Ireland

This course explores the origins and development of the Heavy Metal genre, from its beginnings in classic and hard rock through to contemporary forms. The aesthetics of the genre are also discussed, and some focus is given to some of the more prominent movements within the genre, such as the NWoBHM (new wave of British heavy metal), death metal, and black metal.

This is a practical language course for beginner learners of Polish. This course gives students a basic knowledge of Polish language, culture and modern Polish society. Students learn to: 1) use Polish to express information about themselves and others, tell a story, express an opinion; b) use Polish in the classroom; c) correctly use the case system and the verbal system; d) express the following meanings: quantity (how many?), time (when?), location + direction (where?), means (how?), cause (why? how come?), purpose (to what end?); e) comprehend and extract main points from Polish language texts, correctly identify the general idea of a text, locate specifically required information, summarize; f) comprehend contextual information (people, places and events) in Polish-language texts; g) use reference tools (dictionaries and grammars) to obtain grammatical and lexical information; h) formulate questions about structures they do not understand. Students arrive at the lower A1 level of language competence (the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages).

This course provides a comprehensive understanding of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their critical role in shaping global development. It provides the knowledge and skills necessary to critically analyze, evaluate, and contribute to the progress towards these goals, particularly within the context of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It prepares students for a range of professional roles where understanding and facilitating sustainable development is key.

This course covers Cuban cinema since the creation of the film institute (ICAIC) in 1959. It considers films by Cuban directors, and representations of Cuba by foreign filmmakers and Cuban filmmakers in exile, thus focusing on screenings of Cuba and Cuban topics from multiple viewpoints. Specific aesthetics are studied to contextualize applications of Cuban theoretical texts in relation to imperfect cinema, and the viewer's dialectics. The course explores the effects of non-chronological sequencing and distancing in film; black humour, subjectivity, and alterity; allegorical interpretations leading to censorship; the self and the State, with particular attention to gender and sexuality in relation to law; film autobiography as a genre; auteur cinema; revolution and the creation of the 'new man'; revolutionary national identity 2 and marginality; and diaspora, exile and inner exile, among other topics. Overall, this module studies film as a political medium across modern and postmodern contexts, using theoretical texts and key films to illustrate pivotal turning points in socio-historical contexts specific to Cuba and the impact of its 1959 revolution on all aspects of public and private life.

This course explores a variety of both qualitative and quantitative social science research to develop the skills for explaining causal mechanism in political phenomena. In particular, the class focuses on the logic of scientific inference, research design and measurement. This course also explores the uses and abuses of statistical reasoning in social and political studies. Students learn the basic rules of data analysis and the logic of statistical inference. It is a prerequisite for Research Methods B, which covers more advanced statistical techniques and research methods.

This course explores the complex connections between religion and human rights, both in terms of the evolution of the contemporary human rights regime, and in relation to the specific disputed issue of gender. The relationship between religion and human rights is controversial and contested. On the one hand is the claim that human rights require a religious grounding. This course explores the complex connections between religion and human rights, both in terms of the evolution of the contemporary human rights regime, and in relation to the specific disputed issue of gender, and have their antecedents in religious traditions, while on the other hand is the view that human rights provide a necessary antidote to the prejudices and inequalities that are characteristic of religion. The course begins with a consideration of contemporary understandings of human rights, of the role of religion in the evolution of the language, values and norms of human rights, and of contemporary debates about orientalism, colonialism and post-colonialism in the articulation and implementation of human rights. The second section considers debates about the nature and politics of gender, the role that different religions play in the construction and maintenance of gender norms, and the manner in which different religions deal with the issue of women’s rights.

Johannes Vermeer has become a pivotal figure in the Western European art tradition. This is largely due to the hushed solitude and enigmatic themes of his paintings, which seem to give a glimpse of social practices and material culture in the Dutch "Golden Age". This course interrogates some of our preconceptions of Vermeer and his work and to situate him fully within the branch of painting that became his specialty - genre art. The course traces the evolution of genre imagery in Dutch art, from its roots in 15th- and 16th-century printmaking, and the peasant caricatures of Pieter Bruegel, to its apogee in the refined interior spaces of Vermeer and contemporaries such as Gerard ter Borch, and Gabriel Metsu. Lectures focus on key practitioners, groups of related artists such as the Leiden "fine painters" and the Utrecht Caravaggisti, as well as socio-economic and contextual themes. The course also explores contemporary reception and interpretation, the role of the art market in the production of paintings, and the extent to which these engaging, quotidian images are reflective of actual domestic practices in the Dutch Republic of the 17th century. The course makes extensive use of the National Gallery of Ireland's exemplary collection of Netherlandish art.

This course introduces students to the main institutions of the American political system: Presidency, Congress, Judiciary. In the process, we learn about the way in which the members of these institutions are selected, the functions played by each of these institutions, and the way in which they interact under the checks and balances system of the United States. Special attention will be given to the historical development of these relationships. The course also covers the institutional structure of the US, such as the Constitution, the federal system, and the party system.

By the end of this course, students have a critical understanding and comprehensive knowledge of the government and politics in the US, as well as the processes through which policy making takes place. Through discussions of current and past events and a close following of the Congressional electoral campaign taking place during the term students are familiarized with examples of how these institutions and processes interact.

In this course, students learn about the pronunciation and the syntax of the Irish language. Students develop listening skills through listening comprehension tasks, through oral activities and through creating speaking opportunities in class. Oral themes that meet the requirements of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (Level A1) are acquired. Students are enabled to provide short and simple conversations based on themes relating to their own lives. Students are asked to reflect on their own learning process by being aware of the different learning strategies that they apply and by discussing in class the challenges they face and how they overcome these challenges.

From his emergence on the international stage with the Italian and Egyptian campaigns of the late 1790s to his death in 1821 and beyond, Napoleon Bonaparte’s career, first as all-conquering general, then as Emperor and finally as exile inspired an unprecedented explosion of visual imagery throughout Europe. From epic canvases of the enlightened hero on horseback and caustic caricatures of a demented ‘little Boney’ to physical mementos of the Emperor and booty plundered during the wars he waged, these images and objects offer important insights into how contemporaries understood and expressed their experience of revolution and regime change, of conquest and colonisation, of victory and defeat. Surveying the history of the Napoleonic period and its aftermath through its visual and material culture, this course draws upon local and international research collections to explore the interaction between image-making and empire-building in the early 19th century and to interrogate the relationship between art and politics in the making of modernity. In so doing, it also asks how historians can bring visual culture to bear upon their study of the past.