English

This course discusses the intercultural relationship between philosophy and communication. It has the form of a two-sided program that reflects the observation that, in the intercultural context, communication and philosophy are in fact two sides of the same coin. The first side approaches the phenomenon of communication between cultures from a philosophical point of view. Not only the possibility and appearance of communication between civilizations are debated but also the typical philosophical mindsets and attitudes of the different cultures are addressed. The second side relates this all to the question of how to understand, describe, and evaluate the meeting between world philosophies as a phenomenon of intercultural communication. The general framework of the discussion is delivered by some classical models that were developed within the Theory of Communication. They function as tools that enable one to understand why and how culturally dissimilar philosophies can influence the process of intercultural communication and why and how the form and appearance of this kind of communication can or should be regarded as a kind of intercultural philosophy itself.

This course discusses the importance of resource-based learning and research as well as the ability to determine the reliability and quality of information and its sources. It is divided into three units: where to find reliable information online; retrieval and organization of information; ethical use of information.

This course engages real-world cases of resource competition such as conflicts around land, water, green grabbing, mining, or infrastructure development. It analyses the dynamics of contention in these cases, identifying patterns of power and exclusion, and designing pathways for constructive engagement. Cases are developed together with governmental and non-governmental organizations, who are also involved in assessing the proposed pathways. It is strongly recommended (but not obligatory) that students take the course “Resource competition worldwide: Issues and perspectives” (SDC52806) given in Period 1.

This course is divided into two parts: civilization and literature. The civilization part covers the history of Australia since the beginning of the 20th century. It studies the major events that shaped Australian identity: the world wars and their impact on Australia's place within the British Empire, the major stages of indigenous activism, and the socio-cultural impact of immigration. The literature part of the course introduces the main paradigmatic change of 1980s Britain: the advent of shifting, plural, unstable identities. Hanif Kureishi’s THE BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA is the perfect introduction to these themes and also, at the time, brought a new light on the political and cultural period. The importance of drama and television writing is also discussed. Additional topics include Thatcher’s Britain, postcolonialism, marketing marginal voices, suburbia, and the pop scene.

This course provides an overview of modern financial markets and instruments and introduces the fundamentals of valuation and financial theories that help understand asset prices and investments.  The course covers money markets; capital markets; fixed income securities; derivatives; portfolio theory; the Capital Asset Pricing model; the Arbitrage Pricing Model, and market efficiency. 

This course offers students the opportunity to study the American commercial film industry since 1945, with an emphasis on the changes to the Hollywood mode of production in Hollywood's "post-classical" period, i.e., the decades since the collapse of the studio system in the 1950s. Individual films and filmmakers are considered in principal relation to the institutional, economic, and stylistic changes occurring at that point on Hollywood's historical evolution. Where appropriate, reference are also made to relevant historical context during this period of enormous social and political upheaval and momentous cultural change in the United States. 

The course encourages students to find new ways to create, structure, and orchestrate/produce their music, to express themselves musically and engagingly, and to develop and challenge their own understanding of music through the creation of new work.

This course analyzes the theme of "crossing borders" in geographical, scientific, political, psychological, social, cultural and gender-orientated terms, building on literary skills which students have acquired through study at Level 1. It focuses on the human motivations behind, and the consequences of, various "crossings" as well as the exploration of otherness, secrets, mysteries, and taboos.

We are entering the “Age of Big Data” – an extremely large amount of information is created every day, which is revolutionizing science and technology, governments, economy, and international development. A variety of sources contribute to the Big Data, including the Internet, Wikipedia, social networks (e.g. Facebook), micro blogs, mobile phones, and cameras. This era of “information burst” has brought convenience to our daily lives. More recently, the emergence of foundation models (e.g., GPT) is also an outcome of big data, massive high-quality is the fuel to the success training of these large machine learning models. However, the availability of such a vast amount of information has also created many problems. For example, reported incidents of leakage of private data, due to the use of the Foxy software, and the loss of USB drives that contain thousands of patients’ records, have raised serious legal and social concerns. The goal of this course is to engage students in examining the critical issues that they could encounter in the Age of Big Data. They will examine how Big Data is affecting our society and daily lives and how Big Data is used in our daily life. They will study the security and credibility issues of Big Data. They will also address the issues of organizing and exploring Big Data. Solutions proposed in legal, technological, and education domains will be explored and discussed.