English

In this course, students are introduced to and practice three specific psychological skills, choosing two skills from a suite of optional skills, alongside a third compulsory skill (learning to carry out a literature search).  

In this course, students review the development and prospects for genomic analysis. There are three components to the course: a lecture series, computer based bioinformatics workshops, and a practical. In the lectures, through the presentation of key genomes, both prokaryotic and eukaryotic, students consider the structure, function, and evolution of genomes. They then look at tools, both experimental and statistical, to further their knowledge of genes and their functions. 



 

This course provides an opportunity to observe and analyze people’s conduct and/or language usage in contemporary Japanese society. As one approach to examining these issues, the course introduces the basics of qualitative research methods, allowing students to see the world more critically and deeply. Using these methods, students will be expected to design and conduct a group research project, investigating socio-cultural aspects of Japanese everyday life. 

This course discusses some central empirical and theoretical questions in the field. It begins by examining classic comparative debates about the relationship between the development of states and nations on the one hand, and the rise of capitalism and democracy on the other. The course examines the impact that social cleavages have on parties, elections and other political institutions in a number of different countries. It also examines the strength and political impact of both labor movements and other important social movements. Additionally, the course examines why similar countries can develop very different social and economic policies. In addition students examine some of the founding writings of Marx and Weber and critically assess the use of political concepts. Throughout the course students consider some of the main theoretical approaches that are used in the study of political sociology.

The course provides an overview of modern health challenges in Europe and how they are embraced by a variety of stakeholders: policymakers, researchers, practitioners, and civil society. The course focuses on three perspectives, the first being health in Europe: which focuses on the health status across the European countries, the organization of health systems, and major healthcare challenges for individual countries. Secondly, the perspective of European health focuses on integration and collaboration among Member States within the European Union (EU) and more widely according to the WHO European region. Lastly, European health in a globalized world is assessed. The course combines theory with practice through lectures, tutorials, and field visits.

Scholarly inquiry into entertainment media is a bit of an outlier within media and communication studies in general and even media economics. Media’s supposed to provide information for citizens to make informed decisions, thus making substantial contributions to the functioning of democratic societies – a task too delicate to focus on distraction and amusement. (Almost) in contrast, demand for entertaining content is traditionally higher than for mere information. This applies to audiences and their willingness-to-pay, as well as consumer good suppliers and the advertising industry. Promoting various products and services is more effective in entertainment environments. Thus, scholarly inquiry into production, distribution and consumption of entertainment media is necessary. In the first part of the course, theoretic foundations are laid, discussing economic theories and the media business model, critical approaches to (entertainment) media and strategic media management. Information and entertainment as (in)congruent concepts are defined. The second part of the course sees us focusing on particular entertainment media markets from streaming video to music and social media.

This course introduces students to the field of behavioral economics. Students explore the reasons why people make irrational decisions; how people decide quickly; why people make mistakes in risky situations; their tendency to procrastination and short-termism; and how people can be affected by social influences, personality, mood, and emotions. Students explore how behavioral economics could help policy-makers to understand the people behind their policies, and facilitate the design of more effective policies.

This course examines the traditional economic theory which assumes that economic agents are fully rational with unlimited cognitive abilities and willpower and considers how individuals frequently and systematically make decisions in contradiction with these standard presumptions. Against the background of this finding the course discusses the shortcomings of traditional theories in economics and finance; how new concepts and theories in behavioral finance and behavioral economics address these shortcomings; how these new theories relate to the traditional theories; what are their strengths and limitations; and how the new behavioral presumptions in behavioral finance and economics change the predictions of classical economic theories. 

Topics include (1) why modern psychology requires an understanding of neuroscience; (2) neuronal structure, function and information transmission; (3) the organization of the nervous system and how this reflects some principles of information processing; (4) methods used to study structure and information processing in the brain; (5) functional architectures in the brain; (6) the neural basis of learning; (7) brain evolution; and (8) the biology and psychopharmacology of reward, reinforcement, and psychological disorders.

This seminar provides students with an overview of international relations research with an emphasis on contending theoretical perspectives and some of the key empirical findings in the major issue areas of international politics. The readings include classics as well as more recent publications that illustrate ongoing areas of inquiry. The seminar’s primary purpose is to introduce and evaluate the main theories, arguments, and claims made and empirical findings produced by leading international relations scholars. Students also learn to identify interesting and important questions in the field, to think about ways in which research can be designed to get at these questions, and to ground their own research interests within the context of the broader theoretical and methodological issues in the field.