Ireland

Strategic marketing management is a business philosophy that puts the customer at the center of the business. It is the ability of the organization to organize itself to meet the current and the future needs of customers more effectively than its competitors. It requires a range of skills on the part of the strategic marketing manager, and it requires the organization to adopt a carefully thought out systematic approach with clearly articulated objectives. Strategic marketing management integrates different aspects of marketing activity within the organization including segmentation, positioning, competitive strategy, new product development, brand management, communications, pricing, and distribution. This course provides students with an appreciation and understanding of the particular challenge that strategic marketing management presents, and equips them with a range of tools to be effective strategic marketing managers.

This course encompasses some of the most dramatic events and developments in European and world history: the First World War, the rise of fascism and communism, the Second World War, and the Holocaust. It explores the reconstruction and recovery of Europe after 1945, both as a divided continent during the Cold War and in light of moves towards and challenges to European solidarity and unity. Furthermore, it considers shifting conceptions and geopolitical configurations of a continent in flux, as well as the global dimensions of European history throughout the century. While some sessions focus on particular European nations, others focus on key events or themes in comparative and transnational perspectives. The module thus provides an overall view of the history of modern Europe since the early 20th century and of the foundations of contemporary Europe.

This course introduces students to the history and the development of planning as a professional practice. Topics include core principles of modern planning, planning theory, settings and contexts of planning, values and ethics, underpinning contemporary planning, corruption, crime, and the Planning Tribunals.

This course examines mass political attitudes and behavior from a comparative perspective. In the Fall term, students examine the nature of public opinion and key approaches and debates concerning its foundations. Topics include defining, measuring, and analyzing public opinion (sampling, questionnaire design, contextual sources of bias); citizen competence (information, sophistication, democratic norms and tolerance); and explaining public opinion (self-interest vs symbolic approaches, group interest models, political culture and values, role of elites, ideology, media and political communication, social networks). In the Spring term, students focus on political participation, and particularly voting behavior and cover the following topics: defining political participation, major theoretical debates in political behavior (rational choice models; social influence models; psychological models), explaining voter turnout, models of vote choice (strategic voting, sociological approaches, the Michigan model, retrospective and prospective evaluations, issue voting, candidate qualities, election campaigns and political communication), political protest, social capital and participation in voluntary organizations, and social movements.

This course introduces students to the theories and practical skills of leading and managing change in contemporary organizations reflective of operating in an internal or external consultative capacity. It explores the hard (structure and strategy) and soft (people) skills needed to lead the change process from the initial consultative diagnostic through to the design of interventions to inform and guide organizations to their optimal operative changed state. Emphasis is placed on learning the skills needed to operate within a leader/manager role during change and/or engage with organizations on a consultative basis through the change process. Examples of these include identifying the forces and recognizing the need for change, using diagnostic models, designing interventions which facilitate change, and monitoring systems for long term effectiveness. The course draws on past and current research as well as current expert experience of implementing change.

This course introduces European history during the Middle Ages, from the fall of Rome in the 5th century to the Renaissance of the later 14th and 15th centuries. The Middle Ages, once dismissed as a time of stagnation and superstition, is now regarded as an exciting period of ferment, innovation, and creativity. The social, political, and cultural foundations of modern Europe were established in the Middle Ages, and the modern era cannot be understood without an awareness of this formative millennium. But equally, the study of the Middle Ages often means encountering the strange and unfamiliar, and this too is an essential part of being a historian. This course studies the period by focusing on a range of significant events which illustrate some of the most important developments of the period. These include the sack of Rome by barbarians, the influence of the Irish on the conversion of Europe to Christianity, the trial of Joan of Arc, and Columbus's "discovery" of America.

This course provides students with a basic understanding of the psychology of ageing. The course explores the nature of ageing, cognitive functioning, psychological issues, and assessment and interventions. Lectures employ a variety of teaching methods, including opportunities for students to meet invited speakers with experience in the field.

This course explores how literature has engaged with ideas of childhood across several centuries. Through an examination of adult literature about childhood experience as well as literature written specifically for children, this course introduces students to a variety of expressions and cultural constructions of childhood in a diverse range of texts. The course places a particular focus on issues of power, voice, and agency. Subject areas include romanticism, evil and innocence, growing up, the "Victorian" child, the narrator's voice, life-writing, families, agency and rebellion, illustration, gender, race, ability, class, and sexuality.

The course examines Ireland's 20th century. From one country under the union to two independent states, this course analyzes the political changes that shaped the century. Such changes include the move from Hume Rule and Unionism; revolution to independence; dominion to republic; self-rule to direct rule; and from troubles to peace. The course questions the emphasis on the political narrative that has dominated the study of the century, and considers how the priorities of social, economic, and cultural history raise significant challenges for the traditional studies of 20th-century Ireland. Drawing on a wide range of sources and experiences, this course explores the forces that have shaped Ireland's 20th century, and the extent to which events in the second half of the century have shaped the analysis and debate of the first fifty years.

This course provides an opportunity for students to engage with central ideas and thinking in gender and feminist theory including gender, power, patriarchy, oppression, and identity. Development of concepts of gender in contemporary gender and social theory that challenge the traditional gender/sex binary are explored. The important relation between theory and practice using the body as a site of interrogations are examined and oppressive social identity systems including sexism, racism, and classism are challenged. Regulation of the body, sexualities, changing body images, issues of bodily integrity, gender-based violence, consent, and agency are explored using key feminist and gender theory texts. To think through core concepts, questions are asked around a range of themes such as sexual reproduction and reproductive justice, care, migration, work, and privilege. Gendered hierarchies linked to material and structural disadvantage are explored in a global context and different patriarchal systems are analyzed that have disadvantaged women and enforced rigid gender roles that confine and restrict both women and men.