King's College London

This course focuses on the history, institutions, actors, and policies of the European Union (EU) from its beginnings in the aftermath of the Second World War to more recent developments such as the Eurozone crisis, migration and Brexit. It also analyses some of the current challenges and controversies that the EU is facing, including an increasing domestic contestation, the democratic deficit and the future of integration. In so doing, it sets the basis for the final year core courses on the EU, in which specific policy areas are discussed in greater detail.

The course explores the interface of water resources management and sustainable development through the perspective of politics of water use and allocation. The course first examines different types of water and their uses and relevance to sustainable development. Secondly, the class examines politics of water use and allocation at the local, national, and international levels through issues of community irrigation, Integrated Water Resources Management and international transboundary river basin agreements. Particular focus is on the actors and institutions involved in water governance at these spatial scales. Thirdly, through discussions, group work, and poster presentations, students assess the policy responses to the problems of water resources management in developing country contexts.

This course examines how the personal and family lives and experiences of children and young people are shaped by contrasting degrees and models of welfare provision (and by the erosion of welfare provision within neo-liberal economies) across the globe. It examines how state policies are shaped by the actions of children and young people themselves. This course uses a range of policy examples, including early years support (e.g. maternity and paternity provision, child-care, parenting guidance), educational and health services provision, family support, and children in state care, to investigate the costs and benefits of different forms and levels of state intervention in the lives of children and their families. 

The course allows students to develop their natural gift for creative thinking.  To this end, students make films of poems - film poems. These cinematic works usually exceed the likely intentions of the poet, becoming something new; one creative work is used as a springboard for another. In this course, students are shown how to make film poems using a combination of mobile phone technology and analysis of style, enabling them to produce novel cinematic interpretations of poetry.  Students learn how to conduct an authoritative stylistic analysis of a poem, using this as the basis for creating a screenplay which they film on their mobile phone (or other device), editing, and enhancing through their employment of freely available apps.  

This course consolidates year 1 organic and physical chemistry by reference to biological examples and shows students its relevance to cellular biochemical processes. It introduces mechanisms and thermodynamics of chemical processes in the cell, including central metabolic pathways, principles of enzyme and metalloenzyme active site catalysis, coenzyme chemistry, and thermodynamics of biochemical processes. It conveys the multidisciplinarity and role of chemical ideas in understanding biochemistry, and enable students to apply basic chemical principles in unfamiliar biochemical contexts to generate hypotheses. It also introduces key concepts of cell biology and protein structure.