Ireland

This course begins with a brief history of Islam in Ireland. It will subsequently examine the Islamic “other,” and Muslim identities in Europe from historical and modern perspectives. The focus of the course then shifts to the modern era and to debates concerning Muslims living in Europe, including discussions around secularism, human rights, and religious freedoms.

This course is an introduction to the prehistoric communities who inhabited Ireland, Europe, and Western Asia from about 150,000 BC to AD 400. Archaeologists divide this long period of time into the Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age), Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age), Neolithic (New Stone Age), Bronze Age and Iron Age. Students begin with the earliest modern human inhabitants of Europe and Western Asia, their hunter-gatherer way of life, their art and their relationship to the Neanderthal communities who preceded them. They look at evidence for the first hunter-gatherers who settled in Ireland and later the settlements and rituals of the first communities to develop agriculture and build megalithic tombs. Students then examine changes in how these communities organized themselves and their rituals over thousands of years, including their adoption of bronze and iron metalworking. 

The course is taught jointly by the School of Natural Sciences and the School of Psychology, and begins with a brief history of behavioral research. Students are introduced to various aspects of learning, cultural transmission, cognition, play, and intelligence in animals, including humans. They explore the animal’s behavior in its environment and why all individuals of a species do not behave in the same way. The course addresses the importance of an understanding of behavior in relation to conservation in the wild and in zoos, and in relation to climate change.

This course covers approaches to meeting the needs of people with neurological disorders and progressive neurological diseases. As the production of purposeful goal directed movement pervades all aspects of behavior, there is a specific focus upon the physical, psychological, and social consequences of movement dysfunction. The course deals with the scientific principles underlying neurological rehabilitation, including motor control and learning. Students are also introduced to intervention strategies that are designed to maintain or re-establish functional capability, such as brain-computer interfaces, robot assisted therapy, deep brain stimulation, and cortical stimulation.