Utrecht University – University College Utrecht

This course builds on new scholarship which expands the study of the Cold War from a primarily bipolar, Western, superpower perspective to a truly global perspective not only geographically, but also thematically, giving voice to underrepresented perspectives. Through combining diplomatic, military, economic, and cultural history with elements of intelligence studies and International Relations theory, this course approaches the bipolar conflict in the broadest sense possible. This course complements The Transatlantic Cold War, which approaches the bipolar conflict mainly from an East-West perspective. It can be taken in conjunction with that course, since it covers an altogether new set of themes and regions, or by itself, since students become familiar with the relevant skills and contents during the course.

This course offers an introduction to the field of linguistics, the systematic study of language. The study of linguistics reflects a combination of reasoning found in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Students review key concepts, the analysis of human language properties, and empirical possibilities and impossibilities of natural language. The course examines a range of topics which include the definition of language, how language works, shared properties of language, how language is learned, outside influences on language, and language variation and change. This course consists of lectures, discussions, student presentations, and projects.

This course invites students to do a thorough reflection on what it means to be an educated human being. Starting from the classical concept of the artes liberales, it explores the different forms this concept has taken on throughout Western history, such as the humanistic ideal of the "homo universalis," the 19th century concept of Bildung, and the late 20th and 21st-century ideal of "global citizenship." The course also examines the most important challenges which liberal education has faced throughout its long history: e.g. utilitarianism (Plato against the sophists), scholasticism (Lorenzo Valla’s critique of medieval "obscurantism"), and the challenge posed by the 19th-century concept of "professional science." Moreover, the course explores the surprising ways in which ideals of liberal education have spread by means of literature, e.g. through the "Bildungsroman" (H. Hesse), the "epic theatre" (Bertolt Brecht) and even the modern detective (Sherlock Holmes). Lastly, the course invites students to write a conclusive statement on the value of liberal education by asking students to rethink how liberal education has formed their character in previous years and how it is likely to bear on life choices that are upcoming in the future.

Ranging from work in the nineteenth century to contemporary anthropological studies, this course analyzes evolutionary, psychological, materialist, structuralist, socio-linguistic, and reflexive approaches to understanding gender behavior and gender stratification. The course explores how anthropological data from around the world is crucial for questioning widely held assumptions about men and women in contemporary societies. Therefore, it examines the processes and practices of the construction of the categories of “woman” and “man” in different cultural and historical contexts. By presenting ethnographic and historical accounts of gender variations and how they are currently understood and displayed, the course reveals the social and cultural forces that have created changes in sex/gender systems. It pays particular attention to the ways in which categories of gender/sexuality are deployed in various discursive regimes such as nationalism, modernism, colonialism, and globalization.

This course is an introduction to sociology. It treats sociology as a science and a profession, emphasizing scientific questions, theories, methods, findings, and their applications. It covers a wide range of topics and social phenomena, such as inequality, crime, immigration and ethnicity, intergroup hate, misperceptions, polarization, religion, gender, and modernization. The course introduces useful sociological ‘tools’ and ‘principles' designed to describe and understand social phenomena scientifically. Furthermore, students receive an introduction to key sociological concepts, theories, perspectives, methods, and stylized findings.