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Informatie over Liberal Arts and Sciences
Hieronder staan het programma en de vakomschrijvingen van Liberal Arts and Sciences Klik op de naam van een vak in een schema om naar de omschrijving te gaan.
| » Year 1 | |||||||
| Periode | Type | Code | Naam | Taal | ECTS | Uren | |
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| semester I a | verplicht | UCG1RM01 | Academic Skills | Engels | 5 | 4 | |
| LAS Core Elective Ia | UCG1AC05 | Culture: The Building Blocks | Engels | 5 | variabel | ||
| LAS Core Elective Ia | UCG1AC12 | Disease | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| verplicht | UCG1AC03 | Exploring Challenges of Modern Society 1 | Engels | 5 | variabel | ||
| LAS Core Elective Ia | UCG1AC07 | How Things Work: Physics in Everyday Life | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| LAS Core Elective Ia | UCG1AC08 | Love | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| LAS Core Elective Ia | UCG1AC09 | Media and Technology | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| LAS Core Elective Ia | UCG1AC10A | People, Place and Culture in a Global Context | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| semester I b | LAS Core Elective Ib | UCG1AC05 | Culture: The Building Blocks | Engels | 5 | variabel | |
| LAS Core Elective Ib | UCG1AC12 | Disease | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| verplicht | UCG1AC04 | Exploring Challenges of Modern Society 2 | Engels | 5 | variabel | ||
| verplicht | UCG1AC02 | Introduction to Academic Research | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| LAS Core Elective Ib | UCG1AC08 | Love | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| LAS Core Elective 1b | UCG1AC10B | People, Places and Cultures in a Global Context | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| LAS Core Elective Ib | UCG1AC11 | War | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| semester II | R&M Elective | UCG1RM04 | Calculus 1 | Engels | 5 | 4 | |
| R&M Elective | UCG1RM05 | Mathematics | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| verplicht | UCG1AC01 | Project year 1 | Engels | 5 | variabel | ||
| R&M Elective | UCG1RM06 | Qualitative Data Collection and Analysis Y1 | Engels | 5 | variabel | ||
| semester II a | keuze | UCG1HU06 | Artivism | Engels | 5 | 4 | |
| keuze | UCG1SC06 | Biochemistry | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG1SS04 | Ethics | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG1SS08 | Fundamentals of Law | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG1HU07 | Health and Wellbeing: Historical Perspectives | Engels | 5 | variabel | ||
| keuze | UCG1SS10 | International Business | Engels | 5 | 5 | ||
| keuze | UCG1SC02 | Linear Algebra | Engels | 5 | variabel | ||
| keuze | UCG1SC04 | Living Cell 1 | Engels | 5 | variabel | ||
| keuze | UCG1SS09 | Policy Making in the EU | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG1SS03 | Political Philosophy | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG1SC03 | Programming in Python | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG1SS06 | Social and Cultural Psychology | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG1SC08 | Systems View on Life | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG1HU04 | Understanding Bias | Engels | 5 | variabel | ||
| semester II b | keuze | UCG1SS05 | Biopsychology | Engels | 5 | 4 | |
| keuze | UCG1SC07 | Human Anatomy and Histology | Engels | 5 | variabel | ||
| keuze | UCG1SS07 | Introduction to Sociology | Engels | 5 | variabel | ||
| keuze | UCG1SC04 | Living Cell 1 | Engels | 5 | variabel | ||
| keuze | UCG1SS02 | Macro-Economics | Engels | 5 | variabel | ||
| keuze | UCG1SS01 | Micro-Economics | Engels | 5 | variabel | ||
| keuze | UCG1HU05 | Music in Culture | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG1HU01 | Philosophy of Mind | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG1SS03 | Political Philosophy | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG1SC01 | Principles of Modern Technology | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG1SC03 | Programming in Python | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| » Year 2 | |||||||
| Periode | Type | Code | Naam | Taal | ECTS | Uren | |
| semester I a | R&M Elective | UCG2RM01 | Calculus 2 | Engels | 5 | 6 | |
| R&M Elective | UCG2RM06 | Interpretive Methods | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| R&M Elective | UCG2RM02 | Statistics 1 | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG2SC12 | Advanced Programming | Engels | 5 | 8 | ||
| keuze | UCG2SS07 | Cognitive Psychology | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG2HU04 | Cultural Criticism | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG2HU05 | Freedom and Responsibility | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG2SC01 | Human Physiology | Engels | 5 | variabel | ||
| keuze | UCG2SS14 | International Relations Theories (and Practice) | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG2SC02 | Living Cell 2 | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG2SC14 | Machine Learning | Engels | 5 | 8 | ||
| keuze | UCG2SS05 | Policy and Principles of Private Law | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG2SS17 | Principles of Entrepreneurship | Engels | 5 | variabel | ||
| keuze | UCG2SS12 | Public Finance | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| semester I b | R&M Elective | UCG2RM04 | Computational Methods | Engels | 5 | 8 | |
| R&M Elective | UCG2RM05 | Qualitative Data Collection and Analysis Y2 | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| R&M Elective | UCG2RM03 | Statistics 2 | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG2SS13 | Clinical Psychology | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG2HU11 | Dystopias | Engels | 5 | variabel | ||
| keuze | UCG2SC17 | Ethical Dilemmas in the Life Sciences | Engels | 5 | variabel | ||
| keuze | UCG2SC06 | Fields, Waves and Signals | Engels | 5 | 6 | ||
| keuze | UCG2SS06 | Global Corporate Strategy | Engels | 5 | 5 | ||
| keuze | UCG2SS16 | International and European Law | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG2HU03 | Knowledge is Power | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG2HU01 | Logic | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG2HU12 | Meaning and Truth in Language and Art | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG2SC16 | Medical Microbiology | Engels | 5 | variabel | ||
| keuze | UCG2SS04 | Models of Democracy | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG2SS11 | Social Complexity and Networks | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| semester II | verplicht | UCG2AC01 | Project Year 2 | Engels | 10 | variabel | |
| semester II a | verplicht | UCG2AC02 | Philosophy of Science | Engels | 5 | 4 | |
| keuze | UCG2SS10 | International Marketing | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG2SS15 | International Politics | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG2SC07 | Smart Technology Lab: Physical Principles | Engels | 5 | variabel | ||
| keuze | UCG2SS02 | Statistics 3 | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG2HU07 | World Literature | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| semester II b | keuze | UCG2SC13 | Artificial Intelligence | Engels | 5 | 8 | |
| keuze | UCG2HU06 | Arts, Technology and Philosophy | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG2SC11 | Big Data - Data Science | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG2SS09 | Decision Making | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG2SC03 | Genetics | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG2SC04 | Human Immunology | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG2SS01 | Introduction to Legal Theory | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG2HU10 | Leadership in Culture | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG2SS04 | Models of Democracy | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG2HU09 | Myths we live by: Narrative in Politics and Society | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG2SS03 | Political Economy | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCG2SC09 | Practical Life Science | Engels | 5 | 8 | ||
| » Year 3 | |||||||
| Periode | Type | Code | Naam | Taal | ECTS | Uren | |
| semester I | keuze | UCG3SS09 | Current Issues in Research | Engels | 5 | variabel | |
| keuze | UCGAC307 | Internship | Engels | 15 | variabel | ||
| semester I a | keuze | UCGHU307 | Existential Risks | Engels | 5 | 4 | |
| semester II | verplicht | UCGAC304 | Bachelor Thesis | Engels | 10 | 8 | |
| verplicht | UCGAC301 | Project Year 3 | Engels | 5 | variabel | ||
| keuze | UCGAC305 | Bachelor Thesis Extension | Engels | 5 | variabel | ||
| semester II a | keuze | UCGSS308 | Empirical Political Economy | Engels | 5 | 4 | |
| keuze | UCGHU303 | Futures of Humanity | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCGSS311 | Global Justice | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCGSS303 | Mind and Society | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCGSC302 | Oncology | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCGSS304 | Perspectives on Human Development | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCGSS309 | The Age of Human Rights | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| semester II b | keuze | UCGSS310 | Criminal Law | Engels | 5 | 4 | |
| keuze | UCGSS305 | Evidence-based Policy Analysis | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCGSS320 | History of Economic Thought | Engels | 5 | variabel | ||
| keuze | UCGSC307 | Neurobiology | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCGSC304 | Science Communication | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| keuze | UCGHU309 | The City | Engels | 5 | 4 | ||
| 1 | Academic Skills | UCG1RM01 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This is the first course of the Research and Methodology learning line. It is compulsory for all University College students. In this course we will cover the most important first steps on your way to writing your own academic research papers: 1. You will learn basic strategies on how to find, critically read and evaluate sources to base your research on. 2. You will learn how to quote, paraphrase and reference sources in your own writing while avoiding plagiarism. 3. You will learn how to orally present your findings in an efficient way. 4. You will learn how to write argumentative academic essays in a clear and concise way. This course is specifically designed for Liberal Arts and Sciences students and pays special attention to the differences in academic writing between different scientific disciplines. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 2 | Advanced Programming | UCG2SC12 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Computer programming is an essential tool in the modern technology. Although the knowledge of basic programming is crucial for students, advanced programming concepts are required to be able to design large scale programs and to compete in the job market. In this course, the students will learn about the object-oriented programming (OOP) and will use it to implement computer programs. In addition, they will learn and implement the basic data structures (lists, arrays, binary trees, trees, hash tables,….etc) and computer algorithms such as quick sorting and binary search. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 3 | Artificial Intelligence | UCG2SC13 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Most weeks follow the same schedule with a topic for every week: - Before a new topic you have to make some homework (usually associated with video lectures, documentaries, movies, and recorded lectures) - The first weekly session comprises a lecture, homework discussion, and a clear description of the research you have to do for the next session (in small groups of varying members, topics are mainly self-selected). - In the second weekly session you present a clear (graphical) summary of the research you have conducted. This is followed and concluded by a group discussion. - In some weeks you have to do AI practicals on your own computer (instead of presentations). You find an example course structure below. Week 1: Intro to the course: how AI is used for censorship Week 2: A history of AI Week 3: Intelligence = Cognition ???? Week 4: "Give me the data and the labels and I build you a classifier" Week 5: Logical isn't it? Week 6: Will you upload your consciousness to the cloud? Week 7: AI, technocracy, and the future Week 8: Wrap up Assessment is via: - Homework (weekly) - Infographics, mind maps, (graphical) summaries (weekly in small groups) - 1 page "position paper" on a self-selected issue (a position is a well-defendable opinion) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 4 | Artivism | UCG1HU06 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This course examines how art and activism come together in so-called artivism. We will work around the concept of artistic citizenship to investigate questions about the responsibility of the artist in a civic society and how artists give expression to their artistic citizenship. We will depart from fundamental questions about the value of the arts in society and whether the arts should and can be put to work to strive for a more inclusive and just society; to address issues like migration, the right to self-expression, human rights or discrimination. What role can the arts fulfill in activism, by which means, for which audiences and with what effects? During the course the group will compile a portfolio with portraits of artivists in which we explore how artists working in different geographic areas of the world, use their art as a medium for their activism, or how activists use art as a means to pursue their goals. We will look for examples of artivists working with visual or performing arts, using documentary or literature, or are urban or digital artivists. We will reflect on their stories, motivations, work, and the the impact they have or would like to achieve. In the process, we will be confronted with the praxis of artivists and think about the implications for the education of artists. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 5 | Arts, Technology and Philosophy | UCG2HU06 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In this course, we will focus on the fruitful intersections between three mIn this course, we will focus on the fruitful intersections between three modes of knowledge: arts, technology, and philosophy. Each of these modes has implications for the way we perceive the world. - The arts invent imaginary realms that show the existing world in a new light and make it possible to adapt perspectives that are not our own. - Technology produces devices and apparatuses that either extend our own perceptual capacities or introduce new, non-human forms of perception. - Philosophy creates concepts that allow us to think the world in novel ways, changing our conception of whole fields of perception. These three modes of knowledge are distinct from each other, but cannot be fully separated. Often the most fruitful and stimulating ideas come from intersections between them, when findings in one field are made fruitful in another. In this course we will do this by bringing two groups of students together: UCG students (representing a more scholarly perspective) and students from the Minerva Art Academy (representing a more artistic perspective). The aim of the course is to combine these perspectives and to experiment with the three modes of knowing mentioned above. We will do so by establishing collaborations in which interdisciplinary groups of students will work together o a project of their own choice. The course will be de divided in two parts. First we will explore the intersections between arts, technology, and philosophy by discussing a series of key texts. In response to these texts, students will be asked to bring in their own examples (UCG students) or to come up with a proposal for an artwork (Minerva students), or to combine these two. In the second half of the course, students will work on the interdisciplinary group projects, building on the material from the first half of the course. The course will be given in collaboration with the artist Roland Schimmel and about half of the students will come from the Minerva Art Academy. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 6 | Bachelor Thesis | UCGAC304 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Each student will work on a research project, which leads up to a Bachelor thesis on a specific area of research within their major field – integrating their (inter)disciplinary knowledge with research and communication skills (academic writing) Students will work under the guidance of an academic expert in their chosen field. Within predetermined areas of expertise, as these are available, students will choose their own problem setting, based on the existing literature, develop their own research questions and hypotheses, choose a methodology and define an approach to answer the research question, organise their data collection and theoretical framework, carry out the analysis, and, finally, reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of their analysis. The end product will be a well-written academic document of maximum of 10,000 words, exclusive of appendices and reference list. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 7 | Bachelor Thesis Extension | UCGAC305 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The extension is an elective, but in case of laboratory work the extension is mandatory for students in the department of Science. In the Social Sciences department the five extra credits (140 hours) could be i.e. laboratory work for psychological experiments, or extensive empirical research, like extraordinary substantial field research or a partial or full internship, if and only if strongly related to the thesis. Note that the extension cannot merely comprise extra readings. The department of the Humanities expects students to specify, in a short, written document, how the standard 10 ECTS of the regular thesis will be spent, and what they will do for the extra 5 ECTS that come with the extension. Options are a substantial empirical research project, requiring extensive practical work, or a significant enlargement of the literature corpus, or, finally, an internship clearly related to the thesis topic. Students in the department of Science who will do practical or laboratory work as part of their bachelor thesis are obliged to do an extended bachelor thesis of 15 ECTS. The extension is considered necessary for the practical work to be successful. (Students are always allowed to do a regular 10 credit thesis, if not combined with practical/laboratory work.) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 8 | Big Data - Data Science | UCG2SC11 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 9 | Biochemistry | UCG1SC06 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Biochemistry is the branch of science that explores the chemical processes within and related to life and living organisms. This course focuses on the fundamental biochemical processes in living cells, key biological macromolecules that catalyze and orchestrate them as well as their integration in metabolic and other cellular networks. The course starts with an explanation of the unity of life and other key concepts including thermodynamics and biological catalysis. Subsequently, the structure, function and biochemical properties of key biological macromolecules (nucleic acids and proteins) are discussed in detail. Special attention is given to the enzymes, a very important group of proteins, and their integration in metabolic networks. Laboratory practicals will be included in the course providing hands-on experience with the subject matter. Experiments used in biochemical research show how all this knowledge can be applied. Biochemistry affects every aspect of our world. Therefore, biological and clinical examples will be used to show how essential biochemistry is to everyday life. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 10 | Biopsychology | UCG1SS05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How does our biology determine, shape, or constrain our mind? Biopsychology offers answers to this question through an examination of the biological underpinnings of mind and behavior. In this course, you will also study the relationship between mind and body. You will dive into the nature/nurture debate, explore how neurons enable information processing, see how our sensory systems construct our reality, and investigate other vital topics such as sleep, states of consciousness, learning, stress, and emotion. In doing so, you will draw upon a variety of types of course readings (introductory, leading-edge, interdisciplinary) and engage in multiple types of class formats (lecture/presentation, seminar discussion, demonstrations). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 11 | Calculus 1 | UCG1RM04 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Calculus 1 is one of the modules of the Research and Methodology: Year 1 course. It is aimed at those who are oriented towards major in Smart Technologies, Mind Machine and Morality, Health and Life Science and Economics. The main focus of this course will be on real functions f(x) of a real variable x. We will treat the subjects continuity, limits, differentiation and integration, differential equations, complex numbers and the extension of the exponential, sine, and cosine functions to complex functions. Besides the computational aspects, there is also attention for the theoretical aspects. We will also look at applications of the treated techniques. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 12 | Calculus 2 | UCG2RM01 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Calculus 2 is one of the modules of the Research and Methodology: Year 2 course. It is aimed at those who are oriented towards major in Smart Technologies, Mind Machine and Morality, Economics, Econometrics. The course proceeds the course Calculus 1 which mainly concerns the calculus of functions of a single variable, and generalizes many of its concepts like continuity, differentiability and integration to the case of multivariable functions. The topics addressed in Calculus 2 are spatial curves together with their parametrization by arclength and their curvature, continuity of vector valued functions and multivariable functions, partial and directional derivatives, the linear approximation of a multivariable function, the chain rule for multivariable functions, the tangent plane of the graph of a multivariable function, extrema of multivariable functions and of multivariable functions with constraints using the method of Lagrange multipliers, multiple integrals, the Jacobian. Requirements/ pre-requisites : Calculus 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 13 | Clinical Psychology | UCG2SS13 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In this course students are introduced to the field of psychopathology. The course provides an overview of psychological disorders, including their characteristics, theoretical models, and common treatments. Aside from this, students will engage in critical reflections and discussions regarding relevant societal or practical themes surrounding psychological disorders. Examples of such themes include the (bidirectional) relationship between societal stigma and one’s experience of their psychological disorder, the (bidirectional) relationship between one’s identity and one’s experience of psychopathology symptoms. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 14 | Cognitive Psychology | UCG2SS07 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How can you measure the mind? Cognitive psychology provides an important toolbox: it is the scientific study of the mental processes involved in such activities as perception, attention, memory, and problem solving. In this course, you will discover first-hand what inferences can be made about the mind using experimental techniques. You will also explore the relevance and implications of cognitive psychological research for your own life. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 15 | Computational Methods | UCG2RM04 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Computer simulations are used in several fields to address challenges of everyday life. For example, computer simulations are used to model and predict the weather, simulate the chemical interactions of atoms and molecules and model the risk in stock market analysis. In this course, students learn the basic computational methods used in science and their applications. These include error analysis, linear algebra, numerical integration, optimizations, convergence, complexity and stability. In addition, the students are introduced to the Python libraries that facilitate the implementation of the computational algorithms. Finally, the students will explore selected applications from science, machine learning and big data where they apply their acquired competences on real world problems. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 16 | Criminal Law | UCGSS310 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The course is based on a comparative approach between different criminal law systems (domestic, regional and international) to analyze the role of criminal law – both substantive and procedural – in contemporary societies. This comparative approach also enables discussions on how these different systems interact and impact one another. The course first considers theories of punishment and the reasons why criminal behaviour entails punishment before turning to how it entails punishments via substantive and procedural norms. The course then explores the concepts of criminal acts and of criminal intent as well as the issues linked to investigation and the gathering of evidence. Based on different domestic systems while using human rights law as a yardstick, the course discusses the right to a fair trial and the related rights of the defence. To fully consider the contemporary challenges faced by criminal law and notably the ongoing growth of transnational and international criminal behaviour, the course also takes a supranational approach. It presents European, transnational and international criminal law and explores how these systems function and interrelate and how they affect domestic criminal law systems. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 17 | Cultural Criticism | UCG2HU04 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This course provides an introduction into the history, theory and practice of critical cultural theory. The term critical theory is often associated with the so called Frankfurt School of Critical Theory, a highly influential group of philosophers, social scientists and cultural theorists. Critical theory understood in the broad sense refers to theories of culture and society that not only try to analyze society, but also contain normative judgments, and sometimes also have emancipatory claims. (In short: critical theory aims not only to interpret the world but also to change it). In this course we will study the most important thinkers of the Frankfurt School (Horkheimer, Adorno, Marcuse, Benjamin), their legacy in postcolonial and gender studies (Said, Hall, Butler), and their contemporary critics (Sloterdijk, Latour, Zizek). Apart from reading and discussing primary literature, we will also see critical theory ‘in action’, by looking at ways in which critical theorists have and might intervene in public debates, and by writing op-eds on relevant contemporary issues. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 18 | Culture: The Building Blocks | UCG1AC05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This course offers an introduction into the basic elements, or ‘building blocks’, of human culture. The elements we will discuss are: 1)the distinguishing features of human culture 2)the development and evolution of cultural behaviour in humans 3)imagination and artefacts 4)language 5)theoretical knowledge 6)cultural consciousness Topics and questions addressed are: •What is culture? Is human culture different from learned behaviour? And to what extent is it different from animal cognition? How do we use signs to think, act and communicate? •How do we acquire culture? Which developmental processes (ontogenesis) lie at the heart of our cultural behaviour? How has culture been shaped by evolution (phylogenesis)? •The human environment is largely a product of invention and design and as such the result of our imagination and creativity. How can we define this creativity, where does it originate from and how does it affect us? •How do the things we make influence how we think and act? How can we ‘think with things’? •Language is obviously ubiquitous in culture. But what is language? Do we need it for communication? How does it affect culture? How is thinking with language different from thinking with artefacts? •What is theoretical knowledge and why is it important? •How can we use our cultural abilities to reflect on ourselves and the people around us? •What are the effects of the media we use on the way we think? By addressing these topics and questions through group discussions, practical assignments, reading and writing, you will get acquainted with a basic set of tools that will enable you to approach and analyse a great variety of cultural phenomena in terms of their constitutive elements. This will help you to better understand a wide range of cultural phenomena. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 19 | Current Issues in Research | UCG3SS09 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 20 | Decision Making | UCG2SS09 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Our decisions shape our lives and that of everyone around us. They are our only means to influence our fate and the course of the world. Reason enough to make sure we get it right, right?! But what does that mean to make the right decision and why is it so difficult to do so? These are the two main questions we will try to answer in this course. We will combine research from philosophy, psychology and economics to study decision making from an interdisciplinary perspective. In particular, we will look at both normative and descriptive theories of decision making. Normative theories of decision making discuss what it means for a decision to be rational. Descriptive theories of decision making investigate why we actually make the decisions we make even though they often seem to be irrational. Finally, we will explore how combining normative and descriptive theories on decision making can help us gain a deeper understanding on how we should and how we do make decisions. To the extent possible we will use real-life examples as illustrations or as case studies. Such real-life examples are: decision making under pressure (e.g. bidding for homes, booking accommodation or last-minute flights etc), risk taking (having to decide between a save-looking options and a risky option), phenomena such as herding (following/ copying other peoples' decisions) or self-herding (being trapped by our own prior decisions). This course is recommended for everyone interested in philosophy, psychology and economics as well as all other students interested in questions on (ir)rationality and decision making. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 21 | Disease | UCG1AC12 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The course ‘Disease’ is the one of the core electives and is an introductory course offered by the UCG major Health & Life Sciences in year 1 of the LAS program. In this course we will explore human health and disease, especially at the individual and population levels. It is a general course, focusing in macro-aspects of health and disease. The evolutionary basis of human health and disease may give us some new insights into major health problems, such as infectious diseases, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. We are going to analyze how a single disease agent affects not just one organ, but ultimately causes disruption in the body’s homeostasis. We are also going to explore factors that affects healthy body functions and identify preventive measures based on controlling risk factors and early detection. Cellular and molecular basis of the processes are going to be explained only when it is necessary because other courses, such as ‘Living Cell I’ and ‘Biochemistry’, will be more focused on the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying human health and disease. The course will comprise interactive lectures (physical and/or online), tutorials and independent study groups (4-5 students). In parallel to contact hours, a great amount of self-study and independent group working is expected. Each student group will be granted one major health or health-related problem to be further analysed. The final goal of the study group is to develop an interdisciplinary (mini) project and deliver a final product such as a short video, a piece of art, a presentation or poster, a game etc. The product will be shared with the whole classroom during the last week of the course. Peer-feedback is an important component of this course. Students are also going to be assessed individually by means of class preparation/participation and a written assignment. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 22 | Dystopias | UCG2HU11 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 23 | Empirical Political Economy | UCGSS308 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Empirical Political Economy This is a capstone course building upon the 2nd year course Political Economy and quantitative methods courses. The course is organized around a few selected timely research themes (e.g. gender inequality, economic inequality, economic reform, political ideology). In the course, students select one of the themes and will (in small groups/pairs) do an academic research project in the field of political economics using empirical methods. The course will consist of some introductory lectures/workshops into the themes, a hands-on introduction to empirical methods in the field (i.e. regression analysis), presentation sessions to report intermediate work, feedback sessions, and a final presentation. The objective of the research project is to provide an empirically founded scientific answer to a societal and academic relevant research question in the field of political economy. Literature: Articles selected by the teacher + articles selected by the students. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 24 | Ethical Dilemmas in the Life Sciences | UCG2SC17 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Scientific innovation in the life sciences is a driving force in health, medicine and our society. However, with these innovations inevitably come new questions: questions about human dignity, the grounds upon which legal and moral rights are conferred, and the ways in which new technologies influence our culture (for better or for worse). It is these questions that we will be examining in this course. Via a series of case studies, students will analyse real-life ethical dilemmas in the life sciences, employing both cutting-edge scientific research and the latest developments in philosophical scholarship. Some of these ethical dilemmas are as follows: 1. Under what conditions is abortion permissible? 2. Under what conditions can and should parents select certain traits for their children? 3. Under what conditions is it permissible to perform medical testing on animals? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 25 | Ethics | UCG1SS04 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How should we live our lives? What is moral and what is immoral behavior and who gets to say which is which? Ethics tries to answer these kinds of questions. In this course, we are going to approach ethics from two perspectives: a theoretical and a practical. On the one hand, we are going to explore the most prominent theories about ethics. Ethical theories try to establish general principles on what is right and what is wrong. These principles are supposed to guide our actions and help us resolve moral disagreements. On the other hand we are going to look at practical ethical problems prominent in contemporary debate, such as euthanasia, abortion, animal rights, human cloning, the legalization of drugs, guns control, freedom of speech, racism and sexism, the death penalty, poverty and the environment. Since we cannot cover all of these topics during the course, we will focus on those topics you are most interested in. The course will be held in form of a seminar. There will be no lectures, instead we will use the time during class to discuss the assigned reading. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 26 | Evidence-based Policy Analysis | UCGSS305 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Policy evaluations help to base policy decisions on empirical evidence for their expected impact. Past policies with a high measurable net impact seems to be the ones that authorities must try to repeat or imitate. As a rule, these evaluations tend to favour experiments over field studies and quantitative over qualitative methods for the analysis of impacts. However, the evidence produced in a wide array of areas is mixed, to say the least. What we have learned over the past half century of policy evaluations is, disappointingly, that 'most things have been found sometimes to work' (Pawson and Tilley, 1997). The fact that these produce at best a mixed result may be due to a too limited view we hold on methodology. In this light, we will investigate two theoretical issues that seem to plague tests of policy impact. First, in order to guard internal validity of the impact analysis, selection bias and confounders must be identified. These are taken up as variables in the econometric approach of the analysis. As such, these variables can only be treated as rival variables of the key variable of interest: the policy intervention the impact of which was the very object of the analysis. So by ruling out or correcting for rival causes, the complex social structure, in the absence of which the intervention would not work anyway, shifts out of focus. This means that the better one succeeds in correcting for bias, the thinner is the information researchers derive from the study. The result is that we fail to build a scientific memory that guides us towards the working principles that operate in a variety of situations, for a variety of populations and for a variety of policy aims. Mere impact evaluation teaches us whether a particular intervention was successful, but nothing about the expected success of another, similar intervention. The second issue is that, in order to produce an evidence base, we test hypotheses, but we do so using classical frequentist Neyman-Pierson statistical techniques. These are useful for a particular enterprise only if their limitations are taken account of. It is especially the defenders of a Bayesian approach who note that the necessary caution with frequentist statistics often lacks among researchers. More strongly put, researchers seems to be guided by what Ziliak and McCloskey (2008) called 'the cult of statistical significance'. We will study how the Bayesian approach differs from the classical statistical approach and connect this to the central problem of all hypothesis testing: the question of causality. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 27 | Existential Risks | UCGHU307 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| What are the biggest risks to the survival of humanity? Should we fear, for example, supervolcano eruptions, asteroid impacts, pandemics, runaway climate change, nuclear war, biological war or a malevolent superintelligence? In this course we study such existential risks facing humanity, learn what the best available science says about them, and discuss which of them are the most serious. We also consider and try to develop strategies for mitigating them. As it turns out, the most serious risks can only be understood by combining tools from the natural, social, and cultural sciences. In that sense, this is a truly interdisciplinary course. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 28 | Exploring Challenges of Modern Society 1 | UCG1AC03 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Complex Problem In this course students learn how to investigate and understand a complex problem, which is one about which we can say: It has multiple causes Any solution causes more problems The need for a solution is urgent The complex problem that ECMS will investigate in 2020 is global climate change. Lectures and Skills Workshops In Block I students attend a series of six lectures in which the problem of climate change is considered from six different disciplinary perspectives. Students also attend a series of interactive lecture labs where teams learn to investigate the complex problem from multiple perspectives. Also in Block I, students attend a series of workshops introducing the skills needed to work successfully and creatively in teams. This Block I module is meant to work in concert with the parallel course, Research & Methodology: Academic Skills. The Project, Participation, and Essay Writing In Block II students apply their understanding of the complex problem to a case study on a topic assigned by the project supervisor, developing a project brief describing the case’s complex issues, context, stakeholders, trade-offs, and implications. This Block II module is meant to work in concert with the parallel course, Research & Methodology: Introduction to Academic Research. Student participation is important in every part of this course, and is an element of the grade. Each individual student drafts an essay considering the problem from multiple perspectives, and refines that draft into a final paper. The essay is meant to work in concert with the academic skills taught in the parallel course, Research & Methodology: Academic Skills. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 29 | Exploring Challenges of Modern Society 2 | UCG1AC04 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 30 | Fields, Waves and Signals | UCG2SC06 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The course "Fields, Waves and Signals" provides the solid knowledge of classical electro- and magnetostatics. However, the main emphasis is on the use of these fundamental principles in modern (electronic) devices. Full of practical examples course give students freedom to bring in their own topics/examples. This course is recommended for the specializations: "SMART technologies", "Mind Machine and Morality"and Health and Life Sciences and all other students interested in the topic. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 31 | Freedom and Responsibility | UCG2HU05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The focus of this course will be the philosophical debate concerning freedom of the will. We examine the leading conceptions of freedom of the will, the classic positions on the metaphysical issues regarding free will, and the relation to current findings in neuroscience and the behavioral sciences. Furthermore, we examine moral responsibility in relation to freedom of the will. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 32 | Fundamentals of Law | UCG1SS08 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This course focuses on the existence of legal rules in an expanding world, in particular on the concept of international human rights. It introduces students to the workings of a legal system and how to use and analyze legislation, case law and legal literature. Students will explore the main characteristics of various areas of law by using the Dutch legal system as a point of reference. This knowledge will form the basis for reading and analyzing cases from the European Court of Human Rights. In the discussion of these cases students will have to identify and analyze the relevant questions of law, the specific legal problems and the legal arguments used by the parties and the court. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 33 | Futures of Humanity | UCGHU303 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This course considers the humanities in terms of the critique, interpretation and documentation of human social activities and contexts, particularly regarding human social institutions. Through lectures, exercises and discussions, the course encourages students to investigate and operationalize a framework of reflexive modernity: First, our 'scientized' culture reifies the assumption that society and its institutions are subject to forces so complex that they can only be understood from an objective, value-free perspective, attainable exclusively through the methods of science and technology. Further, post-industrial modernity's focus on progress and development is now be limited to managing the threats caused by modernity, which essentially means that modernity's focus has turned back on itself. In that reflexive turn, modernity relies upon the logic that because progress to this point has been driven by science, and because the threats are so serious and so complex (global climate change, for example), should can be understood and addressed solely from the objective scientific viewpoint, and that the interpretation of human affairs should occur within a crisis discourse that is the province of the objective scientific viewpoint, and within which humanistic interpretation is unnecessary. This course and its deliverables begin with a critique of that discourse. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 34 | Genetics | UCG2SC03 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This course deals with the following subjects: Mendel genetics; Inheritance patterns; Genome and population evolution; Population genetics; Biotechnology: different techniques to investigate gene expression and the function of genes, the production of new drugs, gene therapy. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 35 | Global Corporate Strategy | UCG2SS06 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The course is structured around interactive seminars that relate to real-world strategic cases. The course offer a guided tour on principles of international corporate strategy. The academic fundamentals of strategy are explored in lectures and student teams will develop, execute and critically reflect on their own seminar activities containing international strategic business operations. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 36 | Global Justice | UCGSS311 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In this course we will investigate contemporary debates about global justice and apply the relevant theories and arguments to current world problems, such as global poverty and economic inequality, migration, climate change, international conflicts and wars, and international health inequalities. Contemporary global issues have far-reaching implications for citizens, nations and cultures. This requires reconsideration of key normative questions in the social sciences, such as: • What are the normative implications of global unequal distribution of wealth and income? • With regard to the harmful effects of climate change, what are our responsibilities towards future generations and the countries that are already disadvantaged and are likely to be the most affected? • Is there a human right to health? Are global health inequalities unjust? • Do human rights and principles of distributive justice apply to all individuals regardless of nationality? Or does global justice differ from domestic justice? • Are state-sovereignty and democracy compatible with universal human rights? • Is the communitarian criticism of liberalism and cosmopolitanism justified? • Are cosmopolitanism and nationalism in tension? • Is it unjust if nations close their borders for immigrants and refugees? • Does globalization require the extension of liberal democratic institutions to the transnational level? • Is a world government possible and desirable? We will investigate the ethical principles, values and normative arguments underlying our disputes about global justice and apply them to practical problems in fields of the social sciences, such as philosophy, politics, economics, international relations, international law and business. We will try to answer the normative question concerning what should be done to tackle the relevant issues. Students are encouraged to test their ideas about global justice and propose solutions to the relevant issues during the seminars. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 37 | Health and Wellbeing: Historical Perspectives | UCG1HU07 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| As Western populations grow increasingly older, healthy lifestyle is presented as one of today's greatest medical and social challenges. However, contrary to what policy makers want us to believe, the aspiration to live long and healthy lives is not a modern problem. On the contrary, it has a long history. This course is directed at developing an awareness of how the body and the quest for health and wellbeing are historically and culturally rooted. Thus, the body is not viewed as a scientific object - i.e. reflecting nature itself and universally true - but the body is considered a historically and culturally contingent entity. The course particularly focuses on histories of physical (and mental) health from Classical Antiquity to the French Revolution. Central questions are: How were health and physical appearance related? How were the anatomy and physiology of the body culturally defined? How have gender, race and aesthetics always been important in defining the nature of the body? What is the history of modern diseases of prosperity? What does it mean to be human – then and now? And what is the role of the body in this? Ultimately, the students are challenged to critically question historical constructions of health and wellbeing as well as the science of healthy ageing and the almighty status of its pursuers. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 38 | History of Economic Thought | UCGSS320 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 39 | How Things Work: Physics in Everyday Life | UCG1AC07 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The course “How Thing Work: Physics in Everyday Life” is a good introduction to Smart Technologies. Throughout, it focuses on real life applications of fundamental physical principles. At the end of the course students are able to recognise the physics principles involved the complex technology of the Modern World, as well as apply the laws of physics in an interdisciplinary setting. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 40 | Human Anatomy and Histology | UCG1SC07 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The aim of the course is to give the student an overview of the anatomy of the human body, both at microscopic and macroscopic level. It addresses the medical and anatomical terminology, topography and functional anatomy of various organ systems; the respiratory system, cardiovascular system, gastrointestinal system, the urogenital system and the (peripheral) nervous system. The course contains a number of "dissection room rounds" by anatomical specimens and models. On a microscopic level attention is paid to the construction and function of the four basic tissues (i.e. epithelium, connective tissue including cartilage , bone, nerve tissue and muscle tissue), and goes more deeply into the microscopic anatomy of organ systems including the cardiovascular system and gastrointestinal tract. practicals: Anatomy on the basis of human anatomical specimen and models. Histology on the basis of virtual microscopy. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 41 | Human Immunology | UCG2SC04 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning outcomes knowledge: Students can describe the cellular and molecular structure of the immune system, the functioning of lymphoid organs, structure and significance of the HLA system, recognition and intracellular processing of antigens, and gene rearrangements as the basis of generating diversity, specificity and discrimination between endogenous and not-endogenous in the immune system. Learning outcomes skills and learning: Students are able to apply the acquired immunological knowledge to scientific issues in relation to the defense against pathogens in humans. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 42 | Human Physiology | UCG2SC01 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In this course the following topics will be discussed: - the cell as the smallest functional unit of living organisms - the importance of membrane properties for cell function - the electrolyte balance in different fluid parts of the human body - homeostasis of the internal environment - breathing: ventilation, diffusion, gas transport, and cellular respiration - the mechanics of ventilation - the effort of breathing- membrane potentials - synaptic transmission - the organisation of the nervous system - the autonomic nervous system - the electrical properties of the heart - the mechanic properties of the heart - the circulation - the interaction between heart and vessels - kidney function: glomerular filtration, reabsorption, secretion and excretion - the acid-base balance - physiology of the gastro-intestinal tract: digestion (mechanical and chemical), motility, secretion and absorption These topics will be discussed in lectures, study groups, and several practicals. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 43 | International and European Law | UCG2SS16 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The module is intended to provide students insight into the basics of law in an international context. It will allow the students to understand the specific characteristics of public international law and European Union law as separate legal systems, but in addition to that it will focus on how the various legal systems interact with each other and with domestic legal orders. By choosing a core theme, case or situation, we will study the way in which international law and European law contribute to create stable environments for tackling challenging transboundary problems such as economic cooperation, migration, protecting the ecosystem or peace and security. This study will have an interdisciplinary as well as practice-oriented approach in which students are expected to contribute to socratic discussions from their respective backgrounds. Basic knowledge of international and European law is essential in understanding international processes of cooperation and decision making, both in a public (governments, international organisations) and in a private (business) context. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 44 | International Business | UCG1SS10 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In the tutorials the book will be studied systematically. Students give presentations, make case analysis and learn to discuss the themes with pre-described roles. With the help of feedback rules, students will practise giving and receiving constructive feedback in an intercultural context. The aim is to help improve the quality of each other's work while training essential academic skills. This course provides essential paradigmatic lenses to making sense of organizations, their activities in an (inter)national setting and the main stream of theories about this. It imparts students with the notion that diverse organizational settings require the capacity to develop appropriate decision making and planning strategies as well as structures to produce the desired organizational goals, given the organization’s environment. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 45 | International Marketing | UCG2SS10 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The course provides an introduction to the international marketing theory and practice with solution examples to complex problems. The focus is on political, legal, economic, and cultural considerations inherent in international business and their relations to market decision-making. Topics covered will include: basic principles of marketing (e.g. segmentation, targeting, positioning; 4Ps – product-price-promotion-place), going global, international market research, cultural variations in consumer behaviour, and the adaptation of 4Ps in the international context. This course will be conducted with an equal emphasis on textbook readings, case analysis, application of the studied principles to international marketing problems, and class participation. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 46 | International Politics | UCG2SS15 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This course will consist of a number of guest lectures by invited experts and presentations by students themselves. In the course several issues related to international politics will be discussed as well as the organizations which play a role within the international community as well as the law which provides the normative framework in which the political leaders are meant to operate but not always abide by and discusses what we can do about this. During the course we will focus on the role of human rights and the international legal framework, the role of intergovernmental organizations such as the United Nations and the European Union and will look at certain specific areas, such as the Middle East. During the lecture series we will address several issues and topics such as: the politics of genocide, the role of dictators, human rights and international trade relations to name just a few. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 47 | International Relations Theories (and Practice) | UCG2SS14 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Introduction to the various theories on international relations, such as classical realism, structural realism, liberalism, neoliberalism, constructivism, and normative IR theory. Students will be provided with a basic understanding on international relations theory and associated methods in order to systematically analyze international events and explain contemporary issues in international competition and collaboration. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 48 | Internship | UCGAC307 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| An internship is a period of time in which you can gain work experience in your field of study. Under the supervision of a lecturer from the College (the academic supervisor) and an employee of the organization offering the internship (the internship supervisor), you will work at a company or organization. This work is related to what they have learned in your academic program and contributes to the activities of the institution offering the internship. Internships take up 10,5 weeks of full-time employment (52 work days) or the equivalent as part -time internship. Within that period of time, in addition to carrying on your internship, you will have to plan some time for: ● Orientation and internship search. ● Writing the internship application. ● Writing the learning plan. ● Writing the final report. Keep in mind that some internship positions might be longer than one block. In those cases, you are advised to plan to start the internship right after you have finished your Y2, extending the internship over the summer. You can participate in a local, national or international company or organization or decide to do research-based internship in an academic institutions or research institute. You are expected to actively and independently search for an internship. This means that you have to find, as well as apply for internship vacancies on an independent basis. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 49 | Interpretive Methods | UCG2RM06 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This course forms part of the Research Methods learning line and is aimed at University College students with a Humanities major orientation. While the disciplines of the humanities make use of a wide range of methods, this course focuses on interpretation of texts and utterances, digital humanities and the methods of the historical sciences. The first part of the course is about interpreting literary as well as non-literary texts and utterances. Students learn to arrive at a nuanced understanding of texts and to write interpretations that reflect their awareness of the challenges and limitations of interpretation. In the second part of the course, students learn to evaluate and interpret historical sources and to estimate what we can or can’t know about given events in the past. In the last part of the course, we take a look at how digital tools transform the humanities. Students will carry out a small research project of their own, applying a digital method and evaluating the surplus it adds to a more traditional approach. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 50 | Introduction to Academic Research | UCG1AC02 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This course forms the first part of the Research Methods learning line and is compulsory for all University College students. The central aim of this course is to make students competent in the use of certain basic scientific methods, notably statistical ones. Students are introduced in basic concepts (such as Hypothesis, Population, Sample) and different types of research (Empirical versus Theoretical Research, Descriptive, Exploratory, Explanatory research). Students learn to distinguish between different types of data (quantitative and qualitative) and become familiar with techniques of data display and description, including basic statistical concepts such as mean, standard deviation, correlation r, and sampling distribution. The importance and challenge of distinguishing between causal and non-causal associations is expounded and highlighted. Students also learn how to collect their own data and are introduced to sampling procedures as well as the rationale behind randomized control trials. They will learn the basics of how to design a conversation guide and conduct an interview. Finally, probabilities are introduced as conceptual tools to enable statistical inference, and the basic ideas underlying confidence intervals and significance testing are developed. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 51 | Introduction to Legal Theory | UCG2SS01 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Law is not something that can be regarded as an entity which is distinct from society. Rather, law is a particular way of ordering society. By invoking special –legal- categories and by attaching well-defined legal consequences to a series of conditions, a conceptual net is cast over social phenomena, which at the same time alters those phenomena profoundly. This course consists in two parts. In the first part the specific mechanisms by means of which law creates order are investigated and the difference between legal rules and other (social, religious or moral) rules and conventions are explored. Attention is paid to the various functions of rules, and how they are performed in a modern society which is committed to the ideal of the Rule of Law. In the second part, attention is paid to the question how the law can be a topic for scientific study and debate: what do legal scholars do? To what extent is it possible to supplement the study of law with empirical investigation and how can law respond to scientific and technological developments? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 52 | Introduction to Sociology | UCG1SS07 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 53 | Knowledge is Power | UCG2HU03 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A course on the nexus between politics, journalism and citizenship, and the relation between rational thinking, information, and democracy. Taking our point of departure in democratic theory, we trace the parallel and intertwine paths of information-media and democracy. How do news media foster citizenship and deliberative democracy? We discuss the Lippmann-Dewey debate on the best form of democracy: well-informed elites versus well-educated masses. We then discuss a range of theoretical concepts (the public sphere, public opinion, deliberation) and communicative forms (journalism, online political talk, political satire), while we will conclude with discussing the limits of free speech. During a weekly “public sphere breakfast” (seminar) we will discuss the readings and relate them to the news and current affairs. In our weekly project group meetings, we will design and conduct mini projects that link the theoretical discussions with contemporary events and current affairs. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 54 | Leadership in Culture | UCG2HU10 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Do you care about art and literature? Yes, I do. Do you care about leadership and ethics? Oh, yes, I do. You sure you’re not afraid of a challenge? Absolutely! In that case, I truly look forward to working with you. Over the past decades, scholars have increasingly argued the relevance of the Humanities for leadership studies. In particular, William Shakespeare, being the most read, translated, taught, and performed playwright, has been a source of inspiration, not only due to his status as a global icon, or to the seeming timelessness of his plays and topics, but also based on the ambiguity and multi- interpretability that pervade his plays. Recently, renowned business schools have also started to explore ways of drawing on the richness of Shakespeare’s plays in order to shed light on challenges that leaders face today. In this intensive and multidisciplinary course, we will build on this approach and interrogate how his plays may offer useful insight into leadership issues and into challenges that confront us in the 21st century. We do so by exploring several plays with contrasting leadership styles and with a variety of topical issues in more detail. The course will include textual analysis of the plays, the viewing in class of recent productions on stage and cinema, and a discussion on the specifics of leadership as seen through the lens of these plays and the lessons that may (or may not) be learned from them. Depending on availability (English speaking production within reasonable driving distance), a visit to a Shakespeare production will also be included. During the course, students will work together to interrogate the lessons, within a specific local or global context and based on their own specific interests, and devise their creative responses to Shakespeare’s texts in a practical project. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 55 | Linear Algebra | UCG1SC02 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This course is an introduction to linear algebra, one of the most exciting and applicable branches of mathematics. The topics will be covered are systems of linear equations, matrices, vector spaces, determinants, linear transformations, eigenvalues, eigenvectors and orthogonality. Many mathematical problems encountered in business or sciences involve solving a system of linear equations. For example Google uses linear systems with billions of unknowns to search effectively, while Netflix algorithm tries to give us accurate recommendations with the use of linear algebra. The main goal of this course is to establish connections between the mathematical theory and other disciplines. We aim to achieve this by solving real-life problems in areas such as business, economics, demography, genetics, computer science, data analytics and physics. Working with data sets is important to gain more insight on real-world phenomena. The advancements in technology let us to perform computations very quickly. Since the software package MATLAB was developed specifically for matrix operations, we will be using MATLAB to apply the methods of linear algebra to the computer projects with large data sets. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 56 | Living Cell 1 | UCG1SC04 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The course ‘Living cell I: The building block of life’ is an important and highly recommended introduction to the UCG major Health & Life Sciences. In this course we will focus on the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying human health and disease. The essential concepts in biology related to the cell as the fundamental ‘building block’ of human life will be explored. Understanding cellular processes at the molecular level is the basis for gaining an appreciation of how organisms live and function, and can open new doors for future medical interventions, including stem cell therapy. We will discuss these important processes as well as the fundamental macromolecules that control them. Examples of human disorders will be used when possible to put the lessons in perspective to every day life. The general structure of the course will be lectures and study groups. The topics will be presented and discussed in interactive lectures. Further depth in these themes will be supported by student driven research and presentations. Study groups will consist of ‘journal clubs’ in which current scientific articles will be examined and problem solving sessions. The development of critical thinking and proficiency in scientific reading will be encouraged. fundamental techniques commonly utilized in modern cell and molecular biology research will be introduced and explored. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 57 | Living Cell 2 | UCG2SC02 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The course ‘Living Cell II’ extends the knowledge that you learned from ‘Health & Life Sciences II: Building block of life - the cell’. In these courses we will focus on the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying human health and disease. In particular, we will explore the essential concepts in biology related to the cell as a fundamental ‘building block’ of human life. Understanding cellular processes at the molecular level is the basis for gaining an appreciation of how organisms live and function, and can open new doors for future medical interventions, including stem cell therapy. We will discuss these important processes as well as the fundamental macromolecules that control them. Examples of human disorders will be used when possible to put the lessons in perspective to every day life. The general structure of the course will be lectures, discussion groups and journal clubs. The topics will be presented and discussed in interactive lectures. Further depth in these themes will be supported by problem-based learning styled ‘journal clubs’ in which current scientific articles will be examined. The development of critical thinking and proficiency in scientific reading will be encouraged. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 58 | Logic | UCG2HU01 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 59 | Love | UCG1AC08 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Love is a concept that features prominently in many cultures. We can find "love" everywhere: in music, poetry, oral histories, ancient mythology, films, books, advertisements, mobile applications and in so many other human activities, products and customs. In our lives, as individuals, "love" is also portrayed as one of the strongest feelings one can, and even should, experience. But, what is love? How do we define love? How do we experience love? How do we feel love? Ever since Plato’s classic dialogue The Symposium philosophers have been discussing the nature of love, and tried to develop conceptions of what love is. Besides Philosophy, other disciplines as well, such as Biology and Psychology, have ventured to understand love and have thus contributed to the relevant discussion. In the course Love we bring these three disciplines - Philosophy, Biology and Psychology - together in an attempt to achieve a more rounded understanding of what love is and how it is experienced and expressed by humans. Our course is built around certain questions such as: Are there different types of love? Is love an act of free will? Do we choose who to fall in love with? Why do we love certain people over others? Can love hurt? We treat these as complex questions that would benefit from a conversation across the three disciplines. We therefore aim for a true interdisciplinary course to reach a more nuanced understanding of the much talked-about concept of love. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 60 | Machine Learning | UCG2SC14 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The vast amount of data generated every day induced the development of computer programs that use statistical models and algorithms to make decisions based on the available data. This branch of statistical sciences that incorporates knowledge from statistics, computer science, numerical analysis and mathematics is called “Machine Learning”. In this course students will learn supervised learning methods such as linear regression, least square fitting, logistic regression, decision trees, support vector machine and will be introduced to neural networks. In addition, for unsupervised learning the course will cover k-mean clustering, hierarchical clustering and principle component analysis. Python will be the main programming language for the course. Sci-kit-lean, numpy and tensorflow libraries will be used. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 61 | Macro-Economics | UCG1SS02 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This course provides a general introduction to the field of macroeconomics, which analyzes economic activity from an aggregate perspective. It will explain key macroeconomic concepts such as national income, inflation and unemployment, as well as how they are related to each other. Building on these relationships, students will learn to work with a core set of simple macroeconomic models that they can use to analyze a broad range of macroeconomic issues. These models will provide a framework to think about how aggregate economic activity evolves in the short run, the medium run and the long run as well as how it is affected by economic policy decisions. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 62 | Mathematics | UCG1RM05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This is a Research & Methodology course offered in the first year of the LAS program at UCG, which is specifically relevant to students majoring in Social Sciences and Health and Life Sciences. The course provides an introduction to the mathematical subjects that are used to formalize and analyze the problems arising in the social sciences and life sciences. The first half of the course regards finite mathematics subjects that include linear and nonlinear functions, matrix algebra and linear programming. The second half of the course aims to introduce the applications of calculus in business, life sciences, and social sciences. The key concepts of calculus, like derivative and integration of functions, and their applications in real life problems are covered. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 63 | Meaning and Truth in Language and Art | UCG2HU12 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| On the one hand, meaning is often defined as a relation between language and the world(s) that it is 'about', but on the other hand meaning is thought to be 'conceptual' and hence 'in our heads'. In this course you'll see how this tension divides the study of meaning (semantics) to this day. We then look at how contemporary semantic theorizing might deal with meaning beyond the traditional domain of human linguistic communication. We look first at reference, truth and meaning in fiction/literature. We then consider truth-conditional meaning and iconicity beyond language: in gestures, pictures, emoji and diagrams, in pictorial narratives (like comics and film), and finally in music. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 64 | Media and Technology | UCG1AC09 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This course offers students an introduction to basic concepts in both philosophy of technology and media theory via a series of case studies. By looking at objects and systems like urban spaces, scientific laboratories, and news media, we will examine how social, cultural, political, and epistemic norms can be changed or “mediated” by new technologies. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 65 | Medical Microbiology | UCG2SC16 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The following topics will be addressed in the course: • Practicals on Microbial safety (WMMP15001) and Strain identification • Lectures on Bacteriology & Virology; basics, diagnosis, pathogenesis, detection and treatment • The end of the usage of antibiotics? • Modern techniques in Medical Microbiology • Regulatory aspects • Assignment presented by the students • Video made by students • Written exam halfway the course | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 66 | Micro-Economics | UCG1SS01 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The course on microeconomics offers an economic perspective on individual behavior and human interaction in terms of rational choice theory and game theory. The course will teach you the basic methodology used in economics to analyze markets and strategic interactions. We will discuss neoclassical rational choice theory as a model of individual decision making and show how markets to equate supply and demand and distribute welfare in society. What are the effects of taxes, subsidies, price and quantity quota? impact You will learn to use game theory as a tool to analyze situations of strategic interaction. This course and the courses on political philosophy have in common that they both explore the role the state has in securing market institutions and how harmful effects of economic behavior on third parties (negative externalities) can be prevented. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 67 | Mind and Society | UCGSS303 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In “Mind and Society” we will reflect on 3 different topics that seem to be separated, but that will demonstrate to be more connected than expected at first glance. The first topic is drugs and states of mind. In this theme we reflect on the different mind-states that people can have, and how they relate to social practices such as learning and working. We will reflect on what mind-states are encouraged in some societal context/cultures, and how drugs like coffee, Ritalin, alcohol, cannabis, cocaine and other substances are being (ab)used and the market mechanisms behind their use. We will address strategies for mind-control such as meditation, and how mind and body are deeply connected. The second topic addresses borders. Borders may be a physical expression of our tribal mind: we don’t want “them” to be among “us”, disturbing our social practices relating to the use of natural resources, traditions, and religion, to name a few. Humans have built borders and walls in ancient times, but the current pressures on migration, and the increasing global connectiveness make a deep reflection on what borders mean in an increasing globalizing planet a timely topic. Identification and categorization of individuals, using AI and biometric technology increasingly will play a role. To understand the possible future of borders, we first have to reflect on the psychological origins of borders. The third topic addresses Artificial Intelligence (AI). The development of AI is currently going that fast (neural networks, quantum computing) that your generation may witness the “singularity” to happen. This singularity means that technological growth becomes uncontrollable by humans, and irreversible, resulting in difficult to imagine developments on our planet. What is responsible and ethically behaving AI, and how can we – with our hunter gatherer intuitive brain - interact with AI are questions that increasingly become very relevant. Utopian and dystopian futures will be discussed. In this course, students will (1) write individual reflections on scientific articles, (2) write three individual essays on the respective topics, (3) prepare a group presentation on one of the three topics, and (4) produce as a group a community engagement activity, e.g. a video, podcast, website or other activity to share insights. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 68 | Models of Democracy | UCG2SS04 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The course investigates different models of democracy, such as constitutional, liberal, and deliberative democracy, the central values of democracy, such as liberty and equality, and the possible tensions between them. We will explore the arguments of influential democratic thinkers such as John Stuart Mill, John Rawls, and Jürgen Habermas. Fundamental problems of democracy, such as majority rule versus individual rights, the tyranny of the majority, populism, and the question whether democracy can survive Facebook, fake news and ‘deepfakes,’ will also be analyzed. Students will get the opportunity to design a new model of democracy that can tackle significant disadvantages of and dangers for democracy in our time. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 69 | Music in Culture | UCG1HU05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The density and volume of sound emerging from the loudspeakers at a noise concert quiets the internal chatter of an anxious mind. A crowd of protestors in a public square sing together a song banned years earlier by their dictatorial government. An anthemic EDM piece shapes the way you move and feel as you navigate your way through your brother’s favorite fashion house. In all of these familiar scenarios, the sounds of the cultural practice we call music get into the bodies of individuals and shape in some way—or “afford”—their thoughts, feelings, and/or actions. Histories of thought about what music is or what it does privilege certain kinds of musical affordances, ignore others, and often misrepresent what music has done or might do when it manifests in various culturally-specific spaces. This course will provide an introduction to some of these histories and to some of the major debates in and tendencies of the various musicologies, alongside an overview of the dominant areas within those musicologies, and some of the most influential recent approaches. This will include basic introductions to themes and subfields like: popular music studies methodologies; histories of “world music” and ethnomusicology; approaches to studies of music in film, television, and digital media; key figures in the philosophy of music; histories of music historiography; theories of musical meaning; music technology studies; and approaches to urban sound studies. As this survey unfolds, students will be exposed to a broad range of approaches to music-making from various art music, popular music, experimental music, and folk music cultures. No previous musical training or experience is required to follow this course. The course is intended as a basic entry point for students interested in thinking about and conducting research on music in culture and in beginning to familiarize themselves broadly with the existing literature in and history of musicology, ethnomusicology, popular music studies, music philosophy, and sound studies. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 70 | Myths we live by: Narrative in Politics and Society | UCG2HU09 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 71 | Neurobiology | UCGSC307 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The course Neurobiology teaches the basic principles in physiology and behavior of humans and animals, and the role of the senses and the brain, and aims towards a deeper understanding of the integrative nervous regulatory mechanisms "fed" by senses such as visual system, taste and odor perception, touch and pain, and proprioception. The course provides insight into the processing of sensory and internal information and how deviations from the optimal functioning at various levels can disrupt functioning of energy balance regulation, circadian rhythmicity and sleep, balance and movement, and reproduction. The nervous system is viewed from different perspectives, e.g. neuroanatomy, neurochemistry, neurophysiology, neuro-endocrinology, physiology, behavior, and neuropathology. These subjects are embedded in the field of neuroscience, which is considered as an integrated whole. In the practical assignments, emphasis is put on regulation of heart function (HA; video test as a basis for seminar "reporting"), anatomy of the brain (HE, pigbrain), dark adaptation in humans (DA), and an assignment in rats concerning determination of the estrous cycle (OE) and food intake (VO). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 72 | Oncology | UCGSC302 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Oncology is a capstone course for the specialization Health and Life Sciences. This course aims to integrate knowledge gained throughout the HLS specialization while focusing on the cellular and molecular basis of cancer. Particular emphasis will be placed on the molecular pathways that convert normal cells into cancer cells and how knowledge of these pathways can be utilized to develop novel diagnostic and therapeutic tools against cancer. Clinical oncology and medical biophysics will also be covered. Each week is focused around a different aspect of cancer, covering both historical developments, current knowledge and modalities of treatment. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 73 | People, Place and Culture in a Global Context | UCG1AC10A | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This course provides an introduction to Human Geography. In a nutshell, it explores relationships between the earth, human activities and contemporary issues. In doing so, the course introduces thinking 'geographically', which refers to understanding, interpreting, and representing the human world in ways that emphasize spatial relations, spatial processes, and relationships to the physical space around us. As a result, students will see the relevance of geographic concepts as applied to human problems and achievements. By the end of the course, students will be able to think critically about, as well as explain, some of the ways in which 'geography matters' in terms of the dynamic flows of international relations, cultures, politics and economies and the people and institutions involved. Ideally, the course will enable a lifelong and sustained geographical imagination that will help students confront tomorrow’s global, national, regional and local challenges. The course handbook is Knox, P.L. and Marston, S. (2016) Human Geography. Places and Regions in Global Context (7th edition). This textbook emphasizes globalization and interdependence of places and processes, such as flows of goods, services and people, across the globe. The contents of the book explore how such processes change local places in uneven and unequal ways, and how different (groups of) people are affected in different ways, for example in terms of outcomes such as accessing food, education, paid work, housing, etc. The field of Human Geography comprises different geographic subfields, and these, too, will be featured during this course. Specifically, these subfields are: economic geography, social and cultural geography, population geography, environmental geography, urban geography and political geography. Guest lectures will include specialists in various fields covered by the course text. Geography is to a great extent an applied discipline as well as a means of understanding the world, and the activities undertaken during this course are meant to address both of these aspects. The principles, concepts, theoretical frameworks and approaches introduced will enable students to pursue more specialized studies hereafter. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 74 | People, Places and Cultures in a Global Context | UCG1AC10B | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This course provides an introduction to Human Geography. In a nutshell, it explores relationships between the earth, human activities and contemporary issues. In doing so, the course introduces thinking 'geographically', which refers to understanding, interpreting, and representing the human world in ways that emphasize spatial relations, spatial processes, and relationships to the physical space around us. As a result, students will see the relevance of geographic concepts as applied to human problems and achievements. By the end of the course, students will be able to think critically about, as well as explain, some of the ways in which 'geography matters' in terms of the dynamic flows of international relations, cultures, politics and economies and the people and institutions involved. Ideally, the course will enable a lifelong and sustained geographical imagination that will help students confront tomorrow’s global, national, regional and local challenges. The course handbook is Knox, P.L. and Marston, S. (2016) Human Geography. Places and Regions in Global Context (7th edition). This textbook emphasizes globalization and interdependence of places and processes, such as flows of goods, services and people, across the globe. The contents of the book explore how such processes change local places in uneven and unequal ways, and how different (groups of) people are affected in different ways, for example in terms of outcomes such as accessing food, education, paid work, housing, etc. The field of Human Geography comprises different geographic subfields, and these, too, will be featured during this course. Specifically, these subfields are: economic geography, social and cultural geography, population geography, environmental geography, urban geography and political geography. Guest lectures will include specialists in various fields covered by the course text. Geography is to a great extent an applied discipline as well as a means of understanding the world, and the activities undertaken during this course are meant to address both of these aspects. The principles, concepts, theoretical frameworks and approaches introduced will enable students to pursue more specialized studies hereafter. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 75 | Perspectives on Human Development | UCGSS304 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 76 | Philosophy of Mind | UCG1HU01 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| What is the mind? Do we have an immaterial and immortal soul, or is our consciousness simply a weird side effect of how our brains work? What is the relationship between mind and behaviour? Is it possible to create artificial intelligence? What would that take? This course will introduce you to the deepest mysteries in the philosophy of the mind. Together, we will read classical as well as contemporary discussions of questions like the above. Along the way, you will learn and practice the tools philosophers use to make progress on these issues. In particular, you will learn to clarify questions and concepts, develop comprehensible and convincing arguments, and use counterexamples and thought experiments. The course will be held as a seminar. There will be no lectures; instead you are expected to read the literature assigned for each session closely and present and discuss your findings in class. As a special twist, we will investigate whether creative methods can be used to gain a deeper understanding on the topics discussed. We will not only read, talk and write about philosophy of mind but also explore ways to directly experience these issues through creating and engaging with art. The course is particularly recommended to students interested in philosophy, psychology, artificial intelligence and related fields as well as in creative methods and art making. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 77 | Philosophy of Science | UCG2AC02 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Description: What is science and what is its purpose in society? Is there a difference between scientific investigations and finding out whether there is cheese left in the fridge? Is science objective and what does it mean to be objective in the first place? Is science a reliable sources of knowledge imperative for the prosperity of humankind, is it only a weird hobby of old men in lab coats with no implications for our daily lives, or is it even a method to deceive ordinary people with arcane vocabulary to further the goals of the elite? In this course we are going to look at the major philosophical ideas about science put forward during the last hundred years. Among others, we are going to discuss concepts such as truth, justification and the social structure of science and discuss the relations between theory and reality, science and society, as well as scientific revolutions and normal science. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 78 | Policy and Principles of Private Law | UCG2SS05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Policy and Principles of Private Law focuses on the key concepts of private law and the relevant interests at stake. The course adresses property law, contract law, tort law and the law of civil procedure. The course provides students insight into the reasoning in private law on the basis of its key concepts and the relevant interests. The course includes core questions of private law such as: (i) under which circumstances does the law protect a buyer in good faith?; (ii) what is strict liability?; (iii) what are the requirements for the formation of a contract? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 79 | Policy Making in the EU | UCG1SS09 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Traditionally Political Science used theories from International Relations to analyze the European integration process. However, as the contemporary political system of the EU resembles the political systems found in liberal democracies, theories of comparative politics and system analysis proofed to be more fruitful for analyzing the policy-making processes in the EU. This module applies general political science theories to the study of the EU. This makes it possible for students to become familiar with tools of political science that can be used for the analysis of any political system and at the same time provide them with a thorough knowledge of the political and administrative processes in the EU. The module consists of lectures and tutorials. In the tutorials students will learn to apply theoretical knowledge by means of research assignments and presentations. Attention will be paid to the history of the EU, its institutions, theories of European integration, theories of the policy process, the role of interest groups and problems of implementation. Analysis of political decision making in several policy fields is used to demonstrate the functioning of the EU in practice. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 80 | Political Economy | UCG2SS03 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This course provides an introduction into the field of political economy. Political economy studies the interaction between politics and economics. On the one hand, it studies how political behaviour and political choices can be understood using economic models. On the other hand it studies how politics and political institutions affect economic outcomes. By doing so, it contributes to the explanation why (economic) policies often are often sub-optimal (from a social welfare point of view). In this course we study questions such as: Why do people vote? Are politicians serving the general interest? Why are necessary economic reforms often delayed? Why is delegation of power to an independent central bank important? Do democracies have better economic performance than autocracies? The course consists of interactive lectures in which academic articles are discussed. These lectures include student presentations, class experiments and Q&A sessions | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 81 | Political Philosophy | UCG1SS03 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The course investigates normative political theories and political-philosophical arguments related to important and topical issues in philosophy, politics, economics, and law. What kind of society should we live in and what institutions should we have? Should we live in a liberal democracy and, if so, why? What does justice require? What kind of obligations do European states have toward refugees? How should income and property be distributed between persons? In this course, we will discuss these and other questions. We will shed light on normative concepts such as freedom, equality and justice. We will also discuss political-philosophical and normative aspects of topical issues such as • dirty hands politics • equity and efficiency in the allocation of scarce health care resources • nationalism and global justice • debates surrounding free speech • human development and the Capabilities Approach | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 82 | Practical Life Science | UCG2SC09 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In this practical course, students will learn how to work independently in a laboratory setting. They will use the knowledge obtained in the living cell I and/or biochemistry in practical applications. Students will learn how to use standard lab equipment in a responsible way and how to design, perform and analyse basic experiments in Cell biology and Biochemistry. Results, acquired from these experiments, will be documented in a clear and comprehensive manner in a digital lab journal and communicated in the format of a scientific report and a poster presentation. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 83 | Principles of Entrepreneurship | UCG2SS17 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Entrepreneurship has been receiving a lot of attention over the last decades from scholars, practitioners, and policy makers. In this course, we will focus on the main perspectives that underlie entrepreneurial activity; specifically, on entrepreneurship as a way of thinking, creating value and impact for society and individuals beyond an economic perspective. The course includes reflection moments to tap onto the potential of entrepreneurship and to innovatively address societal challenges. Overall, participants of the course will gain an understanding of what entrepreneurship is and how it is used to create different types of value in society. Principles of Entrepreneurship is a foundational course which will prepare students to understand the different facets of entrepreneurial activity. This means that students will have the possibility of “wearing different hats” throughout the course: the entrepreneur, the researcher, and the individual in society. To accomplish this, the course is divided in three parts: Part I - Entrepreneurial opportunities and value creation; Part II – Entrepreneurship from a research perspective; and Part III – What entrepreneurship means to you. Each part focuses on important theoretical perspectives underlying entrepreneurship, on experimenting in practice with such concepts, and on inviting guest speakers who show first person the issues addressed in class. The course creates a basis for students to engage in other practical activities related to entrepreneurship in the future. At the same time, the course helps students reflect on how entrepreneurial competencies may be useful in their future careers. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 84 | Principles of Modern Technology | UCG1SC01 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The main objective of the course is to give the students an introduction to the modern view on the structure of matter at different length scales, based on the two major revolutions of 20th–century physics: the special theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. Topics that will be covered are taken from the physics of atoms, solid state, nuclei, elementary particles, and the cosmos. There will also be focus on applications of these topics in fundamental physics to current research and society. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 85 | Programming in Python | UCG1SC03 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| As the computers have become prevalent both in academia and industry, it is important for the professionals to have “computational thinking” as a core competency. The students across many disciplines can greatly benefit from understanding the underlying principles of computing and gaining basic programming skills. This course introduces the fundamentals of programming including data types, control structures, algorithm development, functions and designing/implementing/debugging simple programs via the Python programming language. The course is ideal for students with little or no prior programming experience. The aspects of programming will be explored through lectures and hands-on computer lab activities. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 86 | Project year 1 | UCG1AC01 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 87 | Project Year 2 | UCG2AC01 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 88 | Project Year 3 | UCGAC301 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In year 3, the theme is ͚Creating Leadership͛. Students now take the lead in formulating a project, finding partners and bringing to bear all the skills they have developed in project work throughout the first two years. Students are now expected to demonstrate their ability to work collaboratively to create innovative and effective solutions to complex societal problems. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 89 | Public Finance | UCG2SS12 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This course focuses on how governments can intervene in markets that fail or lead to unfair market outcomes. It aims to answer questions like: How should the government design its policies in areas such as health care or social security? How should we design tax systems to promote economic efficiency and to be consistent with societal fairness? We focus on the supply of public goods and (how to deal with) externalities. We then move on to the sources of government spending: taxation and debt financing. We analyse the distribution of tax burdens and the efficiency and equity aspects of taxation. We discuss the pros and cons of debt financing. Lastly, we focus on income redistribution, unemployment insurance, and reallocation of income over the life cycle. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 90 | Qualitative Data Collection and Analysis Y1 | UCG1RM06 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The purpose of this course is to introduce students to qualitative research and prepare them in the introductory skills, techniques, and knowledge necessary to undertake independent research using this methodology. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 91 | Qualitative Data Collection and Analysis Y2 | UCG2RM05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The purpose of this course is to introduce students to qualitative research and prepare them in the skills, techniques, and knowledge necessary to undertake independent research using this methodology. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 92 | Science Communication | UCGSC304 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| By adopting a 'science in/for society' theoretical paradigm, the course ‘Science Communication’ examines how scientists communicate the processes and findings of their work to the public and how the public engages with science through the following means/spaces: (a) Science magazines/newspapers (b) Science events (science cafes, festivals, TED-talks, art and science events, Famelab) (d) Museums and science centers (NEMO, University Museum, Science Museum in London) (c) Videos The overarching goal of the course is to provide students with an understanding of different forms of science communication and the opportunity to practise those through practical work, physical and virtual field-trips to museums, as well as the assignments. This class develops the abilities of students to communicate science effectively in a variety of real-world contexts through projects that focus on speaking and writing for the general public. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 93 | Smart Technology Lab: Physical Principles | UCG2SC07 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Physics Laboratory is a course designed primarily for students in the major of sciences to gain hands-on experience. The goal of this course is to explore and reveal fundamental physical principles by performing experiments. Scientific studies involve dealing with physical quantities that can be measured, and errors are part of these measurements. Besides collecting data and determining some of the universal constants, students will carry out error analysis of the measurement results. This Laboratory differs from traditional laboratory courses where the students are expected to follow step-by-step instructions for each experiment. This course aims to allow the students to creatively apply their thinking and acquire practical skills. The philosophy behind this course is to fully engage students in the learning process, and encourage them to approach the physical concepts from multiple perspectives. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 94 | Social and Cultural Psychology | UCG1SS06 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Social and cultural psychology seeks to understand the relationship between the individual and the environment in which the individual acts. Thus, social and cultural psychology is interested in how we perceive other people, how we make sense of other people’s behavior, and how we shape our attitudes towards various objects such as other groups of people. At the same time, social and cultural psychology is interested in how our own thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are influenced by the imagined or the actual presence of other people as well as by the environments (e.g., cultures) we are brought up in and function within. The module serves as an introduction to the discipline of social and cultural psychology, its research methods and its major themes. These themes include but are not limited to: (i) social cognition and perception with a greater focus on attributions (how we explain other people’s behavior); (ii) the self: how we construe our self-image, how culture and how others influence the way we see ourselves and the way we act; (iii) attitudes: how they are formed, what is their nature and how they change especially as an effect of persuasion; (iv) intergroup processes: what causes a group to form prejudices and develop hostility towards a different group and what is social psychology’s approach to conflict-resolution; (v) leadership: looking into different leadership styles and what makes a strong leader. Cultural influences as well as cultural differences in how various phenomena manifest themselves in different cultures will also be discussed. We will discuss social-psychological phenomena in relation to important societal issues and challenges, such as conflict, migration, climate change, public health, etc. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 95 | Social Complexity and Networks | UCG2SS11 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Understanding social complexity helps you in identifying the common principles underlying many networked phenomena that can be observed in human society, but also more general in natural systems. Especially when relative stable situations turn into highly dynamics ones are interesting, because it forces us to make decisions in a fundamentally uncertain environment. Examples of such often interdisciplinary phenomena are pandemics such as COVID-19, cascading effects such as climate change resulting in migration and conflict, and transitions in food production and consumption. Social complexity science provides a highly relevant approach in understanding the dynamics of such societal phenomena. The common denominator In such systems is that the behaviour of many individuals (micro-level) aggregates into societal phenomena (macro-level), that in turn affect individual behaviour. Social networks describe how individuals relate to each other, depend on each other and influence each other in such conditions. The course will start with an introduction in the paradigm of complex systems, and address the basics of self-organisation, turbulence and the (un)predictability of social systems. Following that, a number of specific cases illustrating essential elements of social complex systems and their networks will be addressed. Some examples are (1) what makes people sometimes deplete renewable resources, such as fish-stocks and forests, (2) the processes that lead to polarisation and conflict in societies, for example related to the issue of migration and acculturation, (3) how the city of Groningen succeeded to become a cycling city, and how other cities learn from that, and (4) how new behaviours and practices such as changing to a plant-based diet spread through society. In this course you will be introduced to a series of computer simulations (Netlogo), several of them developed and published by Wander Jager and colleagues (no programming skills required). As such this course will be very much based on interdisciplinary research, and some of the newest developments will be shared with you. Weekly individual assignments will focus on critically reading and reflecting on literature, and on reporting on modelling exercises. A group assignment will focus on analysing a societal phenomenon from a social complexity & network perspective. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 96 | Statistics 1 | UCG2RM02 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 97 | Statistics 2 | UCG2RM03 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This course forms part of the Research Methods learning line in Year 2 and builds on the foundation established in Statistics I. It covers methods in inferential statistics, emphasizing One-Way ANOVA, Factorial ANOVA, Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA), Non-Parametric Models, Chi-Square Analysis, and Logistic Regression. Throughout the course students practice the use of statistics software (SSPS). They also execute, analyze, and present a small-scale research project as one way of demonstrating competence in course learning outcomes. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 98 | Statistics 3 | UCG2SS02 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 99 | Systems View on Life | UCG1SC08 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In most courses you are exposed to the ideas of others and here as well. This makes sense because humanity has produced many useful insights (and, unfortunately, many more useless or plainly wrong ones) that are worth sharing. But what you unlikely have encountered, is an opportunity to develop an idea that is fully yours. That is what you will do in this course: developing the idea from fragile and explorative, to rich and robust. The idea is all yours, but you have to improve it with insights and contributions of others. You have to follow your intuition and trust that it will lead you somewhere logically sound. The task of the teacher is quality control: he will lead you to sources and (supportive or conflicting) viewpoints and checks whether you make progress in enriching and bolstering your idea. But that is not all we do. You will also be exposed to a intentionally broad set of ideas from pretty much every domain of science the teacher knows about. The purpose of this is to demonstrate the natural and essential interconnectedness of human knowledge. Whether the knowledge originates from the natural sciences, the social sciences, or the humanities, it originates from and pertains to the same “Reality”. Since we all have different perspectives on “Reality” we all see and understand different aspects of it and that is why we will discuss a lot. Depending on your ability to interpret “aspects of Reality” you give either a shallow and clicheic meaning, or a deep and personal ‘lived-through” meaning. In the homework, you will be confronted with many unusual but quite advanced perspectives and approaches. It is your task to reflect on these and to discover the-deeper-than-superficial connectedness of the material. The course does not involve memorization (of soon forgotten material) or the “forced” adoption of expert viewpoints (to be tested by producing expected answers at exams). In this course you have to think for yourself. Parroting opinions you hardly understand or cannot back up will not score points. Some topics and sources might bring you out of your comfort zone and elicit some emotions.. That is intentional. Whether or not an idea or opinion is in or out of your comfort zone depends on the size and shape of your comfort zone. Distance to the comfort zone is independent of the topic or the quality of (scientific) knowledge and insights. In fact much (probably most) high quality knowledge exists outside your comfort zone. The smartest critics of your cherished, but untested, opinions and beliefs are probably the people you can learn most from. But you might not like what they have to teach you. As a budding academic you should learn to appreciate the value of smart critics and valid criticisms. And you should learn to judge the difference between being brought outside your comfort zone or being confronted with low quality information. Ideally your comfort zone expands to gradually encompass all high quality content. That is a (defining) mark of a true academic. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 100 | The Age of Human Rights | UCGSS309 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| With the establishment of the United Nations in 1945, the promotion and protection of international human rights became an essential feature in international cooperation as well as in the academic discourse in many disciplines. By making it a core purpose of the UN, it lifted human rights from the domestic to the international sphere of law, politics and morality. It there with challenged the existing views on the sovereignty of states. With it, international norms were accepted to protect citizens against their state authorities and at the same time require these authorities to activelypursue the improvement of social, economic and cultural rights of individuals and groups. Today, 70 years after the adoption of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, human rights are everywhere. The human rights framework has become a constant element, if not a dominant factor in local, national, regional and global societies, even to a point that views are being expressed that it has gone too far. This course aims to do two things. Firstly, to provide a good knowledge base on what international human rights are and what mechanisms exist to implement, supervise and enforce them. Secondly, to discuss in a critical manner how international human rights thinking has become inextricably linked to almost all areas of international cooperation. In how far does playing the human rights card help to achieve concrete solutions for concrete international problems? Can there be too much human rights, or are human rights the necessary foundation for real-world solutions? Students will be asked to critically analyse specific human rights issues from a multi- or interdisciplinary perspective, thereby drawing upon information from the various disciplinary fields that they have covered in their programmes. The first part of the course will be used to create the relevant knowledge base through interactive lectures. In the second part of the course students will be asked to work in small subgroups on particular issue areas which will be chosen in consultation with the students. The course will conclude with a half day conference on human rights in which the participating students will act as panel members – but this may be subject to change, e.g. in light of the number of students partipting. This conference will be open for participation by other (UCG) students or interested persons. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 101 | The City | UCGHU309 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 102 | Understanding Bias | UCG1HU04 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bias and discrimination are hot topics in the media these days. But what does it mean to be biased? Are you biased? Our reactions to others are in some sense always shaped by our own experience. Does this make us biased? Where does bias come from? And it is something we can, or should, get rid of? These are questions we will address in the course Understanding Bias. We will investigate what bias is, and how it manifests in individuals, in groups, and in society at large. We will also discuss the feasibility and possible means to overcome bias. We take an interdisciplinary approach, with readings sourced from cognitive neuroscience, social psychology, sociology, cultural studies and philosophy, amongst other disciplines, and relate these to recent coverage in media and popular culture. We will meet twice a week for seminars which include student presentations and class discussions. You are expected to participate actively in class discussion; other assessment elements are reports on the articles we read, and a final paper at the end of the course which integrates perspectives from the readings. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 103 | War | UCG1AC11 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| n this course we will study war from a number of different angles. First of all we will focus on the question as to what war is and study the nature and prevalence of war and different types of warfare. We will look into the various areas of law (human rights law and humanitarian law) and how they regulate warfare. Next we will study war and the dynamics and mechanisms within wars resulting in international crimes such as war crimes, crimes against humanity, sexual violence, torture, genocide as well as terrorism. In the course we will look into and study the nature and causes of these crimes. We will study the military and military training and will discuss and extreme type of training in which recruits are trained to become torturers. We will also look into the effects of all these types of crime for the victims. In the last part of the course we will study the means on how to fight these types of crimes and the role of the international community; its legal obligations to act and the often lacking political will to do so. We will furthermore study the various means and methods states have to deal with a period of war after the conflict. The lectures are interactive but in the seminars there is even more room for discussion. In the seminars we will focus mainly on the Islamic State and discuss the extent to which it poses a threat to international peace and security. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 104 | World Literature | UCG2HU07 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In this course, we will read literature from a broad range of cultures and spanning more than 3000 years. The selection of works is based on the recurrent theme of changing places, being a universal experience, fascinating as well as frightening. Humans change places for pleasure (tourism) or under compulsion (exile), in order to build a new home among alien peoples, subjecting the natives to their rule (colonisation), or desperately seeking another home (migration). Staying at home and meeting travellers from elsewhere or changing places ourselves – being confronted with travelleres means being confronted with other communities or cultures, welcome or unwelcome, and thus with questions about who we are and what counts as home. Texts include The Epic of Gilgamesh; Homer, Odyssey; Virgil, Aeneid; Ovid, Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto; The Travels of Ibn Battuta; Wu Cheng'en, Monkey; Multatuli, Max Havelaar; Graffigny, Letters of a Peruvian Woman; Brontë, Villette; Achebe, Chike's School Days; Klüger, Still alive; Nieh, Mulberry and Peach (all to be read in translation). While reading and comparing passages from these works, we will also study crucial theoretical concepts of world literature, such as translation, literary canon, and approaches to reading literature. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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