Denmark

This course develops an understanding of key concepts and theories related to climate issues, sustainability, and environmental governance in Africa. It debates climate adaptation and mitigation, sustainable development, and governing the environment, and discusses specific African cases related to climate-smart interventions, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and governance initiatives related to biodiversity conservation and rural development. The course examines key actors in Africa's development and the roles they play in responding to the climate crisis, in sustainability, and in governing natural resources. It discusses relevant questions concerning the relationship between climate, scarcity, and abundance; internationally-driven, climate-smart initiatives in Africa related to the role of state, market, and civil society; and the impacts and coping strategies related to implementing the SDGs in Africa. The course consists of a combination of lectures and workshop-like activities with active student participation and presentations by a number of external lecturers, including guests from the private sector, NGOs, and researchers. This version of the course is worth 6 quarter UC units and assessment consists of a written paper on a topic of the student's own choosing comprising 24,000-28,800 characters.

This course explores how the conceptualization of migration is related to ideas about citizenship and belonging, and to the racialization of those positioned as foreign. It draws together theorizations, historical background, and concrete examples of contemporary politics to discuss what migration is and who is considered a migrant. It considers the political effects of conceptualizing migration, such that although each state sets immigration rules, the making of migrants is at the same time impacted by how global politics is regulated and imagined, including international norms on refugees or states’ self-perception as open to the world. This interactive course includes group work and lecture-style elements, interacts with a variety of texts, and provides opportunities to reflect on and learn about writing.

This course provides an overview over the literature in economics on topics related to gender, work, and the family. The course covers topics such as female and male labor force participation, the gender wage gap, marriage and divorce, fertility, domestic violence, women’s empowerment within the household and societies. 

This pre-semester course offers an exciting and comprehensive introduction to the history of Copenhagen and to the Danish language. This course is a perfect introduction for students who wish to gain a solid understanding of the cultural, political, economic, and social history of the Danish capital. The course consists of a series of lectures supplemented with excursions out in the streets of Copenhagen. Over three weeks, students learn about the city’s history from its foundation in the early Middle Ages, when Copenhagen was just a fishing village, through a millennium of history up to modern Copenhagen, often ranked as one of the best cities in the world when measured by the quality of life. As well as covering the rich history of Copenhagen, the course also includes several lessons in Danish for beginners to introduce the basics of the Danish language including conversation, grammar, and pronunciation. Students learn to present themselves, describe where they live, and learn how to order coffee in Danish. It also covers some of the Danish terminology related to the cultural content of the course. This intensive three-week course is open to all international students and assumes no prior knowledge of Danish history or language. 

This course focuses on the technical solutions needed to improve the fairness, accountability, and transparency of machine learning models. It reflects on the benefits and risks of machine learning models to develop methods to detect and mitigate biases and create solutions to make the inner workings of models more transparent. Topics include statistical notions of fairness and bias; the intended usage of machine learning models; learning fair representations; model interpretability and transparency; generating and evaluating model explanations; and probing representations for bias. Knowledge of machine learning (probability theory, linear algebra, classification) and programming is a prerequisite.

This course examines recent developments in the contentious electoral politics of three Southeast Asian countries: Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines, with some comparative references to Burma/Myanmar. Following a brief review of the case countries, the course adopts a thematic approach, first reviewing the character of the state, including national mythologies and the historical role of the military. It then explores aspects of transition, including the changing political economy, the rise of electoral politics, the role of religion and media, and the phenomenon of rally politics. Challenges to national elites from the regions is also closely scrutinized. These themes and issues have a broader relevance to wider debates in comparative politics which students explore in their written assessment.