University College London

This course traces the development of western political thought from its classical origins to its most important modern formulations, exploring the main European traditions of inquiry concerning the nature and status of political society, the state, law, citizenship, and relations of power. It extends from Greek antiquity to the early 20th century, and emphasis is placed on the writings of major thinkers and their contemporary historical contexts, including Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Thomas Aquinas, Alfarabi, Niccolò Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Mary Wollstonecraft, Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill, Franz Fanon, Hannah Arendt, and John Rawls.

In the social sciences, we try to understand the behavior of individuals in collective settings. In such settings, the best course of action for the individual often depends on the actions of others. For example, the decision to dress formally or informally for a dinner party depends on how we think others will be dressing. Game theory is the formal analysis of decision making in such interdependent situations in which an individual’s best course of action depends on the actions of others. This course presents a non-technical introduction to non-cooperative game theory.

Behavior is the front-line interaction of organisms with their environment, allowing them to respond rapidly to changes in the environment that define the Anthropocene. Determining the mechanisms of such behavioral responses and how they evolved is fundamental for understanding how organisms adjust to their changing environment. Behavioral ecology examines these responses in the context of the natural environment, bringing the study of behavioral ecology center stage in environmental research. This course unites the classical study of animal behavior, using Niko Tinbergen’s four ‘whys’ of behavior as a framework, with theory on the role of phenotypic plasticity in changing environments. An understanding of the function and mechanisms of animal behavior is timely in coping with current social, economic, and environmental problems in our changing planet.

This course provides an understanding of the important and common infections, and the diseases that they cause, in the population. Teaching relates not only to UK infectious disease epidemiology but also to other global regions. Students cover a range of topics, including: basic principles of infection and immunity, social, economic and structural changes as drivers of change in infectious disease, Spanish Flu 2018 to Coronavirus 2020: successes and challenges in response to epidemics/pandemics, sexual health and sexually transmitted diseases, vector-borne infections, how climate, geography and environment affect infectious diseases in human populations, public health interventions (e.g. behavior/surveillance) to improve infection control, vaccine-preventable diseases, vaccine policy and implementation, and antibiotics and antibiotic resistance. Infections that cause “non-communicable” diseases.

The recent policy reforms launched in the UK National Health System coupled with the challenges faced by health systems globally with the Covid-19 pandemic, emphasize the need for a better understanding of how healthcare systems function, how they are financed, and how strategic policies are developed to ensure the provision of care to the highest quality standards. In this course, students understand how the state and other private and public health-related institutions and processes influence health systems' performance. Moreover, the module explores the demographic and socio-economic challenges faced by healthcare systems, particularly in terms of power and resources contested in the health sector. It is intended to address the gap in health economics that often ignores the developments of the political economy in health systems. This course is relevant for students from several backgrounds, as the focus are both on politics and economics and their interface in terms of health and healthcare.