Political Science

This course examines the themes surrounding global organizational processes: how state systems work, where the desire for a global political order comes from, which institutions regulate global relations and what their strengths and weaknesses are. Are we on course for a global government, or will the rise of new centers of world power instead lead to greater fragmentation? The emphasis lies on the last hundred years, in particular on institutions such as the League of Nations, the United Nations, and other global governance organizations. Research is conducted into the motivations behind setting up these institutions, how the interests of various individual nations (or groups of nations) were represented, and which obstacles formed an impediment to decisive governance on global issues. Attention is devoted not only to political organizations, but also to economic and cultural institutions (IMF, the World Bank, ADB), to allow students to acquire a thorough understanding of the structure of the international order and the recent developments in an increasingly polycentric world.

The course provides a comprehensive examination of the processes of European integration and offers a critical analysis of EU policies in their broader historical, political, and economic contexts. This  analysis is undertaken considering the peculiar and often problematic relationship between Britain and European integration, which culminated in the country’s decision in June 2016 to leave the EU altogether. Given this momentous referendum result, which will shape the UK for decades to come, the course analyzes in explicit terms the costs and benefits of ‘Brexit’. The course is divided into four parts: Part I gives an insight into the main historical currents and key institutional mechanisms. Part II analyses the main policies, which continue to shape the integration processes of the EU including the Single Market (SEM), Cohesion, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), as well as Economic and Monetary Union (i.e. the Euro). In Part III the course focuses on the EU’s external policies which influence non-EU countries, as well as future member states, ranging from External Trade to enlargement and the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). The fourth part summarizes the effects of EU integration on the UK and discusses to what extent Brexit (the UK’s decision to leave the European Union) will be beneficial or detrimental to the country’s future.

This course introduces the main contemporary debates around human reproduction and discusses their potential impact on society, particularly as regards gender roles and family diversity. The course reflects on issues such as the possibility of diverse families and individuals to have children by using assisted reproductive technologies, the question of whether surrogate motherhood or social egg freezing are liberating or on the contrary oppressive for women, and the social implication of whether parents should be allowed to choose some attributes of their future offspring (such as eye color, height, or IQ) if able to do so. The course explores how current events such as the COVID-19 pandemic or the war in Ukraine have impacted the reproductive rights of various categories of individuals and the regulation of human reproduction in different countries, as well as at international level. The course builds on several disciplines, particularly law, gender studies, sociology, and bioethics. It discusses court cases (especially from the European Court of Human Rights), pieces of legislation, media articles and videos, and sociological and philosophical writings and other sources. Students work on topics related to human reproduction as policy makers, law makers, or gender and LGBT+ human rights specialists.