English

Almost from its origins, the novel has been thought of as a form of literature which both documents and celebrates human subjectivity. This course will read the emergence of the novel form alongside questions of human cognition and consciousness to ask why the association between minds and fiction first emerged, and what has happened to this association since. Some of the questions students discuss include: Just why has the novel been so persistent as a form? What are its historical, cultural and aesthetic origins? What can the rise and development of the novel tell us about the lives of the people who read it? And has its time passed? Particular attention will be paid to the social and cultural history of the form, and how these intersect with philosophical and political questions pertaining to human consciousness and identity.   

This course explores the complex relationships between development, poverty, and the environment. It covers a range of important natural resource and environmental issues, and provides students with the necessary tools to critically evaluate how these issues have been addressed by different stakeholders and at different levels of governance. Using concepts and analytical tools grounded in political ecology and critical development studies, the course examines several topics, including the politics of sustainable development, environmental governance and tenure, and critical resource issues.

This course begins with an understanding of age as a social variable and the life-cycle approach. It then examines the social construction of childhood from a historical and cross-cultural perspective. The central focus of this course is youth as a particular stage of the life-cycle. Topics such as the life cycle approach in Sociology; the social construction of childhood: children and the state; the social construction of adolescence: images of youth will be addressed. 

This core course examines contemporary approaches to the past through a critical examination of current literature, case studies – mainly British, European and imperial/colonial – and fieldwork excursions in and around London. The course explores the complex relationships between past and present, promotes an understanding of the nature of history as a discipline, and investigates the social and public functions of historical research. 

This course introduces psychology to students from diverse biomedical backgrounds. The course covers a wide range of topics, spanning all core perspectives within psychology (biological, cognitive, social, developmental and individual differences). It introduces key theories, experimental findings, and research methods. There will be weekly core lectures, followed by lectures focusing on special topics, such as synaesthesia, addiction, false memories and hypnosis. 

Practical work with standard software for geographical information systems (e.g. ArcGIS Pro): architecture, components, and functionality, principles of thematic modelling (thematic layers, object classes, etc.), geographical data models and data structures, spatial and topological relations, data acquisition and digitization, methods for geospatial analysis, cartographic theory, elements and principles of cartographic visualization, spatial reference systems and map projections, map design, symbolization, topographic and thematic maps, cartographic information systems, cartographic abstraction and generalization, multimedia cartography, spatial decision support systems, multi-criteria decision analysis.

This course introduces the ways in which mental health has been studied as an academic discipline across the humanities and the social sciences. It shows that both the definition and the treatment of mental ill-health is not universal but shaped by the society in which people live. The course focuses primarily on the period of time from the closure of the lunatic asylums in Great Britain in the second half of the 20th century to the present day. Through an anthology composed of newspaper articles, political speeches, and party manifestos, the course analyzes some of the factors which influenced mental health policies, such as advances in medical knowledge, changes in social values, political ideals, the influence of the media (including social media), and financial cost. Alongside these factual texts, the course studies short extracts from films and literary works in order to gain an understanding of how changes in society’s attitudes towards the mentally unwell are reflected in cultural works.

The course provides an introduction to eukaryotic and prokaryotic cell biology, cell signaling, and virology. Topics include membrane structure and function, cellular organelles, cytoskeleton, cell signaling, cell division, cell physiology, bacterial cell biology, and basic principles of virology.

This course provides students with an overview of the major developments in the depiction of sport in film. Considering fiction, documentary, and newsreels, the course explore the diverse ways different cultures have depicted sport in film.

This course introduces an anthropological study of nature-culture relations, illustrating its potentials and problems with reference to diverse topics in contemporary environmental politics. During the first half, it introduces prevalent and alternative approaches to understand nature-culture relations, covering key concepts and theories. The second half is dedicated to investigations of seven key environmental issues, including: climate change and energy politics, geoengineering, biodiversity conservation, animals, food, waste, and environmental health.