Ireland

This course refers to the interface between landscape and archaeology, focusing on landscape and place theory, legislation and practice for archaeologists, with reference to Irish and international case studies.

The course introduces fluvial (river), estuarine, and coastal environments from a geomorphic systems perspective. Geomorphology is the study of landforms, and the materials and processes involved in landform formation and change. The principal geomorphological focus of this study is the river catchment, which includes valley hillslopes, river floodplains, and river channels themselves. The course also considers links to transitional waters (e.g. estuaries) and geomorphic process environments found in the coastal zone. Students learn about the key themes and approaches employed by geomorphologists to understand these settings, and they gain an understanding of the variety of landforms found in a range of catchment and coastal settings.

The course examines the core phenomena of religious and spiritual belief and practice – faith, guilt and forgiveness, worship – through the lenses of different psychologies. Psychoanalysis, social, cognitive, behavioral, biological, evolutionary and positive psychology have all addressed these. Students explore their theoretical perspectives, methodologies, and the types of empirical data they have gathered. They also look at distinctive features of human culture that, while not specifically religious, are arguably fundamental to the experience of being human, such as art, fiction, and humor. Core to the course is consideration of multiple rationalities and the nature and status of different types and levels of knowledge – religious vs. scientific, psychological vs. sociological, evolutionary vs. humanistic – in understanding the human condition.

Spanning political theory and practice, the course begins with an assessment of influential 19th-century critiques of capitalism and industrialism. Students then consider the rise of modern ecologism and the recent turn to green capitalism, which in turn sets the stage for in depth engagement with ecology and the politics of technology, contemporary anarchist ecologies, post-capitalist and post-industrial utopian imagination, and contemporary anti-capitalist and ecological social movements.

There is little disagreement that far-reaching societal, technological, political, and economic transformations are required if we are to avoid the worst effects of global, anthropogenic environmental change. What form these transformations should take and who should take responsibility for them are, however, far from settled. This course considers some of the key conceptual debates and environmental conflicts arising in this context. Examination of these debates and conflicts demonstrate the contested and uneven nature of environmental change and the measures sought to address these changes. The course helps students develop a more nuanced, critical, and multi-disciplinary understanding of environmental change and the different, often contested, ways of responding to such changes. The course consists of weekly interactive lectures/seminars, guest lectures, and set readings. Lectures introduces students to key concepts and perspectives drawn from the broad field of political ecology. Each week part of the class is set aside for students to develop their research projects. These projects focus on a key area of environmental contestation in Ireland through a political ecology lens.

This course provides students with a critical understanding and comprehensive knowledge of the government and politics of the EU, with a focus on EU public policy.  It examines the main institutions of the EU (the Commission, Council, European Parliament and the European Court of Justice), interest groups in Brussels, and different theoretical approaches to understanding policy-making. Thereafter students learn about specific EU policies including: single market, competition, economic and monetary union, agriculture, social, internal and external policies.