University of Otago

This course explores Asian regions, societies, and cultures. The course is organized in four sections, dedicated to the following regions: China, India, South East Asia, and Japan. The course examines some of the defining characteristics and issues related to the social structures, political powers, environmental challenges, economic development, and religious and cultural diversity of these particular countries and regions.

This course explores the development of new modes of communication, representation, and social practices in the digital context. The course approaches digital culture from historical, social, theoretical, and aesthetic perspectives. It develops ideas and issues around digital culture, focusing on the social process of communication and how it is shaped by tools, institutions, and practices.

This course develops the classical theory of electromagnetism in terms of Maxwell's equations, both in vacuum and in media. A major emphasis is placed on the use of vector calculus and its related integral theorems to solve for electric and magnetic fields. The formal similarity of electrostatic and magnetostatic problems is shown, and principles of symmetry and superposition are used to facilitate solution. Electromagnetic induction and the energy of electromagnetic fields are introduced. Fundamental concepts in optics are developed in terms of electromagnetism, including light propagation, interference, reflection, refraction, transmission at interfaces, and applications in diffraction.

This course explores how political institutions and processes function across a range of countries. It introduces the comparative method and considers ways of conceptualizing political systems and understanding the functions of their key institutions. The course introduces comparative politics and provides a foundation for understanding how politics operates in various countries. Topics include an introduction to the state and nation, forms of government, theoretical approaches and methods in comparative politics, the institutional framework in which politics happens, the relationship between the different branches of government, the ways in which people participate in politics, how politics is communicated through the media, political parties and interest groups, voting and elections, and how policies are made.

This course introduces the social scientific analysis of culture, society, and identity, including issues of identity politics, socialisation, the self in everyday life, stigma, the politics of ethnicity, and the social dynamics of power. Students explore a range of key themes in the discipline of sociology. The course addresses the social processes of socialisation, social interaction, and identity construction; core aspects of institutional life, such as the family, religion, education, politics, and the economy; as well as drivers of social change, such as urbanisation, sustainability, globalization, and social movements.

This course covers New Zealand literature, with a focus on the kinds of historical and contemporary connections New Zealand has to other regions, histories, and cultures. The course examines some of the familiar narratives about New Zealand, explores the complexity of New Zealand as a nation, and introduces students to less familiar ways of thinking about New Zealand and its literature.

This course analyzes health policymaking processes and approaches to organizing, financing, and providing health care in New Zealand and overseas. Students examine health policy in relation to public policy, politics, economics, and management.

Game theory is the study of mathematical models of strategic decision making with interacting decision makers. This theory has become a fundamental tool in the study of social interaction in economics, political science, anthropology, sociology, animal behavior, biology, computer science, and other disciplines. This course introduces the basic concepts and tools of game theory and explores a variety of applications. Students focus on concepts and illustrative examples rather than on mathematical theory. Students learn about a variety of game theoretic methods of analyzing behavior in strategic situations; predict behavior and evaluate business and policy options; reflect on game theoretical methods from a multi-disciplinary perspective, and appreciate the impact that game theory has made, and continues to make, in a variety of contexts.