United Kingdom - England

This course offers students a broad introduction to political philosophy. Readings are mostly drawn from Contemporary Anglophone political philosophy (so-called “analytic” philosophy): in particular, Rawls and some of his interlocutors (Nozick, Cohen, Moller-Okin, et. al). Yet students may also occasionally read figures from the history of political thought (Plato, Aristotle, Rousseau, Locke, Mill) and some modern European theorists (so-called “continental” philosophers) as well (Habermas, Honneth, Forst). Questions treated in the course are likely to include the following: What is the source of the state’s authority and what could render it legitimate? What is liberty, and what are its limits? Why is property valuable, and how should it be distributed? Is there a trade-off between equality and freedom? Are there any natural rights or are they all conventional? What is justice? Throughout students are concerned with how these questions are treated in different frameworks: liberal, libertarian, socialist, feminist, utilitarian, and anarchist.  

The course considers how gaming emerged from post-War and Cold War cultures and traces its development alongside a history of contemporary capitalism up to the present. It considers games and their relation to nationalism, gender and sexuality, class and intersectionality, among other things. The course asks students to analyze the complex relationships between political context and games. To do so they develop both deep historical knowledge of the industry and solid theoretical tools through which to understand it. Students consider fan cultures, online activism, and community building around the gaming industry.

This course is an introduction to the theoretical concepts required for subsequent computer science courses. However, the course also provides a stand-alone introduction for students interested in the theory of computation and its links with logic and language theory. The first part of the course focuses on mathematical logic and the second part addresses the fundamentals of computation, automata, and language theory.

This course reviews the variety of methodologies and approaches that comprise the discipline of archaeology today. It introduces students to the history of archaeological research, from the antiquarians of the 18th century to contemporary debates on the interpretation of the past. A range of essential archaeological concepts are introduced alongside key field and laboratory methods, including survey techniques, relative and absolute dating, DNA analysis and environmental archaeology. The ways in which archaeologists have employed the evidence from objects, bodies, buildings, and landscapes to reconstruct past human societies are considered, with case studies exploring how particular archaeological cultures (for example the ancient Greeks) or issues (for example the origins of agriculture) can be addressed.

This course represents an introduction to international marketing and develops knowledge of the international environment and international marketing. The increased scope, risk, and complexity faced by the international marketer is due to the increased level of uncertainty from operating in diverse and less understood environments. Emphasis is placed on the identification of challenges presented by international marketing to equip students to deal with differences, opportunities, and threats emerging from diverse economic, demographic, political/legal, cultural, technical, and competitive environments. The impact of international issues is related during the course to the marketing decision-making task at three levels; the macro level at which country selection decisions are made; national level at which market entry decisions are made; and market level where marketing mix decisions are made.

The course introduces students to the idea that economics, like all of the natural sciences, can be a laboratory science. Students study the role laboratory experiments can play in testing economic theories, as well as suggesting new ones. This is achieved through a series of topics in experimental economics, including market experiments, individual decision making experiments, and game theory experiments. 

This course provides an introduction to that most adaptable and global of literary forms: the short story. It explores stories from diverse cultures and traditions around the world, including Asia, Europe, and the Americas. By reading short stories from across the globe, students are also introduced to the idea of "world literature" and some of the debates surrounding this idea.

This course introduces international education and development through three lenses. The course first examines why education is seen as important for development, drawing upon economic, rights-based, and socio-cultural perspectives. It then examines the way education is measured and targets are set for development. The course provides grounding in education and international development, with a particular focus on the challenges facing resource-constrained and rapidly expanding educational systems. 

In this course, students explore German history from the Reformation to the present day. The course covers major events in early modern times, including the Reformation and the Enlightenment, but the main focus is on the 19th and 20th centuries. Students engage with a variety of topics, including nationalism and nation-building, revolution and reaction, industrialization and urbanization, changing gender roles and social structures, empire at home and abroad, mass politics and culture, Germans’ roles and experiences in two world wars, Nazi racism and genocide, and Cold War division and unification. The common threads throughout are Germans’ persistent experimentation with defining "Germany" and the consequences for those variously included and excluded according to gender, class, religion, race, politics, and other categories. 

Countering organized crime has been accorded high priority by many states and intergovernmental bodies, however, the concept is ill-defined and often subject to clichéd, analytically weak discourse. This course reframes the debate to think in terms of how serious crimes are organized. Students analyze the nature and organization of criminal activities (i.e., the crime commission process) such as modern slavery, drug trafficking, alcohol counterfeiting, and money laundering.