English

The course explores the economic history of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Many, if not most, of MENA’s contemporary problems cannot be understood without a deep understanding of its history, not only during the postcolonial period, but also during the precolonial and colonial periods. The course first introduces students to the definition of the MENA region, and the broad trends in its history since antiquity. It then examines specific themes that are of great importance for understanding the economic history of the region, such as: how most of MENA’s population became Muslims in the Middle Ages? What do we know about MENA’s economic performance vis-à-vis Europe in the long run? How did “Islamic” institutions emerge? What legal rights did people have over land and labor? Students also discuss state-led development, inequality, education, socioeconomic inequality across ethnoreligious groups, and the demographic transition. Throughout the course, students focus on the view from below, examining the living conditions, preferences, and behavior of local populations, rather than taking a macroeconomic perspective that studies MENA only in comparison to Europe. Students also emphasize the recent developments in MENA economic history based on novel data sources, including MENA local archives, papyrology, medieval chronicles, literary sources, and archeology. In terms of methods, the course will draw upon both qualitative and quantitative approaches to history, employing economic theory, econometric methods, novel data sources, and solid historical evidence.

This course introduces the field of social network analysis (SNA). Social networks are ubiquitous nowadays; SNA emerged in the 1960s as a vibrant social science specialty trying to give substance to individuals, not through their inner psychological and demographic, or professional characteristics but through the relationships they entertain with their social environment. The first objective of this class is to introduce the concepts and metrics designed and theorized by this specific stream of sociology and test how operative they still are in our connected environment. How useful are centrality or cohesion measures today? What can we learn about our current online world with concepts forged in the 1960s and the 1970s like homophily, transitivity, cohesion, diffusion processes? To do so, this course examines the seminal papers in SNA. However, this intellectual journey is complemented by a more hands-on approach, as half of the course is devoted to teaching the students basic operations in Python such that they can collect data from digital social media platforms before modeling, measuring, and visualizing this data using recent network analysis libraries. The course puts the ancient concepts of SNA to the test and assesses how fruitful they are in understanding online interaction data. No prior coding experience is required as the course extensively uses AI capacities (such as Gemini, directly available in Google Colab notebooks) to assist with coding. The class alternates readings of historical sociology papers and more contemporaneous articles typical of the digital age mixing concepts from SNA in the larger realm of computational social sciences. Most classes are split into three parts: the discussion around a scientific paper, a lecture about a new SNA-related concept, and a third part where students are invited to experiment on their own laptops with the newly introduced concepts, metrics, or algorithms with empirical data.

This course provides a deeper understanding of International Organizations (IOs) by studying their origins, structures, roles, politics and future. The first part of the course broadly introduces relevant theories of International Relations, and more specifically theories of IOs/international cooperation. The second part of the course covers the most prominent international organization-the United Nations (UN). The course focuses on four broad themes: international security, economic development, human rights, and environmental problems in discussing the UN. 

This course offers an introduction to the key concepts, theories, methodological approaches, and empirical evidence on social inequality and social mobility. First, it focuses on the structure of inequality; considering how unequal societies are today and how and why this has changed in recent decades.  Second, the course discusses who gets to occupy privileged positions in society and why. It explores how characteristics that are not in peoples' control, such as socio-economic background, shape important outcomes in their lives, such as their level of education, their job, or their income. Finally, it explores what policies can reduce inequality of opportunity in society.

This course provides a broad overview of the key marketing concepts that underpin marketing practice. The course introduces students to buyer behaviour, marketing research, segmentation, targeting and positioning through marketing mix activities. Along the way, the social consequences of marketing practice are considered.

This course introduces students to the history of a hundred-year period from the Emperor Constantine’s death to the reign of the emperor Theodosius II. This is one of the pivotal centuries of Roman history, characterized varyingly by historians as a time of transformation, rupture, and of continuity. During this century, Christianity moved from being a sporadically persecuted minority religion to a faith promoted and eventually enforced by emperors; political and economic activities were brought under pressure by the movement of peoples within and without the empire’s borders; and the old rhythms of aristocratic cultural and social life had to accommodate both ascetic and episcopal demands and priorities.

The course identifies and discusses some of the major theoretical positions that have shaped 20th and 21st-century theatre practice.

This course focuses on the political evolution of the US. The pre-eminence of the US in world affairs suggests that knowledge of the evolution of American society and its culture is crucial to understanding American motivations and actions. In tracing how Americans have, from 1776, resolved issues and debates regarding the role of the federal government, racial and economic justice, gender roles, and political participation, budget and resource allocation and environmental concerns, students will gain insight into the historical processes which have shaped the US. By the end of the semester, students would have the necessary perspectives and contexts to assess and interpret American cultural, social and economic developments, as well as the continuing dialogue that Americans have about the nature of their society and democracy. This course is designed for students throughout NUS with an interest in American history.

This course introduces contemporary debates in population from a geographical perspective. It focuses on the ways that geography contributes to, and is reinforced, in the processes and meanings of life and death. Besides examining historical and contemporary population trends and demographic transitions, this course also investigates the discourses and politics of fertility and women's bodies, migration and transnational life, disease and health-care, and ageing, death and dying. The course provides understanding of contemporary population problems and solutions, and analyzes how these influence policies and everyday lives.

This course explores key texts and themes in developing an understanding and appreciation of European film practices from 1940 to the present day. Using a series of case studies, students learn to situate a range of film texts according to historical, cultural, and social contexts, in addition to relevant theoretical debates.