King's College London

Chariot racing, gladiatorial combat, athletic performance, often violent, as well as the theatre and other forms of popular entertainment played a major part as spectacles in the lives of the citizens of the Roman empire throughout antiquity. By virtue of their close connections with other central areas of ancient life, including religious belief and practice, economic organization, political power and patronage, or the construction of political and/or ethnic identity, the forms taken by entertainment in any region or period are very revealing of contemporary concerns and values. This course explore the ancient evidence for Roman entertainment and spectacle from the Republic to late Antiquity, including a wide range of archaeological evidence, including art, architecture and inscriptions, as well as texts. It investigates ancient attitudes to spectacles as well as the responses of modern scholars to an aspect of Roman culture which has caused difficulties for advocates of the Classical world as epitomizing civilized values. 

Through lectures and discussion, students are introduced to the key concepts in philosophical ethics.  Lectures devote a substantial amount of time to the direct reading of and commentary on the key text in moral philosophy. The interactive nature of this method of teaching requires a flexible approach to the amount of material covered in any single lecture.

This interdisciplinary course aims to make sense of what it means for children to grow up into adults. It considers competing arguments that childhood has been extended in recent decades and that children are growing up "too fast," and it assesses the factors that contribute to a successful transition to adulthood. The course draws on perspectives from psychology, sociology, public health, cultural and environmental studies, anthropology, and geography. Students gain an understanding of the different perspectives from which this range of disciplines debate issues around transitions to adulthood, problematizing the key concepts and assumptions underlying these debates and critically examining processes of personal development and identity formation.

The course explores different models for explaining and predicting how individuals behave. The course considers social influence, including notions of conformity and obedience; the role of individual differences including models of personality, how personality develops and what behavior we can predict from personality. The course introduces students to learning theory and ideas of behavioral psychology, understanding how experience of environment and rewards shapes how people choose to behave.

The course develops a comprehensive understanding of microeconomic analysis, including the economics of the consumer, the firm, markets and market failure, and welfare economics, building on the microeconomic content of 4QQMB102 Principles of Economics. The course outcomes include developing a critical awareness of the applications and limitations of microeconomic models in relation to policy issues in particular markets.