Ireland

The course introduces students to practical elements of Irish-language culture through a 4-day, residential course based in the Waterford Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking area), one hour from UCC. Through classes and field-trips, the students participate in cultural activities relating to famine- and agrarian-history, landscape, music, dance, storytelling etc. in an Irish-speaking environment.

This course introduces students to a range of contemporary Irish writings, spanning non-fiction, the novel, short stories and poetry, closely examining the choice of theme, the significance of form, and the nature of the works' impact. In analyzing the depiction of contemporary Irish urban and rural society in contemporary fiction, students engage with ongoing debates concerning the function and importance of literary representation in the context of social crisis and change. The interrogation of Irishness and identity in the course texts is examined as is writers' preoccupation with the transnational and the global.

This course offers an in-depth study of Irish cinema and television from historical, cultural, social, and economic perspectives. Spanning different cinematic and televisual genres from documentary to political thriller, and from the sitcom to reality television, students learn how Irish people and society both shape and are shaped by screen culture through an analysis of key texts. Eschewing unhelpfully narrow definitions of Irishness, this course examines the Irish experience both at home and abroad, looking at how these films and television programs shape the conception of national identity at a time of increased cultural and migration flows both into and out of Ireland (both North and South).

Students learn how the scientific analysis of fossil bones and stone tools, combined with the study of modern and ancient genetic codes, can be used to unlock the hidden history of our species. In this course, students discover the relative strengths and weaknesses of different kinds of data, and the sorts of questions that a scientific approach can (and cannot) answer. Students learn to be able to explain how an understanding of our past can provide unique insights into topical issues such as diet, human health and disease, migration, "race," language and national identity.

This course explores theories and concepts of political corruption. It helps students develop an understanding of political corruption with reference to the models and analytical frameworks offered by various social science disciplines. 

In Ireland, as internationally, the period from 1500 to 1800 was characterized by major political, economic, and social change. Recently, historians have placed increasing emphasis on the impact of early modern environmental and demographic transformation at a time of sustained political upheaval and social reorganization. In the three centuries between 1500 and 1800, Ireland was subject to a complex process of evolution from an essentially rural island controlled by diverse Gaelic and Anglo-Norman lordships to an island dominated politically by a colonial elite who effectively differed from the native population in terms of ethnicity, language, religion, and financial status. This course examines the transformation of Ireland in the period 1500 to 1800 from the perspective of migration and environmental change. In particular, the course considers how changes in demography, land ownership, land management, climate change, urbanization, and commerce significantly reconfigured Ireland’s landscape and environment.

This course introduces students to key thinkers and ideas in the history of western philosophy. Since ancient philosophy is so central to this history, the first half of the course is devoted to some of its most important achievements in the work of the pre-Socratics, Plato and Aristotle. Attention is then turned to aspects of medieval philosophy, and the great rationalist and empiricist traditions of modern philosophy. Lectures are also offered on Nietzsche, and the American Pragmatists. 

This course contains subject matter focusing on class, race, and gender inequalities in education, and offers an overview of education systems and educational policy. It offers a guide to some differing perspectives in the approach to studying education in its sociological, political, and policy context. 

Sport is central to life in the modern world. Why do people play sport, watch sport, talk about sport, dream about sport? And why do they choose the sports that they choose? This course examines the modern passion for sport and seeks to explain this passion. It assesses to what extent the straightforward pursuit of pleasure overwhelms everything else when people chose to engage with sport. But it also looks at how such choices are defined (or refined) by the influence of ideology and tradition, class and gender, commerce and geography, education, and employment. From the colosseum of the Roman Empire to the stadia of the 21st century, this course considers the creation of the modern sporting world and analyzes the place of sport within the context of social, cultural, political, and economic change.