University College London

This course introduces students to the study of the relationship between religion and politics. The course is structured around key research areas in the field such as the conditions under which societies or the institutions that govern them become secularized, the emergence and persistence of the religious-secular divide as a salient political cleavage, the formation and electoral performance of religious parties, the relationship between religion and regime type, the potential implications of religious doctrines for public policy and economic outcomes, the causes of religious violence, as well as the historical and contemporary role of religion in the international sphere.

Evolutionary thinking provides useful new insights into the origins of diseases and contemporary health problems. This course explores the applications of the tools and concepts of evolutionary biology to human health and health-related behavior. Incorporating examples from the lecturer’s ongoing research on BaYakahunter-gatherers living in the Northern rainforests of Congo and current health problems, students cover a range of topics including: Evolution and human-microbe interactions; Hunter-gatherers as models in public health; Diet, exercise, evolutionary mismatches and non-communicable diseases; Life-history theory and reproductive health; Evolutionary perspectives on mental health and wellbeing; Cultural evolution and health-related behavior; and Applied evolutionary medicine: future of medicine and how evolutionary thinking can be applied to current health problems.

The course examines archaeology in its wider social and political context. The course begins with an examination of the inherently political manner in which archaeology has treated, and continues to treat, the past. This has consequences for the ways in which archaeology has been established across the world, fostering nationalism at the expense of other identities and promoting colonial and imperial ideologies. It also highlights the engagements that non-specialists can have with the past, largely separate from professional archaeology and its official means of communication, including museums. Hence different values are attached to objects, monuments and areas of land, archaeology and politics, tourism and the means by which archaeologists can attempt to communicate archaeology. This latter element of public engagement is one of the major focuses of the second part of the course, helping students to think about the strategies they could develop in their own work. 

Arithmetic is the branch of mathematics which studies the natural numbers — i.e. the numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, and so on — and operations on the numbers — like addition and multiplication. This course explores the features that make arithmetic distinctive, and pose unique philosophical challenges. 

This course examines theoretical debates about the relationship between state and society as well as the social context within which political actors operate and the extent to which they shape and are shaped by social structures such as gender, ethnicity, nationality, class, race and religion. What role do ethnicity, nation and gender play in contemporary politics? What is the link between identity and politics? And what makes for successful social movements? This course tackles these and other questions against the backdrop of three main sociological approaches to the study of society and politics: functionalism, conflict theories, and symbolic interactionism.

This course addresses the ethics and politics of the social sciences, and the role of the social sciences in ethics and political philosophy. Students address questions such as: Are the social sciences inferior to the natural sciences? Should citizens, scientists, or the market decide what gets researched? Are some topics ethically, or politically, out of bounds for scientific research? How should science guide policy and what would evidence-based policy look like? Is cost-benefit analysis the best way to choose a policy? Does everything have a price? Should our ethics be informed by the findings of social science? And what should the relationship between political philosophy and political science be like? The course has two overall aims: first, to encourage critical reflection on the social sciences and, second, to explore the relationship of ethics and political philosophy to the social sciences.

This course examines the role of sexual orientation and gender identity in politics drawing on multidisciplinary research on social movements, transnational rights advocacy, identity politics, public opinion and political behavior, as well as regional studies. 

The Jewish eastern European encounter was among the most significant in the history of the European diasporic encounter. This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the political, legal, religious, cultural, and social ramifications of this encounter. It offers in-depth analysis of the emergence of Jewish autonomy and of the variegated cultural life of Jewish communities. It reflects on religious diversification including heretic and dissenting challenges to communal hierarchies and on the scope and limits of social, cultural and legal integration, as well as on the dramatic consequences of the partitions of Poland. It offers insights into the trajectories of formerly Polish-Jewish communities in Russia, the Habsburg Empire, and Prussia, as well as the impact of mass emigration. The emergence of very large Jewish communities and the impact of emigration from Eastern Europe in the late 19th century includes a reflection on the echoes of Eastern European Jewish culture in the Americas and in Palestine/Israel. Jewish political mobilization in the 20th c., the impact of antisemitism and anti-Jewish violence, and the catastrophe of the German occupation and the Holocaust are discussed as well as the attempts to rebuild Jewish life after the war and under communism. 

This three-week intensive course introduces the fundamentals of cancer biology, diagnosis, treatment, prevention and survivorship. It is taught through expert-led lectures, interactive workshops, lab sessions and site visits. Core topics include molecular mechanisms of cancer, diagnosis (pathology and radiology), radiotherapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy and nanomedicine. Students take part in a structured problem-based learning (PBL) project. Working in groups, they investigate real-world cancer prevention challenges, propose solutions and assess their potential impact.

This course provides a continuation of the study of medical statistics, with emphasis on more advanced topics in epidemiological methods and the design and analysis of clinical trials. Students learn how to model survival data using parametric regression models; to develop and validate a risk prediction model; to analyze clustered data using a regression model; to design and analyze a cross-over trial, cluster randomized trial, equivalence trial, and early phase trial; to understand the issues concerning interim analyses and missing data; and to carry out a meta-analysis.