Aarhus University

This course provides a fundamental knowledge of important sociological theories and approaches in order to analyze current political and economic conditions. It introduces important societal conditions and issues of a political and economic nature, including social conflicts, political movements, finance, crisis, debt, work, consumption, integration, management, and organizations. The course presents sociological approaches to the analysis of these issues and encourages analysis and reflection on society at a local, national, regional, and global level, as well as considering the role of individuals or groups in society. The course focuses on working with different forms of empirical data as well as recent research literature.

This course provides fundamental knowledge of the issues, insights and methods of psycholinguistics. It also trains basic methods for data collection, data processing, statistical analysis, academic argumentation and presentation. The course includes various cognitive models which form a bridge between language as a communicative phenomenon and language as part of human biology. The course provides insight into and experience of using basic tools connected to the planning, implementation, and statistical analysis of a scientific experiment. The course also provides insight into some of the psychological and neurobiological processes which are the foundation of language. Students also acquire skills in quantitative research which can be used in independent work. The course is closely linked to analytical courses in phonetics/phonology, grammar, semantics and pragmatics, and to courses in conversation analysis, language development, and sociolinguistics.

The course offers students "Danish Perspectives" to a wide range of fields within arts and the humanities. Students gain an overview of Danish history, but also Danish culture and religion. Throughout the course students discuss how one can describe the Danes as a people – while at the same time being critical as to whether it is possible to determine a people in such a stereotypical way at all. The course provides a general introduction to various perspectives of Danish culture ranging from literature, music, film, and TV to the narrative culture of the Vikings, the Danish history of slavery, and the perceived particularities of Danish identity and Nordic "exceptionalism."

This course explores major themes, patterns, developments, and conflicts in American history, politics, and society, from the pre-colonial era to the present day. Drawing on a range of primary, secondary, and tertiary sources, both historical and contemporary, it outlines phases, continuities, and changes in the nation’s history, identifies key ideologies and institutions, introduces theories and analytical methods that shed light on the nation’s development, and highlights how understandings of the present-day United States call for an informed, critical knowledge of its past. The course includes topics such as liberty and equality, individualism and community, nationalism and regionalism, self-reliance and welfare, business and labor, slavery and race, immigration and identity, ethnicity and gender, domestic reform and overseas expansion, and hot and cold wars. It also addresses the growth of the United States from its origins as a British colonial outpost to its contemporary status as global superpower. In addition, the course enables students to produce written work on topics within its subject areas.