Trinity College Dublin

This course develops an understanding of the molecular basis of life through study of the role of nutrients, not only as a source of energy but, as key elements that determine our cellular and whole-body physiology. The metabolism of carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids and the role of vitamins are presented in the context of human health and disease. The consequences of vitamin deficiencies, mechanisms that allow cells to survive starvation and metabolic derangements such as diabetes and those caused by alcohol consumption are discussed. The course builds on Section 2 (Chemistry of Life) of BYU11101 (Molecules to Cells I) and CHU11B01 (Chemistry for Biologists). While this course is free standing and open, it does complement and expand on the lectures on metabolism in Module BYU22201 (Molecules to Cells II). This course is to prepare students hoping to pursue a moderatorship in the molecular biological sciences.

The course outlines the law relating to refugee and immigration in Ireland in the light of EU membership and international human rights law, develops a critical understanding of the policy behind refugee and immigration law, and develops a practical understanding of the implications of refugee and immigration law. The course is divided in to three parts, Part I deals with the International Framework for Refugee Protection, Part II addresses the European dimension, and Part III considers the Irish framework on Refugee and Immigration law. Topics covered include Principles and Key Concepts in Refugee Protection, the Convention relating to Status of Refugees 1951, Alternative Forms and Instruments of Protecting, the Evolving EU Acquis on Asylum, European Refugee Protection: Practices and Policies, the Refugee in Irish Law, Citizenship and Naturalization in Irish law and Immigration Law in Ireland.

This course introduces students to the environmental humanities, a multidisciplinary formation that brings the visual arts, literature, theatre, history, music, languages, philosophy, politics, law, film, media/cultural studies, anthropology, and cultural geography, into relation with the sciences in response to the environmental crisis. The course focuses on how history/history of art and architecture have responded to the challenge described by Chakrabarty and how these disciplines now contribute to the project of the environmental humanities by rewriting histories and reimagining futures. Students will learn about the climate crisis as a product of modern histories, including histories of science, extractive economies, technology, and media. The course also critically appraises concepts that feature prominently in public and academic debates about the climate crisis, such as Sustainable Development, the Anthropocene, and Planetary Boundaries. 

This course introduces students to the history of Hindu Mythology from 1000BCE to 1000 CE through Sanskrit sources in English translation. The course surveys the history of Hindu Mythology from its inception in the Vedic period (1000 BCE) to its height in epics and Purāṇas (1000 CE). Students explore how premodern Hindu writers used mythology to navigate key religious questions regarding the problem of evil; the ontology of God; gender and salvation; and the creation of the universe.

The course focuses on W.B. Yeats as a playwright and as a theorist of the theatre, combining an intensive focus on Yeats’s own work in the first half of the course with a more expansive consideration of the ways in which Yeats provides us with a way of reading subsequent Irish theatre in relation to recent work in the second half. Hence, the course combines the study of Yeats’s theatre and dramaturgy with consideration of recent work in the Irish theatre, including productions of plays currently running at the time of the module. It considers both the work of Yeats, and of more recent dramatists, not only as literary texts, but as performance pieces.

This course explores modern Middle East and North Africa and the societies and cultures through regionally and historically focused investigations. It continues with an exploration of historical and contemporary European and Western interventions and perspectives on the Middle East, and how these have impacted the region.

This course introduces key social, cultural, and religious aspects of Jewish thought and practice from antiquity to our own time. This course focuses on Judaism as a major world religion that has shaped Western Civilization. Rabbinic textual traditions that underpin Jewish religious thought—especially the Mishnah, Talmud, and Midrashim—are explored. Calendar, festivals (esp. Day of Atonement, New Year, Festival of Booths, Passover, Hanukkah), and rites of passage (e.g., birth, circumcision, Bar/Bat Mitzvah, marriage, divorce, death) are studied both within the classroom as well as, when appropriate, in visits to local Jewish synagogues and museums. Contemporary Jewish movements and the history of their traditions come into view along with their different beliefs and practices (e.g., kashrut, Sabbath, worship, prayer).

This course looks at the idea of "wildness" in children’s literature. The first half of the course examines landscape wilderness as it appears in a range of different children’s texts, from Ingalls Wilder’s canonical American text Little House in the Big Woods to Nicki Singer’s environmentally/themed Island. The second half of the course focuses on depictions of wildness associated with childhood, from Emily Hughes’ picture book Wild, to David Almond’s The Savage. Throughout the course students problematize the idea of wilderness, both in connection to the landscape and to the child. Students consider the long-standing connection between the child and nature, and how this might impact on the broader understanding of childhood. 

The emergence of technology requires the study of how history, science, economics, sociological effects, materials, sources of power, climate, and human ingenuity, all play a part in the development and adoption of new technologies. This program of study gives students an introduction to a wide range of technologies and exposes them to new concepts and helps them to question established “truths” regarding the linkages between basic science, research, and the mechanisms involved in the emergence of new technologies. The course is invaluable for students who want to become entrepreneurs because it familiarizes them with new technologies and makes them aware of the many factors that underpin the successful development and adoption of new technologies.

To what extent does our study of Irish small presses and little magazines enable us to "take the pulse of a particular period," as Frank Shovlin puts it? How much credence should we give to the claim, leveraged by Robert Kiely, that Irish "small-press publishers provide some inkling of the real dissent" within cultural discourse? In this course, students engage with the full operational remits of a diverse range of presses and publications blending archival research with close textual analysis in search of answers to these kinds of questions. Given this mixed methodological approach, the course focus alternates from week to week: between book-historical sessions on individual presses and publications operating across various periods since 1950, and sessions centered on close reading the literary products of this small-press labor against the many social, political, and economic issues to which they respond in each case. Students look at an array of archival documents, manifestos, written editorials, paratextual materials, and other ephemera pertaining to each of the presses and publications under scrutiny, in order to understand their diverse material and aesthetic circumstances.