Netherlands

This course begins with an introduction to Bacteriology and Virology. The general principles of replication, classification, metabolism and antibiotic resistance of bacteria as well as the presence of bacteria in several organ systems and the composition of the indigenous flora are discussed. This is followed by a discussion of the general principles of replication, classification, and pathogenesis of viruses. Several aspects of bacteriology and virology are further discussed in the expert and tutorial group meetings, which include topics as HIV, Tuberculosis, and extended spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBL). The following lectures coverinfectious diseases, outbreaks and resistance, and microbiological diagnostics. In these topics, both the bacterial and viral aspects are discussed. The last part of this course deals with genetically modified microorganisms, in which students gain insight in the purposes of modification and the tools that are available. In the Problem-Based Learning tutorial group linked to this part of the course, students design their own experiment.

Over the past centuries, economics has changed from a largely verbal discipline that studied human agency in commercial settings, to a mathematical discipline that incorporates scientific instruments such as statistics and laboratory practices. This course retraces this past and to see how modern economics emerged to its present form. Students assess the development of economic ideas, theories, and methods in their appropriate historical context with emphasize on incisive change of the economic discipline from the interwar to the post-war period. The primary objective is to enable students to historically assess the merits and limitations of contemporary economics in addressing major economic and social questions. 
 

This course examines how crime is framed and represented in the media. It covers the interconnections between crime, power and its representation within the media and popular culture; and how relations of power pervade and institutionalize the meanings of deviance and crime and how these meanings can be sedimented or challenged in cultural terms.

Strategic management studies why some firms are more successful than others.  As such, this course integrates knowledge and skills gained from prior studies on marketing, management, finance, and accounting. This course focuses on the key theoretical ideas and concepts of strategic management and how to apply them in practice and on business-level, corporate-level, and global-level strategy by analyzing strategic options available to multi-divisional, multi-national firms. In drawing on these tools, students adopt a general management point of view by analyzing strategies in light of the total enterprise.  Moreover, because of the limitations of applying static analysis in the real world, the course underlines the dynamic nature of effective strategy formulation and implementation. This shifts the emphasis from generic strategies of cost leadership and differentiation based on industry analysis (i.e., Porterian approaches) to strategies that managers should develop for resource and knowledge building, entrepreneurship, leadership, innovation, and learning. A key focus in the course is on firm-specific unique resources and competencies and their deployment for improving company performance. The purpose is not to inflict new theories but to enable students to apply their accumulated knowledge to address real-world business problems. This discussion-based course draws heavily on case analyses, simulation, and experiential exercises to develop a deeper understanding of strategic management.

Course goals

This course introduces students to the study of gender in its intersection with other important topics such as race, sex and sexuality, religion. Students will thus become familiar with a selection of important concepts and theories from Gender Studies within the context of the Humanities. Furthermore, they will be able to apply these concepts and frameworks in the analysis of concrete social and cultural phenomena (i.e. media objects, artistic representations). 

    
Learning objectives:
Students will be able to:
 - identify and explain how gender, in its intersection with other categories of difference play a role in societal power imbalances;
- develop a critical vocabulary to engage in gender analysis on the basis of key theoretical debates in the field;
- work in a team, collectively develop critical arguments and identify concrete examples and case studies that illustrate/support/challenge said theories;
- engage in a nuanced analysis of complex social, media, arts and cultural events;
- improve their critical thinking skills, academic writing skills, as well as communication skills;

Content

This interdisciplinary course teaches you how gender (also: sexual difference), ethnicity, class and sexuality affect identities and subjectivities, and play a role in the production, consumption and interpretation of cultural artifacts. Learning to look through the lenses of 'gender',  'ethnicity' and ‘sexuality’, you will experience how cultural and social scientific approaches have to be combined in critical analysis (‘intersectionality’). You will be trained in how to use various interdisciplinary approaches when it comes to the gender, ethnicity/race and sexuality sensitive analysis of different cultural artifacts, genres and media: literature, history, film and other forms of popular culture, language and the new media.

The anthology 'Doing Gender in Media, Art and Culture A Comprehensive Guide to Gender Studies, 2nd Edition, edited by Rosemarie Buikema, Liedeke Plate and Kathrin Thiele was developed for this course. A red thread running through the book and the course are 'woman warriors': women who struggle for equality and contest and challenge societal norms. Examples range from Simone de Beauvoir to Lara Croft, from Sarah Bartmann to Phoolan Devi. The book can be bought at Savannah Bay (Telingstraat 13, Utrecht). The course is both devoted to different theoretical frameworks, approaches and methodologies such as Gender, Postcolonial and Queer Theory as to particular issues and topics such as the question of representation in terms of gender, race and sexuality, feminist art and aesthetic theory, and secularism and multiculturalism.
 

This course deals with the integrative regulation of processes by hormones, in particular the regulation of energy, growth, stress, and reproduction. Basic principles are discussed first, such as homeostasis, hormonal axes, feedback mechanisms, biochemical structure of hormones, and structure and function of their receptors. Then the functional anatomy and histology of the endocrine organs are discussed, followed by the discussion of hormones that play a role in metabolism (including gut hormones and adipocytokines) and during growth, stress, and reproduction. During this course, specific attention is given to academic skills such as analyzing a scientific research paper and writing a scientific paper.
 

To improve the performance of a firm, managers have to find tools to hire the right people, sort them into the right job, motivate them to do their work well, develop their skills through formal and informal learning, and cooperate efficiently with co-workers. Firms that stimulate one aspect might do so at the cost of others. Managers, therefore, face many complex trade-offs in their personnel policies. In this course, economic tools to understand these trade-offs are discussed and illustrated with examples of how to apply them in practice. Questions posed in the course include: Why should pay vary across workers within firms – and how "compressed" should pay be within firms? Should firms pay workers for their performance on the job or for their skills or hours of work? How are pay and promotions structured across jobs to induce optimal effort from employees? How are jobs designed and performance measures? Why use teams and how are teams used most effectively? How should all these human resource management practices, from incentive pay to teamwork, be combined within firms?