Utrecht University – University College Utrecht

The language part of the course improves and develops skills and strategies to successfully handle uncomplicated oral and written tasks and social situations confronted during daily life in the German language area. From there the course moves to the first stadia of a higher level of understanding and discussing texts and topics in the cultural and social field. The cultural part of the course provides an understanding of various cultural aspects of German, Austrian, and Swiss society including German post-war cultural history and current topics of the German news. The classroom language is German. An Intermediate Low (IL) level of speaking and writing is required. 

This course discusses and develops critical social-scientific perspectives on citizenship, belonging, and difference in contemporary, late-capitalist societies. In a world characterized by flux and the transgression of geographic and symbolic boundaries, a great deal of effort is invested in fixing and freezing identities and controlling and regulating borders. This dialectic of flow and closure is examined from a critical perspective that places contemporary social and cultural dynamics in the historical context of the rise of modern capitalism and nationalism while taking into account 19th and 20th-century experiences of colonialism, authoritarianism, and fascism. The first part of the course focuses on theories of modernity, citizenship, and differences in the political and social sciences, political philosophy, and the humanities. In the second part, several contemporary issues, including (the rise of) new forms of nationalism and the far right; debates about religious diversity and secularism; gender and sexuality; race and racism; and the transformation & politics of identity in neoliberal societies are the focus. The course brings together perspectives from various fields, while especially focusing on perspectives from the global south and from (relatively) marginalized academic fields, like queer studies, critical race perspectives, and postcolonial studies. Students develop and undertake a small research project on identity, based on which they write a final paper.

Human Rights has been an object of literary studies since the 1980s-2000s. Tapping into the knowledge produced in this new field, this course reframes the history of modern literature as part of a broader development: the invention and history of human rights. This course explores several 'classics' in the history of Human Rights literature as well as a broad range of literary texts that discuss human rights from various perspectives but are not considered part of the literary canon. This course studies these forms as they have evolved since the late eighteenth century and across the globe in oral and written modes (songs, poems, novels, (auto-)biographies, graphic novels/comics, and so forth). There will be two seminar-style classes per week with assigned reading in advance of each session. There is a particular focus on partner/small-group work and interactive discussions, presentations, and discussions on the literature for an assigned session. An introduction to literature course is required for entry. 

This course raises the question: do we have an ethical responsibility to help migrants and refugees? and develops an in-depth response through Community Engaged Research (CER). It is a multi-disciplinary academic immersion in the topic beginning with workshopping community engagement as a practice. Students work in small groups to undertake community engagement with an organization, movement, or individual working publicly to address migration-related issues.  The written, multi-media, or performative project is completed in close collaboration with that social organization, movement, institution, or individual. By combining academic study and community engagement, students develop their vision and response to the issue of migration, even as they negotiate with the community organization/movement/individual regarding the substance, form, and goals of the project to be carried out. The course builds on several introductory questions: How did we get ourselves into this situation? What is driving migration and what is driving our countries’ policies of inhumanity? Why is this such a difficult and sensitive issue? What responses have there been from social movements, civic and human rights organizations and citizens? How do these draw on and transform much older traditions of sanctuary, refuge, hospitality, and human community?

The course is devoted to understanding the fundamentals of descriptive and inferential statistics (concepts, rationale of analyses, and their assumptions), and to the application of techniques on data sets. It starts with a definition of basic concepts relevant to all statistical tests, eg chance and odds, randomness, data levels, and probability distributions. Systematic errors and random errors are discussed concerning their impact on the reliability and validity of data. Concepts explained include the sampling distribution, standard error, test statistics, chosen (alpha) and observed (p-value) significance level, type I and type II error, the power of a test, confidence intervals, and effect size measures. Research designs that are widely used in applied science research and relate these to different types of samples are used. The lab sessions include data sets to be checked and summarized using appropriate descriptive statistical techniques. Data transformations are applied where needed.

This course focuses on the relationship between religion and politics. To untangle this relationship, the course examines the role of four core processes – globalization, nation-state formation, colonialism, and gender – in giving shape to contemporary relations between politics and religion. In the first place, it offers a sweeping historical survey, starting with imperialism, the French and Haitian Revolutions, and modern state formation. This leads to contemporary geopolitics, religious nationalism (Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Confucian), and socio-cultural contests (over sexuality, abortion, education, and migration). The central goal is to understand how recurring questions of the political community (who has power, how, and why?) are informed by and inform struggles over the place, role, and nature of religion.  Questions are addressed in an interdisciplinary fashion, where politics, history, and religious studies encounter one another. The course consists of interactive lectures and seminar-style discussions, including ones that are student-organized and student-led.

This course is designed for students in the Humanities or Social Sciences with no previous education in Biology. It may also serve as a remedial course for students with a high school Biology background insufficient for entering a regular level 1 Biology course. The course centers around three major themes: the basics of life, genes and evolution, and essential body functions. The course studies a wide variety of fundamental biological principles and concepts including the characteristics and basic units of life, biodiversity, the molecular basis of inheritance and genetics, origin of life and evolution, proliferation and differentiation of cells, principles of development and cancer, metabolism and energy, nutrition, health, nervous system and behavior, biological defense and communication, and reproduction and aging.

This course focuses on the performativity of engaged citizenship through an array of practices that includes theoretical discussion and experiential learning, especially through the lens of creative activism and decolonial practice. The first part of the course is acquainted with a historical and theoretical framework in which debates on engaged citizenship will be raised, especially touching on issues regarding rights and democracy (sovereignty and subjectivity, non/territorial and psychological citizenship), Western and non-Western conceptions of citizenship (indigenous movements, migration, decolonial politics) as well as issues of inclusion and exclusion (feminist and queer critique, racial politics, planetary citizenship, civil disobedience). The theoretical part of the course develops activist, relational, and post-national accounts of citizenship. The second half is taught from a media and performance studies lens, centering on decolonial theory and experience-based learning. Students learn how to sketch, plan, and enact “micro-actions” - on and off campus, live or mediated - and thereby probe concepts of engaged citizenship. The practice-based exercises (such as live-action prompts, improvisation, visual projection, culture jamming, and tactical media) are oriented towards a plural, diverse, and open society, earth justice, and planetary citizenship.

The course begins with a review of the scientific background needed to understand the role that chemistry has played in technological progress so far and to answer the question: can chemistry help in achieving sustainability goals, and how?
The course approaches sustainability from a chemistry perspective, starting by introducing the 12 principles of green chemistry and giving examples of their applications in real life. Green chemistry metrics, such as atom economy and environmental factors, to be able to measure and compare aspects of chemical processes in terms of sustainability are reviewed. An overview of the principles of catalysis and different types of catalysts, with an eye on real industrial processes and sustainable chemistry is provided. New processes to help close the carbon cycle and reduce our environmental impact such as hydrogen production, biomass utilization, plastic waste recycling, and reduced use of solvents are discussed. In project groups of 2-3 students, an established industrial chemical process with an emerging, more sustainable route, and deliver a report focused on the green chemical aspects of the process are compared.