Trinity College Dublin

There is little disagreement that far-reaching societal, technological, political, and economic transformations are required if we are to avoid the worst effects of global, anthropogenic environmental change. What form these transformations should take and who should take responsibility for them are, however, far from settled. This course considers some of the key conceptual debates and environmental conflicts arising in this context. Examination of these debates and conflicts demonstrate the contested and uneven nature of environmental change and the measures sought to address these changes. The course helps students develop a more nuanced, critical, and multi-disciplinary understanding of environmental change and the different, often contested, ways of responding to such changes. The course consists of weekly interactive lectures/seminars, guest lectures, and set readings. Lectures introduces students to key concepts and perspectives drawn from the broad field of political ecology. Each week part of the class is set aside for students to develop their research projects. These projects focus on a key area of environmental contestation in Ireland through a political ecology lens.

This course provides students with a critical understanding and comprehensive knowledge of the government and politics of the EU, with a focus on EU public policy.  It examines the main institutions of the EU (the Commission, Council, European Parliament and the European Court of Justice), interest groups in Brussels, and different theoretical approaches to understanding policy-making. Thereafter students learn about specific EU policies including: single market, competition, economic and monetary union, agriculture, social, internal and external policies. 

This course provides an introduction to the study of the development of children and adolescents. Students learn about the changes that occur across different domains of development throughout infancy, childhood and adolescence. In addition, students learn about developmental theories, themes and concepts, and about the methods involved in developmental research. The course also addresses critical issues and frameworks that shape how we understand and study development, such as the interacting roles of nature and nurture in development, debates about continuity and discontinuity in development, the influence of the socio-cultural context on development, the role of children in their own development, and the interaction of the social, cognitive and biological domains in development.

Climate change is one of the most important challenges we face. The effects of climate change vary over time and space, and are rooted in the operation and sensitivity of the climate system itself. This course first gives students a fundamental understanding of Earth’s climate system and then investigates the history of climate on Earth and how (and why) climate changes over time. Students explore historical records of climate before turning their focus to future climate projections, including how models predict future climate scenarios.
Students also evaluate what implications future climate projections may have for communities both locally and globally. 

This course provides an advanced evaluation of psychological knowledge on human reasoning that builds on the foundation provided in the PS1234 Thinking module. It familiarizes students with the core theoretical and methodological issues in the scientific study of human reasoning and decision making. The course helps students to develop a critical assessment of experiments on human social reasoning, including moral judgment, intentional reasoning, and reasoning about social dilemmas. It facilitates students in the formulation of rigorous evaluations of experimental studies of human hypothetical thought, including conditional reasoning, counterfactual thought, causal reasoning, and argumentation. It fosters a critical appreciation of experimental investigations of decision making, including planning and risky choices

This course explores the 18th century's fascination with the body and constructions of the self by considering literary representations of the body. Ideals of beauty are examined, as well as anxieties surrounding sexuality and the roles of both men and women, as masculinities and femininities are debated with regards to cultural production. The course also investigates material considerations, reflecting on clothing and disguise, as well as considering the body in relation to discourses of travel and the military. Slavery, incarceration, and the body in pain are particular concerns in writing from this period, and theories engaging with class and race inform our analysis of various relationships and power structures. Students also investigate how authors consider the physical and emotional response of their readers in achieving their aims, and engage with disability studies in considering these authors and their characters in terms of 18th-century concepts of defectiveness. This course explores the 18th-century body across a range of genres, engaging with novels, poetry, and a play, as well as discussing examples of life writing, including letters and biography.