DENMARK

This course introduces mindfulness as a psychological construct, presenting and discussing ways to understand and describe the concept. It presents theoretical perspectives that seek to illuminate the origin, development, potential, and limitations of mindfulness. The course examines clinical and cognitive empirical studies that demonstrate various operationalizations and effects of mindfulness interventions. It also contains a smaller practical part where select mindfulness exercises are exemplified to provide a practice-based understanding of the concept of mindfulness. Assessment is based on an individual or group written assignment of 12-18 pages. 

This course studies environmental ethics, with a focus on reasoned arguments regarding our handling of, dealing with, and behavior towards nature and the environment. It introduces concrete analysis tools emerging from classical ethical theories and environmental philosophy; anthropocentrism and the various alternatives; and the notions of nature and the natural, risk, equality and justice, value pluralism, and the different needs for relating through nature in physical, aesthetical, and existential ways. The course utilizes environmental ethical issues of contemporary concern as case studies, in the context of both Euro-American and developing countries, in order to uncover, understand, and structure relevant knowledge and ethical issues to address professional challenges related to environments and society. Case study topics include climate change, animal production, biodiversity conservation, sustainability and human well-being, wildlife management, genetically modified crops, and ecological restoration. This course consists of an integrated mix of lectures, exercises, and discussions, including quizzes, votes, panel debates, student presentations, guest lecturers, and films. Through exercises, discussions, and assignment work, it explores various approaches to identifying, assessing, and approaching ethical dilemmas in relation to environmental decision-making.

This course is an introduction to the history, aesthetics, function, and importance to society of digital media. Topics include digital citizenship and social innovation; cyborg theory and the body in social media; digital film and computer games; remix and mashup; and blogs and fan communities. Students participate in exercises, quizzes, and online discussions. Students are evaluated by a written assignment, which can be written in a group.

This course provides a people-oriented global approach to sustainable environmental resource management and an introduction to essential contemporary issues related to global forests. Emphasis is placed on the relationships between people, environmental resource use, and conservation, with a particular focus on forests. Central topics include the ideas and views that guide forest use and conservation; how people rely on environmental resources and the relationships between forests and human health; how a price is placed on environmental products and their importance to local people is made visible; quantifying forest cover; deforestation and what can be done; the existence and effectiveness of national and global policies; and sustainable forest management. The course offers a combination of guided readings, in-class discussions and exercises, online discussions, and detailed feedback on two individual essays.

This course explores the possibility of religious conviction in a secularized world. Questions like these are central: In a world in which religious narratives and doctrines strike the contemporary mind as unbelievable as history or scientific explanation, upon what might the modern, educated person base religious convictions? Are religious sensibilities ultimately expressions of a deep sense of morality? Is the religious attitude better described as a feeling or intuition for the infinite behind the finite world? Is personal religious conviction based on experience of the divine? Is contemporary faith an intellectually indefensible but nonetheless hopeful subjective decision to adopt religious traditions and doctrines? The course follows the evolution of religious thinking in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, much of which argues that religion should avoid the distorting demand of justifying itself solely in terms of rationality and that it ought to consider the volitional and experiential aspects of religious life, as well. It develops a critical appreciation of the development of religious thought, with a particular focus on the significance of religious experience, based on a study of a handful of highly influential texts by authors such as Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Schleiermacher, Friedrich Nietzsche, William James, as well as Copenhagen’s most famous philosophical mind, Søren Kierkegaard.

Through lectures and excursions, this course offers a portrait of Denmark through its output of popular entertainment and high art within film, television, and streaming. It places internationally famous auteurs such as Carl Theodor Dreyer, Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg, and Susanne Bier in their cultural context and presents important genres such as youth film, realism, drama, comedy, pornography, and documentary. The course interrogates the role of screen sexuality, gender and racial representations, and cultural identity, and it explores the role of film, television, and streaming policy.