King's College London

This course provides a comparative introduction to the topic of political authoritarianism. Authoritarianism, understood as non-democratic governance, is one of the main scourges of modern politics. Though there was a wave of democratization following the collapse of the Soviet Union, authoritarianism has persisted in numerous guises, including the semi-authoritarian regimes that have developed in many of the so-called "democratizing" states. In gaining an understanding of contemporary authoritarianism, students will develop a more nuanced appreciation of the variety of different ways in which power can be exercised. 

In a globalized world, fostering cultural competency is essential for success in any profession and trade that values the diversity of people and their cultures. This course draws on evidence-informed techniques to develop students' cultural competency, focusing on their knowledge and understanding, their awareness and sensitivity, your skills and interaction, and your leadership and management capability. Students are introduced to a range of disciplinary methods that are ideally placed to help them develop specific domains of cultural competency. The teaching is delivered by a wide range of methodological experts from across the College. Learning is dynamic and interactive, and focused on how to make positive changes at the interpersonal, team, institutional/structural and systemic levels. 

This course introduces students into the riches of the Greek literary tradition. It is for students coming to university without any background knowledge of ancient literature and offers a chronologically laid out, broad survey of periods, genres and best known authors of Greek literature and thought. Although the broad conceptual categories of “socio-cultural context” and generic expectations define the overall intellectual tone of this course, extracts from the texts are woven into lectures to whet the students' appetite to continue with further reading of their own. No previous knowledge of ancient Greek/Latin literature and philosophy is assumed and all texts underpinning the teaching of this course can be studied in English translation.

The course gives students an introduction to some key legal areas relevant to business law. It teaches important aspects of business law, looking at business relationships, agency, and the business organization. 

This course introduces students to the material and visual culture of the ancient world from the second millennium BC to late antiquity. Semester 1 focuses on the Greek world. Students will study the built environment - from the great urban monuments to everyday domestic units (including temples, "homes" for the gods). Students explore the art and iconography of the ancient world alongside the material residues of daily life and ritual. Students are introduced to the different perspectives and methods of both archaeologists and art historians in interpreting material remains and visual images. The course combines close study of individual pieces of evidence with an evaluation of how they illuminate the societies, cultures, institutions, and economies of classical antiquity. The course draws heavily from the extraordinary collections in London, particularly the British Museum.

This practice-based course develops students’ sense of nonfiction-writing as a creative act, and introduces some of the practical skills and techniques essential to a variety of forms including: memoir and the personal essay; biography; nature-writing; reportage and cultural criticism. Through studying a wide range of non-fictional texts, students explore the ways in which writers engaged in supposedly factual writing nonetheless take creative risks and make the same kinds of narrative decisions as fiction-writers. 

In this course, students take a step back and explore what it means to perceive particular situations in terms of “crisis.” Students focus on emergency interventions and examine how sustainable these interventions are. The course investigates to what extent these interventions have changed the very meaning of “health.” A particular focus in our discussions is on the category of crisis itself. How is the category operating today in particular contexts? How is it mobilized and what are its effects? To what extent might the category of crisis enable or disable distinctive forms of intervention? What accounts for the productivity of crisis in contemporary debates about the health and well-being of populations, both in the global North and the global South? What are the analytical and political limits of “crisis” as a category of thought and action in contemporary global health and social medicine?  

Reflecting on the causes and consequences of war involves some of the most fundamental questions facing any student of conflict, and this course is an introduction to thinking about them. Students explore the theoretical and methodological questions that arise when studying the causes of war. They consider the definition of war, and examine the role of theory in explaining and understanding its causes. Students utilize historical case studies, explore contemporary international politics and explore political change over time. In the second half of the year, the course also investigates some of the consequences of war – on the international system, on society, and on individuals. The course also addresses ways in which war and conflict can be prevented and mitigated.

This course covers the main empirical methods used for causal inference in economics, political economy, political science and development: randomized controlled trials, natural experiments, instrumental variables, and regression discontinuity design. Students learn how to use these methods to address important questions in the social sciences. The emphasis is on applications and not on the derivation of estimators. Students study a large number of articles published in leading journals in economics and political science. Students consider the research question these articles address, how they address it, what data they use, and the strength and weaknesses of their approach. 

After its total defeat in World War II, a divided Germany developed differing forms of socio-political organizations in an attempt to find a sustainable response to the challenges posed by modern industrial society. While the East experimented with state socialism, the West implemented a liberal democracy. Yet despite their political division, the two German states remained deeply interconnected through economic linkages, a shared cultural heritage, and similar ambitions to redefine their nationhood and global position. This course explores their special relationship against the backdrop of the global Cold War. Topics include political consolidation, East and West European integration, consumption and identity, the role of the cultural institutions, social movements and dissent, immigration and ethnic diversity, holocaust memory and foreign policy, the collapse of communism and reunification. It engages critically with the attempts of both German states to deal with their problematic history, and the way history was used to legitimize the different regimes.