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The course explores food as the essential link between nature and culture, examining how food classification, production, cooking, and eating shape cultural identity, social organization, family and gender systems, and religious practices. By studying practices of commensality, students uncover how food reveals ideas about similarity, difference, politics, religion, and social hierarchies. Students also explore contemporary issues such as how food consumption ties to identity, the obesity epidemic, and the environmental challenges of sustainable food production.
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International organizations are created and expected to provide solutions whenever governments face transnational challenges, such as international and civil wars, humanitarian emergencies, flows of refugees, outbreaks of infectious diseases, climate change, financial market instability, sovereign debt crises, trade protectionism, and the development of poorer countries. But their role in world politics is controversial. Some perceive them as effective and legitimate alternatives to unilateral state policies. Others regard them as fig leaves for the exercise of power by dominant states. Others yet are regularly disappointed by the gap between the lofty aspirations and their actual performance in addressing global problems, and want to know the causes of that gap. While some commentators tend to lump all international organizations together, in reality the functioning, power, and effectiveness of international organisations differ widely – across organisations, issues, regions, and over time.
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This course examines the causes and consequences of this democratic malaise, encouraging students to consider policies and actions to address these ill winds against modern democratic regimes. The course begins with an introduction to normative and theoretical justifications for democratic governance and by providing a historical and comparative analysis of the state of democracy. From there, it considers threats to the democratic consolidation and causes of democratic backsliding. Topics include multiculturism, immigration, ethnic chauvinism, electoral violence and fraud, corruption, and elite capture. The last part of the course considers ways to protect, improve and consolidate democracy.
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Organizations operate in an increasingly complex environment, where change is a constant feature of business life. As generative AI (GenAI) reshapes industries and transforms the way people work, understanding how to manage change and digital transformation becomes increasingly critical. While GenAI offers unparalleled opportunities to enhance efficiency and productivity, it also presents complex challenges for management. Taking a multidisciplinary, social science-based approach, this course equips students with the necessary leadership and change management skills to implement successful digital transformation projects. The course blends theory with hands-on learning, using case studies and an interactive simulation game, where students will apply their knowledge by making strategic decisions. Additionally, students gain practical experience through a real-life GenAI-focused consultancy project.
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How have global forces shaped Africa’s states and economies—and how will today’s shifting world order define its future? In this course, students explore the evolution of contemporary Africa, examining the uneven trajectories of nations and regions through the lens of geography, history, geopolitics, and global markets. Students trace Africa’s place in the global system from the colonial era to Cold War developmentalism, to the neoliberal “Washington Consensus,” and the “Africa Rising” narrative driven by China’s ascent. Finally, students contemplate today’s tectonic shifts in global geopolitics and the current polycrisis of climate, geopolitics, and deglobalization. Through scholarly readings, policy reports, films, debates, and case studies, students critically engage with these pressing issues, gaining a deeper understanding of Africa’s past, present, and possible futures—while also better understanding the global economic and political shifts since the 1950s.
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This course engages with the politics of policy making from queer and feminist perspectives, rooting the discussion in cultural discourse of contemporary society. Students discover how policies shape – and are shaped by – the lived experiences of individuals and communities. Students explore the importance of gender and sexuality for various forms of policymaking across local, national, and international levels. Using various innovative approaches and perspectives in gender and sexuality studies, the course investigates how sexual and gender inequalities, in connection with other power structures like race, ethnicity, and class, are embedded and activated in the policymaking process.
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Are you looking to develop the skills to solve real-world challenges in finance, risk management, and insurance? These fields often deal with unpredictable phenomena—like investment decisions, insurance claim patterns, or pricing derivatives—which require robust stochastic models and advanced machine learning techniques. To tackle these challenges effectively, it’s essential to use robust statistical techniques and calibration methodologies to ensure models are reliable. This course equips students with the tools to apply modern statistical and machine learning methods to these complex problems. Students start by exploring Monte Carlo methods, simulating stochastic processes, and applying Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) in risk management. They then connect Generalized Linear Models to deep neural networks, discovering their practical applications in the insurance industry. The course also addresses the challenges of calibrating models to ensure their accuracy and reliability. Combining rigorous theory with hands-on coding exercises in Python, students gain experience implementing real-world case studies while strengthening their core data science skills.
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The course delivers the concepts and models underlying the modern analysis and pricing of financial derivatives. The philosophy of the course is to first provide the firm foundations for understanding derivatives in general. The required technical tools are explained carefully, allowing students to learn the language and to be able to converse with derivatives professionals. Once the tools are in place, those same tools can then be applied to any derivative. Special emphasis is put on those derivatives that shape the modern world. Students should feel comfortable with calculus, probability, and statistics at the intermediate undergraduate level before taking this course.
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The 20th century completely reconfigured global politics. These reconfigurations also transformed Britain’s international standing. This course examines the often-overlapping shifts behind this transformation – imperial decline, economic crises, world wars, Cold War, European integration. Using a foreign policy lens, it examines how successful Britain was in navigating global challenges; how it adapted its strategies and alliances as a result; and how the foreign policymaking process altogether evolved, from being mainly the domain of ambassadors to increasingly being shaped by individual prime ministers. In answering these questions, the course has three main aims. First, to offer students an overview of the international history of modern Britain; second, to establish a firm basis for further studies in foreign policy and/or British politics; third, to provide the conceptual tools necessary for understanding current political discourses.
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