English

This course, on the psychology of adult development across cultures develops knowledge on main approaches to adult development; explores how adult development is intertwined with cultural and historical changes; identifies specific cultural differences within specific topics of adult development; reviews how to use available tools in research and practice in socially and culturally diverse contexts; discusses PAD (Positive Adult Development) psychoeducational and preventive programs in multicultural contexts; learns how to promote positive identity development across adulthood and how to plan, implement, and evaluate psychoeducational and counseling actions; and explores current trends and present new ideas for research and practice in development across adulthood. The course proposes a theoretical integration of several major streams in contemporary psychological theory about adult development. Emphasis is placed on the importance of both contextual factors and individual differences across different cultures and on preventive and empowering actions professionals may undertake to support positive adult development. Topics addressed include Adult Development: history, concepts, and frameworks; tools and research methods for addressing adult challenges and strengths; cognitive development; emotional and psychosocial development; time perspective and other resources across the life span; steps, transitions, and challenges across adulthood; the critical role of work in adult lives; and innovative and preventive actions to support adult positive development under complex conditions and times. The course requires students to have basic knowledge on developmental psychology social psychology as a prerequisite.

This course is an introduction to the social and political dynamics that shape the lives of Muslim minorities in Western Europe and North America. The first part of the course situates Islam and Muslims within the larger European and American histories, by comparing how church-State relations, colonial history, immigration and racial inequalities have affected their representations. The second part unpacks a series of public controversies over Islam and Muslims and explores what they reveal about Euro-American societies. Finally, the course investigates how Islam is lived among ordinary European and American Muslims. This course takes a comparative stance by covering a plurality of national contexts to become familiar with the various public and academic debates surrounding European and American Muslims.

This course explores the use of ChatGPT, a large language model, as a tool for engaging with philosophical questions and problems. The course instructs how to interact with ChatGPT to generate responses to philosophical questions and covers a range of topics on the philosophy of time. The course seeks to answer the questions: Do the past or future exist in the way the present exists? Are pastness, presentness, and futurity consistent notions? Do I have temporal parts as well as spatial parts if time is in many ways analogous to space? How can we mention the past if it’s already gone? How can we know this is the present moment? On the reunion of twins after a space journey, which one is older? Is time travel possible? Is it possible to kill one’s grandfather? Is presentness compatible with special relativity given that the latter allows no absolute simultaneity? Does space exist like a substance in its own right, or is it nothing but spatial relationships between objects? 

Overall, this course develops students' critical thinking and analytical skills by providing them with a unique opportunity to engage with philosophical questions using cutting-edge technology. 

This course introduces topics in computer and communication networks. Course topics include: network structure and architecture; reference models; stop and wait protocol; sliding window protocols; character and bit oriented protocols; virtual circuits and datagrams; routing; flow control; congestion control; local area networks; issues and principles of network interconnection; transport protocols and application layer; and examples of network protocols.

The last fifteen years have been marked by a series of expressions of discontent around the globe, emerging in waves of protest (Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, Gilets jaunes) and in so-called “populist” movements, both right-wing (Trump, Brexit, Le Pen, Bolsonaro) and left-wing (Bernie, Podemos, SYRIZA, Lula). This course analyzes these phenomena as a crisis of political identities in a context of growing precarity. Drawing on a wide range of sources, the course introduces, develops, and critically debates the main concepts of post-structuralist discourse theory (hegemony, antagonism, ideology), and their relation to communication theory, economics, and social psychology. The leitmotif of the course is the articulation of theoretical debate and empirical cases.

This course draws upon an understanding of organizational behavior to examine the techniques and practice of human resource management (HRM). It identifies the difference between personnel and HRM, describes the major functional areas within HRM, articulates the importance of a strategic HR perspective, identifies some of the key skills required for current HRM practice, explains how HR initiatives can add value to the bottom line, and teaches critical thinking when presented with current HR issues. Topics include the strategic role of HRM, job analysis and the legal environment in Hong Kong, HR planning and recruitment, employee testing and selection, interviewing, training and development, performance management and appraisal, career development, compensation and benefits, labor relations and disciplining, and employee safety and health. Assessment: class participation (20%), group project and presentation (50%), individual assignments and end-of-term test (30%).

Spatial thinking sits at the core of Geographical scholarship, and space and human societies are always mutually constitutive. This course explores how geographers have theorized space and place as central to understanding historical processes, social relations, and cultural practices. Focusing particularly on Africa and other regions of the global South, the course covers foundational Human Geography concepts including modernity, landscape, memory, heritage, identity, and inclusion. Through theoretical work and field-based experiential learning, the course examines how space and place both shape and are shaped by a range of power dynamics.

This course examines the main analytical approaches to the study of world politics, the course invites students to revisit the history of modern international relations, and to discuss, in this context, specific explanations of international political phenomena. While not exclusively, special attention is given to questions of conflict and cooperation in matters of international security.

This course analyzes advanced management practices in complex business environments and offers a comprehensive introduction to Lean Management, a model derived from the diffusion of the principles and tools originally developed at the Toyota Motor Company. The course emphasizes the organizational, managerial, and human aspects of Lean Thinking and illustrates its adoption in a variety of industries and business functions. It analyzes how firms should design and implement lean systems and offers a framework to undertake and sustain lean transformations. It illustrates how the adoption of Lean Thinking principles and tools affect managerial decision making and problem solving, eliminating waste and variability. It also elaborates on recent trends such as the application of lean thinking to innovation (Lean Product and Process Development), to entrepreneurship (Lean Startup Method), to sustainability (Lean & Green), as well as its connection to the Agile movement.