English

This course introduces students to essential notions in algebraic topology, such as compact surfaces, homotopies, fundamental groups, and covering spaces.

This course provides an introduction to climate change science for students of economics and business. It provides the basics to understand the physical challenges of sustainable development and the key role of businesses in tackling climate change. 

This course focuses on the material culture of the Roman world from the early history of Rome through to the early Christian period (c. 8th century BC - 4th century AD). The lectures examine different strands of the art and archaeology of this period, exploring what these reveal about contemporary society and culture, urban and rural life, religious practices, death and burial, visual display, domestic life, the negotiation of status and power, warfare, and interactions between groups within and beyond the Roman empire. Emphasis is placed on considering the potential and limitations of the archaeological record and its role in elucidating patterns of change and heterogeneity across time and space, from the city of Rome to the most distant reaches of Roman influence.

This course enables students to write better creative prose and poetry. For prose, students develop an awareness of how fiction and creative non-fiction is constructed with emphasis on the short story and the literary essay. The focus is on a deeper understanding of the creative process through language, imagery, ideas, methods of characterization, narrative movement, and dramatic tension. For poetry, students develop an awareness of the creative process, and understand some of the techniques poets use to shape material into finished works. Issues of texture in language and content are raised and a variety of techniques are discussed, using examples drawn mainly from recent and contemporary works. 

This course equips early-stage entrepreneurs wishing to start their own venture or work in a start-up with the theoretical frameworks, practical tools, and entrepreneurial mindsets required to identify, design, and launch new ventures—ranging from profit-driven startups to mission-driven social enterprises. Students apply concepts to develop a business pitch based on one of the ideas they generated in class, bridging theory and practice.

This course situates migration within broader social and economic contexts. To understand human mobility, it conceives migration as an intrinsic part of wider processes of economic and social change, rather than as a “problem to be solved”. Drawing on empirical and theoretical work, it demonstrates the contradictions and continuities in how migration has been understood in social science scholarship and explores how migration affects key areas of the economy and society, including implications from a public health perspective. By examining historical and contemporary examples, the course shows how migration patterns evolve in response to shifting economic demands, political decisions and social transformations.

This course introduces the concepts and methods of comparative public law to provide tools to analyze existing juridical systems and also to challenge existing definitions and classifications. Comparing different approaches to separation of powers, federalism, judicial review and rights, the course also gives an understanding on how different constitutional orders have addressed some common issues in public law and contemporary democracies and how they could face contemporary challenges.

From the 9/11 attacks to the COVID-19 pandemic, the “politics of emergency” have moved from the periphery to the center of governance. This course examines how the state of exception, no longer a rare response to crisis, became a recurring technique used to justify extraordinary measures, expand executive authority, and suspend normal legal and democratic processes. It examines how this logic operates across regimes, from liberal democracies to authoritarian states, and investigate its contrasting applications to current issues such as climate change or migration. Drawing upon political theories and comparative case studies, the course explores how emergency politics fundamentally transform political practice and challenge democratic norms.

This course examines basic scientific knowledge about indoor and outdoor air pollution, as well as global and regional climate change, in relation to human health. The following questions will be talked and discussed: What types of air pollution are there in
indoor and outdoor environment? What types of compounds form the pollution? Can they be measured? Do we know the levels of different pollutants? How about the relationship between outdoor and indoor environment? Is it safer to stay in indoor environment if there is a high outdoor air pollution? Do we have any measures to prevent or reduce the pollution level? What are the health effects of these pollutants? Do they affect our respiratory health, cardiovascular system or even our endocrine systems? How much does the climate change interact with air pollution and affect our health? How are international or national fighting strategies on it?

This course analyzes the impact of economic variables in a national and international context through a case study, identifying sources of competitive advantage for the organization.