King's College London

This course examines the relationship between colonialism, decolonization, and religion globally from both historical and contemporary perspectives. This includes the ways in which secularism and colonial modernity provided a context for the remaking of religion, as well as the many different forms of colonial power and anti-colonial resistance across the world. Special attention is paid to questions around gender, class, racialization, and religious minorities. Students critically examine formative concepts, theories, and texts related to the post-colonial study of religion, as well as historical arguments from anti- and decolonial perspectives. Examples may be drawn from a variety of contexts and religious traditions such as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism, as well as indigenous religious traditions. 

Environmental economics provides theories and techniques, which help students understand some important and controversial issues, such as climate change, nuclear power, recycling policy, and traffic congestion charging. Frameworks taught at the course can be used to evaluate various important policy questions such as: should air regulations be tightened or loosened? Does economic development necessarily result in a high environmental price? Is there a "Race to the Bottom" in environmental regulation? Are we running out of oil and other natural resources? What are the costs of climate change in the UK and other countries? Analysis of various political facets of environmental policymaking are an important part of the course. 

The course provides an up-to-date picture of the underlying basis for, and treatment of, a range of neurological and psychiatric disorders. It illustrates how established information underpins the use of current drugs for treating these conditions and how emerging theories and experimental outcomes inform future drug development.     

The course introduces the notions of Fourier series and Fourier transform and to study their basic properties. The course is devoted to the one dimensional case in order to simplify the definitions and proofs. Many multidimensional results are obtained in the same manner, and those results may also be stated. The Fourier technique is important in various fields, in particular, in the theory of (partial) differential equations. It is explained how one can solve some integral and differential equations and study the properties of their solutions using this technique.

This course traces the premodern histories of contemporary constructions of race and gender, exploring the figuration of these concepts in (mainly) non-dramatic texts from Old English to the 17th-century. Students read works including Old English texts scrutinizing the practices of slavery, early modern women’s conduct books, the diplomatic correspondence between Elizabeth I and the Ottoman “Sultana” Safiye, travel writings by Leo Africanus and Al-Hasan al-Wazzan, and Zadie Smith’s reimagining of Chaucer, THE WIFE OF WILLESDEN. Students draw upon important recent scholarship in Premodern Critical Race Theory, Post-Colonial Theory, Gender Studies, Trans Studies and Queer Temporalities to trace how premodern texts helped to construct, perpetuate, challenge, critique, or explore ideas of race and gender, and how this has shaped our field and our world today. 

The course introduces theoretical perspectives on the "public sphere" by drawing on political and philosophical arguments, and illustrating them in the context of the competition/complementarity of political and religious discourses and movements in the age of mass communication. The course also focuses on how religious and political authority is communicated through both conventional and new global media. Topics include the study of religion in the public sphere, power, media, and religion, media representations of religion, media and religious political conflict, and others.

The course combines theoretical and empirical content in the analysis of digital campaigning. Digital campaigning is hereby understood as comprising all forms of social and political campaigning that make intense use of digital media. Theoretically it covers a number of concepts and theories that are relevant to the understanding of this issue, including social movement theory, and digital politics theory. Furthermore, it covers a number of important concepts such as the digitization of political activity, the notion of hybrid media system, the consequences of interactivity, crowd-sourcing, networking, and participatory culture for social and political campaigning. Empirically, it will draw on a number of digital campaigns, from social movements, to charity and civil society campaigns. Its geographic scope mostly focuses on the Western context, but with some attempts to explore similar developments in other word areas including India, China, and South America. 

The course introduces key ideas and processes in the area of Entrepreneurship using an applied approach. The course focuses on the generation of business ideas followed by development, articulation, and formulation of a business plan. Relevant areas such as business model development, the external environment, resource management and financial planning are integrated in an entrepreneurial context. Theoretical and empirical foundations of entrepreneurship are explored at the start of term; the remainder of the course is dedicated to students designing their own entrepreneurial venture and experiencing the entrepreneurial process in action.

Family firms are the dominant organizational form worldwide, yet a distinctive field of study due to the potential tensions and synergies between family and business systems. This course explores these tensions and synergies, which are manifested in the resources, governance, succession planning, and most important the entrepreneurial orientation and transgenerational value creation potential of family businesses. While research has found consensus on some general trends and characteristics of family firms, there are some surprising outcomes that challenge existing theories. 

This course explores the relationship between literary texts and their precursors. The course moves from the ancient world of classical Greece, Rome, and the Middle East to the present day. Students focus on the transhistorical, however, not chronological. The course introduces some of the ways in which writers speak to one another across and through time, considering what it means for a writer to invoke other literary texts in their work. Students explore different theoretical models for thinking about this relationship, moving beyond ideas of influence to instead consider more creative ways in which texts have existed in relation to one another.