English

This course gives an introduction to methods of pharmaceutical analysis, which utilizes chromatographic, spectroscopic, and electroanalytical techniques to determine the structure and purity of medicinal compounds. Topics include analytical methods for characterizing pharmaceutical solids, AA Spectroscopy in pharmaceutical analysis, extraction of organic and inorganic analytes from aqueous solution, spectroscopic techniques, and complementary techniques to determine the structure and purity of a pharmaceutical compound.

This course examines from a historical perspective the legal transformations in 20th century China and developments towards the rule of law. First, the key concepts of the rule of law are introduced in a straightforward way suitable for students from all backgrounds. The course then examines the Chinese legal tradition up until the late Qing dynasty, including the legal and constitutional reforms introduced in response to the challenge of the West. This is followed by looking at the continuation of the late Qing legal reforms in the Republican era, including the move to one-party rule under the Kuomintang Government, legal and constitutional reforms in post-1945 Taiwan, and the development of the rule of law there. This course also covers legal thought and legal developments in the People’s Republic of China since 1949, including the Maoist era and the “Cultural Revolution”. The final topic is the modernization of the Chinese legal system in the era of “reform and opening”, which considers the legal reforms that have
accompanied the move from a socialist planned economy to a market economy, developments relating to “ruling the country according to law”, constitutional reforms for the protection of property and human rights, and the legal practice of “One Country, Two Systems” in the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau. 

This course contains fundamentals of homogeneous and heterogeneous reaction engineering processes. The basic concepts of chemical kinetics, reactor behavior, and catalysis are introduced and applied to the design of isothermal and non-isothermal reactors.

This course is an introduction to the political, economic, social, and cultural history of the Middle East from 1800- c.1950. Opening at the beginning of the 19th century it examines the program of reform and state-building of the Ottoman Empire to defend itself against the growing military and economic power of Europe. The course then goes on to address the defeat of the Ottomans in World War I, the post-1919 settlement and the rise of nationalism in the interwar period, and ends with the establishment of Israel in 1948.

The course introduces the basic concepts in search and knowledge representation as well as several sub-areas of artificial intelligence. It focuses on covering the essential concepts in AI. The course covers Turing test, blind search, iterative deepening, production systems, heuristic search, A* algorithm, minimax and alpha-beta procedures, predicate and first-order logic, resolution refutation, non-monotonic reasoning, assumption-based truth maintenance systems, inheritance hierarchies, the frame problem, certainly factors, Bayes' rule, frames and semantic nets, planning, learning, natural language, vision, and expert systems and LISP.

This course gives insight into the making of European policies and their consequences for its citizens. The course uses both a bottom-up and a top-down perspective and focuses on the forces that speed up or slow down European integration, the formal and informal procedures by which European policy is made, and the effects of European decision-making for politics, society, and citizens. The course uses theoretical perspectives from public administration and political science. The knowledge gained from these insights is assessed using a written exam. Special attention is paid to: Brexit; the role of the EU in the financial crisis; the role of the EU in the refugee crisis; euroscepsis; enlargement of the EU and its consequences; what are the formal and informal venues for lobbying? What is the most effective strategy to influence decision-making on this issue? theoretical and practical insights will come together in a paper that you write on a case of lobbying in Europe; a case selected by yourself by either a civil society actor or governmental actor. Questions addressed in the paper include: how does EU decision-making work in this issue area and what is a realistic lobby strategy?

This course introduces students to practical and experimental aspects of user interface design and programming, with the intention of demystifying the digital products we use in everyday life. Students will learn the fundamental principles of user interface design; use UI Design software such as Figma to make interactive prototypes, and write basic HTML/CSS/Javascript to create web interfaces. In addition to creating conventional user interface designs, students will be challenged to create interfaces that have conceptual and non-traditional outcomes that speak to their personal interests and motivations. In response to a partial history of User Interface design, students will be compelled to situate their work in the context of the development of Human Computer Interaction for art and design. This context will be given via in-class lectures, hands-on exercises, guest lectures, and a workshop.  

This course examines current international economic topics including: purchasing power parity, inflation, economic inequality, the economic impact of environmental pollution, ESG investing, CSR (corporate social responsibility), speculative attacks, and international financial crises. 

This course on environmental justice examines how environmental processes and policies interact with race, class, gender, and indigeneity to differentially affect people's exposure to environmental harm, and their ability to participate in environmental decision-making. It analyzes environmental injustice in relation to histories of colonialism, as well as contemporary processes of globalized capitalism. The course engages in case studies, discussions, and group projects, fostering a critical view on reconciling localized justice struggles with planetary environmental crises.

American sports culture frequently serves as an example of an alleged American exceptionalism; a fact that a relative indifference towards soccer, the exceptional “big four” pro sports leagues, and collegiate sports culture (NCAA) seemingly underline. This course sets out to make sense of and (maybe) trouble the narrative of American exceptionalism by examining the history of modern sports in the United States. We will consider the aesthetic, social, cultural, and political factors that contributed to the development and practice of sports from roughly the middle of the 19th century into our current age. The class will approach sports history with a focus on the relationship between sports and society, i.e. the role that sports has played in shaping ideology and informing popular thought, for example in the context of nationhood and globalization, but also with regard to modern discourses of health and fitness. The ultimate goal of this course is to encourage critically looking at, thinking, and writing about sports as everyday practice and as a professional field, as connected to discourses of health and (the pursuit of) happiness, as media event and content, and as a prominent repository of liberal narratives of meritocracy.