Trinity College Dublin

This course introduces students to key debates and texts in the field of postcolonial studies. The lectures are grouped together under headings relevant to historical and contemporary engagements with post coloniality. Each theme consists of two lectures: one that frames the conceptual, critical, and historical debates on the given topic, the other discussing a literary text. The critical and literary works scheduled for each lecture represent the focus of discussion, but related authors, themes, and texts are introduced and discussed alongside them, giving students direction for further study. In addition, and where appropriate, visual and audio material is used to illustrate as well as help generate debate.

Organizations of one form or another play an important part of society and serve many important needs. They vary greatly in size, complexity and the activities they undertake. To achieve organisational goals people working in organisations have to be managed. This requires understanding the behaviour of the individual in the workplace. The course explores three key areas. Firstly, the factors that influence individuals such as personality, attitudes, perception, motivation, learning, communication and job satisfaction. Secondly, the factors that influence the nature of groups and teams and the importance of leadership. Thirdly, the course explores the nature of organizations by analyzing issues such as goals, structure, design, control, culture and development.

Students are constantly challenged by ethical dilemmas: about the future use of technology and artificial intelligence; about the possibilities of genetic and biomedical engineering; about the culture and behavior of global financial institutions; about who decides who should pay for what; about the environment, about migration, about political leadership. Citizens of a democratic society need to make ethically informed decisions about these issues.  The EthicsLab is an innovative way to explore ethical issues, where students learn from professors in different subjects across the university, and engage with leading thinkers about how the major global challenges can be addressed.  Students debate the importance of values and their prioritization, ethical biases and blind-spots, intentions and consequences, and they do this in a lab-environment where everyone is involved in designing solutions for the ethical issues of the day. 

For much of the 20th Century, Ireland lagged behind other states in Northern Europe in terms of economic development and average standard of living. Yet in the last decade of the century Ireland’s economic fortunes changed dramatically with the advent of the "Celtic Tiger." Ireland experienced rapid economic, social and cultural change over a short period of time that continues to unfold. Rapid population and demographic change and liberalization of social attitudes and values have all contributed to this change. Such changes have reinvigorated debates about what it means to be Irish, the values, lifestyles, and identities associated with such changes and the institutional practices, occupational structures, and the political priorities evident in Irish society. Yet there are continuities that can be traced back in Irish history that underpin and also help explain the dynamics of Irish society. This course utilizes theories of social change to explore what type of society Ireland is. It critically evaluates theories of development that have been used by academics and experts in Ireland to explain Ireland’s conversion from a "late modernizer" to a "knowledge society." Finally, it locates Ireland’s societal change in the context of Europe and globally.

The Finance function is a critical aspect of any organization.  The success or failure of a firm may be influenced significantly by how it manages its finances.  It is therefore important for both managers and employees to understand the principals of financial management for firms operating in any industry. This course is designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of financial management. It focuses on analyzing and evaluating financial products using various techniques. It covers several topics related to financial management such as debt policy, dividend policy, maximizing corporate value and financial risk. Throughout this course, students will become familiar with the basic concepts of corporate finance and financial language used within academic literature and the media.

This team-taught course introduces students to a broad range of texts, authors, and issues in Irish writing. Students work across genres and forms, encountering canonical and less often studied works. This comparative course proposes various ways of thinking about Irish literary texts, while at the same time providing a sound knowledge of the social, cultural, and political conditions in which these texts were written, produced and read.

This course is to deepen students’ understanding not only of the substance of Irish politics, north and south, but also of the academic research that aims to interpret and understand it. The course covers the Irish governmental system, and politics in Northern Ireland.
 

The "hero" is one of the central, if particularly diverse and changeable concepts that define and structure private identities and public patterns of authority in the ancient Greco-Roman world and beyond, right up to the present. In this course, students examine and interrogate the idea of the hero through the lens of ancient epic, exploring Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey as well as Virgil’s Aeneid in search of what heroism might mean, then and now.

Equality is a value that commands wide support and it is commonly guaranteed by national constitutions and human rights instruments. Yet differences emerge over the appropriate role for law in combating discrimination and when equality demands the same treatment or recognition of diversity. The enduring salience of equality has been reflected in social movements, such as MeToo or Black Lives Matter. Students examine Equality Law from a national, international, and comparative perspective. The course introduces students to the legal framework on equality found in Irish Law and European Law (EU and ECHR). It examines key topics, such as the prohibited grounds of discrimination, the forms of discrimination prohibited by the law, and the role for law in promoting equality.