Denmark

The focus of the course is on the relations between terrestrial ecosystems and global climate systems. Seen in a historical and present perspective as well as on a temporal and spatial scale, the interactions between climate and ecosystem are put in perspective of the ongoing and future climate change. Further, the course explain how models and data bases are used to develop future climate scenarios and reconstruction of previous climate conditions, as well as the anthropogenic role in the present changes in climate.

The course covers various theories and models of culture-cognition interaction within particular domains of human life, e.g. religion, science, play, work, environment, gender, and health. The course introduces theories of how cultural practices and ideas work to align norms, values, and behaviors among members of a given society. The course also introduces to qualitative and quantitative methods that are relevant for studying the link between culture and cognition.

This course is designed for international students. It is a course within the science of religion, and it deals with the religion in Denmark before the introduction of Christianity. The course reads poems concerning pre-Christian deities from Iceland as well as the medieval Icelandic writer Snorri, which makes it possible to get a glimpse of the mythology of the Scandinavians before Christianity. The gods Odin, Thor, Vanir, Loki and Balder are accentuated. The course also goes beyond mythology and tries to get an idea about the religious rituals and the religious experts of the Norsemen. The course includes an excursion to Lejre, Trelleborg and Roskilde and an excursion to Scania in Sweden to visit a couple of burial places in the shape of a ship and also some well-preserved runic stones. Students get an introductory understanding of ancient Nordic religion, mythology, its sources, as well as the archeological remains of it.

The course introduces approaches and topics rooted in linguistics such as intercultural pragmatics (speech acts and linguistic politeness), sociolinguistics, intercultural semantics (cultural keywords and scripts), non-verbal communication, gender differences, as well as interdisciplinary approaches to understanding how identities and values are reflected and constructed through language and communication. It takes as a point of departure the idea that language is both a resource that enables communication and collaboration within a community, but can also act as a boundary between insiders and outsiders. In this context, paradigms to the study of culture, like the distinction between cultures as rooted in essences or functions and thus more objectivist or constructivist scientific worldview are also introduced and related to questions of the study of intercultural communication.

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 8-14 pages. 

The course discusses how different forest management practices and intensities influence biodiversity. It presents methods on how to assess and evaluate impact of forest management actions on flora and fauna diversity and discusses possible trade-offs between forest wood production and biodiversity.