Trinity College Dublin

The course provides a foundation to the study of law. Before any in-depth analysis of any type of law subject, one needs to have a fundamental understanding of how the legal system works and of the basic legal vocabulary involved. This first part of this course provides students with this knowledge, paying particular attention to five topics:
the constitution, the legislation, EU law, the Irish courts system, and access to the courts.

This course provides a platform for multiple disciplines to learn about and collaborate on projects that address our societal challenges using the established framework of Design Thinking. These challenges may include climate change, food security, migration, and conflict. Design thinking has its roots in industrial design and engineering but borrows from a variety of disciplines, including ethnography, computer science, psychology, organizational learning, and business. Students who participate in this course look at problems from these alternative perspectives, how they might impact their own discipline, and how their discipline might inform the solution. To achieve this, students work within multidisciplinary teams on projects that are not necessarily aligned to their area of expertise. Students are encouraged to reflect on this experience to better understand their own preferred learning environment and behaviors.

The dominant theory of conflict that underpins Western approaches to conflict resolution is that conflict is produced by differences in identity: variously defined as cultural, religious, racial, ethnic, and national. The British/Irish "peace process" culminating in the Good Friday Agreement is the strategic example of such an approach. This course looks at some of the shortcomings of this approach. Firstly, that it obscures alternative theories that root conflict not in difference/identity but in the inequality and structural violence generated by capitalism in its colonial and postcolonial phases, and in the political institutions such as the nation state that act as a container for these inequalities. Secondly, that it doesn’t resolve conflict so much as freeze it, and consequently cannot deal with the traumatic legacy of violence. Given the limitations of conflict resolution we will conclude by considering some of the existential and political dilemmas posed by violent conflict and what if any role, social science might play.

This course explores the growth and development of popular literature from the Victorian era up to the present day. Students are introduced to key themes and theories of the popular as well as texts and contexts from a wide range of popular genres: crime fiction, fantasy, horror, science fiction, romance, and the newly emerged category of "Domestic Noir" amongst them. Each text is situated within the context of its genre as well as the historical/social context of the time at which it was written. Students are encouraged to think about ideas of “popularity” and “canonicity” and to interrogate the reasons why certain texts and genres dominate the bestseller lists and the popular imagination at different times.