University of Copenhagen

This course provides an intensive study of some of the main philosophical ideas and achievements of the Enlightenment era. It combines the reading of classical texts with works written by non-canonical figures, such as women philosophers, philosophers of color, and non-Christian philosophers. With a critical perspective, it reassesses the ambivalent nature of the concept of science and scientific method as well as reflects on the political ideas of the state, religious tolerance, freedom of speech, gender, and race.

This course is a cursory introduction to the recent socio-environmental history of Denmark that focuses on such issues as social cohesion, pollution, energy, biodiversity, climate change, knowledge production, governance, economy, technology and everyday environmentalism will form the common ground for transnational and transdisciplinary comparisons. In seminars and discussions, various analytical approaches and their reach and applicability for a truly sustainable development are examined.

This course focuses on the ecological and evolutionary patterns and processes that drive biotic and abiotic interactions at population and community levels. A major focus of the course is to use ecological theory to understand basic and applied questions in plant ecology with relevance to global sustainability objectives. It covers the basic principles in plant population and community ecology that will help to address the challenges for plant population ecology (demography, population dynamics, dispersal), biotic interactions (plant-plant, plant-microbe, and plant-herbivore interactions and their impacts on plant populations, communities, and co-evolution), evolutionary ecology (life history, local adaptation, population, and ecological genetics), and plant community ecology (community structure, succession, species diversity). The course also explores the importance of basic plant ecology for addressing current global agri-environmental and sustainability challenges (zero hunger, life on land, responsible consumption and production, climate action) through lectures and seminars, student- and teacher-led classroom discussion, literature criticism, and project work. Case studies include plant invasions, pest management, plant ecology and evolution in human-influenced environments, plant diversity, big data, and citizen science for plant ecology.

This course introduces a general statistical approach to the design of laboratory and similar experiments. It covers how to analyze the resulting data, including statistical quality control, in order to assure accuracy and precision so that reliable and reproducible conclusions can be drawn concerning the relations being studied. Along with the statistical and methodological content of the course, a number of concrete and frequently used pharmaceutical applications (designed experiments) are presented. Examples include clinical trials (including crossover and repeated measures designs), toxicity testing, bio-equivalence analyses, assay validation, and design and analysis of epidemiological surveys.