Ireland

In this course, students study contemporary issues of diversity and equality advocacy. Students explore the kinds of social movements and collective activism that have driven, shaped, or challenged human rights internationally, taking a bottom-up approach. Case studies are used for in-depth exploration of tensions between equality and diversity and to examine the forms, functions, and outcomes of collective action in relation to the cases considered. 

This course is for students who have no previous knowledge of Irish Sign Language (ISL). Students develop a basic knowledge of signs so that they are able to participate in simple everyday communicative situations. ISL may be of particular value to students seeking a career in health or education or for those who have contact with deaf people through work, friends, or family. It may also be of intrinsic interest to linguists. 

The course educates students in the area of medical device design. This is a broad course and its focus does not solely revolve around the engineering challenges associated with designing a medical device, lectures focus on many aspects: understanding clinical trial data, understanding the anatomical fundamentals associated with the device area, developing intellectual property strategies, regulation of medical devices, risk analysis, manufacturing techniques and requirements, reimbursement, and case studies of successful and unsuccessful medical device development.

Political leaders use architecture to convey power, to express political ideas, and to influence how people think and act. In 20th-century Europe, political ideologies including fascism, communism, colonialism, and democracy influenced the creation of new buildings and cities. Students explore those ideologies through the spaces that they produced, and a selection of examples spanning between Hitler’s plans to transform Berlin to public swimming pools in post-war Britain. Under the banner of democracy, students also explore how forces within Irish politics impacted the Dublin cityscape. This is a history of modern Europe told through the mark left by political actors upon architecture and cities.

Students are introduced to the expanding field of professionals leading urban climate adaptation and mitigation efforts. With a significant portion of the world's population living in urban areas and accounting for approximately 75% of greenhouse gas emissions, urban residents are highly vulnerable to climate change but also offer important solutions for a more equitable carbon transition. In this course, students explore how cities are addressing this critical challenge. Students engage with professionals working on climate adaptation and mitigation strategies in cities across multiple continents and learn about the primary thematic areas where cities focus their efforts.

This course provides an introduction to early modern English literature and the social, cultural, and intellectual contexts that shaped it. It begins with an introductory lecture, outlining the chronology of the period and the major themes that will be addressed in the following weeks – the concept of renaissance, the Protestant reformation, the discovery of the so-called New World, and the English revolution. The course covers a range of genres, from across the whole period of 1500-1660, and features a number of lectures on major canonical authors combined with broader thematic concerns, which trace the development of early modern literature.

This course examines a number of questions regarding education and schooling from a normative perspective. It considers the relevant criteria for evaluating the moral rights and duties of children, parents, and states with regard to education. Students explore some of the most important concepts in political theory such as justice, equality, liberty, autonomy, and community. They also discuss the different aims of education as well as which agents have which responsibilities with regard to enabling children to acquire the capacities for full membership in society. In addition, the course considers which understandings of freedom and equality should inform our thinking about multicultural education and/or demands for equal opportunities for the socially disadvantaged and discuss whether and in how far state schools ought to be neutral with regard to religious and/or cultural norms relating to conceptions of the good life.

This course provides perspective about how a number of both common and rare diseases arise, and explores the associated changes that are seen at the cellular and tissue level. The course uses a number of specific examples of diseases that arise from single point mutations (for example skeletal deformities such as Smith-McCort dysplasia), as well as complex disease that arise from wider sets of gene alterations (for example various cancer types). Lectures are complemented by a series of laboratory classes that expose students to key aspects of how molecular cell biology approaches are used to understand and combat various diseases. Students gain experience with advanced disease models, three-dimensional spheroids, and their characterization by microscopy, as well as how they can be used to assess the efficacy of bioactive compounds. In addition, the laboratory classes teach students how molecular biology methods can be used to diagnose a disease and guide treatment. 

The course provides students with a first introduction to language acquisition research – with particular reference to second language acquisition (SLA) research. It identifies the central issues on which such research has focused, reviews some of the principal findings which have emerged and explores the implications of such findings for language teaching. The course encourages students to reflect on their own experience as a language learner and to make sense of that experience. Topics include child language acquisition, the nature/nurture debate, errors and learning strategies, the learner’s "internal syllabus," individual learner differences, theories of second language acquisition, communication strategies, and second language teaching.