University of Cambridge, Pembroke College

This course utilizes an inter-disciplinary approach by using different analytical lenses when examining the intersections between different fields. The course begins with examination of key theoretical and ideological underpinnings related to natural resource management, synthesizing different academic fields beyond just economics and politics. This foundation is utilized to examine some of the most pressing contemporary global issues, with country and regional specific examples including from Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe.

This course provides insights into the fascinating world of stem cells and their applications in brain research and clinics. Students follow the life of a cell from embryogenesis to neurogenesis in the adult brain. Students learn directly from scientists how to apply advanced techniques to research, how to build disease models, and the ethical limitations concerning stem cell research. A broad part of the course is directed to debates about working with animal models and stem cells, applications of “mini-brains”, and the role of women in science.

The dramatic progress in living standards, over the last hundred years especially, has been possible only by the evolution of new materials.  The course provides an introduction to the wide breadth of Materials Science. It shows how the radically different responses of the huge range of materials we use in quite varied situations in everyday life enable us to exploit and benefit from their distinctive characteristics. Topics include atomic structure and its relevance to all classes of materials, the basis of mechanical and physical properties, environmental degradation and optimization using anisotropy. Examples of materials evolution are used to show how diverse materials are tailored to specific applications including transportation, power generation, communication, and health care. Further understanding and development of materials are essential given the demanding and growing challenges of sustainability.  Science and technology must provide some solutions and Materials Science has a pivotal role in enabling innovation and change.

A research project that assigns students to expert professors in their proposed research topic. The course takes the students' research capabilities to a more professional level. This can be most closely compared to what is called a supervised research project in the USA.

A defining feature of Shakespeare’s creations is their capacity to be enjoyed and understood in strikingly different ways when encountered through different media. In this course students explore this protean quality by considering two great works in three distinct forms: as literature, in theatrical performance, and on film. The plays selected introduce students to the range of instruments in Shakespeare’s stylistic tool kit, and to the specific ways in which he used these. Students also learn what exactly, in the context of Shakespeare studies, we mean by "texts" and how these should be examined. Students also consider the kinds of meaning that are created when the same plays are enacted on the boards of the specific London theatre for which Shakespeare wrote and in which he envisaged them being staged. Students compare their own interpretations with the choices made in specific Globe productions and gain insights into original performance conditions. Finally, students explore how, in the 20th century, directors transformed the meanings of those same narratives through adapting them into the medium of cinema. This involves comparing dramatic language with filmic imagery, considering the transition from playscript to screenplay, and exploring how Britain’s most celebrated cultural export has been creatively reinterpreted in the US, Europe and Asia.

In today's global, rapidly changing knowledge-based economy, learning and experimenting with employable skills is one of the smartest investments that one can make for their future career. This course encourages students to develop key employability skills that will stand them in good stead for a future career. The course puts the student right in the center of their own learning and engagement with an array of developmental activities designed to develop themselves and their future careers. Students find opportunities to practice skills such as leadership, creativity, design thinking, and problem solving relevant to the needs of graduate employers. The course also involves the development of practical employable skills including preparing a CV, writing a cover letter, and preparing for job interviews. This course draws from an interdisciplinary perspective to understand career success, self-marketing, and personal branding. It builds on foundational concepts and skills in career development from across disciplines, including psychology, business, design thinking, entrepreneurship, and employability. It is designed as a learning environment that focuses on the development of knowledge and skills for students interested in distinctive career success. Students have intensive brainstorming sessions, professional development workshops, and training programs to develop and apply professional skills for their careers in the 21st century.

This course focusses on how economic and finance principles learned in the classroom can be, and have been, applied to answer real-life questions and address problems faced by individuals, corporations and governments with extensive use of real-world case studies. Covering macroeconomic, microeconomic and finance topics, we will discuss the role and goals of central banks in developed economies and the challenges they face in controlling inflation, encouraging economic growth, ensuring the safety and soundness of the banking system and dealing with asset price bubbles and credit crunches. Case studies will focus on central bank failures in these areas.

We will examine how financial markets have developed (often differently) around the world to address the core problems of asymmetric information, moral hazard and transactions costs that must be addressed in transferring funds from investors to firms. We will also focus on a number of current hot topics in economics and finance: i) the growth of cryptocurrencies, ii) the rise of the internet giants (Google, Facebook, Amazon), iii) the increasing importance of intellectual property for firms and economies and iv) the economics of free trade in a world of rising trade barriers. For each topic we will discuss what economics and finance has to say about the causes of these phenomena and what their effects are on individuals, firms and the economy as a whole.