English

This course is an introduction to macroeconomic analysis. Students study how countries’ economic performance is determined in the short and the long run. Students learn about why we observe economic growth and development for some countries but not for others, and why economic activity fluctuates over time (booms and recessions). The course covers the role of policy and how it affects the economy. Emphasis is given to concepts and tools used by macroeconomists in the analysis of macroeconomic phenomena.

This course examines the Spanish political system and its evolution, and compares and contrasts it to other systems of the world. It is divided into three parts: institutional framework, elections, and political culture.

Creative economy and cultural industries have been considered crucial strategies for driving the urban development of global cities. The dynamic landscape of the global cultural scene, where culture converges with the economy, community, heritage, and innovative technologies, has created an impetus for many cities to adopt innovative approaches in utilizing urban spaces and cultural resources, enabling citizens to vividly reimagine their urban and cultural life. These approaches are envisioned as and manifested in the form of the development of large-scale urban regions and city clusters, where major cultural facilities such as museums, art districts, performance venues, and festivals significantly contribute to social well-being and intercultural dialogue. This course is designed to provide students with an opportunity to explore the interface among culture, urban space, and the economy with an eye towards the radically changing cultural landscape of Hong Kong. By offering students both theoretical knowledge and first- hand field experience, this course examines museums, galleries, and various cultural institutions as exemplary cases of how different forms of cultural activities can be turned into powerhouses of creative synergies and economic growth.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. The course focuses on the early modern world, a period of transformation unprecedented in human history, marked by profound and structural instabilities, including those wrought by climate changes. Yet, it was precisely within the chaos of these upheavals—and often as a direct result of them—that a rich mosaic of cultural encounters emerged. This course delves into these encounters, exploring how diverse cultures found ways to interact, influence, and understand each other, yet sometimes also misinterpret or even destroy one another. Such exchanges occurred across a variety of contexts—trade, exploration, warfare, study, slavery, diplomacy—evoking a wide range of reactions from excitement and interest to anxiety, hate, and fear. By examining these interactions, we gain a lens through which to view the premodern world's approach to confronting uncertainties and appreciate how these exchanges reshaped the deep structures of power and society, triggering profound shifts in people's mindsets. This course unfolds in two dynamic segments: foundations of early modern global history and pivotal phenomena of the early modern world. The course provides awareness of the cultural dimension of modern economy and society. Special attention is given to free and forced movements of people in relation to global phenomena such as geographical discoveries, colonialism, and capitalist expansion. This course provides fundamental knowledge of the historical foundations of cultural interactions and conflicts typical of the global age.

This course discusses why some countries are rich but others are poor from the perspective of institutional economics. It follows Douglass North and asks why, under certain institutions, the private return of economic activities is lower than the social return. This question is addressed by studying recent development economics literature with a focus on property rights, contract institutions, taxation, and corruption. In addition, it introduces a variety of methodological approaches to address a number of empirical questions, such as what is the value of political connection in Indonesia, does third-party reporting reduces pollution in India, and why some countries have more complicated government hierarchy whereas others do not. The course builds critical-thinking skill through reading the most recent empirical development economics literature and participating in class discussion. 

This course explores how sex is implicated in international politics. It is centered on showing how sex, gender, and sexuality structure understandings and practices of foreign policy, statehood, conflict, political violence, social movements, and the like. To do this, the course traces how debates over "normal" and "traditional" sexual orientation and gender expression have come into international politics and how the current "culture war" around queer rights and protections has come to play a significant role in (re)negotiating international order. Throughout the course, it asks how gender and sexuality, both of which are racialized and classed, are used to construct and maintain power; how in some cases sexuality and gender are mobilized to legitimize certain foreign and domestic policies. The course divides into two parts. The first half of the course focuses on theoretical and conceptual debates about sex(uality). The second half of the course focuses on mobilizing this theoretical and conceptual work to study queer issues in world politics.

This course introduces cutting-edge concepts, frameworks and practices that are current in social entrepreneurship, as well as critical issues in business ethics as a knowledge foundation for analyzing and practicing social entrepreneurship. The course considers how social entrepreneurship plays out in organizations ranging from conventional companies seeking to adopt corporate social responsibility practices to double-bottom-line businesses and social enterprises. The course specifies strategic and implementation tensions inherent in aligning business and social/environmental values, and provides frameworks with which to analyze and resolve the tensions at play. Students learn to be a quasi-expert of social entrepreneurship by applying frameworks to make tough decisions in real business contexts. The course includes four modules: strategic corporate social responsibility (SCSR); double-bottom-line business (DBL), social enterprise (SE) and business ethics (BE). It begins by analyzing and making decisions on the cases of conventional companies conducting social innovation initiatives through SCSR and DBL. Students then explore the cases of social enterprises and observe both the common and distinctive challenges facing conventional companies and social enterprises. The modules of SCSR, DBL and SE are followed by an Entrepreneur Panel where social entrepreneurs introduce their initiatives and engage in a highly interactive conversation with students. The course concludes by analyzing business ethics theories and issues of social entrepreneurship.

This course examines remote sensing tools and techniques and their application within the earth, environmental and urban environments. It focuses on the processing, analysis and interpretation of data collected by government and commercial satellites, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and aerial photography. The course introduces image interpretation, multispectral images, supervised and unsupervised image classification and change detection. 

This course provides a strong foundation in the study of protein structure and function. Topics include structures and structural complexity of proteins and methods used to determine their primary, secondary and tertiary structures; biological functions of proteins in terms of their regulatory, structural, protective and transport roles; the catalytic action of enzymes, their mechanism of action and regulation; and various approaches used in studying the structure-function relationships of proteins. The course has a prerequisite of Biochemistry.

Students explore a range of different types of painting from a number of different cultural traditions, geographical, and historical contexts. They consider the ethical questions that arise through the global trade in different pigments and supports. Adopting a transhistorical approach, they also examine the possibilities and challenges these materials present for makers and conservators. One key theme is the issue of representation itself and how this is achieved through the medium of paint, as well as how the viewer interprets the painted surface.