English

This course introduces performance studies and provides the analytical and methodological tools necessary for research on the ways various performance practices constitute public spaces. It introduces the concept of performance understood as an embodying practice, including everyday performances (self-representations, individual activities, daily interactions), civic performances (speech acts, protests, social movements), and artistic performances (theatre, dance, music, artivism), and the concept of public space, including a smooth public space (a space of peace, harmony, consensus) and a striated public space (a space of confrontation, disharmony, dissensus). The course studies how different performances are constructed, how they constitute public spaces, and, consequently, how they produce social, political, and cultural effects. In providing insight into various performance practices, performance theory, political theory, and art studies, this course appeals to students interested in developing the theoretical tools necessary for the study of the significance of performance practices in shaping public actions, discourses, representations, and opinions. Through a combination of close reading of texts, lectures, discussions, video projections and assignments, the course analyzes selected performances both in group and individually. Reflective discussions about selected texts and performances are designed to maximize student input and participation. Equipped with analytical skills, students learn to assess how performances can challenge and reshape public space.

The course covers the archaeology and prehistory of Scotland from the very earliest human settlement in the 10th millennium BC until the end of the Iron Age and the Roman Occupation in the first millennium AD. Practical aspects of the course introduce students to the study and interpretation of archaeological artefacts, sites, and remains using Scottish material relevant to the course.

As well as a range of familiar and less familiar works by Shakespeare, this course covers comparative works of drama, poetry, and prose from before, during, and after Shakespeare's time, from literatures both English and foreign. It invites students to relate these to the Shakespeare works as examples of literary forms and genres such as tragedy, pastoral, history play, sonnet, and to consider the importance of form and genre in literature. 

This course studies the theory and practice of humanitarian intervention. It asks, is it ever justifiable to intervene in the domestic affairs of another sovereign state? If so, when, and for what reasons? 
 
This course considers the possibility that a norm of humanitarian intervention has emerged in international society since the end of the Cold War, examining case studies of the major intervention cases that have arisen in the last twenty years: Iraq 1991, Somalia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq 2003, Darfur, Libya, and Syria. 

This course provides an introduction to the study of Antiquity by focusing on the mythological discourses of the ancient Near East and Greece, and on the rise of the European city-state in Classical Greece. All texts are studied in translation. The course divides into two complementary streams: (1) Mythology and the origins of western literature, with lectures focused on ancient mythology, especially the concept of the pantheon of gods and the hero as a figure poised between men and gods, concentrating on literary and artistic evidence for the study of ancient society and thought. (2) Politics, culture, and society in the Ancient City, surveying the history and culture of Ancient Greece, in the fifth and fourth centuries BC, a period of dynamic political and cultural innovation. The course covers topics including the rise (and fall) of the Athenian democracy, gender and sexuality, Greeks and barbarians, and the spectacular rise of the kingdom of Macedon. Students are introduced to original sources for Greek history.

In this course, students evaluate the importance of sex and gender as relevant categories in politics, whether and how they give rise to inequalities and disadvantages, and what should be done about it. In so doing, they also ask how certain areas of life, which are traditionally considered to be entirely private and thus lying beyond the realm of political concern (such as family life) might also have important political ramifications. Students address these questions mainly from a normative perspective. They ask what, if anything, is wrong about gender representations and relations in our society and what, if anything at all, should be done about it.

This course focuses on data analysis, an algorithmic-driven method of extracting text from (large) corpora, in literary and historical sources and social media.  The course includes a mini big data project to provide hands-on experience and an understanding of the affordances and limitations of data analysis methods. No background in the methods or programming skills is needed. Easy-to-learn web-based tools and software are used. Theoretically, the course explores how the representation of text in more visual formats which are typically removed from its semantic contexts, offers opportunities for both new insights as well as misrepresentation. Concepts covered include distant reading, algorithmic visualization, and data feminism. This course helps students become more savvy users of digital information: the implications and challenges that methods and technologies pose to conventional research, analysis, and publication in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, including issues such as transparency, authenticity, and bias.

This course covers the fundamentals of game development in a multi-platform (consoles, PC, Web, and mobile devices) environment. The course focuses on development of 3D games, covering all aspects of game development: the game loop, math, physics, audio, graphics, input, animations, particle systems, and artificial intelligence. This course has a strong programming content, required for laboratories and assignments. The practical aspects are taught using a popular game development platform. 

The course introduces and develops an understanding of American modernism, both in terms of the particularities of American culture in the early 20th century, and in relation to its complex relationship with Europe. Particular attention is paid to concepts of race/ethnicity, gender, politics, and social activism as ways of emphasizing the plurality of American modernism, as well as the diverse aesthetic forms which give it expression. In its geographical reach, the course encompasses writing from the American West, rural Wisconsin, New York (from Harlem to the Jewish American community of the Lower East Side), and expatriate experience in post-war Britain. At the core of the course is an exploration of the complex, shifting and dynamic nature of American Modernism, both in terms of the creative output of its writers, and in relation to the critics and theorists who attempt to define it.