University of Manchester

This course brings together several professionals in audiology, deaf education, cognitive psychology, and mental health to outline the role of psychology in understanding music. Students learn how different disciplines within the field of psychology can be applied to the study of music. Several topics are explored from basic auditory neuroscience exploring how we perceive aspects of music such as melody, harmony, and rhythm to how music has personal meaning in the context of memory and emotion. Students explore questions like, Why do certain songs get stuck on repeat in my head?’ How does music evoke strong emotions? Is music special: does our brain process music differently to other auditory stimuli? The course discusses what we mean by music, the basic elements of music and how the brain processes these elements. The course looks at how we appreciate music, the evolutionary function of music and whether we are born with an innate musical ability. The course considers contributions from developmental and cognitive psychology, and what these can tell us about how we process music. Finally, students look at music in clinical populations by reviewing case studies where musical ability or perception have been implicated and discussing the efficacy of music therapy in various clinical groups. 

This course embraces several forms of digital media, with an emphasis on music and sound for the construction of structured environments in Human-Computer interaction. It provides a framework for the creation, discussion, and evaluation of interactive processes using real-time computer technology in sonic-centric scenarios. These may include various areas of interactive music and media composition, such as: acoustic instruments and live electronics and game-audio and procedural audio with physic-graphics-sound engines. 

The course provides students with a broad understanding of the biology of microbial infections, focusing on bacterial and fungal human infections. Students study the mechanisms of microbial pathogenicity, starting with pathogen transmission and entry into the host, progressing through adhesion and invasion, to cell and tissue damage and host responses to injury. The diseases studied include tuberculosis, cholera, listeriosis, salmonellosis, gonorrhoea, pseudomembranous colitis, and key fungal infections. 

The course studies two very important changes on the political map of Eastern Europe focusing on the period from the fall of Communism in 1989 to 2007 (the independence of Kosovo): the break-ups of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. It explores the reasons behind the brutal Yugoslav wars and the "velvet divorce" of Czechoslovakia, and offers an insight into films, art happenings, images, and texts created during the period in question. Contextualized within these two very different and yet comparable cases of political demise, these cultural products are examined as complex responses to the events, but also as strategies (aesthetic, political and psychological) to deal with the crisis and the imminent transformations. The course explores these cultural outputs as effective tools in voicing and shaping emerging identities and mapping out the real and symbolic geographies of the region.

This course introduces students to key topics and concepts in disaster management. No prior knowledge is assumed. The causes of disasters are explored and different approaches to addressing them are critically analyzed through lectures and seminars. Course content includes disaster vulnerability and resilience, as well as the disaster management cycle. Students gain a clear understanding of the different types of disasters, disaster risks, and how and why vulnerability to hazards varies across space and time, in both low- and high-income contexts.

The course examines the interrelationship between humans and nature, with a particular emphasis on how social power relations produce and change socio-physical conditions. The course starts from the premise that nature and society are not separate, but intimately interwoven. They are mutually intertwined and co-evolving. The course draws on a variety of critical theoretical perspectives (Marxist, post-Marxist, feminist, post-colonial) and illustrates the argument with a series of case studies. 

Metabolism is the set of chemical reactions that occur in living organisms to maintain life. Students focus on the metabolic pathways in the cells of mammals, with some reference to microbes and plants. Students learn about diseases caused by defects in metabolism, such as diabetes, which emphasizes the importance of metabolic control.

This course is about the problem of crime. It introduces some of the central issues, themes, and concepts involved in thinking critically about crime. Students are concerned with exploring how perspectives drawn from across the social sciences can inform our understanding of this significant contemporary social issue. 

This course provides analysis of white-collar and corporate crimes and deviance. Such acts (or omissions) often occur within the context of international commerce and business, and may be facilitated at the transnational level through the use of offshore financial centers and "shell" firms or third parties in other jurisdictions. This course therefore critically examine the nature and organization of these crimes (e.g., the processes and practices necessary to carry them out), the key social actors involved (e.g., who are the "criminals," why do they do it, and who is being victimized?), and the mixture of responses to such crimes (e.g., enforcement, self-regulation, prevention/reduction, disruption/intervention) at the local, national, and transnational levels. To explore these issues, students examine a number of relevant in-depth case studies such as corporate corruption and bribery, tax avoidance/evasion, and modern slavery.