Denmark

This course focuses on the task of sociology to provide interpretations of the current situation and diagnoses of the times. The first part of the course defines the general meaning of diagnosis of the times and the role this kind of analysis plays in sociology. The second part identifies and distinguishes between various conceptions of social transformation and how modern societies have changed over time, with a study of the most recent structural transformations. The last part of the course focuses on the normative use of social diagnosis to conceive that not only persons but also societies can be understood as sick. The course accounts for how this kind of analysis can be used to evaluate and criticize social change and provides an opportunity to plan and perform research and carry out critical investigations of structural transformations of modern societies and institutions.

This course explores the complex and influential connections between food, culture, self, place, and taste. Across the world, food is increasingly on the agenda, in relation to many themes: health, economy, politics, climate, famine, and obesity. There is an increased need for humanistic approaches to the understanding of how tradition, history, and cross-cultural practices influence people's eating and food choices. The course provides students with humanities-based insights into a wide array of aspects of food culture, including lifestyle; food politics; identity and the body; food and media; urban gardening; food taboos; food security; commensality; the globalization of taste; and the history of the chef.

This course introduces the general method and use of cost-benefit analysis with a particular emphasis on applications to resource and environmental economics. The course therefore deals with many crucial aspects of environmental cost-benefit analysis to provide the necessary background to assess the validity of practical environmental cost-benefit analyses, as well as to formulate how current guidelines can be improved based on the latest economic research. The course consists of a lecture block that provides an overview and introduces students to key concepts. Assessment is based on a presentation and written assignment on a topic of the student’s choosing. 

This course focuses on presenting theories and empirical data regarding global social inequality. Accounting for a wide range of sociological theories of inequality, it analyzes various theories about what creates differences in wealth between individuals and between different regions in the world. The course investigates inequality in relation to gender, ethnicity, elites, power, health, social mobility, and economy. 

This course approaches historical and contemporary exoticism in European culture from an interdisciplinary perspective. It examines imaginations of the foreign in literature, from antiquity to the present; the visual arts; as well as various media such as film, opera, and architecture. The course also considers historical foci, such as the connection between exoticism and colonialism or exoticism and racism. In addition to approaches from art history, aesthetics, literary studies, film studies, media studies, and cultural studies, the course discusses methods from postcolonial studies, critical race studies, and intercultural studies in order to gain a theoretically trained view of imaginations of the non-European “Other” in art and culture. Course readings include excerpts and full texts from different periods by Western European and Northern American authors: Euripides, THE BACCHAE; Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, PAUL AND VIRGINIA; Thomas De Quincey, CONFESSIONS OF AN ENGLISH OPIUM EATER; Edgar Allen Poe, LIGEIA; Thomas Mann, DEATH IN VENICE; Karen Blixen, THE SUPPER AT ELSINORE; David Henry Hwang, M. BUTTERFLY. It also analyses paintings by Henri Rousseau, Paul Gauguin, and James Tissot, and studies operas by Mozart and Puccini.