Trinity College Dublin

This course explores the art of Europe in the long 15th century (approximately 1380-1520) with particular attention to religious culture and belief; how gender and the body were understood and expressed; the role of pilgrimage, suffrages and the saints; the differences of artistic expressions between northern Europe (e.g. Flanders) and southern (Italy); the art of crises such as witchcraft, plague and religious reform; and the ways in which naturalism and humanism challenged existing modes of artistic expression. Students also look at whether the view of the period as one steeped in pessimism, the macabre and thoughts of decay, known according to the formulation of Jan Huizinga as the "waning of the Middle Ages" is still useful. The dominant centers to be examined are the cities of Flanders and Italy, but the art of northern France, England, Germany, and elsewhere is also drawn on.

The course educates students in the area of medical device design. This is a broad course and its focus does not solely revolve around the engineering challenges associated with designing a medical device, lectures focus on many aspects: understanding clinical trial data, understanding the anatomical fundamentals associated with the device area, developing intellectual property strategies, regulation of medical devices, risk analysis, manufacturing techniques and requirements, reimbursement, and case studies of successful and unsuccessful medical device development.

Political leaders use architecture to convey power, to express political ideas, and to influence how people think and act. In 20th-century Europe, political ideologies including fascism, communism, colonialism, and democracy influenced the creation of new buildings and cities. Students explore those ideologies through the spaces that they produced, and a selection of examples spanning between Hitler’s plans to transform Berlin to public swimming pools in post-war Britain. Under the banner of democracy, students also explore how forces within Irish politics impacted the Dublin cityscape. This is a history of modern Europe told through the mark left by political actors upon architecture and cities.

This course provides an introduction to early modern English literature and the social, cultural, and intellectual contexts that shaped it. It begins with an introductory lecture, outlining the chronology of the period and the major themes that will be addressed in the following weeks – the concept of renaissance, the Protestant reformation, the discovery of the so-called New World, and the English revolution. The course covers a range of genres, from across the whole period of 1500-1660, and features a number of lectures on major canonical authors combined with broader thematic concerns, which trace the development of early modern literature.

The course provides students with a first introduction to language acquisition research – with particular reference to second language acquisition (SLA) research. It identifies the central issues on which such research has focused, reviews some of the principal findings which have emerged and explores the implications of such findings for language teaching. The course encourages students to reflect on their own experience as a language learner and to make sense of that experience. Topics include child language acquisition, the nature/nurture debate, errors and learning strategies, the learner’s "internal syllabus," individual learner differences, theories of second language acquisition, communication strategies, and second language teaching.

Using literary sources as well as material evidence (archaeological finds, artwork, inscriptions), this course explores customs, beliefs, institutions, and identities of the early Christians within the social, political, religious, and cultural context of the Roman Empire in Late Antiquity. The course helps students to think about central questions in the study of early Christianity such as: who were the early Christians? How did they articulate their identities across different languages and in different areas of the late antique world? How and where did they eat, pray, and live? How did they understand their beliefs and interact with the cultures around them? What did their Roman, Greek, or Syrian neighbors think about them? Students reflect on different models of cross-fertilization between emerging early Christian identities and the cultures and religious phenomena which characterized the later stages of the life of the Roman Empire.

This course explores materials used in tissue replacement including metallic, ceramic, and natural/synthetic polymeric materials. Implant applications and design considerations for these materials as well as the associated problems with long term survival are described so that the mechanical, chemical, and physiological interactions between in vivo host environment and the implanted biomaterial can be better understood. Integration of biomaterial structure and function are emphasized throughout the course. Advanced manufacturing and fabrication technologies to generate biomaterials with specialized structural and interfacial properties are introduced. Students obtain a detailed understanding of the composition and properties of the major classes of biomaterial used in medical devices. The required functionality for a range of synthetic implantable biomaterials and how this relates to material choice for specific applications are also covered. Associated failure modes are introduced through a series of real-life case studies. Sterilization techniques, regulatory aspects, and standards with relation to quality and safety are introduced. 

This course introduces students to theoretical approaches to studying international relations, including scholarly debates old and new. This course is an introduction to the positive, descriptive study of international relations. Why do states make war? What are the conditions for the growth of cross-border trade and finance? What is the impact of international organizations on relations between states? This course considers these questions by looking at differing theoretical approaches to international relations and a selection of topics in historical and contemporary politics. 

The course covers contemporary monetary economics and its application to the conduct of monetary policy. As well as reviewing the relevant academic literature, the course deals with the experience of the main central banks, with a particular focus on the European Central Bank. The course first analyses the nature of money and the long-run relation between money and prices and economic activity. It then examines a number of key issues in regard to contemporary monetary policy: monetary policy rules, the role of expectations and the transmission mechanism. For this purpose, the course presents the New Keynesian model which is now widely used for the purpose of analyzing monetary policies. The course then looks at the monetary policy strategies of the major central banks as well as the operational frameworks by which they steer interest rates. The course concludes by looking at the conduct of monetary policy during the financial crisis, covering issues such as non-standard measures, the implications of the zero bound on nominal interest rates and the role of monetary policy in contributing to financial stability.

What is childhood? Was it invented? How has the concept of childhood differed in different historical, geographical, and socio-economic contexts? These are the questions that will preoccupy students in this course. Focusing on the 19th and 20th centuries, but with reference to earlier periods, and covering Ireland, Britain, Europe, and the wider world – including colonial settings and China – the class explores how the experience and perception of childhood changed. Students examine the hypothesis that childhood as a time of innocence, development, and play was not a natural category but had to be "invented," and they consider different periods and locations as possible candidates for its invention or adaptation. From child labor and children in war to the children of elites and youth culture, students construct a nuanced picture of male and female childhood.