English

By adopting an interdisciplinary approach (African studies, history, political sciences, anthropology), this course explores globalization from the vantage point of the Global South, taking Africa in particular as an entry point. It looks at the history and contemporary configurations of the relations between African, Asian and Latin American countries through a holistic approach that keeps the political and economic dimensions of these phenomena connected to their wider social and cultural contexts, the analysis of macro-phenomena tied to individual experiences. To do so, the course is divided into six teaching modules: history; politics and international relations; goods and infrastructures; people; religions; media and popular culture. Each module combines the discussion of larger, transversal trends with the analysis of specific case studies that, through their specificities, help understand global phenomena in their locally grounded dimensions. The course thus offers an alternative understanding of globalization process that permit to reconceptualize the European experience within a larger universe of ex-centric and multipolar interconnections that characterize contemporary politics and culture.

The course introduces students to the analysis of spoken discourse, drawing on conversation analysis, Goffman's micro-sociology, and linguistic ethnography. Students learn how these perspectives help us to understand different aspects of talk-in-interaction, see where they overlap, and put them to use in the analysis of empirical data.     

This course takes a thematic approach to the literary representation of medical professionalism, disease and illness (physical and mental), across a range of literary texts dating from the 18th century through to the present, including poetry, prose fiction, and memoir. No prior medical knowledge is required, but students are encouraged to give attention to specific cultural contexts and historically shifting medical paradigms.

This course offers an introduction to cultural criticism by looking at how critical thinkers have made connections between culture and society and analyzing a selection of novels and other texts in which key concepts of criticism are explored imaginatively. Through theoretical reflections, the course answers the question: what is the relationship between literature and other forms of art and the culture and society from which they originate? Each week of the course is organized around a key idea or concept in cultural criticism. Assumed previous knowledge includes an elementary knowledge of literature, literary history, and literary theory.

Through this course, students will be able to master blockchain core principles (distributed ledgers, consensus mechanisms, smart contracts) and their reshaping of trust/value networks, valuate applications, business logic, and risks of digital currency, DeFi, CeFi, asset securitization, and cross-border payments,  understand China's "technology encouragement, financial prudence" framework and key policies while comparing global regulatory strategies, conduct multi-dimensional analyses of major events (FTX collapse, Ethereum Merge, digital RMB pilot) to develop independent judgment, gain hands-on experience creating and managing digital assets on Ethereum testnet, understanding private key custody, gas fees, smart contract interaction, and on-chain transparency.

From climate change to mass extinction, the reach of the human species is inescapable across the natural world. At the same time, ranging from our microbiome to our mental health, the natural world is inescapable in our own lives. Despite tremendous technological advances, nature and humanity are inextricably entangled. This survey course explores the many ways that humans and nature have collided, and the many ways our species has understood other species and non-living things. Ranging widely across space and time, students explore how humans created the idea of “nature” as something apart from themselves and the ramifications of that idea, how we might do history from the standpoint of other species, the effects of pre-modern and modern humans on the natural world, and environmental inequalities around how toxic pollution or other environmental harms are differentially borne according to race, class, and gender.

This course covers key concepts in cultural security studies approaches (strategic culture, role theory, ontological security, historical memory) and understand key disciplinary debates, such as material vs. non-material explanations for behavior; culture as practice vs. ideas; and whether cultural variables link directly to policy decisions. Even more importantly, the course applies these theories to real world events to better understand how culture, history, and identity contribute to international politics in the past and present. In doing so, students learn and apply interpretive methods to critically engage with identity discourse as it is espoused by elites and political leadership.

This course provides analytical tools to understand the causes and consequences of the digital revolution. The course first examines its historical and technical foundations, then analyzes the economic and social transformations it has brought about. These perspectives enable students to critically reflect on their own digital practices in light of broader societal changes and their implications for individuals and societies. This reflection is further developed through independent reading of recent books on the topic.

The course involves specialization but also a broadening of earlier courses in biochemistry and basic cell biology in the Biomedicine programme. Different themes in cell biology are covered each week, such as intracellular signal transduction, gene regulation and non-coding RNA, specialized cells and basic tissue types, cell cycle and cancer, cell interactions, the extracellular matrix, and the movement of cells. The course focuses on the molecular and cellular mechanisms that control cells and the basic functions of their surroundings. The course acts as a bridge to future courses in e.g. neurobiology and immunology as well as human organ systems and homeostasis by discussing specialized cells and their role in different physiological and pathophysiological situations. In addition to knowledge of cell biology, the course provides experience in extracting, interpreting and presenting information from research articles and training in solving problems in cell biology experimentally through the application of cellular and molecular biology methods. The course contains training components for GLP and quality assurance in the development and production of drugs. The course also provides training regarding working in groups and giving and receiving constructive feedback. Entry requirements include Biology and Chemistry of the Cell 30 credits and completed courses in Biochemistry and Cellular Metabolism 7.5 credits and Genetics and Genomics 7.5 credits, or at least 37.5 credits from completed first-cycle courses of which at least 15 credits in Eukaryotic Cell Biology, 15 credits in Chemistry/Biochemistry and 7.5 credits in Human Genetics.

This course presents the systems and hardware foundations of modern machine learning, bridging neural network workloads, compiler optimizations, and advanced AI hardware. The course covers cutting-edge AI hardware, including GPUs, TPUs, and wafer-scale accelerators, highlighting the design trade-offs between cloud and edge deployment. Topics such as efficient ML (quantization, pruning), algorithm–hardware co-design, federated learning, and system support for large language models (LLMs) are also presented. Through lectures, tutorials, and hands-on programming lab sessions, students gain practical skills and a systems-level understanding of ML deployment, preparing them for advanced research or industry roles in ML system design.