United Kingdom - England

This course introduces students, especially those beginning the study of ancient history, to the politics, society, and economy of the Greek world and its relations with neighboring peoples in the archaic period (800-478 BC). The principal themes of the course are the emergence and character of the leading Greek city-states and their geographical spread throughout the Mediterranean world; the rise of powerful non-Greek neighbors, especially Persia, during the sixth century; and the interaction between them, culminating in the Persian Wars. Particular attention is paid to the nature of our evidence for the period: students study the first work of western historiography, THE HISTORIES of Herodotus; and the potential and problems of using other sorts of archaeological, documentary, and literary evidence to write the history of this period.

This course fulfils the dual function of introducing students to various canonical French texts and films and of introducing students to the study of narrative poetics, or "narratology" an important mode of literary analysis which was largely developed in France. Beginning with a comparative analysis of the narrative techniques of a 19th-century short story by Guy de Maupassant and its film adaptation by the great director Jean Renoir, the course then turns to the medieval and early modern versions of the popular tale LA CHESTELAINE DE VERGI. Afterward, students read the crucial 18th-century novel MANON LESCAUT, the source for Puccini's opera of the same name; they shall then turn to Emile Zola's 19th-century novel THÉRÈSE RAQUIN, studying both this text and its film adaptation. Finally, students examine a contemporary text remarkable for its narrative technique: Annie Ernaux's LA PLACE. 

This course reads against the grain of those dominant narratives of colonialism as world-making by focusing on the pirate as an interruptive force, who derails the movement of peoples, goods, ideas, and laws across the maritime routes linking the Atlantic and Indian Ocean worlds. Important tools in the course are the reading practices of postcolonial theory, which will teach us to extract and assess this alternative history of the post/colonial pirate. The course also teaches students to nuance standard maritime historiographies through literary reading practices, as well as evaluate the metaphoric application of piracy to contemporary, interruptive, economic practices.

Climate change exemplifies the sort of planetary challenge facing humankind in the 21st century. In this course, students explore how that kind of challenge can be understood as a scientific, political, social, and moral problem, to better understand our place in the world under conditions of multiple and interlocking crises. The course introduces the Anthropocene, as both a proposed geological phenomenon and a critical tool to rethink the relationship between humans and the planet. Pursuing this question require students to question some established distinctions—between human/animal, nature/culture, biology/society, life/nonlife, and Globe/Earth. Through anthropological materials, historical and contemporary accounts of life in the aftermath of industrial transformation, colonization and anthropogenic change, the course considers the types of knowledge, forms of collaboration, political engagement, and social practice that might help us better apprehend the fragility of the planet and articulate a shared responsibility to its future.  

This course introduces students to scholarly debates about contemporary Russia. It develops a comprehensive analytical toolkit required for understanding the various patterns and dynamics in Russian politics, state, and society. The course is motivated by the growing prominence of "the Russian challenge" issue in contemporary global political debates and is structured around a series of questions that allow for exploring commonly used explanatory variables as well as key issue areas structuring public and scholarly debates on Russia.  

In this course, students explore the different areas and production roles that make up the filmmaking process. As a team, students create a short film. Guidance is provided through each production stage: development, pre-production, production, and post-production.

The course explores how this complex organization of hundreds of cells emerges during embryo development. The course focuses on the precise organization of tissues that arises during embryo development by the coordinated control of the differentiation, migration, proliferation, and death of cells. It provides a solid grounding for future specialized study of nervous system development, function, and repair.

This course teaches the art and craft of screenwriting. Students undertake a thorough investigation of plot structure and develop a sophisticated understanding of character development and theme, as well as consider other screenwriting concepts including subtext, scene design, and cinematic juxtaposition. The practical dimension of the course involve each student each writing a script for an 8-10 minute short film. Through guided writing exercises and in-class viewings, students work through a script development process that guides them from their initial conception to the completion of a fully revised script.

The course provides students with a thorough understanding of core concepts and methods of microeconomics, as a foundation for subsequent study of microeconomics, and as one of the key elements in the professional training of an economist.

This course explores key development challenges faced across developing countries and is divided into three sections. The first critically examines some of the major concepts, paradigms, and theories, which have attempted to define what development is, how and why it occurs (or does not), and to whose benefit. The second focuses on some of the key development challenges faced by developing countries: economic (poverty, inequality, unemployment), political (democracy, human rights, role of elites), social (religion, race/ethnicity/caste, urbanization), and natural (climate change, pollution, resource extraction, extermination of species). The final section explores possible remedies to these issues through international cooperation (trade, aid, finance, South-South cooperation), national policies (welfare schemes, laws and regulations), and micro and informal solutions.