyce, Elizabeth Bowen, and Marina Carr. The course ends with a survey of Irish literature across a range of genres in the early part of the 21st century.

This course explores how labor economics informs the discussion of many social issues such as the causes of unemployment; how technological change is shifting the distribution of jobs and wages; the impact of immigration on wages and employment; the impact of social security on the incentive to work; and the causes of gender and racial wage and employment gaps.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by permission of the instructor. The course deals with topics concerning the methodology of socio-political empirical research and addresses statistical data analysis techniques. Students who have completed this course are able to: a) examine the pros and cons of the main data collection designs; b) explore quantitative data and interpret empirical results; c) analyze quantitative datasets resorting to statistical software; and d) define a research problem, formulate research questions, collect data, test research hypotheses empirically, draw conclusions, and communicate research results. Particularly, the course explores the foundations and process of social science research and familiarizes students with basic techniques and principles of statistical reasoning. The course comprises a lecture introducing a topic/statistical tool, and a lab/seminar showing its practical application.

There are so many topics to explore: generic status; thematic inclusiveness; the incorporation of contemporary epistemology—and the ongoing ethical and environmental concerns that Melville raises. Students discuss the content of the "novel" and its shifting tones from the comic to the tragic, but there’s no end to the sense of things that the book raises. Students reflect on topics such as political dictatorship, obsession, absolutism, oil, modernity, etymology, capitalism, Christianity, slavery, and the roots of belief systems. 

This course explores the intricate relationship between climate dynamics, economic systems, and sustainable policies that can be put in place (Global Perspectives, 2030 Agenda, Climate Agreements, Paris Agreement, EU Green Deal) to innovation and behavioral interventions. It provides an understanding of the climate and sustainability debate, and the economic concepts that form the basis for analyzing climate-related issues and actionable policies. It also develops the ability to analyze, interpret, and possibly contribute to the ongoing discourse on climate change.

This core course covers most of the common mental health problems identified for children and adults, e.g. eating disorders, behavioral problems, attention deficits, learning disabilities, schizophrenia, anxiety, stress, depression, personality disorders, sexual adjustment, substance abuse, suicide, and dementia. The lectures and discussion groups introduce clinical intervention, but emphasis is placed on the theoretical formulation of problems. Whenever possible, films and case studies are used to supplement the textbook and readings, and a visit to the local Institute of Mental Health is typically arranged.