University College London

The human voice is a highly flexible tool for communication with others. The course familiarizes students with the main concepts underpinning the psychological processing of the human voice, and to introduce them to research on the perception and expression of speech, emotions, and identity. The content covered ranges from basic articulatory and acoustic properties of verbal and nonverbal vocal behavior (e.g. speech, laughter), to social and cognitive aspects of voice processing (e.g. identity recognition, evaluation of personality traits), and the neural underpinnings of human voice processing.

This course provides a broad outline for the processes of change which led from the introduction of farming to the metal producing societies of the Bronze Age in Europe. Students discuss the different explanatory frameworks offered for the introduction and spread of the Neolithic economy and the formation of early stratified societies. The course discusses the changing definitions of the Neolithic, looks at the Mesolithic background, follows the introduction of farming in the Aegean, the Balkans, the Mediterranean, central and Northern Europe, the lake shore settlements of Central Europe, Megalithic monuments, the Tells of Southern Europe, the settlement of the steppe, the first metals, the inventions of charts, and the Bell Beaker network.

In this course students gain a deeper understanding of equality in moral and political thought. The first part of the course focuses on the idea of moral equality. What grounds all human beings’ equal moral status? What does it even mean to say that all human beings are morally equal? The second part of the course focuses on the idea of political equality. Specifically, it considers what the equal status of all citizens implies about how we should distribute power and make political decisions. Does a commitment to the equality of all citizens commit us to democratic rule? If the political decisions made in Community A significantly affect the members of Community B, should the members of Community B have a (democratic?) say in Community A’s decision? 

This course takes London, a global, multicultural city as our lab for exploring social science theories and methods. It engages with current social issues in the city, situating them historically and within wider national and global contexts. The course considers what a focus on a particular city, in this case London, can contribute to the social sciences, and conversely considers how social science concepts and theories can contribute to a richer understanding of cities and city life.

This course examines the impact of global change - broadly defined as the impacts of climate change and demographic change influencing global-scale changes in land use, environmental degradation and pollutant emissions - on physical and human environments in Africa and Asia with a specific focus (thread) on water supply. The course deliberately engages issues of climate injustice, equity, and adaptive capacity from the local to the global. A distinctive aspect of this course is its engagement not only with the hydrological science underlying the impact of global change on water supplies but also with the pathways and processes of water governance including transboundary issues that inform solutions towards more equitable and sustainable water supplies in a warming world. The course draws from case studies informed by active research programs in Nigeria, Niger, Tanzania, Bangladesh, and India.

This course is designed for students with no prior knowledge of the language. Students learn the Hebrew alphabet; they learn to speak, listen, read and write. Basic vocabulary on a range of topics (e.g. home, family, daily activities, shops, classroom) is rapidly acquired. Students learn basic syntax and Hebrew grammar, including all three tenses of different verbs.

This course is concerned with the history of Europe during a crucial phase of its development in all its aspects: political, religious, economic, social, and cultural.

The course aims provides students with a thorough understanding of core techniques of quantitative economics and econometrics and their application to test economic theories and measure magnitudes relevant for economic policy and other decisions, as a foundation for subsequent study of quantitative topics within the degree programme, and as one of the key elements in the professional training of an economist.

This course provides students with a basic understanding of the key economic issues involved in the emerging market economies. Students learn to analyze the interaction between economic factors and institutional, political, and social factors in the formulation and implementation of economic policies in emerging economies, including transition economies.

This course covers the basic principles of machine reasoning, exploring the foundations of the rapidly developing field of artificial intelligence, and outlining the mathematical techniques used in both knowledge representation and future artificial intelligence courses. Once equipped with the main technical and theoretical tools, students are presented with a selection of different applications of machine reasoning, e.g., natural language processing, machine vision, and robotics, to create a point of contact with real-world examples and future, more advanced AI courses.