United Kingdom - Scotland

Narratives about antiquity have reverberated through history. The stories the Greeks and Romans told about themselves and their past shaped the complex societies in which they lived. Today, narratives about the origins and fall of classical societies continue to be used to make claims about where modern societies came from, how they should be run, and how far we have come from our origins. This course examines influential narratives from the ancient world and their reinterpretations in later periods, from the 19th century to the present day. Possible topics include the origins of Greece and Rome and their entanglement in ancient and modern ideas of nationhood, culture and race, and the fall of the Roman empire and the lessons that have been drawn from it. This course shows that narratives of antiquity have always been embedded in contemporary culture, society, and politics, and that they continue to shape the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves.

This course introduces students to the languages and protocols of performance theory and analysis. Students explore critical methodologies for the analysis of theatre and performance events and develop critical languages and methodologies by studying the potential role of performance theories in the engagement with and analysis of the theatrical text and performance

This course considers the shifting nature of Gaelic identities in Scotland from the Middle Ages to the present and assesses the ideological and discursive presentation of these identities. The course also addresses the current sociolinguistic dynamics of the language, particularly in relation to the effect of English-Gaelic bilingualism and the impact of recent revitalization initiatives.

This course provides a survey of painting, sculpture, and architecture in Europe and beyond from c. 1280 to c.1580. It follows a roughly chronological course, from Giotto at the beginning of the 14th century, to Dürer, Michelangelo, and Titian in the 16th century. Attention is paid to the issues relating to the wider artistic situation of the Late Medieval and Renaissance periods, including those of patronage, iconography, materials, technique and types of commission. Although the primary focus of the course is on Western Europe, lectures also address how European art formed alongside non-Western traditions, including the important role played by global trade.

This course examines the psychology of dementia focusing on the cognitive and psychosocial impact on individuals with a diagnosis and those who care for them. Students examine patterns of both lost and retained cognitive skills in people with dementia. Students focus on how retained skills can be maximized, and how the caregiving experience can be improved for both people living with dementia and their caregivers. 

Waste and recycling seem like every-day, if important, issues with which we are all familiar. But do we actually know what waste is? This course introduces students to the anthropological study of waste, an area that straddles politics, economy, and the environment. Early anthropological studies focused on issues such as the symbolic pollution beliefs associated with persons and substances within a coherent cultural framework. A more recent and clearly defined "anthropology of waste" has taken discards and the regimes of production, labor, and value that generates them, as its central areas of study. This course introduces key theoretical understandings of waste alongside compelling ethnographic accounts of waste work that involves both dignity and discrimination, citizenship, and segregation. 

Researchers often overlook the environmental impact of cutting edge research; however, there is growing awareness that environmental sustainability needs to be embedded into all aspects of scientific research, and that all scientific communities need to take action to preserve our planet. This interdisciplinary course meets this challenge head on. Students review scientific benefits of state-of-the-art research methods in psychology and neuroscience, while also discussing methods for assessing and mitigating the environmental impact of these activities. Students evaluate research methods such as lab work with animals and people, scientific imaging, field work, and AI and data sciences. In the context of these methodologies, students discuss the practical and ethical dimensions revolving around emerging sustainability assessment and mitigation methods both inside and outside the University.

This course involves student-led research and dissemination around contemporary environmental topics e.g. renewable energy, food security etc. Working in groups, students explore an issue or problem, undertake research on it, and communicate their work in a form accessible to non-academic audiences e.g. a policy note or a science communication piece. This helps students to develop key graduate attributes and consider their own employment prospects beyond the academy.

This course examines the politics and practices of global health. The course introduces students to the key interdisciplinary concepts used to understand global health policy. Exploring a variety of case study examples drawn from across the world, the course then examines global health policy and governance structures, health systems, and issues of inequality and justice in global health. Through perspectives drawn from the social and political sciences, this course provides students with the skills to analyze current and emergent global health policy challenges.

The course provides an understanding of core aspects of advanced dynamic analysis, dealing with system modelling, dynamic response and vibration analysis, structural dynamics both in the linear and non-linear regimes, wave propagation, and the dynamics of continuous and multi-degree of freedom systems. The main objective is to obtain an understanding and appreciation of the potential and limitations of analytical approaches and solutions, and the value of these in underpinning modern computer methods for simulating dynamic structural response.