PSC436 Healthcare in Europe: A Comparative Approach (Fall, Spring)

PSC436 Healthcare in Europe: A Comparative Approach (Fall, Spring)

A fierce academic, social, political, and economic debate is raging about how healthcare systems should be organized. Policy experts want to learn from international best practices and apply ideas at home that have worked effectively elsewhere. This course will give you a firsthand understanding of how healthcare systems function throughout the world. We will study systems in the European countries, and compare and contrast them with the US model, examining each from economic, financial, and national and local public policy perspectives.

We’ll link our findings with theories and empirical evidence to assess which of the healthcare systems are better from the point of view of efficiency and equity. Economic principles will be used to demonstrate why healthcare reforms may reach or fall short of the governments’ stated goals. We’ll analyze in depth the concept of universality, short- and long-term challenges, successful and unsuccessful health policies, and why many systems are unsustainable—and then develop possible solutions.

Meets with ECN 336.

Prereq: ECN 101 or ECN 203, or equivalent background in microeconomics

ECN336 Healthcare in Europe: A Comparative Approach (Fall, Spring)

A fierce academic, social, political, and economic debate is raging about how healthcare systems should be organized. Policy experts want to learn from international best practices and apply ideas at home that have worked effectively elsewhere. This course will give you a firsthand understanding of how healthcare systems function throughout the world. We will study systems in the European countries, and compare and contrast them with the US model, examining each from economic, financial, and national and local public policy perspectives.

We’ll link our findings with theories and empirical evidence to assess which of the healthcare systems are better from the point of view of efficiency and equity. Economic principles will be used to demonstrate why healthcare reforms may reach or fall short of the governments’ stated goals. We’ll analyze in depth the concept of universality, short- and long-term challenges, successful and unsuccessful health policies, and why many systems are unsustainable—and then develop possible solutions.

Meets with PSC 436.

Prereq: ECN 101 or ECN 203, or equivalent background in microeconomics

FST300.1 Culinary Crossings: Exploring Mediterranean Food Systems (Signature Seminar; Spring 2026)

LIMITED ENROLLMENTThis traveling seminar offers a first-hand exploration of the social and cultural exchanges that have been shaping the Mediterranean (and societies beyond) for centuries. It analyzes these issues from a food-systems perspective that investigates how meaning is conveyed through food. Throughout the seminar, we will analyze how food practices express local and regional identities in Sicily.

The 3 credits earned for this seminar will be included in the maximum 19 credits that you are permitted to take during your semester abroad. You must enroll in a minimum of 12 other credits for the semester, not including this seminar.

This Signature Seminar is optional and travel destinations are subject to change. Seminar takes place after the semester concludes.

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.