14.15J Networks (MIT)
Networks are ubiquitous in our modern society. The World Wide Web that links us to and enables information flows with the rest of the world is the most visible example. It is, however, only one of many networks within which we are situated. Our social life is organized around networks of friends and colleagues. These networks determine our information, influence our opinions, and shape our political attitudes. They also link us, often through important but weak ties, to everybody else in the Uni
The devil's in the details - regulating financial innovation
With elections in India in a few months, the war on terror must be squarely at the centre of the political agenda. Not far away will be regulation of finance. As Sonia Gandhi put it, the poor had nothing to do with fancy sounding financial instruments. The livelihoods of the poor are at great risk now that financial globalisation has spread the damaging effects of some types of innovative finance across the world. Dr Paul Kattuman looks at the unintended consequences of complex, unproven financi
11.235 Analyzing Projects and Organizations (MIT)
This course teaches students how to understand the rationality behind how organizations and their programs behave, and to be comfortable and analytical with a live organization. It thereby builds analytic skills for evaluating programs and projects, organizations, and environments. It draws on the literature of the sociology of organizations, political science, public administration, and historical experience-and is based on both developing-country and developed-country experience.
17.202 Graduate Seminar in American Politics II (MIT)
This is the second in a sequence of two field seminars in American politics intended for graduate students in political science, in preparation for taking the general examination in American politics. The material covered in this semester focuses on American political institutions. The readings covered here are not comprehensive, but it is sufficiently broad to give students an introduction to major empirical questions and theoretical approaches that guide the study of American political institu
24 - Retreat from Reconstruction: the Grant Era and Paths to "Southern Redemption"
This lecture opens with a discussion of the myriad moments at which historians have declared an "end" to Reconstruction, before shifting to the myth and reality of "Carpetbag rule" in the Reconstruction South. Popularized by Lost Cause apologists and biased historians, this myth suggests that the southern governments of the Reconstruction era were dominated by unscrupulous and criminal Yankees who relied on the ignorant black vote to rob and despoil the innocent South. The reality, of course, di
12 - "And the War Came," 1861: The Sumter Crisis, Comparative Strategies
After finishing with his survey of the manner in which historians have explained the coming of the Civil War, Professor Blight focuses on Fort Sumter. After months of political maneuvering, the Civil War began when Confederates fired on Fort Sumter, in the harbor outside Charleston, SC. The declaration of hostilities prompted four more states--Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Arkansas--to secede. Professor Blight closes the lecture with a brief discussion of some of the forces that motiv
21H.443 European Imperialism in the 19th and 20th Centuries (MIT)
From pineapples grown in Hawaii to English-speaking call centers outsourced to India, the legacy of the "Age of Imperialism" appears everywhere in our modern world. This class explores the history of European imperialism in its political, economic, and cultural dimensions from the 1840s through the 1960s.
17.523 Ethnicity and Race in World Politics (MIT)
Discerning the ethnic and racial dimensions of politics is considered by some indispensable to understanding contemporary world politics. This course seeks to answer fundamental questions about racial and ethnic politics. To begin, what are the bases of ethnic and racial identities? What accounts for political mobilization based upon such identities? What are the political claims and goals of such mobilization and is conflict between groups and/or with government forces inevitable? How do ethnic
ESD.85J Integrating Doctoral Seminar on Emerging Technologies (MIT)
This team-taught subject is for doctoral students working on emerging technologies at the interface of technology, policy and societal issues. It integrates concepts of research strategy and design from a variety of disciplines. The class addresses problem identification and formulation of research topics, the role of qualitative and quantitative research methods, and the use of various data collection techniques. Coursework focuses on students' thesis proposals, faculty-student study panels, cr
HST.951J Medical Decision Support (MIT)
This course presents the main concepts of decision analysis, artificial intelligence and predictive model construction and evaluation in the specific context of medical applications. It emphasizes the advantages and disadvantages of using these methods in real-world systems and provides hands-on experience. Its technical focus is on decision support, knowledge-based systems (qualitative and quantitative), learning systems (including logistic regression, classification trees, neural networks, rou
21H.225J Gender and the Law in U.S. History (MIT)
This subject explores the legal history of the United States as a gendered system. It examines how women have shaped the meanings of American citizenship through pursuit of political rights such as suffrage, jury duty, and military service, how those political struggles have varied for across race, religion, and class, as well as how the legal system has shaped gender relations for both women and men through regulation of such issues as marriage, divorce, work, reproduction, and the family. The
AlgTop11: Rational curvature, winding and turning
This video introduces an important re-scaling of curvature, using the natural geometric unit rather than radians or degrees. We call this the turn-angle, or tangle, and use it to describe polygons, convex and otherwise. We also introduce winding numbers and the turning number of a planar curve.
This is the 11th lecture in this beginner's course on Algebraic Topology, given by Assoc Prof N J WIldberger at UNSW.
Discharge and Sediment Transport in the Field
In this quantitative field activity, students collect field data on channel geometry, flow velocity, and bed materials. Using these data, they apply flow resistance equations (Manning and the depth slope product) and sediment transport relations (Shields curve) to estimate the bankfull discharge and to determine if the flow is sufficient to mobilize the bed. This activity requires students to utilize theoretical and empirical equations derived in class in the context of a field problem. Learning
Back-bench rebels
Philip Cowley, Reader in the University’s School of Politics and International Relations, was recently nominated for the Times Higher young researcher of the year award. In this podcast, Philip discusses his research into back bench rebellions within the British parliament. Philip describes his research as practical politics, linking academic research to the real world of political debate. Since the British Labour party’s re-election with a reduced majority of 66 MPs in May 2005, some back b
Indian political economy: student handout
This is the student handout for a module in Indian political economy forming part of the MSc in Contemporary India at Oxford, by Barbara Harriss-White of the University of Oxford. Students are not presumed to have previous knowledge of economics.
Introducing Regional Integration
This course is designed as a general introduction to regional integration, and is particularly aimed at non-specialists. It reviews some of the main definitions of what constitutes a region, and identifies the basic concepts and approaches to integration. The course portrays both the diversity and the hierarchical nature of regionalism, and calls attention to the motivations that lead groups of states and regions to elect for one particular form of regional cooperation over another.
The course
Delivering Sustainable Development
(complete 12 unit module with HTML navigation)
This module opens with a review of changes in the contemporary world political economy and their implications for sustainable development. One of the most important factors generating change is globalisation and we examine the ideologies and institutions which serve to integrate all regions and peoples more intensely than ever before. The relationship between patterns of globalisation and endemic poverty and various environmental crises is examined to illustrate the contours of some of the most
An integrated palynological and micropalaeontological investigation of selected cretaceous/tertiary
Davies, H.L., Haslett, S.K., Mullins, G.L., O'Gorman, M.P. and Smith, J.S. 1991. An integrated palynological and micropalaeontological investigation of selected cretaceous/tertiary boundary sections from western Europe and north Africa. MSc Thesis: University of Southampton.
14.72 Capitalism and Its Critics (MIT)
This course examines the implications of economic theories for social and political organization in the context of the historical evolution of industrial societies. Among the authors whose theories will be discussed are Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Joseph Schumpeter, and John Kenneth Galbraith. Emphasis will be placed on class discussion of specific texts. Students will be encouraged to ground their views in concrete textual and empirical material and to consider the implicat
20.309 Biological Engineering II: Instrumentation and Measurement (MIT)
This course covers sensing and measurement for quantitative molecular/cell/tissue analysis, in terms of genetic, biochemical, and biophysical properties. Methods include light and fluorescence microscopies; electro-mechanical probes such as atomic force microscopy, laser and magnetic traps, and MEMS devices; and the application of statistics, probability and noise analysis to experimental data. Enrollment preference is given to juniors and seniors.
