English

This course focuses on examining the contributions that social, cultural, political and economic factors have made towards environmental problems by applying insights from scholarship from across the social sciences. Working with case studies of contemporary environmental issues, students consider how and why these issues have emerged, and reflect on the risks, challenges, and opportunities associated with past, present, and future responses. Students pay attention to the roles and responsibilities of a range of stakeholders and institutions (including citizens, consumers, activists and social movements, state policy makers, international organizations, and corporations), and to the ethical and political tensions involved in enacting practical solutions to environmental issues.

This course investigates the cosmopolitan ideal in academic discourse as well as in everyday political and social life. It explores cosmopolitanism in relation to debates in political theory and international relations as well as dynamics surrounding international migration, transnational advocacy networks, and global governance. The course also examines the cosmopolitan perspective in relation to key global issues, including the COVID-19 pandemic, global climate change, economic inequality, nuclear proliferation and the challenges posed by resurgent nationalism and authoritarian populism.

This course provides an introduction to the Social Study of Science and Technology. This is an area in which Edinburgh has longstanding strengths and which the course draws upon. The course examines some of the different ways of analyzing and understanding technology in society. It explores both the consequences of technical innovation for society and the ways technology is itself shaped by cultural, economic, political, and organizational factors. Students learn about a range of analytic perspectives on Technology in Society - drawing upon history, economics, and the sociologies of work, gender, and science & technology themselves. Students explore these issues in various settings - at work and in everyday life and in developing as well as developed countries. In the second part of the course, students apply these perspectives to particular technologies or issues, working together in student-centered learning. 

Course goals

This course introduces key literary works of American literature written or set during the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century (1860s to 1960s). Study the aesthetic, intellectual, cultural, and/or political impact of literary works at their time of publication. Discussions in lectures and seminars consider the possible legacies of the texts: how they continue to shape intellectual debates, literary history, and cultural practices in the twenty-first century in America and in the broader field of literature in English. In-depth knowledge and understanding of the ways in which cultural, social, intellectual, and political issues of the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century figure in a selection of American literary texts; ability to select and analyze relevant primary and secondary sources and to produce original scholarly work on the topic of the course; and the ability to identify and apply some of the relevant critical concepts and literary theory to the study of American literature are gained.

This course is an exploration of Italian art – painting and sculpture - from c.1300 to c.1700 in the major centers of Florence, Rome, Venice, Naples, and Milan. The era is distinguished by a revived interest in Italy’s classical past and the emergence of humanist philosophies. The evolution of religious subject matter is analyzed via a number of different typologies – the fresco cycle, the altarpiece, the sculpted figure. The emergence and development of secular themes, including representations of classical mythology, are considered. The course examines evolving stylistic debates around the values of naturalism and classicism over time, and the ways in which artists reflected on the very concept of the “Renaissance” in different artistic centers. The role of patronage, both civic and private, and the rising status of the artist feature prominently, and particular attention is paid to artistic processes and means of production. The “long” of the title of the course touches on the idea of the iteration and reiteration of the themes summarized here over an extended timeline.

This course explores the challenges we face and identifies collaborative processes for nature-based solutions in urban planning, design, implementation, adaptation, and care. Through a range of creative processes, with reference to exemplar projects and contributions from industry experts and academics, students learn the principles and application of an urban green infrastructure approach for resilience, health and wellbeing, and social and environmental justice.

This course offers a whirlwind survey of European history from the French Revolution to the present - it considers the political, economic, social, and cultural transformation of the continent during this 250-year period of dramatic change. At the beginning of the course, most Europeans were illiterate, impoverished farm laborers; by the end of the course, most had become well-educated, prosperous democratic citizens. The overarching theme for the course is the “revolutions ”－political, economic, and intellectual and their attendant ideologies. This includes the various “isms” that shaped Europe in this period: liberalism, nationalism, imperialism, communism, fascism, and feminism. Furthermore, the course addresses tensions between liberalism vs. Illiberalism; universality vs. particularity, and modernity vs. tradition. The course concludes with a reflection on the challenges that Europe faces today and in the future.

This course provides an overview of the principles regulating the internal structure of complex words, focusing on English and how it compares with other languages. We will learn basic methods of determining this internal structure, and introduce the different strategies that language users may apply in forming new words. In particular, we will discuss processes like derivation, inflection, and compounding, and the rules that govern their application.

This course addresses various issues that constitute citizenship and non-citizenship in the process of transmigration, settlement, and creation of communities (or nation), as well as identity formation, cultural hybridization, and cultural/knowledge productions ‒ all of which are informed by race, gender, sexuality, class, religion, language, and others.

The course aims to:

1) Familiarize students with some fundamental concepts of reconciliation, peace, and coexistence in a range of historical contexts;
2) Analyze and interpret historical theories and case studies in the local and global context of East Asia (China, Japan, Korea(s), and Taiwan) to ensure a transnational perspective;
3) Help students develop an in-depth understanding of national, regional, and global dimensions in the makings of modern East Asia and interactions by illuminating human agency, nongovernmental organizations, and local dynamics in East Asia to think critically about historical narratives;
4)  Explain the concepts as nationalism, citizenship, identity and belonging;

5) Explain historical and contemporary issues faced by various displaced people categorized as “immigrants,” “refugees,” and “adoptees” in their process of transmigration, settlement, and creation of diasporic communities;
6) Analyze various data sources including policies, legislations, historical facts, popular cultural production, and personal narratives; and
7) Use intersectionality as a lens of analysis to discuss issues pertaining to identity formation.

This course focuses on the Roman Empire from the first to early third centuries AD. In this period the hegemony of the city of Rome grew, spreading over almost two million square miles: a vast territory encompassing almost all of modern Europe and also North Africa, Egypt, and the Near East. This course traces the evolution of this political unit and explores the consequences for those who lived under its control. In what ways did the inhabitants of the empire become "Roman"? What were the benefits and drawbacks of inclusion? How did the systems of governance work? What held things together, both practically and ideologically? Students also discuss shifts in modern approaches, from the glorification of the Roman state to more critical post-colonial approaches to imperial rule.