LAS Core Electives

Below you will find more information and videos of the 7 Core Electives you can choose from.

Please note: The seats are available first come, first served.

How Things Work

The course How Things Work is a practical introduction to science in the everyday context. Many principles of science can be found and understood by examining familiar objects and reflecting on everyday life experiences. During the course we consider a selection of common objects and processes that we examine with questions like “How does it work?” or “Why does it happen/behave in this way?” With (interactive) lectures, demonstrations and practicals, we discover some of the most basic scientific principles and learn to generalise them to new familiar situations.

Lecturers: dr. Roland Chiu and dr. Moreira Goulart

Culture: The Building Blocks

In Culture the Building Blocks you will learn about the fundamental mechanisms of cultural behaviour such as memory, language, imagination, artefacts, technology and consciousness. These building blocks shape the way humans see the world, how they perceive themselves and how they interact with the people around them. We will trace back these cultural mechanisms in evolution and
development to find out where and how we have acquired them. By learning to identify and understand these mechanisms, you will be able to analyse a great variety of cultural phenomena by the end of the course.

Lecturer: dr. Theisje van Dorsten

People, Place and Culture in a Global Context

The purpose of the course People, Place, and Culture in a Global Context is to understand how space and place affect our understanding of the world and how scale and distance affect how we interpret these. We are basically going to study the dynamic and complex relationships between people and the worlds they inhabit. The course gives you an introduction to thinking “geographically”. It is about recognizing and understanding the interdependence among places and regions, without losing sight of the uniqueness of each specific place. This spatial perspective will help you to think further about contemporary issues and developments on various scales.

Lecturers: dr. Bettina van Hoven and Angelica Caiza Villegas

This is the Sea

The ocean covers more than 70% of earth's surface and is a fundamental reason why life exists on earth – but much of it remains unexplored and under-appreciated. This course offers an interdisciplinary approach to understanding cultural and scientific aspects of the sea. Students will understand the role of the sea in climate change and they will learn how to protect the ocean and the planet. Topics discussed include origin of the global ocean,  life in the ocean, circulation in the ocean (including waves and tides), cultural history of the sea, politics of the sea, blue economy, and protecting the ocean and the planet.

Lecturers: dr. Oksana Kavatsyuk and dr. Laura Kapinga

Disease

In your daily life you will be confronted with the major health problems of our time, either in your direct environment or via the media. The course will address a number of compelling questions, such as “what factors contribute to health and disease?”, “Is there a relation between human evolution and cancer?” and “what are the biggest threats to our health nowadays?” Besides analysing the most important biological mechanisms related to a “healthy status” and behind major health issues, we are also going to discuss health and disease from a population health perspective as well as from an evolutionary point of view. All under the light of scientific evidence, of course.

Lecturer: dr. Adriana Mattos

Love

The concept of "love" is found in all cultures and is expressed in music, poetry, films, advertisements, mobile applications and many other human activities, products and customs. Love is also portrayed as one of the strongest feelings one can experience. But, what is Love? In this interdisciplinary course, Philosophy, Biology and Psychology are combined to achieve a nuanced understanding of what Love is and how it is experienced and expressed by humans. We address 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? and Can love hurt? We treat these as complex questions that would benefit from a conversation across disciplines.

Lecturers: dr. Martijn Boot , dr. Rodrigo Gonzalez Alvarez and dr. Adriana Mattos

War

This course explores war from multiple perspectives. We are concerned with how it is defined, its nature and prevalence, as well as different types of warfare. We examine how law attempts to regulate warfare and explore how the dynamics of wars result in war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Probing deeper into the nature of these crimes, we study both the cause (for instance the extreme methods of military training that turn recruits into torturers) and the effect (on victims).

We will also study methods to fight these types of crimes and the legal obligation of the international community to do so even when political will might be lacking as well as consider the after-effects of war. A special focus is placed on the Islamic State and the link between extremism, war and terrorism.

Lecturer: prof. dr. Alette Smeulers