English

This course develops competencies in the planning and performance of experiments and the evaluation of results using common techniques in molecular genetics and cell biology. The skills training starts with an introductory lecture providing information on the assignments as well as an introduction to Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) and Safe Laboratory Practice (SLP). Students perform experiments on several different topics including Immunocytochemistry; Immunofluorescence and advanced imaging (confocal and STED microscopy); Western blotting; and Electron microscopy. This course is designed to be taken in combination with SCI2037 Cell Biology. Students who wish to take this course should concurrently enroll in SCI2037 Cell Biology prior to enrolling in SKI2077.

This course studies the scientific aspects of Western (or European) music particularly focusing on its mathematical and physical aspects. The first half of the course reviews the history of European musical scales since Pythagoras, and thereby discusses how mathematics played important roles in their development. The course also covers the concept of harmony as it evolved through the intimate relations between science and music until the Renaissance. 

The second half of the course studies the physics of vibrational motions and sound waves using high-school level mathematics. Based on these, the course exposes how various musical instruments produce their characteristic sounds.  The course also provides opportunities to learn how scientific and technological advances have influenced European classical music.

The objective of this course is to provide students with an overview of the role of chemistry in nanosciences. The course introduces some basic knowledge related to this field, and surveys the unique properties of nanoparticles and their applications, which includes bioconjugation methods, solution-based probes/sensors, in vitro and in vivo imaging, and nanoparticle therapeutics.  

Students should be able to 1) understand the general methods for fabricating nanomaterials; 2) understand the physical properties of nanomaterials; 3) apply the unique properties of some nanomaterials to create specific probes. Typical topics include supramolecular chemistry, basic photophysics, syntheses of nanoparticles, luminescent quantum dots, gold and silver nanoparticles, other inorganic nanoparticles, organic nanoparticles, bioconjugate chemistry, bioimaging, drug delivery and toxicity of nanoparticles. 

This course examines the most recent and topical issues of crime and justice in Australia and elsewhere. It examines these in historical perspective and critically assesses them in the context of both contemporary and longstanding debates over criminal justice in politics, policy and criminological research.

This course provides an introduction to contemporary philosophical debates about core concepts of justice, liberty, equality, community, and democracy in modern liberal-democratic societies. Students become familiar with the work of some of the leading political philosophers of today, like Thomas Hobbes, Mary Wollstonecraft, John Rawls, Hannah Arendt, Isaiah Berlin, Frantz Fanon, Martha Nussbaum, and Achille Mbembe. Since conceptual analysis is the core business of philosophy, students learn to analyze concepts, clarify moral ideas, and how tensions between moral ideas can be made explicit. They also learn how to apply these concepts in current political debate and practice.

The course provides students with a grasp of the main conceptual approaches, schools, methods, and sub-disciplines in Politics. All the course contents are framed and taught with reference to contemporary European politics and political systems. The course gives students the toolkit and ability to problematize and reflect critically on common-sense assumptions and understandings of political institutions and processes.

What does it mean to exert, obey, resist, or think power? How does political power relate to violence and authority? What is the relationship between secular and religious notions of power? In inviting students to reflect upon these questions through a wide range of texts and classroom dynamics, this course explores the concept of political power and its multiple forms of expression, thus introducing critical theory, political thinking, and the global humanities. Topics include imperialism and colonialism; democracy; sovereignty; the relationship between intellectuals and power; feminist and revolutionary perspectives on power; critical, pedagogical, and aesthetic approaches to political power relations. 

This course covers the topic of climate change from several angles. Starting with the basic evidence and science behind climate change and modeling of future scenarios, then through impacts and vulnerability to efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Issues such as climate refugees, gender aspects, and negotiations are addressed. Students taking this course generally have very different backgrounds and students have a chance to learn about climate change from different viewpoints.

Topics in this Psychometrics course include: foundations of measurement and scaling models; construction of psychometric tests; item analysis; reliability; validity; standardization and test manual.

This course provides students with a systematic introduction to the transformation of work in the context of rapidly changing aspects of labor markets in advanced market economies. The changing structure of labor markets is associated with new technologies, deregulation, flexibilization, and individualization. Students examine the increasing participation and changing position of women on the labor market. They further examine theories and empirical findings regarding the divisions of paid and unpaid labor, precariousness and impermanence, labor market participation of women. Wage and career inequality are discussed with a special emphasis on the interplay of individual decisions and formal and informal societal institutions. Students examine jobs, employers and careers/life cycle issues in a globalizing world, and the possible consequences of the rise of digitalization and artificial intelligence for the world of work.