University of Edinburgh

This course investigates the global history of city design and urbanism from ancient times to the contemporary period. Through an interdisciplinary course bibliography and readings in key historical texts on urbanism, students will grasp the major historical trends and philosophies of urban emergence and development. Tutorials centred on Edinburgh site visits and training in research and writing will prepare students to perform first-hand research and compose original scholarship on the built environment. The goal of this course is to give students a critical acumen for evaluating the architectural transformation of the urban realm across disparate cultures and far-flung geographies over time, from Antiquity to the present day.

This course studies the processes that underlie evolutionary change in natural populations. Subjects dealt with range from molecular evolution to the genetic consequences of interactions between species, and from variation at single genes to speciation itself. The course provides an integrated view, combining theoretical and experimental approaches to the study of evolution with a consideration of both pure and applied aspects of evolutionary change. There is a strong emphasis on the development of numerical skills needed for the analysis and interpretation of genetic data and a quantitative approach to the study of evolution. Problem based tutorials accompany these lectures. The course then considers a series of special topics including evolution of host-parasite interactions and speciation.

This course provides a formal and practical introduction to the algorithms and data structures that underlie all areas of computation. It provides students with a toolbox of standard algorithms and data structures, as well as the skills to analyze both the theoretical complexity of algorithms and their practical behavior. Both written and programming exercises will be used, with examples from all areas of Informatics.

The focus of the course is secession. Students explore theories that account for the entire cycle of this phenomenon, from its emergence, through its political dynamics, to either successful or unsuccessful attempts to attain independent statehood. Theoretical material will be illustrated by, and applied to, a variety of historic and contemporary cases (e.g. Catalonia, Scotland, Quebec, Iraqi Kurdistan, Kosovo, Eritrea, Tamil Eelam). The foundation of the course is the discussion of the key features of multinational states, with a focus on the conditional legitimacy of their political-institutional framework and their borders. Indicative themes include: the emergence of secessionist movements; their efforts to mobilize support for independence; mechanics of separation (including a discussion of violent and non-violent secessions); independence referenda; policy issues related to the creation of new states; and the international political and legal aspects of secession .

This course develops a rigorous understanding of core economic models and analysis, together with an ability to apply the analysis in a variety of contexts. In the first semester, students consider macroeconomic (aggregate, economy-wide) phenomena. They look in greater depth at national income accounting, economic growth, money and inflation; labor markets and unemployment, and consider relevant mathematical techniques. The second semester looks at macroeconomics and includes topics such as monetary and fiscal policy, the open economy, exchange rate systems and monetary union, business cycles, economic policy and financial markets. The course is taught through a program of lectures and tutorials. Learning-by-doing, through problem solving and tutorial work, is an important ingredient of the course, with regular practice tests to reinforce an active approach to learning. Students with a weak math background will need to be prepared to work at developing their math skills.
 

This course is an introduction to social anthropology - taking as its central theme and organizing structure the life course from birth to death, conceived in very broad terms. As well as encompassing life crisis moments and rituals of birth, marriage, and death, the course includes such themes as gender, personhood, work and making a living, the house, consumption and exchange, health, and the body. It begins with a brief consideration of what anthropologists do; thinking about participant observation and fieldwork; and it ends with a brief discussion of how anthropological subjects are placed - and place themselves - in history.