Trinity College Dublin

This course examines images of astrology found in illuminated manuscripts, astrological charts and talismans, playing cards, prints, maps, paintings and tapestries, as well as in architecture in the broad global early modern world to explore their political, medical, divinatory, and magical use. Considering the early modern Western astrology as the result of the intercultural exchanges from Greece, Babylon and India to the rest of the world via images and texts that translated diverse ideas on natural philosophy, the students will learn key concepts from Renaissance Neoplatonism and Hermeticism to discuss the reception of astrological knowledge in a variety of everyday objects. Students will also reflect on the role of astrological images in the transmission of Western knowledge (deemed magical or scientific) via colonization, as well as on the influence that early modern celestial observations taken forth by cutting–edge artifacts and novel circumnavigations around the world had on the global shaping of astrological imagery.

This course addresses the core topics in medical law: clinical negligence, consent to treatment, and confidentiality. These are the legal and ethical issues that arise in all healthcare interactions, and therefore the topics that arise most commonly in practice. The course focuses on mastering the black letter law aspects of these topics, but also on delving into the theoretical principles that underpin them. 

The course introduces the fundamental conceptual aspects of the study of human behavior that have informed the applications of the science of behavior change. Behavioral principles are essential to understanding all aspects of "what humans do" and why they behave in such ways. The number of therapeutic approaches and interventions which have been researched and developed from the science of behavior analysis has rapidly expanded especially in recent decades. Such behavioral interventions have impacted significantly across a wide range of clinical issues including for example: child development and behavioral/emotional difficulties, individuals living with brain injury, people living with dementia, the assessment and treatment of self-injurious behavior and other challenging behaviors, accelerated educational outcomes, and best practice in treatment for children with neurodevelopmental and related conditions. The course content is designed to provide an introduction to the impact and scope of behavior analysis as a "helping profession" across contexts and populations.

This course exposes students to many different facets of the Black lived experience, thereby encouraging the development of a more informed, nuanced perspective. Critical engagement with topics such as the history of the Black diaspora, debates surrounding the decolonization of the curriculum, the soft colonialism of Irish religious aid, and social justice movements encourages a global perspective among students and enable them to act on the basis of this knowledge and understanding.

The course examines how values, social relations and institutions have changed in European societies. Are there similar trends in all or at least most European societies? Have European societies converged, i.e., become more similar over time, or are there persisting divergences and cleavages? The course identifies the forces that drive changes in values, social relations, and institutions in European societies and the structures that shape particular regional and country-specific responses. It deals with a variety of topics such as religion, gender relations, and friendship patterns. While the course does compare a few countries at one point in time, it tends to look at many European countries (and occasionally countries beyond Europe) for longer periods to identify common patterns and the main differences between them.

This course covers the topic of food to explore the history of Mexico and its diaspora from the time of the Conquest, with a particular focus on food as national and cultural identity as reflected in cinema and literature. It will also explore how food provides a multifaceted lens through which to examine issues such as food and poverty, food as a transnational site of both community and exclusion, and ecological issues, such as control of natural resources essential to food production and security. Students examine the topic of food as both a political issue and a source of creative inspiration through our analysis of texts, art, films and television series.

This course focuses on understanding organizations in terms of structures, shared beliefs, identities and practices, concepts of efficiency and power and the implications of these insights for how we intervene to change organizations. The course helps students build their understanding of organizing beyond simplistic, functional frameworks and provides them with the necessary sociological and psychological concept to help them make sense of why organizations act in certain ways.

The imagining of history is such a prominent trend in popular culture that students need to be equipped to deconstruct representations of the past and to interrogate their own working assumptions about history imbibed from film and literature. This course explores three examples of how historical events and themes have been imagined in the world outside of professional historical scholarship. Students will examine how these subjects have been "brought to life" in film and literature. Students also have the opportunity to consider wider questions and problems which link together the three subjects addressed in the course. This is not a course designed to test the accuracy, in a narrow sense, of "historical fiction" in literature and film. Students rather examine the ways in which the past has been presented, interpreted, and re-interpreted in various genres; to uncover the assumptions or agendas that shaped creative decisions and the responses of audiences to genuinely popular representations of the past; and to reflect critically upon the qualities that make for a great work of historical imagination or reconstruction, qualities which cannot easily be replicated by the conventional methods of historical inquiry.

There are so many topics to explore: generic status; thematic inclusiveness; the incorporation of contemporary epistemology—and the ongoing ethical and environmental concerns that Melville raises. Students discuss the content of the "novel" and its shifting tones from the comic to the tragic, but there’s no end to the sense of things that the book raises. Students reflect on topics such as political dictatorship, obsession, absolutism, oil, modernity, etymology, capitalism, Christianity, slavery, and the roots of belief systems. 

Our increased longevity is one of the major achievements of modern humans, however this increase in lifespan does not necessarily mean an increase in health span – healthy, disease-free years. Students will explore some of the key challenges and opportunities associated with the expanding ageing population. They will use a multi-disciplinary approach (biological, clinical, societal) to explore several key questions such as: what happens the body during ageing that leaves us more susceptible to developing diseases such as cardiovascular disease, neurocognitive decline and cancer in later life? Why do some people age faster than others? How do we manage this challenge clinically? Can new models of care and novel technologies facilitate independent living in later life? What is it like for someone to get older in Ireland today? How can we ensure that everyone has the opportunity to age successfully in our society? What are the legal, ethical and economical challenges that we will face?