University College London

The course provides an introduction to the science of the natural environment and gives an overview of the processes that shape the evolution of our environment. Topics include (1) global cycles that operate in the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and cryosphere, and the cycling of carbon, nitrogen, water, and energy; (2) natural hazards and their impacts on human society and how these are monitored, assessed, and mitigated; and (3) natural resources exploitation focused on water, minerals, and fossil fuels, and the environmental issues associated with their extraction and use.

In this course, students are introduced to theoretical and political questions about students with learning difficulties and disabilities, including students with severe and profound learning difficulties. After looking at competing models of disability, the course examines questions about health, human dignity, respect, rights, equality, dependency, creativity, and inclusion; and students explore how people with disabilities value their lives and how to assess their testimony about living with a disability. The course includes philosophical and sociological theory, the politics of disability, and numerous examples of first person testimony.

This course is an introduction to ways of thinking about technology, using historical, sociological and philosophical perspectives. The course starts with lectures and seminars on fundamental questions: what is technology? Is technology socially shaped? Do artefacts have politics? What are the common mistakes in thinking about technology? The course then addresses major themes (industrialization and division of labor, technological lock-in, gender and technology, non-Western technology and maintenance) and key theories and models (Marx, Foucault, Heidegger). The course ends by addressing provocative questions such as: can machines think? Can machines be ethical? Do machines evolve?

This course surveys a number of key debates in the very broad literature on electoral and political behavior in democratic states.  Topics include how citizens think about parties, politically salient groups and political issues, including how citizens make vote choices, the mechanisms behind differences in turnout and participation across different individuals and over time and levels in political knowledge.  The course provides a comparative examination of political behavior in democratic contexts, but because of the historical development of the research literature in this area, there is greater weight placed on the US relative to other countries. 

The course covers in depth the chemistry of three major classes of biologically important molecules; carbohydrates, peptides and proteins, and nucleic acids. In addition, the course provides an introduction to molecular imaging and covers methods for labelling of biomolecules with fluorescent dyes and radionuclides.

The use of nanotechnology in medicine is an emerging field that can revolutionize the treatment and detection of disease. Through hands-on laboratory sessions, workshops, and lectures by world-leading researchers and active clinicians, this course offers both an insight into these emerging technologies and a fundamental understanding of why size matters and how nanoscale technologies interact with biological environments. Students visit the nanoscale quantum universe, and see how nanoscale objects can be tuned for disease targeting. 

This course is a dynamic exploration of William Shakespeare’s London and literature inspired by and set in his city. The course is designed introduces students to the historical and cultural milieu of 16th and 17th-century London through a variety of genres, including drama, prose, verse, and broadside ballads. Historical accounts, artefacts, and maps provide context to the rich material for critical reading offered by these texts. Students learn about historical research methodologies while sharpening their literary close reading skills. 

This course explores and identifies why engineering is essential to the modern world. Students learn how engineers draw on scientific knowledge, research techniques, technical know-how, skills and collective experiences as well as societal facts and values to solve problems of any size or complexity. Within the interplay of these factors, many life-changing decisions and engineering solutions cannot be made using only calculations but require sound thinking and justifications based on often incomplete information.   

This course provides students with a thorough understanding of the functioning of financial markets. It covers topics such as the role of markets and institutions as providers of liquidity, the reasons for price volatility in financial markets, financial fragility, different types of market microstructure, and informational efficiency of financial markets.

This course examines the rise of risk-based policy-making and risk regulation for scientific, technological, and environmental developments. Students explore definitions of risk and the terminology for risk governance, (changing) perceptions and attitudes to risk in public and private organizations, as well as established and new approaches to managing and regulating risk. These issues are explored through a number of deep dive case studies and sessions from several fields: healthcare and pharmaceutical (including Covid-19), the environment and climate change, digital technologies and cyber-physical systems, and food safety. Particular attention is paid to addressing uncertainty and ambiguity, and what good governance of uncertain risks entails via models such as "planned adaptive risk regulation."