Trinity College Dublin

This course examines cultural highpoints in the arts of Japan from the 14th to the 19th centuries. Artefacts in all media - painting, ceramics, lacquer, and textiles - are examined in the context of the influence of China on Japan, the creation of the Shogun Court, the rise of the merchant classes and the establishment of the pleasure districts in burgeoning Tokyo. Particular attention is paid to lacquer ware created for the domestic and European market, the arts associated with the tea ceremony and traditional Japanese theatre. Themes of Japonisme are explored, particularly in 19th-century Ireland as Japan emerged after 250 years of self-imposed isolation from the outside world.

This course provides basic reading knowledge of Middle Egyptian and its hieroglyphic script. After coverage of the basics in the first few weeks, most of the course is devoted to reading and understanding "set texts," which students prepare in advance of each session. The set texts, which form the basis of the exam, includes the Story of the SHIPWRECKED SAILOR ("Papyrus Leningrad") and extracts from funerary stelae and other works in Middle Egyptian - among these, the Story of Sinuhe.

The course engages the study of ethics in sport as field of academic enquiry in a cross-curricular way with a variety of methodological approaches. It seeks to recognize and critically examine the varieties of ethical traditions, and appreciates the internal diversity within those traditions, in their historical and contemporary manifestations. The course engages with the various methods required for assessment of the media including historical, philosophical, social, and cultural analyses.  Sport in contemporary society has been described both as an expression of the highest human and social values, and as a legally secured parallel world of the elite pursuit of victories and medals. On the one hand, as a sphere of physical self-realization, social formation, and of moral training in fairness, it is seen as an area with standards of excellence that can be closely aligned to ethics. On the other hand, individual sport stars and the institutions of organized sport have been subject to multiple inquiries and critiques: for example, on doping, corruption, sponsorship, and the power of mentors and child protection. The concluding element deals with some of the most pressing ethical issues in the media today.

This course examines political, social, and cultural developments in Ireland during the early modern period within a narrative and thematic framework, starting with Tudor political reform and continuing through to the Act of Union in 1800. Principal topics of the class include the impact of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation; the wars and rebellions of the 16th century and the demise of Gaelic Ireland; colonization and "civilization" of Ireland by the English and the Scots; Confederate Ireland and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms; the Cromwellian and Restoration land settlements; the War of the Three Kings; the Protestant Ascendancy and the Penal Era; the impact of the American and French revolutions; the rebellion of the United Irishmen; the formation of "Irish" and "British" national identities; Irish migration to continental Europe; and Ireland and Empire.

In this course, students discuss different theoretical and methodological approaches to environmental history as well as concrete case studies from the Middle Ages to recent times that exemplify the broad range of human-nature relations in the past, as well as the different ways to study these.