University of Edinburgh

The course introduces the study of global crime and justice, a developing field of inquiry which examines the impact of global changes on issues that pertain to crime and punishment. The purpose of the course is to both study criminal phenomena and the available responses to them on the global level as well as to explore the ways in which these issues supplement but also challenge our conventional thinking about crime and punishment. In that sense, the course covers key problems that pertain to global crime and justice and also provides the students with the necessary skills to critically assess the challenges posed by supranational phenomena and the adequacy of responses that we currently have.

This course covers both the theory and application of a number of techniques in analytical chemistry, as well as instruction in the general principles of sampling and analysis and in the statistical presentation and testing of data. Topics include different strategies for sampling; quality assurance procedures in support of an analytical measurement; calibration curves and statistical procedures to extract quantitative information from a measurement; basic parametric and non-parametric significance tests on data; different chromatographic techniques for an analysis involving separation; the principles of different types of ion sources; analytical methods which employ mass spectrometry to identify and quantify the abundance of molecular species; modern techniques for determination of isotopic elemental composition, including isotope ratio quantification and accelerator mass spectrometry, and their application to understanding environmental processes; and the principles of biosensor design from simple molecular recognition to transduction of binding events and be able to apply these in the context of detecting a variety of classes of target molecule.

This course examines the place of Europe - its countries, and the institutions they have created in the global order from the end of the Second World War to the present day. Students study how Europe has articulated its interests on the international stage, how the EU has evolved as an actor in foreign and security policy, what characterizes the European perspective on key issues and on international politics more generally, and how the EU relates to other regions and powers, including the United States, China, and Russia. The course proceeds chronologically, beginning with the origins of the Cold War and European integration in the 1940s and 1950s, and proceeding to analyze Europe 'between the superpowers' as the Cold War unfolded, its place in the American-dominated 'unipolar moment', and where the continent stands now as the 'rise of the rest' leads to the emergence of a more diffuse international order. The course concludes with a strategic foresight exercise in which students depict divergent scenarios for Europe in the world over the coming decade.

This course offers a wide-ranging survey of European history from the late 18th century to the present. It provides a basic grounding in - and a self-contained survey of - Modern European History, and it demonstrates how European society has evolved as a result of the interplay of major economic, social, political, and cultural developments of the period c.1780 to the present. A course with such a wide chronological and geographical span has to be rigorously selective, and in consequence the lecturers confine their attentions to those general developments that had a far-reaching influence on a major part of the European population.
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This course introduces students to key ideas and practices in architectural heritage and conservation, and to a range of practical and digital skills. The course is structured as a mixture of lectures, interactive/practical sessions, and tutorials. The lectures introduce the history, key ideas and philosophies which shape current heritage practice. In parallel, tutorials introduce some of the key policies, processes and practical skills used by architectural historians and heritage professionals.


 

This course presents a conceptual and practical introduction to object-oriented programming and software engineering practices, exemplified by Java. As well as providing a grounding in the use of Java, the course will cover general principles of programming in imperative and object-oriented frameworks. Students learn to develop programs that support experimentation, simulation, and exploration in other parts of the Informatics curriculum (e.g. the capacity to implement, test, and observe a particular algorithm).

This course provides a detailed but accessible introduction to the government and politics of the United Kingdom. Students study the main political institutions of the UK and how they have been affected by devolution, voter apathy, and the increasing fragmentation of the party system. Does Parliament matter or does it merely approve decisions taken elsewhere? Does the Prime Minister dominate the British system? Will Brexit lead to the break-up of the UK? Why do people vote UKIP? Students are introduced to important institutions and debates in the study of British government. They consider, in particular: the British parliamentary state and the enduring influence of the Westminster Model; the peculiar nature of the constitution; the management of the (increasingly) multi-national nature of the UK; and the explanations for and impact of the vote for Brexit.
 

The course looks at major, predominantly Western, avant-garde movements, from Dada and Surrealism to the break-up of styles and unitary movements that characterise artistic production and display from the 1960s onwards. It concludes with the effects of globalization and radical new conceptions of art that are current in today's world. Course content also addresses cross-cutting themes and issues, from feminism, economics, display, the environment and aesthetic awareness that are all core to the study of art history in the 21st century.

 

The initial focus is on the emergence of the industrial core and its relationship with the wider world. By 1914 the USA was the world industrial leader, with industrial output equal to that of France, Germany, and Britain combined. Accordingly the case of US economic development is considered in some detail. Global economic history is not just a history of the industrial core, though, and accordingly Chinese and Japanese economic history are also studied in some detail. In the 20th century, elements of the world economy disintegrated during the 1920s and 1930s, most especially the networks of trade and the international monetary system. This led to widespread depression, including in the USA, and students seek to understand what went wrong. The course concludes with a discussion of a second era of global economic expansion since 1945.

This course helps students to better appreciate and understand the contemporary cultural and socio-political importance of film through three central routes. Firstly, a series of nine case studies of important international films released in British cinemas over the past five years illustrates and instantiates a diverse range of key aesthetic, ideological, and industrial contexts that 21st century filmmakers both contribute to and challenge through the work they produce. Secondly, the weekly case studies are drawn from a range of cinematic traditions, including animation, live-action fiction, and documentary filmmaking. Thirdly, and despite their diversity, each of the weekly case studies is taught in such a way as to equip students with some of the foundational critical skills and forms of knowledge associated with the academic study of film. These include an understanding of the relationship between authorial intent, audio-visual technique, and audience experience; an ability to locate and critique individual films within appropriate comparative contexts, such as directorial oeuvre and traditions of film genre; and an informed understanding of the varied range of critical traditions and methodologies that scholars past and present have brought to the study of cinema as both social institution and art form. This course is taught exclusively by filmmakers and film critics from Edinburgh College of Art of Art, School of Design.