France

In addition to knowledge of the subjects explored by cultural history and political ideas over the past 25 years, this course introduces the reading and understanding of texts that have shaped European political culture. It also discusses the structures that shape mass culture.

The majority of lectures in political psychology focus on the American context. This course thinks outside the box and shifts attention to the intersection of politics and psychology in a comparative manner, while still keeping the U.S. case in mind. The course begins by reviewing the foundations of political psychology and then explores the current state of the field. Next, it delves into how individuals make decisions, the mechanisms used in information processing, the importance of both "cold" and "hot" cognition in forming political behavior, and the role of groups and identities in shaping political opinions. Lastly, the course concludes by examining the relationships between groups and exploring why polarization is becoming increasingly prevalent in present-day politics.

This course is for students at advanced levels C1+ (with at least two semesters completed in C1) and C2. It focuses on improving linguistic tools for oral expression. The course promotes, consolidates, and perfects oral practice in Spanish based on specific cases and situations. To this end, a series of activities are carried out to develop this communicative competence. It enhances fluency, grammatical and lexical correctness, semantic precision, and pronunciation, all while taking into account the needs and expectations of the students. The basics of discourse analysis are used and the uses and strategies of debate are promoted. Each oral expression process is adapted to the context of speech (registers and context).

Utilizing both academic research and literary/artistic expression, this course contributes towards gaining critical and dynamic analytical perspectives on urban transformations in the Arab region, especially in newly formed cities-turned-capitals like Amman and Kuwait. The course visits precolonial societies in the region, their precolonial interactions and modes of communal existence, and then considers the effects of colonialism, border-drawing, and postcolonial identity construction and its enduring effects in modern cities whose inhabitants go through various degrees of identity questioning, alienation, and conflict. The course also looks at the effects of authoritarianism, neoliberalism, commodification, and self-centered consumerism on urban transformations and malformations.

This advanced course guides students through key contemporary sociological debates, presenting major theoretical and analytical paradigms and exploring how these are developed and tested through empirical research. The course tackles complex questions about inequality, justice, emotion, creativity, violence and belief, highlighting the tension between micro-, meso- and macro-level explanations. Students also discover how sociology is practiced across different countries and intellectual traditions, gaining comparative insights and deeper reflexivity about their own place in society.

This course provides fundamental knowledge and critical understanding of the intricate relationship between international law and global politics, with a particular emphasis on the processes of political globalization. While the prominence of nation-states on the global stage appears to be waning, political globalization is characterized by the increasing role of intergovernmental organizations and elements of global civil society such as international NGOs, and social movement organizations. As key concepts of global politics such as power, equality, sustainability, and peace are now being challenged by this process, the course explores how legal frameworks and political dynamics interact on the global stage. To this end, it covers theoretical foundations, key actors, sources of international law, and contemporary issues, with a focus on practical implications and case studies.

This course studies the relationship between energy and urbanization, taking a global approach that gives pride of place to cities in the Global South and emphasizing a socio-material perspective and an understanding of the social practices and hierarchies that structure cities. Furthermore, energy governance is a major issue in urban policy today, particularly in the context of ecological transition. Therefore, it studies urban energy, taking into account the long term and also looking ahead to the future. In terms of methodology, the course is rooted in geography. It uses and familiarize students with certain geographical methods such as cartography and graphic visualization. It also encourages students to engage directly and critically with social science works in the form of articles and books, leading to presentations and lectures, as well as a graded written assignment.

This course studies some of the foundational doctrines of contemporary international law, while also equipping students with the tools to critique and question these foundational doctrines. While expounding upon some of the foundational doctrines and facets of international law such as sources, sovereignty, Law of Treaties, state responsibility, jurisdiction, international organizations, use of force, International Humanitarian Law, and International Criminal Law, this course also critically examines the complex and reciprocal relationship between international law and empire. It explores how empire was instrumental in the making of international law, shaping its foundational doctrines, institutions, and practices. Conversely, it also interrogates how international law itself became a powerful tool in the making and maintenance of empire, facilitating processes of domination, extraction, and governance across the globe. Drawing on critical perspectives—especially those advanced by Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) - the course challenges students to question conventional narratives and dominant frameworks. Through engagement with TWAIL scholarship and other critical schools, students analyze the extent to which international law continues to serve imperial interests and consider the question of whether international law, by itself, is now an empire.

This course studies Europe both as a collection of countries that exhibit varying political, economic, and policy patterns but face very similar problems at the turn of the millennium and as a political and economic unit that binds those European countries together and determines their collective responses to the challenges they face. It provides an understanding of capitalist diversity within Europe and the challenges faced by European integration in the past decade and a half.

The course follows a traditional chronological approach (from antiquity to the 1860s), providing an introduction to the development of major schools of thought. The emphasis is on understanding the historical, political, and cultural context that contributed to the emergence of economic doctrines. Neither a history of simple “ideas” nor a history of economic theories alone, this is a contextual history that seeks to explain how and why, in each era, different ways of thinking about economics took hold. It examines how three ages of thought follow on from and intermingle with one another: moral (conforming behavior to norms defining the good life); political (working for the prosperity and power of nations); and scientific (developing a rational explanation of economic behavior and phenomena).