Maastricht University – University College Maastricht

In this course, students learn about various research tools, such as participant observation and qualitative interviewing. Students learn how to take field notes and are introduced to various forms of interviewing, such as the structured interview, the in-depth interview, focus groups, and life history interviews. Taking field notes and interviewing are practiced in and outside of the classroom. Moreover, students are guided through the process of crafting a feasible research question and the appropriate design for future studies they conduct. The research questions provide the basis for students' investigations. What is to be investigated is entirely up to the student(s). However, they are provided with guidance in the formulation of their topics. In this course, students have to conduct at least one interview, thus they need to have access to a tape recorder and/or video camera. This is a time and labor-intensive skills training, especially once the data collection has begun. Most of the required work is done outside of the class setting. Students are expected to work independently and should count on having to invest an extra two to four hours per week in interviewing, transcribing the interviews, and working on the data analysis. This course is for students with a background or sincere interest in sociology, anthropology, and/or cultural studies.

This course is an intensive introduction to programming in Java that assumes no prior programming experience. It explores all aspects of modern programming by means of lectures and hands-on practical lab sessions. The course starts with the basics of computer science and computer programming. After a short introduction to computer organization, the principles of structured programming in Java are presented. The main topics covered are data types and variables, methods, conditional statements, loops, and recursion. Finally, the course introduces the object-oriented features of Java and their usage for program design. All these concepts have to be understood both from their theoretical perspective and their practical applications.

This course studies infectious diseases in a multidisciplinary way with a global public health emphasis. The first part introduces basic knowledge of the disease processes and the human immune responses. The second part focuses on three types of viruses that cause zoonotic infectious diseases in the modern era: retroviruses (i.e., HIV/AIDS), influenza viruses (i.e., H5N1, H1N1, H7N9), and coronaviruses (i.e., SARS, MERS, COVID-19). The focus of the discussion is on the biology of host-pathogen interactions, the basic epidemiology of infectious diseases, and possible countermeasures, including disease surveillance and vaccine development. The importance of social determinants of infectious diseases is also reviewed. The global impact of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) will be explored in the third part of the course. Factors affecting drug use, both on macro and micro levels, are discussed and analyzed. The course ends by highlighting the "One Health" concept (i.e., human-animal-environment interfaces) in responding to zoonotic diseases and AMR.

This is the second of a three-module course on qualitative research methods. This module builds on what students have learned in part I and is designed to guide them through the steps of data collection for their qualitative study. Students work on gaining access to their research site and begin the interview process and/or their observations and conversations with their research participants as participant observers. Students are introduced to the process of transcribing the interviews, coding the data, and memo writing. All three steps are part of qualitative data analysis. As students develop their research projects, they are challenged to link their specific research questions to larger processes and forces. They also are asked to consider who might find their research useful and how the results of their investigations might be utilized to promote social change. In-depth analysis of the intricacies underlying contemporary social, cultural, and political discourses and practices, provides the basis for good social research. This is a time and labor-intensive skills training, especially once data collection has begun. Most of the required work occurs outside of the class setting. Students are expected to work independently and should count on having to invest an extra two to four hours per week in interviewing, transcribing the interviews, and working on the data collection.