Trinity College Dublin

This is a course in early (i.e. pre twelfth-century) Irish saga literature in which a variety of texts, mainly from the Ulster, Mythological and King cycles are read in translation and discussed in class. Sagas to be read include the tragic story of Deirdre’s love for Naoise, the story of Niall Frasach’s judgement regarding the lesbian mother of a ‘fatherless’ child, and Sin's cold-blooded determination to exact revenge on her ‘lover’ for the slaughter of her family.

How do we acquire language? How are we to interpret the fact that language use varies according to geography, social class, gender, and context? Why do languages die? What is the impact of immigration on language attitudes, language acquisition, and language transmission? This course attempts to provide the beginnings of answers to such questions, as well as many others relating to language, the individual, and society.

This course contemplates the unfolding ecological crisis of modern industrial society, from a sociological perspective, as the central conflict of our times. It explores key theoretical and substantive concerns in a critical evaluation of the relationship between human beings and the natural world, the interactions between society and environment, and the linkages between social issues and environmental problems. To do so, the course introduces students to the subfield of environmental sociology, to its central themes and foci, as well as to environmental and ecological thought more generally. It considers historical and sociological dimensions of the environmental movement and explores important debates and contrasting perspectives in ecological politics. Given its salience at the contemporary conjuncture, particular attention is given to the problem of anthropogenic climate change. The course seeks to explore the societal dimensions of this problem and consider the sociological concerns of power and conflict in an assessment of the challenges it poses and the practical and ethical questions it raises.

This Course provides students with the foundations of the ancient Greek language and prepares them for the reading of original, un-adapted Greek texts in Elementary Greek II and intermediate Greek modules.