English

This course mainly focuses on romantic relationships. The course reviews historical and classic approaches to studying intimate relationships as well as new research to better understand real-world relationship functioning. General topics include attachment, attraction, social cognition, commitment, love, sexuality, conflict, and maintaining high-quality relationships, as well as breaking up and being single. The course explores questions such as: Why are relationships so important to us? What informs our choice of friends and romantic partners? What predicts satisfaction and stability in relationships? How can we become better romantic partners? And what predicts wellbeing in singlehood?

This course introduces the emerging landscape of "green industrial policy.” Focus is first be placed on defining such policy, broadly construed as public interventions targeting rapid industrial change in pursuit of national decarbonization. The course then foregrounds historical precedents of rapid industrial change, especially in the Global South. From here, it surveys ongoing policy experiments in different regional contexts, and concludes with case studies of China, Mexico, and France. Throughout the course, attention is placed on distinct theoretical and methodological approaches to studying green industrial policy, with students completing original research proposals.

This course introduces, discusses and works with the key concepts, wide-ranging debates and on-going processes in the realm of international security. It revisits classic security issues and explores newer ones – from terrorism and pandemics – to highlight continuities and discontinuities in international security. The course pays special attention to the proliferation of the types of actors, sectors, rationales and technologies now associated with security practices. It sees that these developments have consequences as they further cut across and reconfigure well-known divides between internal and external security concerns, between policing and military operations, and between public and private spheres to name a few. In order to address these questions, among others, the course is organized in two sections, with weekly debates as a common thread. The first section looks at both the diversity of international security institutions and theoretical foundations of security studies. The second section confronts new international security issues and related developments.

This course covers modern approaches to artificial intelligence with a focus on neural networks (NNs). Among other topics, students cover discussions of NN loss functions, optimization, and back propagation. Throughout the course there is a focus on students understanding theory and modelling principles in order to apply them effectively to AI. At the end of the course, students apply these principles to other AI tasks and learn how that can be done in practice.

This course introduces fundamental principles of genetics including Mendelian and non-Mendelian inheritance, chromosome and genome structure, genetic variation, and basic concepts in population genetics. Genetics is the study of how biological traits are transmitted from parents to offspring through genes and how genetic variation shapes biological diversity within populations.  The course integrates classical genetics with modern genomic technologies, including next generation sequencing (NGS) and large-scale genomic data analysis. Students learn how genetic variation influences biological systems and human disease. 

Topics include The Human Genome Project and modern sequencing technologies, Mendelian genetics and inheritance patterns, Polygenic traits and genetic architecture, Recombination, linkage, and population genetics, From genetic variants to biological systems and disease. 

Prerequisites: General Biology  

This course explores the formation of cultural identities and the challenges they face in the age of globalization through case studies from European, Latin American, and East Asian contexts.

This vertically integrated project (VIP) brings together researchers and students from various disciplines who share an interest in the Eden Estuary, near to St Andrews. The Eden Estuary is a Local Nature Reserve (LNR) and locals benefit from this nature reserve in many ways, including recreational and educational. Like many other nature reserves, the Eden Estuary and its inhabitants are exposed to a number of immediate and local as well as global and accumulative pressures caused by humans. It is therefore essential to research these pressures on the Estuary and then disseminate findings and lessons from our observations while also developing solutions that will not only benefit the Estuary itself but can also be employed in other parts of the world. Students who take part in this project have an inter-disciplinary and engaging learning experience, contribute to conversations and collaborations on sustainability in and around the Eden Estuary, and consider the Eden Estuary as a delta in miniature that offers an insight into ecological and human patterns past, present, and future, that can be observed elsewhere and at larger scales. By participating in this VIP, students have the opportunity to learn about a wide range of research methods and technologies and are able to convey their findings in various formats such as policy-mapping, decision-trees, and citizen science research.

This course introduces students to ‘playing with paper’ through collage artmaking, and the creative and diverse possibilities this artform affords for connecting through social engagement. Students explore a range of analog, mixed-media collage processes and concepts, while examining through a critical lens how this relational act of artmaking forms new connections and framing of meaning-making and invites innovative formation of ideas or concepts. 

This course analyzes the impact of economic, political, social, technological, legal and environmental variables of identifying opportunities in international markets within a real enterprise. The class will formulate strategies and tactics for an organization, presented in a case or a simulator, improving its competitive position. 

This course examines the political system established at Rome by Octavian at the end of the Roman "Republican" period which is normally known as the "Principate" or "High Empire" until the reforms of Emperor Diocletian and the Edict of Milan which granted the Christians freedom of religion.  Students look at the tensions and development in the structures of the state in this period, the role of the army and foreign policy, life in the provinces of the empire, and social issues including religious practices and the rise of Christianity.