University of Bristol

This course explores Bayesian games and considers adverse selection and moral hazard at a more formal level. In macroeconomics, the course studies long-run fiscal policy (including pensions systems), aggregate investment, and modern theories of unemployment. Students examine notions of strategies, equilibrium, and beliefs in games and solve formal games, including dynamic games with asymmetric information. Students formalize an economic problem using the models presented and use the models to undertake analyses as well as understanding the long-run implications of fiscal policy. Students also analyse key issues such as sovereign debt and pensions reforms using a simple OLG model, and they examine key dynamic models of investment and how to use them to explain real issues.

This course presents a view of linguistic communication in which the semantic properties of the words uttered conspire with the features and circumstances of the uttering to generate messages. The main message (what is said) is overt and explicit, while other layers of communicated content are implicit in (implicated by) the main message. To appreciate the ways context interacts with linguistic meaning, students focuses on the techniques people employ for referring to particular objects. It is convenient to structure this field in terms of the different kinds of linguistic devices used: proper names, demonstratives, pronouns, and definite descriptions.

This course explores the different statistical methodologies for investigating the importance of genetic and environmental influence on behavior, including twin and adoption designs, and DNA studies. This course provides students with a critical understanding of the methods in behavioral genetics, and how these have been used to investigate the roles of genes and environments in creating individual differences in behavioral outcomes.

This course focuses on composing contemporary music. Under the guidance of the instructor, students compose extended movements for student ensembles.

This course explores film genres in Hollywood and other national cinemas. Students examine both the conventions of individual genres and the idea of genre itself. The course looks at formal, historical, ideological, and industrial perspectives on genre, and considers some of the ways in which genre has been conceptualized. Students also explore alternative approaches that potentially complicate the premises and assumptions of genre theory.

In their search for historical evidence, researchers may find individual photographs that have some bearing on their work. Sometimes the photographic image itself is the primary evidence of the event under investigation. This course examines two issues regarding the use that historians might make of photographs. The first is that the production and meaning of photographs is intimately related to the period technology that was available to produce them and claims about such images should be made with a full understanding of the possibilities and restrictions affecting the photographer's work. The second is that meanings that were and can be attributed to photographs are also culturally conditioned and the subtleties of the relationship between historical interpretations and contemporary appropriation require careful consideration. These two questions are explored through a number of iconic images, including the raising of the US flag on Iwo Jima in WWII, the Black power salutes of medal-winning athletes in the 1968 Olympic games, through to the more mundane collections of images of everyday events found in virtually every family archive.

Arguably creativity is what makes us human. Whilst 'artificial intelligence' is challenging and outstripping human capabilities, non­human 'creative intelligence' seems to be constantly playing catch­up . Today, we're told repeatedly of the value of the 'creative economy'. Creativity and innovation within business are heralded as central to business and economic success. A survey conducted by IBM of 1,500 CEOs from 60 countries and 33 industries identifies creativity as the “most crucial factor for future success.” Seventeen countries in OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) identify “creativity and innovation” as a core competency, so valuable for the next generation it requires major restructuring of national educational programs and priorities. Creativity itself is big business. Most bookshops will contain plenty of books promising to reveal for the the reader the secret to finding, unlocking or rediscovering their, or their organisation's, creative potential. Creativity is achieved, they frequently claim, through following a 10­step, 5 step or perhaps even 3 step plan. In turn, happiness, wellbeing, wealth and self­fulfilment are promised. We'd love to be able to promise similar benifits for the course 'How to be creative'. We wouldn't rule any of them out. But our aims are, comparatively, rather modest. 'How to be creative' is a creative exploration of the science, art and practice of creativity. We will explore the competing explanations and theories of creativity. But we will also try out and test if these theories and explanations really do help us in the quest to be creative. For example, a key project that we'll be working on together is to create and exhibit a physical or digital prototype of a device capable of producing creative material OR a device capable of testing/evaluating creativity or creative ideas. Our goal is to develop an interdisciplinary approach. As we'll see creativity stretches across many if not all domains of knowledge and disciplines and creative phenomena are known for crossing, mixing, transcending and subverting boundaries. So as well as approaching creativity through the lenses of different academic disciplines we'll also be exploring creativity through different creative practices ­ for example music, cooking, furniture making, advertising, photography, writing etc.

This course examines how history is used outside the walls of the university. Students consider uses of history, how they are shaped by political, cultural, social, and economic contexts, and how they change over time. How is history produced for non-academic audiences different, and why? Is public history more or less conservative than academic history? Can academic historians usefully play a part in these debates? Course topics include heritage, politics and policy, history and the media, and history in schools.