University College London

This course explores the rise of feminism in England from the publication of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman to World War I, when London was a hot house of radical thinking and the temporary or definitive home of a variety of brilliant cosmopolitan thinkers and writers who converged here attracted by the infinite opportunities for debate on the most varied ‘isms’: positivism, liberalism, socialism, trade-unionism, Ibsenism, Freudianism, vegetarianism, pacifism, secularism and, last but not least, evolutionism. Darwin’s theories of natural and sexual selection and his views of the place of woman in the evolution of the human species had a wide and deep impact on the debate on the Woman Question. They were received and appropriated in different ways by New Woman writers, but none of them escaped their influence. UCL had a prominent place in these exciting debates because of its deep connection to Darwinism through figures such as Francis Galton, Edward Grant, Edwin Ray Lankester, and Karl Pearson, so this is the right place to explore Darwinism’s fundamental ontological implications for the cultural and literary discourse of the fin-de siècle

This course provides students with a framework for modelling and understanding the behavior of firms in a dynamic setting.  Emphasis is placed on intertemporal factors that influence firms’ strategic behavior in imperfectly competitive markets.

This is an intermediate-level course designed to introduce students to the burgeoning field of Applied Epistemology. Students use philosophical theories about knowledge, justification and belief-formation to explore pressing societal issues. Topics vary from year to year, but may include: When other well-informed people disagree with us, should this make us less confident in our beliefs? What can epistemology tell us about online ‘echo chambers’? What, if anything, makes conspiracy theories epistemically worse than official theories? How should feminism affect the way we think about knowledge and belief?

This course reviews the turbulent development of London from the Roman period (c AD 47) to the rebuilding of the City after the Great Fire of 1666, integrating archaeological, architectural, and documentary sources. It considers the non-linear trajectory its development, noting the serious setbacks such (rebellions, foreign invasions, conflagrations, major plague) and the impacts these had on its ultimately successful commercial expansion.

Objects can be viewed from many different perspectives to reveal multiple, and sometimes contested, meanings. Students may start with object-focused questions such as: What is it made of? How was it made? Where is it from? When was it made? How was it used? Answers to these questions open up further research areas about how objects connect people and express knowledge and cultural values. Using UCL’s unique collections, which include the Grant Museum of Zoology, the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, and Art Collections, students build their own virtual exhibition. By using objects as the primary focus, the course draws on interdisciplinary approaches to their study from fields as diverse as zoology, art history, anthropology, and medical science.