University of Edinburgh

In this project course, students explore the future of computation, focusing on quantum algorithms and hands-on programming on various platforms. Students collaborate on a project to apply quantum solutions to real-world problems, enhancing their skills in this cutting-edge field.

This course introduces students to the history and culture of Rome under the emperors. It focuses both on the city of Rome and its vast empire, from the Antonine Wall to the Euphrates. The course covers the political and social history of Rome from the death of Augustus to the late 3rd century AD, together with the material culture, monuments, art, literature and thought of the Romans during this period. Lectures cover topics such the expansion of the empire, the Roman army, Roman religion, monuments of the city of Rome, Roman villas, and Roman poetry and drama, as well as the various imperial dynasties. 

This course explores a wide range of contemporary British drama from the 1950s to the present day, examining its existence on both page and stage. Students read a broad spectrum of work, including plays by John Osborne, Samuel Beckett, Sarah Kane, Brian Friel, Tim Crouch, Caryl Churchill, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Liz Lochhead, Ella Hickson, debbie tucker green, Mojisola Adebayo and Travis Alabanza. They also consider the evolution of specific trends, movements and forms across 20th- and 21st-century drama, including in-yer-face theatre, participatory performance and state-of-the-nation drama. The course engages with critical and theoretical perspectives on these playtexts and performances.

 

This course examines the relationship between humans and animals in the Middle Ages. The recent "animal turn" in the Humanities and Social Sciences has prompted a re-evaluation of assumptions about the relationship between humans and their ever present animal neighbors. The course investigates key aspects of that relationship in the Medieval world, investigating and contrasting materials from a range of medieval societies, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and "pagan". How were animals and the natural world interpreted by medieval people? The course examines various types of medieval sources, visual as well as textual in this exploration of the interface between humans and animals.

This course examines the social psychology of groups, bias, and prejudice. Students read original scientific articles spanning from classic pieces to recent, high-impact updates. Throughout, we learn about foundational psychological processes (e.g., attitudes) that, when applied to social groups, can result in discrimination and group-based hierarchies. We take both a micro approach, considering evidence for social biases in individual minds, as well as a macro approach, considering evidence for biases in collective systems.

This course offers a range of analytical tools to address controversies, broadly understood as any instance of disagreement around scientific, technological, medical, or environmental issues. Students are exposed to different methods that enable them to better understand how the actors involved in the controversies and their arguments evolve over time. By introducing historical, sociological, philosophical, and political science perspectives, students seek to overcome simplistic views of controversies as easily solvable debates between truth and falsehood. Students also present controversies as involving actors outside the scientific community and reflect on normative agendas for not only studying but also critically intervening in controversies. 

There are several languages for programming quantum protocols. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. This course surveys current platforms (OpenQAsm, Qiskit, Q#, Quipper, Quantomatic, and PyZX) and analyzes their respective features semantically. The theoretical analysis uses category theory, a powerful mathematical tool in logic and informatics, that has influenced the design of many modern programming languages. It enables a powerful graphical calculus that lets you draw pictures instead of writing algebraic expressions. This technique is visually extremely insightful, yet completely rigorous. For example, correctness of protocols often comes down to whether a picture is connected or disconnected, whether there is information flow from one end to another. In a practical way, this course investigates the conceptual reasons why quantum protocols and quantum computing work, rather than their algorithmic and complexity-theoretic aspects.

This course presents a sociological perspective on environmental knowledge, issues, campaigns, and risks. The course explores what “the environment” is, how environmental quality is measured and understood, and how we perceive of environmental risks and problems. Students examine a number of case studies and examples, including energy, food, climate change, and others. Key questions explored through the course include: how are issues framed; who is responsible for mitigating a risk, cleaning up after a disaster, or saving the planet; how is blame apportioned; what is the epistemological basis for knowledge claims about the environment; and how do we know what we know about environmental problems and risks?

At the crossroads of new academic trends and exciting critical debates in research areas such as Postcolonial Studies, World Literature or Translation Studies, this team-taught course introduces students to the theory and practice of Comparative Literature in its 21st-century context. We compare seminal works originally published in English, Italian, French, German, Russian and Japanese, via a series of key transversal themes. All texts studied are available in English translation.