Trinity College Dublin

The course situates Chaucer’s exceptionally diverse canon within the literary and historical contexts that produced them, while also considering how archival discoveries and fresh theoretical approaches make possible new understandings (or at times misunderstandings) of the medieval author and his works. Given the increasingly diverse and global readership of Chaucer’s work in 21st centuries, it is unsurprising that these works elicit such varied and often contradictory responses. As readers of Chaucer in the 21st century, students are encouraged and supported to develop their own voice and critical skills, and it is not expected that they have extensive previous experience with medieval literature. 

This course addresses the history of economic thought, which is done in two sections. The first section traces the elaboration of basic economic principles by classical, socialist, and neoclassical thinkers. The second section splits up 20th century economic thought into its constituent disciplines. The course provides insight into the historical and ideological context in which different economic systems and policies arose. Students interested in interdisciplinary work focus on subjects as diverse as economics, political science, sociology, history, and philosophy.  

This course explores key concepts and debates in environmental and technology ethics: the commitments and values operative in models of sustainable development (theories of justice, capability, and agency); questions of human populations (demographics, food production, and food security); sustainable transport; values at work in approaches to biodiversity conservation (wild, agricultural, urban); and conflicts and convergences in aiming for smart and sustainable cities. Students focus on the instrumental versus intrinsic value; demographics and consumption; food security and related aspects of animal agriculture; justice and sustainable development; environmental citizenship; and the future of work. The course examines key ethics responses rooted in hermeneutics, in philosophical, and religious traditions (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Daoism) and characterizes the role of the ethicist in "expert" cultures and in policy development in Ireland, the EU, and internationally.  

In 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development set out 17 Sustainable Development Goals which provide a roadmap for addressing the key global challenges that the world is facing including, poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, peace, and justice. In this course, students are introduced to the SDGs, the practical ways in which policy aims to address them, and how the success of these policies in progressing the Goals can be measured and evaluated. 

This course presents a thematic overview of the global intersections and relationships of Western visual and material culture across a range of historically located examples. Topics are explored in this course under the broad themes of appropriations and the "other" and cultural geographies. Through these lenses students explore topics as diverse as orientalism, photography and colonialism, and globalization and contemporary art, and what they reveal about cultural transmission through the ages.

This course considers objects and places from the medieval world that have accumulated multiple meanings over time. Challenging the narrative of a "clash of civilizations" between Islam and Christianity, it focuses on the entangled histories of art and architecture in the medieval Mediterranean, examining through case studies the mediatory role of art, material culture, and architecture from the 10th to 15th centuries. 

The course introduces students to the role of drama in the second-level school classroom as a structured learning experience and also as an art form. It equips students with the appropriate skills and confidence necessary to use drama in the teaching of a variety of subjects and provides students with practical experiences of using the art form collaboratively to enrich and extend the study of other subjects. This course plans and evaluates learning episodes for students arising from meaningful engagement with the art form in applied settings. It also enables students to engage in reflective practice about the teaching of drama at secondary school level.  Students enact drama as a cross curricular pedagogy, through participation in and experience of practical drama-based workshops. They create, plan for, and deliver effective episodes using drama for their own teaching needs. Students focus on applying innovative practice in the area of arts in education and display leadership in future school planning in arts in education. This course teaches students how to identify and synthesize the skills and competencies to engage in a wide range of dramatic activity in interdisciplinary contexts. 

The course highlights the ways in which economic and financial processes both shape, and are shaped by, space. In particular, the course focuses on understanding of how uneven development occurs, alongside exploring questions of how social inequalities arise and what causes economic and financial crises. In addition to this, the impacts of economic and financial processes on the environment and the climate crisis are considered. In doing so, the course engages with fundamental challenges facing contemporary societies and explores policy options to address them. Students gain a solid grounding in a number of theoretical approaches, concepts and debates pertaining to the economy, finance and space; explore economic and financial processes in the real world through case studies from a range of different contexts, including those in the Western capitalist core and (semi-)peripheries of post-socialist Eastern Europe; and debate policy options for the future. 

This course introduces students to the field of social psychology and the principles underlying group and individual interaction.  It presents the historical and philosophical roots of social psychology in the context of the current state of the discipline.  Students become acquainted with debates and tensions between different schools within social psychology and are presented with critiques of the discipline. The course presents the richness, complexity, and variety of human social behavior and the discipline that studies it in a conceptually integrated way. 

This course develops students’ core social policy skills, including critical analysis, argument development, and the use of an evidence-informed approach. The course introduces students to key social policy issues including activation policy, universal basic income, and the gender pay gap. Students are challenged to practice and develop the skills they have learned by engaging critically with these topics. Students are supported to critically appraise how explanations of and solutions to social issues may be influenced by analysis of evidence and competing perspectives.