University College London

This course explores the relationships between urban form and formation: how insights from urban morphology and morphogenetic processes that created existing urban form can better inform the creation of future urban form through planning, design, and more informal urbanism. This involves study of different urban form components and patterns at different scales – buildings, spaces, streets, and districts – and how these are created in relation to each other to generate overall urban form. 

Modern bioscience research increasingly makes use of computational methods to collect, explore, analyze, display, and share data and results. In this course, students learn the foundational skills of coding so that they can write computer programs and analyze data using the Python programming language. Students are taught using examples drawn from bioscience research, and learn how computer techniques are used across a range of cutting edge research methods.

This course addresses the literature of the 17th century, tightly defined as the period running from the accession of Charles I in 1625 through the Civil War (1642-9) and the Restoration of the monarchy under Charles II (1660) to the end of the so-called "early-modern" era in 1700. 

This course covers theoretical anthropological approaches to the study of capitalism, from early accounts of the market versus other economic forms, to recent works on salvage economies and forms of financialization. Drawing on thinkers such as Gibson-Graham, Laura Bear, Anna Tsing, Andrea Muehlebach and Evans and Reid, it critically engages with ideas about neoliberalism, diverse (or alternative) economies, nepotism, austerity, performativity and prefiguration, and the way in which "capitalocentrism" obfuscates space for critical thought.

Domesticated animals have been identified in many societies across the world, but rarely have archaeologists considered how livestock management has shaped (and continues to shape) human societies.  In the past, archaeologists have tended to assume that once established livestock can be disregarded as a dynamic factor.  Such studies focus on the narrow confines of the economic significance of livestock produce, often associated with the animal's death.  This course considers the agency of livestock and its importance in transforming human relationships.  Examples and case studies are drawn from archaeology, but also from anthropology, history, and geography

This course focuses on the engineering problems specific to the regions of the ocean both offshore and near the coastline. It covers practical approaches for designing offshore and coastal structures and underlying physical processes such as waves, tides, erosion, and other coastal and offshore processes. The coursework project relates to topics such as the design of coastal or offshore structures, design of offshore renewable energy facilities, and coastal defense planning.

This course introduces clinical scientific practice. An overview of common methodologies and analysis used in healthcare research provided, and students learn how to undertake a literature search. Concepts such as bias and logical reasoning are discussed, and students read, interpret, and critically evaluate scientific papers. Students also learn how science and technology are used in healthcare, and discuss how clinical tests can help diagnose health conditions and evaluate treatment outcomes.

This course introduces students to the main political economy issues that have driven the process of European integration from the aftermath of WWII to an uncertain present. Students investigate the European economic integration by revealing the interactions between economic efficiency and socio-political interests. To do so, the course first provides a historical and institutional background on the early formation and later evolution of the European Union. It then covers in more details specific EU policies and areas of interest related to both macroeconomics (monetary and fiscal policy, with a focus on crisis times) and microeconomics (trade and competition in the single market, distributive issues, labor market, and welfare policies). Students apply theoretical knowledge from alternative schools of thought (neoclassical economics versus critical political economy) to explore different angles and appreciate the complexity of EU economic policy-making.

This course provides new thinking about public health which integrates the arts and sciences to address current health and social care issues. Topics include, for example, public health systems and structures, behavior change theories, arts in public health communication, public health interventions for non-communicable diseases, creative approaches in public health, arts in mental health promotion, public health inequities, public health in the workplace, participatory global health, co-designing health architecture, and public health and the environment.

This course explores the interdependencies between natural systems and human disease in a time of rapid environmental change. Acknowledging diverse and changing perspectives on health and the environment across history and cultures, students are introduced to emerging concepts and issues in this field, fundamental approaches to assess evidence for causal relationships between environment and disease as well as begin to develop an understanding of the complex socioecological systems within which remedial action can be taken.