PSC426 Beyond Beliefs: Religion and Diversity in London (Fall, Spring)

CRS318 Fashion in Focus: Discourses and Meanings (Fall, Spring)

Fashion has an image problem. It occupies a problematic and contradictory position within culture: everyone to a greater or lesser extent engages with it, yet it is culturally condemned as ‘feminine’, ‘vacuous’, ‘superficial’, and even ‘dangerous’.  The fashion industry is the biggest industrial employer in the world and one of the three biggest economic sectors, yet in contemporary culture, fashion is sidelined and rarely discussed in a mature manner that extends beyond the stylistic. Fashion lacks its own language and is all too often reduced to or equated with ‘shopping’. But this reduction is far from the truth.

This course will examine the different meanings and discourses of fashion and demonstrate how fashion is in fact so much more than what we see in adverts and shops and indeed carries an extensive set of meanings and has multiple functions in human life.

All human cultures engage in body adornment. This course departs from this anthropological fact to build a multi-faceted picture of the different discourses and meanings that together address the full complexity of the term ‘fashion.’

Fashion is both the central subject of the course and at the same time will function as a lens for examining wider socioeconomic tendencies, highlighting that far from being superficial, fashion is in fact “the most talkative of social facts” (Daniel Roche, 2000).

HST464 Borders in Flux: Identities and Conflict in Ireland (Spring)

In this field studies course, students will discover how Ireland’s past is inseparably entangled with its present and how old wounds fester in current politics.  Travel for two full weekends during the semester to Dublin, Belfast, and Derry to examine themes that include concepts of national identity (Irishness and Britishness); the religious conflict and peace-making attempts within Ireland; and considerations of new tensions wrought by international migration and regional politics. In each of the destinations of this intensive nine-day seminar, students will directly engage with aspects of Ireland’s past that impact its present, including reactions to Brexit, the eighth amendment referendum on abortion, and the economic crisis.

May also be registered as REL 328 or PSC 464.

Not included in limited registration of PSC courses.

This course has an associated course fee. See the London Course Fees page for more information.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PSC464 Borders in Flux: Identities and Conflict in Ireland (Spring)

In this field studies course, students will discover how Ireland’s past is inseparably entangled with its present and how old wounds fester in current politics.  Travel for two full weekends during the semester to Dublin, Belfast, and Derry to examine themes that include concepts of national identity (Irishness and Britishness); the religious conflict and peace-making attempts within Ireland; and considerations of new tensions wrought by international migration and regional politics. In each of the destinations of this intensive nine-day seminar, students will directly engage with aspects of Ireland’s past that impact its present, including reactions to Brexit, the eighth amendment referendum on abortion, and the economic crisis.

May also be registered as HST 464 or REL 328.

Not included in limited registration of PSC courses.

This course has an associated course fee. See the London Course Fees page for more information.

REL328 Borders in Flux: Identities and Conflict in Ireland (Spring)

In this field studies course, students will discover how Ireland’s past is inseparably entangled with its present and how old wounds fester in current politics.  Travel for two full weekends during the semester to Dublin, Belfast, and Derry to examine themes that include concepts of national identity (Irishness and Britishness); the religious conflict and peace-making attempts within Ireland; and considerations of new tensions wrought by international migration and regional politics. In each of the destinations of this intensive nine-day seminar, students will directly engage with aspects of Ireland’s past that impact its present, including reactions to Brexit, the eighth amendment referendum on abortion, and the economic crisis

May also be registered as HST 464 or PSC 464.

Not included in limited registration of PSC courses.

This course has an associated course fee. See the London Course Fees page for more information.

 

PSC354 Human Rights and Global Affairs (Fall, Spring) CANCELLED Fall 2026

Human rights are meant to ground justice, fairness, and equality, and all UN member states have pledged to uphold them. Yet abuses occur daily worldwide—from arbitrary arrests and torture to discrimination against marginalized groups such as racial minorities, LGBTI+ people, women, and Indigenous communities. Many violations are less visible, including systemic social and economic inequalities that especially harm people living in poverty. How governments, corporations, civil society, and individuals respond to these issues shapes the freedoms people experience.

Human Rights and Global Affairs examines both the misunderstanding and the uneven practice of human rights. The course asks whether we truly know what human rights are, why they matter, and how that knowledge protects freedom. Students study the evolution of the international human rights framework across ethics, politics, and law, and assess the responsibilities of state and non‑state actors. Through global case studies of both failure and progress, the course explores real-world challenges and the efforts of civil society and transnational networks to defend rights. By the end, students will be prepared to debate human rights confidently, understand the protections all people deserve, and better recognize struggles within their communities and across the global society.

Satisfies IDEA Course Requirement.

Most semesters, registration limited (including minors) to only one Political Science class (PSC prefix and courses cross-listed with PSC) except for Political Science majors. Check the current semester’s Schedule of Classes for more information.

HFS493 Youth and Family Practicum: The Global Workplace (Fall, Spring)

Open only to Human Development and Family Science majors and minors who have committed to an internship by the published deadline. This course is designed to guide students’ professional development during experience in the London workforce. Participation in the course will equip students with the practical skills needed to thrive in a globalised world of work—as well as the theoretical background and critical thinking abilities necessary to reflect on their position in that interconnected system.

This course must be taken for a letter grade. Internship placements typically require a commitment of two days per week. Students initially registered for BPS400 and update their registration following the Add Deadline once abroad.

Course Restriction: Open only to Human Development and Family Science majors and minors who have committed to an internship by the published deadline.

ARC500.1 Genealogies of the City (Fall, Spring)

In this course, we will examine and compare the development of London in relation to three European cities, paradigmatic of the radical transformations of urban environment from the 17th century onwards: Lisbon, Paris, and Barcelona. Through notions of biopolitics, political economy and architectural and urban history, we will explore the genealogies of the public in the city and of the private in the house. The content will address the role of planning in the formation of the public realm, and as a response by public and private authorities and entities to the emerging problematics of population.

The classes will be organised around a series of weekly seminars, and a number of site visits in London. The seminars will include the facilitation of readings by the students of a series of texts that explore both the theoretical framework and the history of the city, from authors that include John Summerson, Elizabeth Mckellar, Michel Foucault, Hanna Arendt, Leonardo Benevolo, David Harvey, and Pier Vitorio Aurelli. The assignments consist of a series of drawings—maps, axonometrics, sections—that critically explore the formation and transformation of each city.

Enrollment priority is given to students admitted to the London architecture program , then Architecture minors if space allows.

CIS477 Introduction to Analysis of Algorithms (Fall)

Mathematical modeling of computational problems; searching and sorting algorithms; search trees, heaps, and hash tables; divide-and-conquer, dynamic programming, and greedy choice design techniques; graph algorithms; NP-completeness; and selected topics.

Prereq: CIS 375 and CIS 351

CIS473 Automata and Computability (Fall)

Countable and uncountable sets; diagonalization proofs; finite state automata; regular, context-free, context-sensitive, recursive, and r. e. languages; Turing machines; relationships between classes of languages and machines; the halting problem; proof methods for decidability and undecidabilty.

Prereq: CIS 375 or MAT 375 (or equivalent abstract or discrete mathematics course)