English

This course develops students' understanding of contentious politics in international relations and comparative politics by looking at how conflict spreads. A range of advanced topics are covered, with a primary focus on how diffusion and spatial dynamics affect the empirical study of international war, democracy, autocracy, and civil war. This course goes beyond traditional theories of international relations by offering a network perspective on contentious politics. In addition, this course asks students to develop theory and use statistical software to plot networks, predicting dynamics of diffusion, and designing informed policy decisions based on those insights.

This writing-intensive course provide preparatory skills in written communication that will support students in their multidisciplinary academic work throughout the degree and beyond, enabling them to develop as a confident and effective writer who can tailor their writing for a range of audiences. Throughout the term, in small-group writing workshops, students write and reflect on formative short pieces and will receive tutor and peer feedback; students then edit and redraft their writing to compile a summative portfolio. Moreover, the course provides opportunity for students to engage in detail with an interdisciplinary topic in the Arts, Humanities, or Social Sciences, led by a tutor from the Liberal Arts core team with specialist expertise in this area. 

This course analyzes the major upheavals that have shaped the Middle East and North Africa's strategic landscape in the post-Cold War era. It is structured around three key modules. The first provides a chronological overview, from the 1990s "Unipolar Moment" to the collapse of the Syrian regime in December 2024. The second focuses on the persistence of authoritarianism, along with the violent backlash and counterrevolutions that followed the Arab Spring. The third examines U.S. foreign policy and the Global War on Terror. Special attention is given to the Proxy Wars and Culture Wars that will define the future of the region, to the shifting alliances within a context of competitive multipolarity, and to civil societies, literature, cinema, cultural and intellectual fault lines.

This course introduces students to the study of foreign policy. As a sub-field of International Relations, Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA) concentrates on decision making and how international, domestic, and individual pressures shape the actions states take. The course focuses on explaining and understanding the process of foreign policy decision making, the foreign policy instruments available to policy makers, and the differing strategies that states employ in achieving their aims. Students learn about major concepts and theoretical approaches that help explain why and how states and foreign policy makers behave the way that they do.

This course examines how individuals, communities, societies, and states address legacies of violence and atrocity. The course considers how best to commemorate and memorialize the experience of victims and survivors. The course opens by introducing the legal, political, and philosophical dimensions of key concepts of war, crime, atrocity, and genocide, on the one hand, and the theory and practice of transitional justice on the other. In the first half of the course, students look at key mechanisms of transitional justice – trials, truth, and reconciliation commissions and reparations, drawing on a set of empirical cases including former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Cambodia. In the second half, students look at some emerging areas of transitional justice practice, and the potential for transformative approaches using the arts and education and in relation to gender, and memorialization. Finally, the course addresses the question of what works, and how we measure success in transitional justice, drawing implications for policy and research.

This course introduces students to the transformative and innovative field of advanced materials and nanomaterials, focusing on their applications in the electronics, energy, and healthcare sectors. Students are introduced to state-of-the-art material characterization techniques, such as advanced microscopy and profilometer, to analyze properties at the nanoscale. The course explores surface and particle nanoengineering, contrasting bottom-up and top-down fabrication methods, including cutting-edge advanced manufacturing techniques like 3D printing and precision machining. Highlighting successful nanotechnology applications, such as flexible electronics and energy storage devices, the module also introduces Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to evaluate the environmental impacts of materials and manufacturing processes. Through the hands-on mini-projects, students apply knowledge to real-world challenges, gaining practical skills in sustainable material design and advanced manufacturing. This comprehensive course equips students with the expertise to innovate and address complex issues in materials science and manufacturing, sparking their curiosity and excitement for the field.

This course explores the ways in which life is lived in relation to experiences of war, violent events, and war-related afflictions and displacement. While students follow and discuss the debates of researchers who have tried to determine and verify the effects of violent conflict on the mental health of those affected by focusing on concepts like war trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), students challenge conventional and universal understandings of trauma, and disease-centered approaches to traumatic experience and health interventions. While this course is heavily informed on comparative history, both of psychiatry and of wars, it engages with current affairs and public health concerns. It considers mental health as both a medical and a socio-political matter. 

This policy oriented course focuses on the European Union's security and defense politics. With the re-election of Donald Trump, questions on how the EU is going to defend itself are high on the political agendas. How well is the EU prepared to take on more responsibility? To answer the question, the course looks at how the EU addresses security and defense policy issues and identify difficulties in the evolution of the EU's security and defense policy. It covers the functioning of the EU's security and defense policy; examines the concepts of security; introduces the different tools of the EU's security and defense policy and the key issues of deeper EU integration. In addition, the course develops presentation and writing skills, ability to understand public documents, research on open source, and work in teams.

This curse is about the recent and quickly emerging trends of voluntary and mandatory reporting on sustainability issues. It develops knowledge and understanding of the history, theory, and practice of environmental, social, and sustainability accounting and deals with concepts such as accountability and stakeholders. The course provides students with a critical appreciation of the relevance and role of sustainability accounting and reporting in contemporary society as the world transitions to net zero carbon emissions and aims to further the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. The course critically examines current and emerging practices in corporate settings including voluntary practices, how well stakeholders’ information needs are met, mandatory requirements, and greenwashing issues. 

This course explores intersections between theatre and politics in the 20th and 21st centuries. Students will be introduced to a range of political performance forms and the debates that surround them, from the political theatre of George Bernard Shaw, to the epic theatre of Bertolt Brecht, to the provocative performances of the Black Revolutionary Theatre Movement, to the feminist performances of women’s theatre groups in the 1970s, to the recent rise of documentary and verbatim theatre. In addition, students will consider the theatricality of political protests, from die-ins to zombie walks, as well as recent protest reenactments by artists, including Jeremy Deller’s miners’ strike reenactment, The Battle of Orgreave (2001). Moving chronologically through the semester, the class will focus each week on a particular performance form, engaging with a selection of performance texts and relevant scholarship. By the end of the semester, students will be familiar with a number of influential practitioners and theorists of political theatre and performance; you will be knowledgeable about the contributions of playwrights and theatre-makers to a range of political movements; and students will be able to engage in informed debate about how various theatre and performance forms act politically.