Published 21 October 2008
This is the provisional list of courses from which you can choose your disciplinary courses for your first semester at AUC.
In this course, students are introduced to the main concepts and the mathematical formalism of classical physics as well as a number of their key applications.
Introduction to Physics provides a first encounter with central physical concepts such as space, time, conservation of energy, reference frames, gravity, and determinism. Particular emphasis is placed on the connection between deterministic quantities and random macroscopic phenomena. This will be illustrated in an application of random motion to stock market fluctuations. The first part of the course develops the principles of classical mechanics. Newton's laws will be discussed and their applications will cover phenomena such as resonance, earthquakes, and hurricanes. Kepler's laws of planetary motion and the phenomenon of Foucault pendulum precession will be derived. A number of other examples discussed include fluid dynamics, music, and sports. The course also includes a self-contained review of the required mathematical background: vector calculus, integrals, and differential equations.
The second part of the course focuses on systems with a large number of particles such as gasses. The concepts of pressure, temperature, and entropy are introduced. The laws of thermodynamics are derived and applied in the discussion of atmospheric pressure, air balloons, heat conduction, refrigerators, heat engines, and evaporating black holes. Through a number of assignments, students will encounter real-life applications of the materials and be introduced to the more advanced concepts developed in the 200 and 300 courses.
This is an introductory course intended to introduce undergraduate students in a variety of disciplines to the basic tenets of public health. The course will provide a history of public health, an introduction to the core disciplines: epidemiology, biostatistics, environmental health, social and behavioural health, health economics and health policy and management, and current events and issues in the field. Upon completion of this course, the student will: - Define public health and the impact it has had on history
- Describe the evolution of public health, including its future development
- Describe how public health is measured and compared across regions or populations
- Describe how health interventions are created, implemented and evaluated
- Describe the structure of the public health system in the various countries (continents) including how policy is implemented and how it impacts public health practice
- List the basic study designs used in public health and provide examples of how they may be used, analysed and interpreted
- Describe the impact of chronic and infectious diseases on the health of populations
- Describe the variance in health status based on social and demographic factors and explain populations with special needs from a life cycle perspective
- Explain how public health impacts other fields and how it may be integrated
- Discuss the relationship between public health and the medical care system
- Describe the role of public health in a global society
After this course, students should be able to interpret biological information on basis of the conceptual foundation of current biological thought. To achieve this aim, students should be able to describe the fundamental processes of life. We will focus on basic themes as the cellular basis of life, metabolism, reproduction as well as growth and development. The course is meant to increase appreciation and knowledge of the science of life and provide students with a good basic knowledge required to follow more detailed courses in the life and health sciences.
From this starting point, the first part of the course will focus on the organ systems that are involved in movement and in the integration of bodily functions. Consequently the anatomy and physiology of the musculo-skeletal system, the nervous system (including special senses) and the endocrine system will be reviewed. The role of the nervous and endocrine systems in integration will be discussed with reference to the principles of ergonomics and homeostasis. The second part focuses on the pulmonary, cardiovascular, immune and urinary systems. We shall discuss how pulmonary ventilation is achieved and regulated and how oxygen and other substances are moved around the body and maintained at a balanced level. We will discuss the delivery of oxygen and substrates to the tissues for energy production, the removal of wastes and the maintenance of a stable internal environment in changing situations (for example during exercise). This module looks at the vital support systems that provide for these needs; the cardiovascular, pulmonary and urinary systems, as well as the defence mechanisms that protect the body. Since function is based upon structure we shall also review the anatomy of the organs that comprise these systems and explore how their functions are regulated. Finally, we will examine how the normal functions of these systems are changed by both exercise and disease. Other relevant topics are: - Concepts of risk in medical practice
- Labour forces in health care system
- An investigation of equality and inequality in the Dutch health care system.
Environmental science, as a discipline, combines aspects of the physical and biological sciences with issues from the social and political sciences. In this course, we will explore the concept of sustainability and how it relates to us, the scientific principles and concepts governing ecosystems and their processes, human population and resource use, how to sustain the biodiversity of the earth, and how we use our energy resources. This course should prepare students to continue to develop their environmental knowledge through further coursework. Important features of the course include systems thinking and critical reflection.
In this introductory course students will become acquainted with the methods and theories that are key to the study of psychology, along with their development. The course begins with an introduction to the scientific methods and technologies that ground psychology as a discipline, such as observation, reaction time experiments and brain imaging. Students will also receive an introduction to the psychology of language and consciousness, emotion and social behaviours.
This introductory course will provide students with knowledge of the history of media, and knowledge of the ways in which media work, as well as the changing nature of communications and the impact of media on the individual and on societies, locally, regionally and globally. Students will gain a social scientific understanding of the role of media and communications in Europe and other parts of the world, such as North America. While examining contemporary media structures and developments, students will also learn about the historical context for these developments. Students will also acquire a broad knowledge of theoretical and methodological approaches within the field of media and communication, as well as an awareness of the place of media in their broader historical, political, economic, social and cultural contexts, at local, regional and global levels.
This course will introduce students to the historical development of methods and techniques employed in analysing cultural artefacts (for example (art) historical, filmic and literary objects). Moreover, students will learn how to apply these methods on artefacts of their choice. Students will also learn to think critically about how certain objects come to be seen as cultural artefacts and why. Students will study the history of the interpretation and understanding of cultural objects including methods such as hermeneutics, close reading, cultural analysis, content analysis, narratology, gender studies, structuralism and deconstruction. As the course progresses, students will be required to analyse literary and historical texts as well as art objects (e.g. painting, sculpture, video) and film (e.g. narrative, documentary). In so doing, students will also investigate the role that culture, as it has been defined at various junctures in history, has played in how we approach texts, art objects and film as artefacts. In this section of the course, students will also critically examine the process of canon formation, considering questions such as how notions of high and low culture and the canon developed over time. Students will also examine the role that history has played in the construction of culture, as well as that of cultural institutions such as the museum.
In this course students will learn about the major periods around which art historical knowledge is structured, and will learn to recognise features of a given period (e.g. Baroque, Romanticism, Impressionism) as it is expressed in works of art from various European and American cultural contexts. At the same time students will learn about the importance of particular countries and urban centres (Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, New York) and their relation to various genres and styles. Examples will include the Northern Renaissance in the Dutch Republic, the baroque period in Germany and France, the advent of modernity in the 19th century, Impressionism, the 20th-century avant-gardes, and postmodernism.
Over the past centuries economics has changed from a largely verbal discipline that studied human agency in commercial settings to a highly mathematical discipline that has come to incorporate increasingly more instruments from the scientific toolbox (such as statistics and laboratory practices). Indeed, some contemporary practitioners identify economics with a tool-based discipline that can design market systems in a manner similar to how engineers construct technical systems, thereby discarding the rich intellectual histories that still inform many of the concepts and theories used by economists. The purpose of this course is to retrace these histories and to see how modern economics emerged in its present form. To do this, we will put the development of economic ideas and theories into their appropriate historical context. The course will emphasise the incisive change of the economic discipline from the inter-war to the post-war period. The goal of the course is to enable students to historically assess the merits and limitations of contemporary economics in addressing major economic questions. Topics to be discussed include: - How did economics emerge as a separate discipline within the field of the social sciences.
- What scientific methods are currently used in economics and how have these evolved over time.
- What role did (political) economy play in transforming society, and how has societal transformation influenced the field of (political) economy.
- How did (political) economists assess the role of government and institutions in the economy.
- The fine line between positive and normative economics
This course will introduce students to the main problems of political thought by means of studying primary texts, often in translation, written by key political philosophers. The first part of the course introduces students to ancient and medieval conceptions of politics and human flourishing, particularly in Plato and Thomas Aquinas. In the second part of the course we will study the realist conception of politics in Machiavelli and the social contract theories of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. The third part of the course deals with the liberalism of John Stuart Mill. For the final paper, students choose a twentieth century political philosopher, compare his or her ideas to those discussed in this course and/or apply his or her work to a contemporary political problem. This course is particularly relevant for students interested in politics, ethics, philosophy, or law.
Over the past three plus decades, Chinese culture has undergone tremendous changes. Starting with a historical approach to contemporary China and a short introduction to its main language, Mandarin, this course will subsequently zoom in on cultural developments in China. While focusing on contemporary culture, the course readings will remain sensitive to the political and economic context. Examples of important cultural developments that will be further analysed in this course include the rise of the avant-garde visual arts movement from the 1980s onwards, the emergence of a vivid rock and pop culture and the development of a transnational Chinese cinema. Not only global but also regional cultural flows, most notably from Japan and South-Korea to China, will be analysed. The material implications of the changes will be scrutinized. For example, as part of the mediated spectacle of the Beijing 2008 Olympiad, new architectures have radically altered the cityscapes of Beijing, and Shanghai is preparing itself for a make-over for the 2010 World Expo. After this course, students will have acquainted themselves with what is by many perceived as an upcoming global power, they will be aware of its histories (multiple, indeed), its politics, its economy and, particularly, its varied cultures, both old and new. Most of all, they will become sensitive to the contradictions, contestations, inequalities and ambiguities that are always part and parcel of any understanding of Chinese cultures.
Source: AUC
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