Trinity College Dublin

This course explores the works of Charles Dickens, from his journalistic essays to his longer novels, and how his books have been adapted. It examines how Dickens both imagines and critizes his world as a journalist and novelist.

This course introduces students to intellectual, political, social, and cultural trends in the Middle East (19th to 21st centuries). Emphasis is placed on a particular region, and Lebanon has served as a case study for various trends that influenced the Middle East from the 19th to the 21st century.

This course considers Shakespeare's life, influence, and rise to global fame. It examines the cultural and social contexts through which Shakespeare's reputation and popularity were forged, beginning with the publishing and textual context of his own period. The course looks at the impact of cheap printing on theatrical performance; cultures of collecting Shakespeare editions; the emergence off the Shakespeare tourist industry; the effect of the expansion of literacy in the 19th century in creating a wider readership for Shakespeare; the incorporation of Shakespeare into the academic study of literature when English emerged as a university subject in the latter stages of the 19th century; and the impact of contemporary technologies on how Shakespearean text is disseminated and received in our own time.

This course examines the art of the last fifty years or so from the mid-1960s to the present day. Postmodernism simultaneously built on and challenged aspects of modernism. Inspired by the challenges to the fundamental meaning and purpose of art by Marcel Duchamp, post-modernism founds its initial impetus in the pivotal phases of minimalism and pop art, leading in turn to new concepts, methods, and styles, as found for example in conceptualism and land art, as well as to the adoption of "new" materials involving time-based, performance, and lens-based media. Students examine the relationship between conceptualism and traditional art forms like painting, as well as the emergence of alternative three-dimensional and installation formats. While modernism drew on the approaches of some artists from beyond the western hub and adopted a transnational perspective, this course explores the extent to which post-modernism and contemporary art mark a decisive shift from an insular Western view to a more global approach embracing the art of other continents.

This course explores the social construction of race, ethnicity, and identity before investigating processes of racialization and othering. The course asks if we are now living in a post-racial age, or if this popular idea is better understood as a nonsense. Then, students examine sociological theories of the racial state, learn how to analyze media representations of race and ethnicity, and situate race and ethnicity within social, political, and economic processes. Students gain an overview of various approaches to "race" including exploring how differences "beyond race" such as hybridity and diaspora are negotiated. Finally, students explore if it is possible to move "beyond race" and considers the possibilities and pitfalls of anti-racism.

In the Mediterranean world, the first three centuries AD constitute a period often regarded with admiration by later generations, especially by 19th-century Europeans easily impressed by empire. This course focuses on the Augustan and Julio-Claudian periods from the emperors themselves to the lowliest of slaves: matters of imperial politics and military strategy, economics, and social concerns.

The course studies contemporary biomedical debates as well as the underlying philosophical and theological principles, values, and views of the human being. The course examines the different Irish, European, and international argumentations and legislations that these debates have produced. Other course topics include issues at the beginning and at the end of human life, the possible conflict between parents' and children's perspectives, and the visions of society and humanity implied in positions on advance care directives. Films and excerpts from science fiction provide additional avenues to the topics.

This course provides an overview of the development of the main human sensory systems and related perceptual abilities from the moment of conception throughout the lifespan. The approach is mainly from a neuroscience and behavioral perspective, with cortical development and consequent effects on behavior analyzed. The effect of genetic and environmental factors on sensory development is discussed. The effects of ageing on sensory and perceptual decline are also included.