Utrecht University

This course reviews different types of environmental behaviors, the drivers of such behaviors, and how communication strategies can stimulate pro-environmental behavior. Analyzing and evaluating existing campaigns in the field of sustainability and designing their campaigns to change environmental behavior on campus for a real-world client is applied.

The course focuses on prejudice, discrimination, and intergroup relations. In particular, it discussed how the majority group reacts to minority groups in society. How prejudices develop, for instance, how negative attitudes follow from threats to people's identities, or their belongings are studied. The consequences of prejudices for intergroup interactions and, in particular, which political decisions are made, and which policies are implemented are examined. A special focus is on approaches to reduce prejudice and foster the cohesion of majority and minority groups in society. Attention to paid to existing prejudice toward other social groups such as religious or sexual minorities.

This course reviews how genetic factors that influence human traits are identified. The traits focused on are human diseases, but the techniques can be applied to a wide field of subjects. The background knowledge necessary to understand and apply the different methods, the molecular laboratory techniques (theoretically), and the approaches to finding causal variants for human heritable diseases are taught. Students practice using the vast number of databases containing human genetic information. The subjects can roughly be divided into two main groups: Organization and evolution of genomes and genes and identification of mutations that influence human diseases. Requirements for admission include a knowledge of the structure and organization of DNA; the processes of meiosis and mitosis, including recombination; transcription and translation; gene expression; laboratory techniques such as PCR, restriction enzymes, and DNA-hybridization. 

This course discusses literature from different parts of the world from 1789 (the beginning of the French Revolution) to 1914 (the beginning of the First World War). Three different angles are used to study changes and developments in literature and society in this period: (1) a material perspective considers how literature changes as a medium for communication, including developments in the production and distribution of books; (2) a formal perspective which looks at new forms and genres of writing, including the continuing development of the novel as a dominant cultural form; (3) a thematic perspective analyzing how literary expression is influenced by social changes. Examples include industrialization, the relationship between rural and urban environments, and the colonial ambitions of European states and Japan.

This course reviews the benefits of policy development, planning, and management of the environmental compartments of water and soil. The focus is on the interrelationships between human activities and their effects on water and soil, and the subsequent need and options for integrated water and soil management. It describes the analysis of water and soil systems and their mutual relations, as well as the history, concepts, monitoring, and developments in policy and legislation regarding water and soil management. Acquaintance with practice takes place through guest lecturers from the professional field, practicals, excursions, and student work.

This course gives insight into the making of European policies and their consequences for its citizens. The course uses both a bottom-up and a top-down perspective and focuses on the forces that speed up or slow down European integration, the formal and informal procedures by which European policy is made, and the effects of European decision-making for politics, society, and citizens. The course uses theoretical perspectives from public administration and political science. The knowledge gained from these insights is assessed using a written exam. Special attention is paid to: Brexit; the role of the EU in the financial crisis; the role of the EU in the refugee crisis; euroscepsis; enlargement of the EU and its consequences; what are the formal and informal venues for lobbying? What is the most effective strategy to influence decision-making on this issue? theoretical and practical insights will come together in a paper that you write on a case of lobbying in Europe; a case selected by yourself by either a civil society actor or governmental actor. Questions addressed in the paper include: how does EU decision-making work in this issue area and what is a realistic lobby strategy?

This course teaches entrepreneurship both from the theoretical and practical perspectives. Alongside learning about and discussing an academic approach to entrepreneurship, students also go through experiential learning by working on an entrepreneurial project by working in small teams in search of a repeatable and scalable business model on which they report both orally and in written form. The course introduces business model generation tools such as the lean business model canvas, design thinking, and customer validation methods. The results of these methods culminate in a start-up pitch-deck, a Demo Day pitch event, and a concise report.

The course starts with an introduction to the basic mathematical tools needed: tensors (in particular the metric tensor), index notation, and coordinate transformations. Special relativity is introduced, and a basic overview of general relativity is given. The linearized Einstein equations are discussed, and their physical degrees of freedom are identified; it is shown how this leads to a wave equation and hence gravitational waves. The basic properties of gravitational waves are studied: what polarizations they have, how they interact with matter, and the energy they carry. Next quadrupole formula, which describes how gravitational waves are generated by the motion of masses, is reviewed. An important example is the gravitational radiation emitted by two compact objects (neutron stars and/or black holes) that orbit each other, and spiral towards each other until they merge together. The course discusses how these, and other gravitational wave signals are detected with interferometers such as LIGO and Virgo, including the basics of gravitational wave data analysis: how to identify and study weak signals in noisy detector data. Finally, lectures make a connection with discoveries made by LIGO and Virgo in the past few years, and their impact on fundamental physics, astrophysics, and cosmology. The course ends with a discussion of future gravitational wave observatories such as the underground Einstein Telescope and the space-based LISA, together with the scientific output that can be expected from these.

This course examines how images of the “Old World” were constructed in the United States to define the nation in contrast with the political and cultural traditions of Europe. The tension between the American ideal of exceptionalism and adherence to an essential “Europeanism” continues to affect transatlantic relations. Students examine how these contrasting collective images were transformed during the twentieth century as the United States became a global power that influenced Europe. The course considers the following: which images of Europe have dominated American public discourse; how the geopolitical, political, and economic changes during the American Century affected the way Americans re-positioned themselves towards the Old World. After studying the literature, students explore one case study in a small research project.