Aarhus University

The objective of the course is to develop the student’s knowledge of English morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics at an advanced level, as well as their knowledge of the history of the English language. The course introduces the detailed grammatical analysis of English, which includes the analysis of the constituent structure of English words and clauses. It also introduces historical variants such as Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, and Late Modern English, as well as the historical basis for the present-day social and regional variation in English.

Music and language are culturally ubiquitous forms of auditory-motor communication that share many structural features but also differ along several key dimensions. This course addresses the extent to which human processing and production of music and language relies on shared versus distinct mechanisms, at the levels of brain and behavior. Specifically, it reviews basic structural similarities and differences between music and language, and introduces state-of-the art research providing insight into how these structures are processed at the levels of brain and behavior. The course discusses basic cognitive neuroscience literature on music and language perception and production and provides opportunities to critically evaluate and engage with scientific literature. Moreover, students develop testable hypotheses regarding mechanisms of music and language processing, and generate practical experimental designs to test their hypotheses.

This course introduces students to the distinct communication activities related to social marketing, including the practice of achieving societal change for the benefit of the greater social good through the integration of commercially inspired skills and tools with other approaches. Sustainability, diversity, health, and community development have all become global societal concerns. Social marketing communication is therefore a much-needed individual and organizational proficiency for popularizing these concerns in a credible manner and for inferring voluntary behavioral changes among specific target audiences. The course provides relevant theoretical insights within social marketing communication, cause-related marketing communication, and commercial marketing communication. It also develops expertise in employing analytical tools belonging to narrative and discourse studies for working with and developing social marketing communication materials across various media.

This course introduces art, images, and vision in the digital field and various aspects of the roles technology plays in our creation, circulation, and use of images today. The main focus of the course is how contemporary image technologies shape us culturally on an everyday basis and how contemporary visual art can help us understand this. The course introduces works of art and theoretical approaches in the field and concretely analyzes how works of art and other image practices use specific image technologies. By combining theoretical insights and concrete analyses of works of art and everyday image practice, the course provides critical understandings of how humans and machines make sense of images today.

Like the human body, the human skin has an elaborate history, and now—perhaps more than ever—it calls for serious critical study. This course takes skin as a point of contact between historical and contemporary encounters. Skin troubles notions of identity, notably in legend and art. In more recent times, skin is a contentious site of systemic racism. Thematically structured, this course addresses a wide range of issues, including skin as corporeal and conceptual threshold; skin as multisensory organ; skin as artistic support; architectural skin; flaying; sacred skins; skin as anatomical curiosity; skin art; skin pigment; the skin of materials; second skins; literary skin; skin and the self.

This course first focuses on history and culture, starting with a brief historical view of Danish society since 1800. It then analyses culture both from a history of ideas perspective and by exploring Danish cultural values. The course thereafter takes an institutional approach to various sectors of Danish society, providing more in-depth descriptions of, among other things, the Danish political system, its labor market structures, welfare regime, education system, most important industries, civil society, and the relationship with the European Union. This version of the course also focuses on the international institutions in which Denmark is embedded and on the internationalization of the Danish economy and Danish firms. This entails a dual focus on internationalization and comparison with other countries and markets. The course comprises a student project work module where students do either a comparative study with a focus on a particular feature of Danish society, (e.g. elements of the business regime, welfare regime, labor market and their development) or an analysis of how a given Danish sector has been transformed by internationalization. 

Ecotoxicology addresses how chemicals released into the environment impact the biota. This course thus covers all aspects from release of chemical through transport and transformation outside the biota to uptake and effects within the biota. The main body of the course is concerned with distribution and effects within the organism from molecular interactions, impact on organ systems and how these effects at the individual organismal level can translate into highter level biologica, effects in populations, and communities. The course introduces important toxicoloical tools, illustrated in theory and practice and outlines the fundamental elements in chemical risk analysis.

This course discusses the challenges of an increasing demand for meat, milk, and eggs produced in a manner that is environmentally sound and socioeconomically acceptable. It focusses on the production cycles of pig, cattle, and poultry production under Danish conditions. The course investigates the effects of management, housing, breeding, nutrition, productivity, health, animal ethics and welfare, resource consumption, and environmental impact of livestock production. It explores a range of different livestock production systems and works with the opportunities and challenges of implementing sustainable practices within them.

This course provides a basic introduction to human nutrition with emphasis on the underlying molecular mechanisms and aspects. Topics include: an introduction to the anatomy and physiology of the gastrointestinal system, including an introduction to the natural bacterial microbiota in the digestive system and its influence on human nutrition and health; the study types used in human nutrition studies; energy balance and macro nutrients in human nutrition; a detailed mapping of the structure and mechanisms of action of vitamins, and their influence on human health; an overview of minerals and trace elements in food and the importance on health conditions; "functional foods" and selected additives and their mechanism of action and impact on health; the relation between diet and the development of lifestyle diseases. The course involves laboratory exercises of glucose tolerance test after intake of different food components and DEXA body scanning.

This course enables students to work strategically with sustainability and environmental communication in organizations. It introduces key theoretical approaches of special relevance to the topics of environment and sustainability and applies these in order to critically analyze and assess how organizations use communication both to develop a sense of self in relation to the topic of sustainability and to engage in the public space. Students learn to understand, explain, and use discourses as a strategic and tactical resource in order to establish and put credible messages into perspective which may affect the views and opinions of various target groups in relation to the important themes related to sustainability and the environment. The course addresses current practical issues by focusing on the approaches to sustainability and environmental communication that companies, NGOs, mass media, and political organizations use when they enter into dialogue with different stakeholders, including customers, government agencies and institutions, and the general public.