English

This course focuses on the analysis of 19th century American poetry from poets such as Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allen Poe, and Walt Whitman.

This course introduces the concepts behind the analysis of renewable energy systems. Choice awareness of energy systems are considered in the uptake of renewable energy systems. The fundamentals of generation, cogeneration, and tri-generation are explored for low-carbon/renewable energy systems. Methods and tools for hybrid energy systems integration and optimization to provide specified service loads (electricity, heating, and cooling) are applied considering energy flows, energy systems integration, and bases for sustainable energy systems. Design and analyses of renewables is based on special purpose computer tools with capability for integration of renewable energy resources and/or conversion technologies for multiple energy systems/sectors including energy demand and supply modelling.

This course investigates how earth scientists reconstruct past climates, and demonstrate, using selected case studies, what drives climate change and how ecosystems respond to these forcing factors. Upon successful completion of the course, students are able to understand the various sources of sedimentological, chemical, and biological data (proxies) earth and environmental scientists use to reconstruct ancient environments and climates, with particular emphasis on environmental reconstructions using microfossils and isotopic data; the basic principles of stratigraphy; how changes in sedimentary sequences over time record phenomena such as changes in sea level, and astronomical forcing of climate; and a series of key events involving global environmental change that are recorded in the geological record of Ireland (including snowball Earth events, carboniferous palaeoenvironments, and landscape evolution over the past few thousand years). This course is taught online. 

This course introduces students to the material and visual culture of the ancient world from the second millennium BC to late antiquity. Semester 1 focuses on the Greek world. Students will study the built environment - from the great urban monuments to everyday domestic units (including temples, "homes" for the gods). Students explore the art and iconography of the ancient world alongside the material residues of daily life and ritual. Students are introduced to the different perspectives and methods of both archaeologists and art historians in interpreting material remains and visual images. The course combines close study of individual pieces of evidence with an evaluation of how they illuminate the societies, cultures, institutions, and economies of classical antiquity. The course draws heavily from the extraordinary collections in London, particularly the British Museum.

The musical emerged at the end of the 19th century to become one of the most popular and commercially successful theatre forms in the world. This course looks at the long history of the musical, its many varieties (from musical comedy to the integrated musical, from the concept musical to the rock musical, from SHOWBOAT to HAMILTON); considering its pleasures and its politics, its representations of gender, race and sexuality, the relationship between the stage and film musical. The course looks at the artistic achievements of the music theater form and the peculiarities of its cultural form, the role of narrative, the relation between song and story, etc. The course will examine whether musicals are appropriate vehicle for serious content, whether its apparent frivolity might be of significance and value, and the political significance of kitsch, camp, escapism, and excess in the musical’s formation. 

This course focuses on the economic issues of agriculture in developing countries. It looks at the structure and organization of agriculture in developing countries and the attendant problems for mechanization, the agricultural production function, pricing of agricultural inputs and outputs. The course also place special emphasis on technology adoption in agriculture.

This course shows students that nature and politics are totally intertwined. This is the case in two ways. First, the natural world has been shaped and governed by human action for thousands of years. Second, humans themselves are part of nature, always being shaped, changed, limited, and enabled by the non-human (or more-than human?) world. Since all human action and the intimate entanglements between the human and non-human world are suffused with power relations, they are, by definition, deeply involved in politics. This course delves deeper into the implications of thinking about nature through a political lens. Students are introduced to ideas about the ways the natural world relates to nationalism, colonialism, power, violence, belonging, spirituality, ethics, care, time, food, and embodiment. 

 

This course provides a systematic survey of the development of Scottish architecture from the 11th Century to mid-17th century. There is strong focus on the social and political context and the development of the castellated tradition and its transformation to domestic and civic forms. Students examine buildings, styles and designing, vernacular buildings, and designed landscapes. There is a strong emphasis on archival skills and interpretation and the way that different historiographies impact on our understanding. 

This course examines the taxing and spending decisions of governments. After an introduction to welfare economics and the role of government in the economy, the course focuses on the revenue side of the budget: tax incidence, efficient and equitable taxation, the Australian system of revenue raising, issues of tax reform, and the theory and practice of public utility pricing. It then focuses on the expenditure side of the government budget: public goods, externalities, and programs aimed at redistribution. It also introduces techniques of policy evaluation.

This course provides the basic knowledge of different forms of international standards, how those standards are made and enforced, and how and why they have impacts on what countries do at home and abroad. It covers international rules governing issues such as human rights, trade, climate, and the use of force in resolving disputes between countries and how they affect the day-to-day lives of people and communities all over the world.