Netherlands

This course introduces the functioning of marine and estuarine ecosystems. The structure is centered around marine processes, systems, and impacts.  The course introduces marine and estuarine ecology through lectures, a field practicum, and a day trip to a tropical marine ecosystem. Lectures cover a wide range of topics and ecosystems including the most recent scientific insights and hot topics in marine ecology. During the lectures, important physical, chemical, and biological processes of the marine and estuarine environment are explained. The processes and ecological principles are illustrated more in-depth using examples from various estuarine and marine ecosystems. The influence of global change and other human impacts on coastal and marine areas, such as eutrophication, chemical pollution, and plastics, are also discussed. Lectures include guest lecturers from scientific institutes (NIOZ, Utrecht University, Wageningen Marine Research), the Zoo (Burgers Zoo), and PhD students to introduce students to current issues and trending topics in the field of marine ecology. The lectures are complemented by a field practical to gain experience with marine ecology research methods. Students also go on an excursion to the coral reef and mangrove display of Burgers Zoo, during which students get acquainted with the complex interactions in tropical ecosystems.

In this course, Western ocularcentrism and the modernist segmentation of our sensory functions and sensorial experiences are questioned. Philosophical, artistic, and scientific ideas that question the supremacy of the eye, the modernist hierarchy of the senses, and the division of our sensory functions are reviewed. Through lectures, guest lectures, museum visits, experiments, discussions, and the intensive study of texts participants become more attentive to how our sensorium functions. Students learn to analyze contemporary art, film, fashion, design, consumer goods, and environments from a multisensorial perspective and identify interrelations that exist between the different senses into account in their scientific work.  If there are excursions to museums, cities, or other art institutions, these may incur additional costs.

This course on contemporary Asia focuses on the integration and synthesis of culture, economics, and politics in Asian societies to increase an understanding of the region in its contemporary social-political and cultural setting. This course transcends the borders of academic disciplines and domains and deals with topics such as modernity and public policy; politico-cultural obstacles for intra-regional cooperation; social change and prosperity; inter-cultural interaction; and cultural forces in society. 
No specific required knowledge. Exchange students should have finished their first year of Bachelor study.

This version of the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience includes an Independent Study Project (ISP) done under the direction of the instructor. The minimum reading is between 20 and 25 articles from established academic periodicals/magazines. The ISP is 10-12 pages and counts for 1/3 of the overall grade for the course. In this course, students learn to use neuroscience methods to study the cognitive development of infants, children, and adolescents. The course begins with the various methods used in developmental cognitive neuroscience, such as pediatric and infant MRI, EEG, and fNIRS. In this context, students uncover and discuss the benefits and challenges of each approach and the feasibility of studying different age ranges. The course then examines typical brain development as assessed with in vivo MRI (including trajectories of white & gray matter over the life span). Next, are more specific aspects of cognitive development such as the development of visual processes where students learn how learning to read affects the brain and how regions involved in face processing develop throughout childhood to support important social functions such as face recognition. Topics are approached using a mix of formats including active participation, working in subgroups, presentations, short lectures, and videos.

This course is only for students who have passed SD1 or already know some Dutch and had an intake with one of our staff members. Once you've completed this module you will be able to: inquire about travel and transport; talk about your house; conduct simple discussions in present and future tenses; and get around in shops, restaurants, and markets.

This course exploits the development of biobased materials involving the biology of biological feedstock, the chemistry of biobased building blocks and polymers, the technical processes, principles of circularity, and environmental and societal implications. This course creates a critical and creative attitude towards biobased materials and technologies. Pre-req: Organic Chemistry. Assessment includes assignments, presentations, written exams, and attendance.

Examine how racism works structurally and individually and how, this, in turn, affects us in our everyday lives. The course engages with critical approaches such as decolonizing the mind (DTM).  The course builds on the premise that although white and BIPOC persons are affected differently by racism, all groups are affected deeply. The course spends a significant amount of time focusing on whiteness and the ways in which white people are complicit with racism. Through detailed recordings of racialized situations in their everyday lives, participants exercise their ability to recognize that they live in a racialized environment.  Throughout the course, students grapple with France Twine’s contention that racial identities are changeable and movable – at least to some extent. This may help us to get away from monolithic ways of conceptualizing racial identities and, instead, adopt more fluid practices of speaking, writing, seeing, and perceiving. 

The course examines several approaches to key players – director, curator, patron, architect – through case studies, site and/ or virtual visits, analyses, review-writing, and a practical exercise in curating. Part I departs from the concept of museum script to consider the agency of curatorship. Part 2 considers forms of agency exercised by modern patrons in public museums. Students research an aspect of curatorship for their term paper.