King's College London

The course examines the political theory of finance, which investigates the broad normative and theoretical questions provoked by financial markets, institutions, and crises in contemporary societies. Large-scale financial intermediaries and global financial markets are reshaping capitalism, and these transformations raise fundamental issues of efficiency, fairness, inclusion, and democratic accountability in the design and functioning of finance. Topics include historical debates about usury and speculation, the contemporary philosophy of money and debt, the right to credit and to default, discrimination and credit ratings, systemic risk and collective responsibility, the challenges finance and central banking pose to democracy, and the potential for radical alternatives, ranging from cryptocurrencies to public finance.

This course helps students make sense of globalization by treating it as an historical phenomenon. They consider what has and what hasn't changed in how societies, economies, and politics are organized across the world. Students trace the emergence of technologies and practices which facilitate global interaction, from the container ship to the world wide web. They understand how globalization has been debated, examining the emergence of the idea of globalization, and the history of arguments about what it is and whether it is a good thing or not. Finally, students study its political consequences, charting debates about the effects of global interaction on the choices available to publics and their leaders, and asking how far institutions and individuals are able to shape phenomena which occurs on such a large scale.

The course introduces students to the history, literature, and culture of those who spoke and wrote in Greek over almost two millennia beginning in late antiquity, and still do today. The first half of the module focuses on the Byzantine period, from the foundation of the capital city of Constantinople in 330 AD to the conquest of the Byzantine empire in 1453 by the Ottoman Turks (who renamed the city Istanbul). The second half follows the fortunes of Greek speakers during and after the breakup of the empire, and focuses on the building and consolidation of a Greek nation state in the early 19th century, the cultural achievements of Greeks since, particularly in literature, and their troubled relationship with Europe that lies at the root of the financial and social crisis that broke out in Greece in 2010.

This course introduce students to the study of American literature at university level. Students gain a knowledge of some of the most emblematic texts and movements in American literary culture as well as some of the historical contexts that have framed them. Through studying a diverse and varied array of works, students gain an insight into the most productive approaches, concepts, and methods for reading US culture. These include thinking about settler colonialism, indigeneity, questions of race, the tension between popular and canonical forms of writing, the effects of literary nationalism, capitalism and its effects, and the problems of narrative representation when faced with the troubling history of America. Central concepts include slavery, democracy, freedom, individualism, personal identity, and geography.