University College London

This course provides students with a framework for understanding modern ideas in the theory of international trade, and to use this framework to analyze the major policy issues of world trade. Students study the key concepts of positive and normative trade theory and leading examples of recent empirical work on the pattern of trade and the effects of protection and preferential trading agreements.

As the planet’s land use and human population become increasingly urban, environmental problems and politics of cities are evermore critical for improving socio-environmental relationships and outcomes. Thus, this course explores the urban political conflicts of environmental issues like climate change, air pollution, water quality/quantity, resource and energy use, waste disposal, and more. Using a range of case studies from around the world and beginning with some of the contested material flows of resources that both transform and comprise cities, the course then moves to address politicized ideas of nature, conservation, and habitats in the city while concluding with discussions of human agency and responses to the uneven social impacts of urban environmental problems.

This course examines how textual evidence may be used by students of different disciplines to study past societies, with a particular focus on archaeological research. It draws on written sources from the Near East and Eastern Mediterranean to explore issues such as the materiality of texts, literacy and orality, the relationship between texts, physical space and visual media, and the social and cultural contexts in which writing was used.

The implementation of sound quantitative actuarial models is a vital task to assess risk in insurance, finance, and other industries and professions. This course provides a self-contained introduction to both theoretical and practical implementation of various quantitative modelling techniques applicable to finance and insurance. The course combines diverse quantitative disciplines, from probability to statistics, from actuarial science to quantitative finance. Students are able to apply the acquired knowledge to evaluate various insurance products.