Netherlands

This course critically examines the various key approaches which have dominated international development debate and underlie the multifarious development practices and policies of the last few decades. Using a perspective on the different channels, the main actors, and institutions involved, including new donors, private sector, international organizations, and international agreements that impact development processes in the global south. Focus is on the interfaces between academic paradigms, practitioners’ approaches, and the debate on questions of international cooperation and development in society at large. The course deals explicitly with the ethical and moral aspects related to development cooperation. The multidisciplinary character of this course makes it well suited for students of other programs, who may approach development issues from their own respective disciplinary backgrounds.

The first part of this course studies the theoretical background of language processing and how it received empirical support from psycholinguistics – mainly based on behavioral experiments. More recent insights are added from cognitive neuroscience, with a focus on information transfer within the language network. During reading and open discussion, students consider the following: problems that need to be solved by the cognitive language system; how the brain solves problems; the consequences if the network is not functioning well – as in Aphasia after stroke, or in developmental dyslexia. Papers covered in the course bring answers using methods such as RT, EEG, fMRI, and analysis teaching techniques. From the readings, each participant selects the topic of interest for the proposal, extracts open questions, formulates research questions, presents the ideas to peers, and writes the proposals on how to investigate this selected topic of interest.

This course reviews the interrelationships among hormones, the brain, and behavior. Basic endocrine (hormone) system physiology is introduced and the different approaches that researchers take to address questions of hormone-behavior relationships are discussed. The focus is on three large classes of hormones: stress (cortisol), social (oxytocin, vasopressin), and sex hormones (testosterone, estradiol, progesterone). Those hormones are linked to normal behavioral processes such as memory and social behavior as well as to psychiatric conditions such as depression/anxiety and autism spectrum disorder. At the end of this course, students have developed an understanding of a selection of topics related to behavioral neuroendocrinology.

Taking the perspective of women and entrepreneurship, this course takes a different approach to the role of the individual in the entrepreneurial process.  This course acknowledges that there are differences between the way men and women go about being entrepreneurs by focusing on entrepreneurship with different gender, economic, and cultural contexts and exploring which lessons one may draw from these different contexts, both from an academic as well as from a practical perspective. Rooted in a strong academic base, the course considers entrepreneurial concepts in different contexts leading to context-rich learning and a better appreciation of diversified entrepreneurial solutions.

This course introduces the fascinating field of environmental history, focusing on the tensions between economic growth, resource scarcity, and environmental degradation in the distant past as well as in present-day societies. The course pays ample attention to the transition from pre-industrial to industrial modes of production and the environmental consequences thereof - the making of the Anthropocene. Analogies are drawn from the collapse of ancient civilizations to contemporary environmental problems, such as global warming and mineral resource depletion. The course also specifically addresses the various strategies that historical civilizations have developed in order to survive climate change, deforestation, soil erosion, or other ecological threats to human livelihood. Finally, the course addresses the emergence of present-day environmental consciousness in the wake of modern urbanization, industrialization, and unprecedented demographic growth.

This course examines interactions of individual plants and plant communities with their abiotic environment, including ground and surface water regimes and biogeochemistry at the local scale. It looks at how these interactions are linked to hydrological processes at the catchment scale and how these interactions can be applied to conserve or restore water-dependent vegetation and habitats at the local level.