English

This course provides an overview of key approaches in film studies, exploring film as an art form, an economic product, a social practice, and an object of theoretical reflection. Through lectures and mandatory film screenings, students are introduced to central concepts for studying topics such as the film industry, film form, film genres, and stardom. In seminars, students analyze films and supplementary materials (e.g., film magazines, advertisements, reviews) while developing their film analysis skills individually and collaboratively.

This Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) develops sophisticated integrated software systems which would allow mathematicians to combine the latest algorithms to solve their problems without needing to understand the details of their implementation. The project includes the following pieces of work: graphs and digraphs (for example, is a graph planar, connected, biconnected, what is its chromatic polynomial), groups and semigroups (for instance, what is the size of a semigroup or group generated by a set of elements, how to compute a presentation of one of these objects), other mathematical algorithms relating to other modules undertaken at St Andrews, and how to represent problems to a computer so they are easy to use and the implementations are as efficient as possible.

This course teaches the complexities of socio-technical transitions, including the systemic nature of these long-term change processes, and their unfolding across geographical scales (local/regional, national, supra-national/global). Students develop a conceptual understanding of transitions in a multi-scalar context, as well as apply transitions frameworks to the empirical context of their domain of interest (i.e. energy, transport, food, or life sciences). Via guest lectures, students learn about the transition challenges different organizations (including government, industry, consultancy, NGOs and industry associations) are facing and how they make sense of their transitioning systems environment. The course is split into two parts: In the first part, students learn the basics theory and core concepts related socio-technical transitions. Several transition frameworks and concepts, like the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP), Strategic Niche Management (SNM), and transition pathways are taught and are applied to their own societal transitions study. Furthermore, students learn about public policy instruments and the underlying policy rationale for intervening in societal transitions. In the second part of the course, based on the general conceptualizations, students learn how to embed transition dynamics in a specific geographical context. Develop an understanding about the diversity of actor-specific resources, networks, and institutional conditions across space, and explore the regional aspects of a transition in relation to national and global system structures. Throughout the course, students apply the theoretical knowledge to their own empirical case study and develop transition- and region-specific policy interventions to help support their focal societal transition.

This introductory level course develops competencies in the analysis of audiovisual media. The course explores the mechanisms of cinematographic language and the possible meanings produced through the narrative configuration of sounds and images in fiction and non-fiction audiovisual products. The course provides an introduction to the theories and methods of film analysis, as well as the history of cinema and audiovisual media from their beginnings to the digital age of distribution platforms. This course requires no prior knowledge or experience.

By the end of the course, the class will be able to build solid and critical arguments to analyze and evaluate audiovisual texts of different types: movies, series, documentaries, soap operas, advertising messages, music videos, and video games, among others.

The course examines the "general part" of criminal law and selected areas of the special part of criminal law in the context of theories of the aims and functions of criminalization. The course discusses the limits to criminalization; the conceptual framework of criminal liability (conduct, responsibility, capacity, defenses); homicide; sexual offences; non-fatal violence against the person; property offences (with particular reference to theft, fraud, robbery and burglary); secondary participation in crime; inchoate offences; and regulatory offences.

This course focuses on the philosophical and ethical arguments underlying a range of controversial real-world debates. Each week students focus on a specific debate and assess some of the strongest arguments put forward on either side. The course provides in-depth knowledge of some of the main theoretical and ethical arguments behind a range of deeply contested issues in contemporary politics, develops an ability to assess real-world problems from a philosophical and normative perspective, and develop a critical and reflective approach to the study of philosophical texts.

This course examines the way political factors influence economic interactions between countries, with a particular emphasis on trade politics. This course provides an overview of current global economic relations and systematically analyzes how politics shape them: Why do countries cooperate economically in some situations but not in others? Why do some governments embrace and promote globalization while others oppose it? What are the social, political, and economic consequences of globalization? The course addresses these questions and others with a focus on the politics of trade. The course  approacha these topics by examining alternative theoretical approaches and evaluating these theories using contemporary and historical evidence. 

Topics include: Why Trade? Why protect trade? Backlash against Globalization, Trade Rules: From the GATT to the WTO, Dispute Settlement: The Cornerstone of the GATT/WTO, Trade and Conflicts, Economic Statecraft, The US-China Trade War, The New Political Economy of U.S. Trade. 

This course treats the fundamental aspects of crystal growth, e.g. the thermodynamic prerequisites for crystal growth such as chemical potential, construction of binary phase diagrams, supersaturation, and nucleation. Further on, surface energies, surface diffusion, and Wulff’s theorem are studied. In the course section on epitaxial growth surface reconstructions, lattice mismatch, and dislocations, as well as characterization – both in- and ex-situ are discussed. Growth techniques and reactor models are also dealt with. During the course, the various moments are illuminated by examples from modern research, especially research on epitaxy of nanostructures. Assumed prior knowledge: FFFF11 Processing and Device Technology, a basic course in thermodynamics and materials science.

The course begins with the foundation of Law, personhood, and responsibility, considering natural law, legal positivism, and the justification of state authority. It examines the notions of autonomy, Justice, and moral disobedience, investigating whether it can be morally justified to break the law, and how the law can address human dignity, inclusion, and equality. The course concludes by looking at the connections between law and citizenship, evaluating whether law can be both morally grounded and democratically plural.

International economic relations are undergoing deep and destabilizing changes. Disruptions are manifest through trade restrictions and protectionism, the weakening of international institutions and cooperation, the segmentation of the world economy in different geopolitical areas, growing public debt in many advanced and developing economies and mounting challenges to the current International Monetary System, with questions on the future role of major currencies (Dollar, Euro, Renminbi). This course provides the basic analytical tools to observe and understand those evolutions. In addition to lectures by the instructor, presentations by students and debates are also organized. The course develops economic analyses and theories, using mainly graphic tools. No modelling or econometric approaches are used. Tutorials are organized for students who wish to catch up or develop some topics further.