United Kingdom - England

This course explores a series of interconnecting developments which placed cities at the center of power and innovation in the medieval world in the period c.1000 to c.1500. A process so transformative the cities can be conceptualized as revolutionary. Students explore how power was constructed within cities. In addition, students examine competing concepts of the city as an embodiment of sin or of holiness. Alongside this, students question how wealth was generated within cities and how some of the consequences of a profit economy and rising population were managed through welfare provision and charitable activity. Central to the course is the importance of landscape, and how monuments, topography, and rural hinterlands shaped urban socio-religious and political communities. Finally, students assess how learning (especially the rise of universities) and history-writing enabled cities to position themselves as centers of knowledge, memory, and identities.

This course focuses on aspects of managing and leading organizations. Students learn how to influence and motivate others to get cooperation for their own goals. Topics include negotiation, leading and managing teams, motivation, and personality. The course also explores the organizational systems that coordinate individual work to meet business objectives and the impact of technology (e.g., artificial intelligence) and new business models (e.g., gig economy) on work.  

This course introduces students to Cognitive Psychology, the scientific study of how the mind works. Students become familiar with the field of Cognitive Psychology and its research approaches, and appreciate its relevance to everyday functioning. A variety of relevant topics are discussed, such as perception, attention, memory, language and decision-making, both in terms of the prevalent theoretical models, as well as empirical evidence.

The objective of the course is to provide students with insights from economic theory which are relevant to applications in managerial decision making. The emphasis is on applying microeconomics ideas to solve problems. Topics include consumer theory, production, market structure, monopoly, oligopoly, pricing, game theory, bargaining, auctions, and asymmetric information.

This course is concerned with economic geography. In particular we use ideas from International Trade, International Economics, Development and Regional Economics to talk about the location of economic activity across space and the consequences of uneven location. This course is concerned with two fundamental questions: 1) what determines the distribution of production and trade across countries and regions? 2) which are the implications for economic development and inequalities? To answer these questions, students are introduced to international trade theories, their mechanisms and implications for trade patterns. In parallel, this course provides students with a review of the main empirical studies testing for those theories and documenting the implications of trade liberalization for economic development and income inequalities. Armed with these theories and empirical facts, the course critically evaluates current trade policy disputes.

In this course, students use advanced mathematical methods to establish convexity in complex problems. In addition, students specify necessary and sufficient conditions for optimality, classify optimization algorithms as first or second order, determine appropriate optimization algorithms for given problems given the size and structure of the optimization models, and apply sensitivity analysis to optimization problems using Lagrange multipliers.

The course examines the role of power and politics in international economic relations. Besides international structural factors, it emphasizes the role of domestic political interests and their influence over foreign economic policies. Major approaches covered include historical views on international political economy, and contemporary systemic theories of international cooperation, interest groups politics, ideas and institutions. The course provides an overview and explanation of the international monetary and trade systems since 1944. It also discusses current debates on trade, monetary policy, the political roots of financial crises, globalization and the retreat of the state, and environmental protection.

This course discusses and analyzes the major challenges and current initiatives in the creation of finance industries appropriate to and effective in developing countries. The course focuses on the private financial sector and issues relating to access to finance. After a general overview, the course examines the forms of finance available for larger firms in developing countries, mainly the banking sector and the stock market. Subsequently, the course covers the evidence on the effects of financial development on economic growth and the role of institutional factors, such as corporate governance, in financial development. The course then examines the access to finance for smaller firms and households and the implications of a lack of access. Finally, the course touches upon private international sources of finance, namely private capital flows, FDI, and remittances to developing countries.

This course focuses on the intersection of culture and national identity in Russian and Soviet history. Students examine Russia’s relationship with its ‘others’ – East and West – and their role in the construction of Russia’s discourses around culture and nationhood. Students also explore the role of empire in Russian and Soviet history, analyzing how Russian writers, artists, and intellectuals have questioned, endorsed or contested it. Through the analysis of literary and visual primary sources, the course provides students with a better understanding of Russia’s conflicted identity and its consequences for the present day. 

This course builds upon the knowledge and understanding gained by the students in the Separation Processes 1 course. This is  achieved by both broadening the content to encompass a wider range of separation processes and deepening the student’s understanding of the processes covered in Separation Processes 1. This is primarily achieved by building upon knowledge of distillation and extraction processes and design, introducing more complex variables and via the introduction of new separation processes such as adsorption.