English

Topics in this course include an overview of the early Irish legal system (Brehon law), the structure of early Irish society and its institutions – in particular: the early Irish system of law enforcement in the absence of a centralized state and associated police force; the status of women in early Irish society, including marriage arrangements; Irish family structures; an overview of farming and food in early Ireland, and the nature and background of Irish "sacral" kingship and the concept of truth.

This course delves into the sometimes-troubled history and present reality of the Japanese free press. It questions the heart of journalism but also seeks to define the notions of "public good" and the health of democratic systems. For example: Is state control of the news media ever justified? Using historical and present-day case studies, students will examine what press freedom means in practice, and the different ways it can be restricted.

The course examines how different religions adapt to a world of consumer capitalism, mass migrations and new technologies. Religious participation has gained new speed in recent years, but not in ways we associate with traditional institutions like temples, pilgrimages and rituals. In today's world, religions spread through transnational migration, social media and consumer practices. Focusing on ethnographies conducted mainly (but not exclusively) in Asia, the course explores how these emerging practices shape contemporary religion.

This course explores the origins and dilemmas of diplomacy pertaining to the protection of humanity's natural environment (resources, habitat). Definitions, collective discussions of crucial texts, brief oral presentations, and interpretation of a few primary sources form the basis of study. In addition to initiating researchers into undertaking historical research, the course enhances an understanding of how environmental diplomacy works, including the issues, main actors, strategies, and outcomes of environmental diplomacy. The course first identifies key terms and seeks to understand how international environmental problems are grasped by researchers in disciplines closer to environmental questions. It then approaches environmental problems in a historical perspective beginning with the age of the “first wave” of globalization just before and after the First World War. It focuses on the “environmental age” which started arguably in the 1960s and 1970s. The course examines how environmental problems were raised, conceptualized, put upon the agenda of governments and international organizations, and negotiated at the international level. Topics include pollution of the high seas, the regulation of whaling, the control of resources on land and under water, acid rain, the protection of (rain) forests, climate change, the protection of the Antarctic, and other issues. The course also provides an opportunity to develop methodological and interpretative skills, critical abilities, and presentation and writing skills.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. This course provides knowledge on process and Quaternary geomorphology, with a focus on mountain environments. The course examines aspects of sediment supply and sediment transfer, including hillslope-channel interactions, the role of hydro-meteorogical forcing on the intensity and typology geomorphic transport processes. It also deals with sediment management in the Anthropocene, including the impacts of in-channel engineering infrastructures and landcover changes. Sediment yield and sediment storage in natural and regulated systems are also discussed, as well as the role of Pleistocene glaciations on the present spatial organization of geomorphic processes and sediment fluxes. In this context, the course further examines dating landforms and constraining denudation rates at millennial time scales. The lab-based component introduces students to expert-based mapping of sediment sources and channel changes, as well as glacial and periglacial landforms on remotely-sensed images to build georeferenced databases for geo-hazard assessment. The field-based component illustrates techniques for field-based mapping, characterizing channel bed texture, as well as monitoring water and sediment fluxes. The discussion is fostered by a literature review on selected topics that vary from year to year. Finally, analysis of data collected in the field is performed by groups of students, in preparation of a short technical report.

This course introduces and utilizes classic as well as more recent concepts and analytical frameworks to explain some of the policy phenomena that puzzles students of public policy. The first part of the course introduces theoretical approaches to studying the five basic stages of the policy process and discusses some of the more recent developments in the policy studies discipline, taking mainly a temporal perspective. The policy phenomena addressed includes path dependency, punctuated equilibrium, sequencing, policy feedbacks, policy capacity, policy design, reform sustainability, disproportionality in public policy, and policy success and failure. The way in which these analytical concepts have been applied to study real world policy challenges is illustrated through examples and discussed in class. The second part of the course applies the theoretical concepts and analytical frameworks by analyzing real world examples of policy making. Students select their own case and analytical framework for their assignment. The course is designed for Danish and international students. The wealth of knowledge on national policy processes brought to the classroom by the students is utilized to explore nuances in concept application and to explore how differences in institutions affect policy making.

This course focuses on the relationship between violent conflict and economic development. The first half of the course examines the concepts of conflict and development, as well as some associated theories. The second part focuses on the nexus between conflict and development, the cultural dimensions of conflict and development, and concludes with some policy interventions that could be applied to reduce the risk of conflict and accelerate development. Reference is made to some case studies in Sub-Saharan Africa.

This course provides students with a policy-relevant and theoretically informed examination of parliaments in the United Kingdom. It is therefore concerned both with the formal processes and (perhaps more importantly) the cultures, traditions, and relationships that make these institutions work. Although the institutional focus is on the Houses of Parliament and the Scottish Parliament, students are encouraged to think comparatively and to situate these cases in a wider context.

This course reflects on how the institutions, issues, actors, and practices of global environmental governance have evolved over the past half-century since the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, the first global conference on the environment. In addition, it explores the potential of current environmental governance systems to accelerate the social, economic, political, and ecological transformations for a sustainable future.

This course provides students with a thorough understanding of the functioning of financial markets. It covers topics such as the role of markets and institutions as providers of liquidity, the reasons for price volatility in financial markets, financial fragility, different types of market microstructure, and informational efficiency of financial markets.