Netherlands

This course examines the triangle of politics, public policy, and implementation. It looks at the issues of making policy work in practice; the academic perspective on everyday government practice; the promises and pitfalls of policy implementation; professional relationships; autonomous agencies; public management; and policy implementation theory.

This course focuses on the Spanish language but also on the history, geography, artistic works, traditions, and current events of the Spanish-speaking countries and their communities. Language learning constitutes 85% of course assignments, whereas culture assignments constitute 15% of the final grade. Tasks in various forms related to language and cultural are performed individually and in groups. Linguistic performance is assessed by through written and oral communication. cultural knowledge is assessed a cultural project in which students research and present a country of the Spanish-speaking world and/or delve into a related specific topic that is relevant for both our understanding of the Hispanic world and the individual interest of the learner.
 

This course engages with central concepts and debates in the anthropology of health, illness and medicine. It considers the specificity of local therapeutic communities as well as the processes that connect such systems of knowledge and practice. The production of medical knowledge and healthcare systems – including biomedicine – are also examined, for they, and their social actors, do not exist outside of culture, society and power relations. Drawing on both classic and contemporary studies, students are introduced to different theoretical approaches and consider their value for specific research topics. Topics addressed include the meaning of disease and healing; theories of embodiment, disability and reproduction; medicalization; new medical technologies; and global health. Finally, the course considers how the study of medical knowledge and practice provide a prism to understand social relations and contribute to more general debates concerning issue such as nature-nurture, structural violence, modernity, globalization or commodification. Weekly sessions include lectures introducing conceptual building blocks and key debates, followed by student lead sessions dedicated to subtopics and case studies. Students are required to come prepared and share insights and questions based on their reading accounts, complete two writing exercises and prepare one presentation and discussion session in teamwork with colleagues. Lectures and readings are occasionally supplemented by documentaries and guest lectures.

This ground-breaking course invites humanities, pre-med, and social science students interested in reading literature to experience the effects of ‘shared reading’: reading literary texts together, out loud, with communities such as people in care homes, schools, hospitals, prisons, or asylum seeker centers. Students learn the basics of how literary texts can "work" for readers, both in theory and in practice. The course discusses the issues in proving the positive effects of literary reading scientifically while seeing in practice when a text resonates with someone. Students take part in shared reading groups first-hand and examine under which circumstances shared reading can lead to comforting or transformative experiences.  The course connects students to other communities, and vice versa, as well as the community members to each other.

This foundational course combines theoretical and conceptual thinking from human geography and ways to analyze and understand the reciprocal relationships between humans and their environments, both natural and built. The learning materials are designed to introduce students to key themes and concepts that relate to human/environment relationships seen from the perspective of human geography and related social sciences, ranging from the complex and evolving relationship between society and nature to the significance of urban design for human wellbeing. Students work in small groups to further explore the weekly themes through discussion and practical exercises.

This course examines forensic linguistics. It covers legal language, forced confessions, investigative interviewing, authorship analysis, copyright infringement, earwitness testimony, linguistic disadvantage and the impact of power in real case outcomes.