Contrary to the initial expectations, international peacebuilding operations have had little success since the 1990s. From Bosnia or Congo to South Sudan, the UN and other international organizations have failed to bring peace and stability. In the literature, they have been criticized for applying one-size-fits-all approaches, for their little consideration of the culture and history of post-war societies and for defending the interests of a world order dominated by Western states. However, in the last five years, international organisations are currently adopting new strategies to correct the failures of the past: there are ‘lessons learned’, ‘hybrid’ and ‘bottom-up’ approaches, context-sensitive policies and emphasis on resilience, local ownership and self-reflexive dialogues among a variety of actors. Are we witnessing the continuation of a 25 years crisis or there is room for hope? This module investigates how peacebuilding is understood and practiced today and speculates about the future of international peacebuilding.

Keywords: conflict, peacebuilding, peacekeeping, governance, humanitarian intervention, methods in action

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Sometimes social, political and legal disputes require answers to questions such as “What is art?”, “How should it be interpreted?”, “What is artistic freedom?”, “Who is an author?”, “What is misappropriation?”, or “Is a particular work of art authentic?”. When authorities are involved in such disputes, answering such inquiries involve not only legal or public policy decisions, but also artistic judgments which are influenced by aesthetic theories. Besides, law and power may also influence artistic practices and the content of art works. Regulations on censorship, contract law, city planning and plagiarism, among others, and their enforcements by public authorities can impact the artists’ creative choices.

The course aims to provide an in-depth discussion of the interactions between aesthetics, art theory and art law. The legal notions of, among others, originality, authorship, plagiarism, copying, and transformation will be examined and confronted with these same concepts from the standpoints of aesthetics and art theory. In exploring these issues, specific contemporary art controversies that involve artists, such as Marina Abramović, Robert Mapplethorpe, Richard Prince or Joseph Beuys will be analyzed. Course participants are expected to write a final essay on a case study of their choice about the relation between the law (or society and politics) and a particular artist or a work of art.

Keywords: Copyright Law, intellectual property Law, art Law, images and the Law, civil Law, beyond disciplines

The goal of this course is to provide students with an introduction to documentary film making. Special attention will be given to the renewal of the Spanish and the Catalan film scene in the last 15 years. 
The course consists of both theoretical and practical sessions. During lecture classes the professor will present the history of Spanish and Catalan Documentary and will set the theoretical basis for the production of a Documentary. 

During practical sessions students will develop a project of a documentary where they can express their particular way of seeing the Spanish reality. Students will work in small teams to produce a 15 minute film, from the conception of the idea to the final editing, including the writing of the script and the shooting.

Keywords: Barcelona, film making, documentary, contemporary documentaries, global cities, applied thinking

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In the globalized context, cities have to compete with each other in different matters such as: to attract investment or human talent, to favor exportations, or to position themselves as tourist destinations. This reality advocates the adoption of marketing techniques to manage cities’ positioning since cities are no longer only a container of all the goods that can be consumed within it: the place itself offers symbolism desired by all its audiences. This course provides an overview of the main changes that have motivated the contemporary role of cities. It is focused on the understanding of the new symbolic role of the territory and explore the difficulties to build up a coherent brand that represents the complex offer of places. It also emphasizes on the importance of involving the different stakeholders in the process of branding the city, the challenge to control the impact of tourism activity and its effect on residents lifestyle, and the importance of the communication activity. The case of Barcelona will help students understand the content of the theoretical sessions. Combining lectures and practical sessions, students will study in-depth how Barcelona is represented as the international brand it is today.

Keywords: brand image, place branding, destination branding, online communication, projected image, global cities, applied thinking

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Social inequalities, national security, climate change, the rise of nationalism and populisms are some the most serious challenges that national democracies face today in the era of globalization. How can national governments defend the interests of their citizens in an even more interconnected economic and political context? How does Globalization affect national public policies and what can national states do? The course aims at providing a critical overview on the current challenges that national democracies will have to face in the next years.

Geographically, it focuses on Europe and Spain and how political actors and central governments do play a role in the international scenario. It studies how and to what extent the European Union Member-States own independent policy autonomy to handle economic and institutional crises and to foster human development. By covering basic historical and critical tools for understanding the construction and integration processes of the European Union after World War II, the course centers on current socioeconomic scenarios at the national level and how these are affects by inequalities, poverty, unemployment and the lack of social provisions.

Being Spain a pluri-national democracy which is usually characterized as the most decentralized among the unitarian national states that compose the European Union, the course will focus on Spanish contemporary political and societal scenario as an interesting case-study. Relying upon facts, figures and current issues, the course will provide an important set of examples and real cases about what work (and does not work) regarding public policies and public administrations in Europe and Spain. 

Keywords: EU, globalization, 2030 Agenda, Spain, society, governments, institutions, beyond disciplines

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The course understands the cultural history of the city as a reflection of the cultural history of contemporary Spain, from the anarchist city to the cosmopolitan capital with international outreach. Focusing on the last two centuries and from a sociological and anthropological point of view, the course will analyse the Barcelona society and its most recent political history through its conflicts and cultural influences. Interviews and on-site visits are foreseen to grasp the testimonies of relevant stakeholders. The course has an interdisciplinary approach at the intersection of urban studies, Catalan history, Hispanic studies, cultural studies, and anthropology.

Keywords: Barcelona, local history, urban studies, cultural studies, hispanic studies, global cities

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Este curso representa una oportunidad a estudiantes internacionales, y también a estudiantes de la propia universidad que no cursan estudios de periodismo o comunicación, de conocer el ecosistema comunicativo en el que vivimos, la importancia del cuarto poder y las nuevas formas de periodismo surgidas con la consolidación de las redes sociales. También ahonda en los conceptos de responsabilidad, rigor y rendición de cuentas de los medios de comunicación para desarrollar un buen periodismo y de calidad en un momento de auge de la desinformación y las "fake news". El curso pretende dar a conocer el panorama comunicativo en relación con la sociedad española, europea y norteamericana desde un punto de vista histórico y sociológico, estudiando y comprando las distintas culturas periodísticas existentes.

Se combina con ejercicios de la práctica profesional periodística en España. La primera parte de la asignatura se compone de contenidos teóricos, mientras que en la segunda parte se desarrollan contenidos prácticos: redacción de noticias en distintos formatos y elaboración de un reportaje de radio desde la perspectiva del periodismo en España.

Keywords: periodismo, comunicación, ética, educación mediàtica, género, juventud, sostenibilidad, applied thinking

The course analyses the historical, political, business, social and anthropological elements at work in the “import” and “export” of the Spain brand and its assets, as well as in the review of Spain’s main industries and businesses, leveraging the legacy and the opportunities that are at stake in recent and immediate contemporary contexts. The goal of the course is a descriptive and critical reflection on the notion of Spanish brands and their equity exploits across the globe; their distinctive traits, the diversity of mixed cultures, identities and realities the country portrays and how the communications world has shaped and can still shape the competitiveness of the potential and capabilities at hand. The course questions Spain’s unique attributes; moreover it aims at debating around the symbols and the strategic brand discourses of Spanish businesses and institutions. The course is best suitable for advertising, public relations and communications students, as well as for humanities, business and economics and political sciences majors.

Keywords: Spain, Spanish identity, "Spanish-ness", identities, historical and cultural processes, beyond disciplines

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El objetivo del curso es estudiar el modo en que los sistemas de protección internacional de los derechos humanos han tenido -o pueden tener- reflejo en otros ámbitos, ya sea en la literatura y el cómic, en el cine y otros medios audiovisuales tales como los  documentales y los podcasts. Para el cierre del curso está programada una visita a la sede de Cruz Roja en Barcelona, con una sesión explicativa de la tarea desarrollada por esta institución y además una entrevista a la directora del centro, con quien los estudiantes podrán debatir las cuestiones analizadas a lo largo de las clases. La asignatura tiene un enfoque práctico y pretende llevar a la práctica nuevos métodos de enseñanza del derecho aplicados a la investigación de los derechos humanos.

Keywords: derecho internacional de los derechos humanos, derecho de la Unión Europea, derecho penal internacional, derecho de la navegación aérea, derecho constitucional de las Naciones Unidas, beyond disciplines

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La asignatura está centrada en el buscador Google y en su plataforma de publicidad online Adwords. La asignatura tiene como objetivo entender el ecosistema digital de Google a través del estudio del funcionamiento de los buscadores (indexación de páginas y ordenación de resultados) y de la composición de las páginas de resultados del buscador. A partir de la distinción entre resultados orgánicos (SEO) y patrocinados (SEM) el curso incidirá en ambas especialidades.

Durante la primera setmana se tratará la optimización de resultados orgánicos (SEO) y se realizarán análisis de sitios web mediante las herramientas de auditoría de calidad web y de posicionamiento en buscadores. Esta sección se ejemplificará a través de la creación de un blog de curso donde se aplicarán las herramientas de analítica web. De forma individual los alumnos llevará a cabo el mapeado de un nicho de búsqueda identificando los sitios web más relevantes de una temática y/o sector. La segunda setmana se centrará en el funcionamiento de las herramientas de analítica de Google (Google Analytics y Search Console) y de la plataforma de anuncios patrocinados Adwords. El curso se cerrará una con visión general de las tendencias presentes y futuras del marketing digital en base a los informes Hype Cycle de Gartner.

Keywords: Google, SEO, SEM, marketing digital, web mapping, analítica web, applied thinking

Video

A partir de la figura central del padre de la iconología, Aby Warburg, y de la inscripción del estudio de la imagen en un marco más amplio, la “ciencia de la cultura”, el curso plantea un acercamiento dinámico a las metodologías del pensamiento en imágenes y el ensayo visual. El curso pretende hacer del pensamiento en imágenes una forma transdisciplinar de abordar otros campos expresivos y formas de reflexión.

Por una parte, se trata de acercarse a la creación de imágenes desde el gesto y en función de las lógicas del corte, el montaje y la yuxtaposición. Por otra, y de acuerdo con una metodología de proyecto, se trata de activar la idea de una imagen capaz de provocar choques sobre las otras imágenes para estimular una lógica creativa fundamentada en el control de las supervivencias de la imagen, en su dimensión gestual  y en las fórmulas afectivas de pathos.

Cada sesión del curso, conforme a un doble eje teórico y práctico, intenta proporcionar herramientas para explorar las posibilidades de escritura que ofrece el ensayo visual –ritmo, tensión, continuidad, yuxtaposición, utilización de la voz y del texto-, al mismo tiempo que invita a abordar otras formas visuales contemporáneas –cine, ficción televisiva, instalaciones artísticas, cómic, videoclip, apps-, de manera arqueológica: a través del pensar háptico que ofrece el montaje, el ensayo visual se convierte en un modo de explorar supervivencias pictóricas, escultóricas, literarias y coreográficas.

El gesto, la danza, los ritmos del cuerpo, la temporalidad, el marco, la secuencia o las formas epistolares son algunos de los caminos a través de los que se trata de preguntarse ¿En qué piensan las imágenes contemporáneas?¿Cómo nos piensan las imágenes que vemos? ¿Qué sucede en el observador?¿Cómo nos podemos acercar a la vida en movimiento de las imágenes para tratar de desvelar otras maneras de pensar?

Keywords: Cine comparado, estudio del cómic y la narrativa secuencial, narrativas transmedia, intertextualidad, applied thinking, beyond disciplines

Around the world, no place is less safe for women than their own home – almost one in three women have suffered physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner and one in four women have suffered psychological violence. The public sphere is neither free from gender-based violence (GBV) either, with sexual violence being a widespread global phenomenon in the workplace, in university campuses, in the streets or in the context of armed conflicts. GBV is one of the main drivers of the production and reproduction of gender inequality. This course examines GBV from an interdisciplinary approach, including sociological, legal, political science and media perspectives. It provides a forum for students to explore contemporary issues in GBV from both a theoretical and practical standpoint (using local and international case studies) through the discussion of ongoing controversies about the causes and effects of such violence. It also analyses the policy responses addressing GBV coming from states, civil society and international actors and assesses the extent to which they are effective (or not). Given that the experiences of GBV and the interactions with institutions vary across groups, the course will pay attention to how gender intersects with race, class, and sexuality.

Keywords: gender power relations in the public and private spheres, gender roles and inequality, intersectionality, gender-based violence, feminism.

Video

Why do low-income countries, regions and neighborhoods have a much lower life expectancy than high-income areas? Why less favored social groups have worse health than better-off groups? Why some populations enjoy better health than others? What can be done to improve this situation? According to the hegemonic biomedical approach, the main reasons for the production of health are biology and genetics, unhealthy life-styles, and deficiencies in the access and use of health services. Available knowledge, however, shows that other factors play a significant role. Firstly, political and social determinants (e.g., power relations, social policies, poverty, work, housing, etc.) have a larger effect on health, and quality of life. And secondly, these determinants are strongly related to axes of inequality such as social class, gender, ethnic origin, migration status and territory. Using a transdisciplinary integrated approach, this course introduces the student to the characteristics, causes, and potential solutions of health inequalities, which is a key indicator of justice and quality of life.

Keywords: Public Health, health inequalities, beyond disciplines

Organized and conducted as a workshop, this course focuses on the contemporary art practices known as interactive media art. Strategically situated at the intersection between the arts, humanities, science, technology and society, interactive media arts offer a privileged field from which our world can be reexamined. The interdisciplinary nature of this subject will allow students from any field to bring their own personal knowledge, skills and perspectives into discussion and class activities and, above all, into their own course project. The expected outcome is a personal project which will be developed, prototyped, presented and evaluated within the two-week course. The process will be structured in the following six interrelated stages: education, research, experimentation, production, dissemination and reception. Evaluation will consider both the creative process and the final presentation. Assessment criteria will be adapted to each particular project, but will contemplate the formal, conceptual, contextual and relational aspects of the interactive art works produced. 

Keywords: contemporary art, virtual reality, interactive communication, augmented reality, socially engaged art, art as research, digital arts, art as resistance, robotic art, learning by doing, applied thinking, beyond disciplines, methods in action

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En 2015 se aprobó la Agenda 2030 de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo Sostenible y los 17 Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS) son los que guían su implementación. Las temáticas que abordan estos objetivos son muchas y diversas: la pobreza, el hambre, la paz, la salud, la educación, las desigualdades, la inclusión, la prosperidad económica, la protección del planeta, la lucha contra el cambio climático, las ciudades y los territorios, la energía, el consumo y la producción sostenibles. Este curso busca capacitar al estudiantado para pensar críticamente sobre estos acuerdos analizando las posiciones éticas y políticas que representan, y formarlo en los diferentes ámbitos que están relacionados con estos objetivos.

Keywords: ética, moral, justicia global, sostenibilidad, política, democracia, derecho, economía, medicina, comunicación, mercado laboral, global cities, beyond disciplines

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Hace poco se cumplieron dos mil cuatrocientos años del nacimiento del que fuese probablemente el mejor filosofo de todos los tiempos. El curso está destinado a mostrar que la evolución de la filosofía (sobre todo la filosofía analítica) en el siglo XX y lo que llevamos del XXI puede contemplarse como un tránsito desde una posición anti-metafísica, humeana, hacia un retorno a los temas de Aristóteles. Mientras grandes filósofos como R. Carnap, A.J. Ayer o W.V.O Quine tenían una concepción del anàlisis filosófico como el descubrimiento de la estructura conceptual que subyace a nuestros usos del lenguaje; Los filósofos analíticos actuales, como Saul Kripke o Timothy Williamson (o los desaparecidos en los últimos años: David Lewis, Hilary Putnam o, incluso, John Rawls) tienen más interés en cómo son las cosas que en las palabras o los conceptos. Entonces, el curso está concebido como una introducción a estos temas aristotélicos desde la filosofía contemporánea: la teoría causal del significado como teoría de la referencia, la epistemología de las virtudes, la frónesis y el razonamiento práctico, la ética de las virtudes y la política republicana.

Keywords:

Metaphysics, natural kinds, virtue epistemology, phronesis in practical reasoning, virtue ethics, republican politics, methods in action

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As students are often familiarized with economic models and predictions as well as theories, it turns out that applying that knowledge to the real world and finding the shortcomings of the presented models in the contemporary business environment is not self-evident and that students need some support in putting the knowledge in action. This is precisely what the course offers: to help them use the knowledge they have already obtained, and the knowledge offered in this course, in their professional and private lives.

The course objective is to analyze the incentives created by laws and legal institutions, as well as their implications for economic activity in a globalized world. Microeconomic models will be used to conduct positive and normative analysis of certain legal rules and complement the analysis with real case studies.

Keywords: Law and Economics, Corporate Law, Game Theory, EU law, International Private Law, Beyond Disciplines, Applied Thinking

As any other social system, Law has also memory: it refers, through laws, legal decisions or doctrine, to the recent past. This is especially important in the case of mass atrocities, wars and dictatorships of Europe’s 20th Century. This course is aimed at analyzing the influences between Law, society and memory. It studies the legal construction of dictatorships and states of exception. It also explains how our contemporary legal systems have dealt with the past. The perspective is global and interdisciplinary.

Keywords: legal history, transitional justice, memory studies, global history, dictatorship, beyond disciplines, applied thinking

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This course is designed to introduce students to the phenomenon of contemporary international migration through the lenses of Cultural Pluralism and Accented Cinema. The rise in global mobility, the growing complexity of migratory patterns and their impact on countries, families and communities has turned international migration into an important policy issue. On the other hand, self-representations of migrant identities in cinema (Accented Cinema) have emerged as an aesthetic response to these experiences of displacement, and may contribute to new understandings of cultural diversity and accommodation policies.

Through emerging topics such as global flows of humans and capital, borders and identities, place and displacement, individual and cultural rights, patriarchalism, discrimination and marginalization, a political science perspective on international migration will be linked to theoretical approaches concerning filmic representations of migrant identities. Examples of films made by filmmakers such as Frederick Wiseman, Marilú Mallet and Chantal Akerman will be analyzed in order to gain new insights into the phenomenon of international migration and its political accommodation.

Keywords: migration, exile, diaspora, cultural pluralism, accented cinema, beyond disciplines

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Over the recent years, R has become the leading software tool for statistical computing and graphics. The software is greatly enhanced by numerous contributed packages submitted by users. The majority of computing in the leading applied statistical journals is done in R, and R is used almost exclusively in some of the leading-edge applications, such as in genetics and data mining. The purpose of this course is to set a foundation for full exploitation and creative use of the statistical language for computing and graphics R. The course introduces students to the syntax and inner workings of R, to become proficient in everyday computational tasks with datasets of all kinds, skilled in applications of elementary statistical methods, with emphasis on (initial) data exploration and simple graphics. Focus is also placed on opportunities to enhance the learning experience in other statistical courses by illustrating and applying basic statistical concepts in R.

Keywords: R, statistics, methodology, statistical computing, statistical methods, methods in action

Video

Nowadays we know that brain function depends on signals generated in neurons thanks to the flow of electrically charged particles (ions) through proteins that act as "gates" and are known as ion channels. These gates are essential in the capture of the different stimuli we receive from our environment, in the transmission of information through networks of interconnected neurons in our brain, and in the final generation of proper responses to these stimuli.

During the course we will present the role of certain ion channels in interneuronal communication and in memory and learning processes. We will also approach from a historical perspective the different techniques and biotechnological advances that allow the observation of neurons in action, including the electrical changes underlying the storage of memories. Cinema will help us in the discussion about the real possibility of memory manipulation as a therapeutic approach to phobias. In addition, we will explain how it is possible to control the activity of neurons using light and the opportunities this technique offers in the future treatment of brain diseases. By visiting a research laboratory, we will observe on line the activity of neuronal ion channels.

Finally, students will present in small groups a reflection on their particular vision of the human brain before and after the course. By comparing these visions, we will discuss whether or not our understanding of the functioning of the brain (and main challenges that laid ahead) is very different.

Keywords: Ions Channel Function, Neurological and Vascular Channelopathies, Neurophisiology, Epithelial Phisiology, Applied Thinking

El curso ofrece un estado de la cuestión del audiovisual español contemporáneo a través de una mirada pluridisciplinar a través de distintos media: cine, ficción televisiva, tele-realidad o videoclip, entre otros. Por un lado, se abordan aquellas propuestas audiovisuales que destacan por su valor artístico y por su capacidad de actualizar imágenes que forman parte del imaginario y la tradición españoles.

Por otro lado, se abordan aquellas propuestas que tienen la capacidad para reflejar los rasgos más destacables de la realidad y la cultura española contemporáneas. Las diferentes sesiones del curso exponen distintos estudios de caso donde el material audiovisual sirve de reflexión y análisis acerca de un tema determinado como: el cine de Pedro Almodóvar y las nuevas identidades de género, el cine de Álex de la Iglesia y las nuevas formas del esperpento español, Penélope Cruz y el diálogo entre lo nacional y transnacional, La casa de papel y los relatos de la crisis española, el documental de creación y los nuevos realismos o los videoclips de Rosalía y la nueva estética urbana.

Keywords: cine, cine español, cultura española, imaginario cultural, España, beyond disciplines, applied thinking

Video

Este curso muestra cómo escribir con imágenes y crear piezas y ensayos audiovisuales capaces de transmitir ideas y emociones. Hoy en día vivimos rodeados de imágenes. No sólo internet es un archivo inagotable de vídeos e imágenes, sino que también las grabamos con el móvil, creamos nuestros archivos y álbumes personales, o las enviamos o compartimos en plataformas digitales. Mediante una introducción al pensamiento visual, exploraremos la potencialidad de las imágenes y los sonidos para expresar ideas que generen asociaciones emocionales. Tomando como eje la vida en la ciudad de Barcelona, se realizarán y editarán piezas audiovisuales que abordarán la relación entre el yo –o la autorrepresentación- y el espacio público, colectivo y popular.  De este forma, los participantes crearán su visión y memoria audiovisual sobre sus experiencias y la vida en la ciudad, fomentando su sensibilización y experimentación práctica con las nuevas formas y herramientas de expresión audiovisual.

Keywords: applied thinking, beyond disciplines

How did citizens work? What was the place of masters and apprentices within guilds? Who was in charge to supply wheat, meat or fish to town? Who was authorized to sell bread, vegetables and fruits? Were families organized in a strict or flexible way? What was happening if a wife was unloyal to her husband and vice versa? Which were the most popular parties and celebrations? Were Jews and Muslims religious ceremonies public and welcome? Who was allowed to prepare medicines? Drugs, tobacco, coffee, chocolate, were easily available or forbidden? Was it easy to play cards and other games? Even though Barcelona citizens were submitted to many legal, social and religious rules, did they manage to enjoy life?

In order to better understand history, we may make a double comparison: on one side, we may compare what happened 400 or 500 years ago with present times; on another side, we may compare Barcelona with other European towns.

The course will be based on some readings, a lot of in-class discussion and a visit at the permanent exhibition of the Born Cultural and Memory Center, close to the UPF.

Keywords: Modern Era, History of Political Institutions, Social History, Global Cities, beyond disciplines

The world is faced with serious and complex social and environmental problems that require a deep understanding of the systems where they occur in order to find innovative solutions. This course introduces students to the concepts, strategies and processes of social innovation and social change. It examines the state of the world from a social economic perspective focusing on how social innovation can help solve existing and future problems. The course also explores how social entrepreneurship, with its challenges and opportunities, functions as the vehicle for social innovation. From this standpoint discussions will be raised on whether innovation and entrepreneurship require a non-deterministic mentality, in order to deal with uncertainty and complexity.

Keywords: innovation, systems thinking, complexity science, entrepreneurship, social development, applied thinking, beyond disciplines

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The aim of the course is to introduce students, step by step, to the analysis of social networks. Social Network Analysis (SNA) is a transdisciplinary approach to study social reality from a different point of view. Networks as relationship structures are underneath multiple phenomena: governance structures, scientific co-authorships, semantic structures, ball passes in soccer teams, investments between companies, interlocking directorates, collaborations among civil society actors, mafias, social movement organisations, viruses’ transmission, tweets that are retweeted... Social network analysis allows to uncover the properties of these complex systems. Elements such as the shape, structure and composition of a network define its dynamics and the possibilities of action of the nodes that are part of it.

The course will begin with the presentation of the social network analysis school, its main concepts, theoretical premises and ways in which it has been developed in the social sciences. Readings will be recommended depending on the interests of the participants. However, the practical part will be the most important, providing students with the skills and technical tools necessary for conducting empirical research. This includes techniques for obtaining network data such as specific questionnaires, text analysis, and social media data mining, as well as techniques for the analysis and characterization of the networks. Software such as Egonet, SocioViz and Visone will be used. At the end of the course the participants will be able to design and carry out independently an applied research project in a topic of their interest that includes the analysis of social networks.

Keywords: applied thinking

Science and art are rooted in our perception of the world. The course is aimed at exploring the biology of perception and its implications on how we experience works of art. It is a discussion on beauty and the brain, a discussion on the history of breakthroughs in painting and on the nature of the irresistible attraction of music for humans.

The course starts with a general overview of how our senses build up a representation of the world, with particular reference to the visual and auditory systems. We shall discuss the biology underlying great painters’ achievement of the conquest of space and movement on a canvas. Then we do a parallel exercise with music, looking at the biological and evolutionary roots

Keywords: neurosciences, computation, art, music, painting, creativity, aesthetics, applied thinking, beyond disciplines

Video

Sport has acquired an extraordinary importance in the last decades of the last century and the early years of XXI. It can be said that sport has suffered a deep transformation, from a merely marginal activity which it only interested fans and sports institutions, to a more than relevant presence in the media. Certainly, sports news today take more than half the space of radio and television news programs around the world and its presence has increased significantly in written newspapers.

There are, however, several aspects of sport that lead us to exciting challenges and that urgently need to be examined and solved ,since they are not only of interest to the sports world itself, but also to society as a whole. In this sense, the course aims to address in a practical way debated issues such as doping, violence, racial discrimination, the impact of technology, the incardination of transgender athletes, the limitation of certain fundamental rights, sports nationalism, e-sports, match-fixing and legal and illegal bets or the transformation of sport due to big data.

Keywords: Ethics, Sport, Law, Philosophy, Sociology, Beyond Disciplines

A photographic image is usually understood as the capture of an instant, the very instant when a picture is made. Nevertheless, photography can represent many other temporalry aspects of reality. This course has three intertwined goals. Firstly, it will present different models of time described in Philosophy and Art History disciplines. In order to learn to identify different representations of time in images, we will describe the cosmological, psychological and social models of time. We will see concepts such as the instant, the movement, the narratives, the biography, the urban memory, the ecstasy and the speed. Secondly, we will learn photographic techniques that express those temporary aspects through fine art photography works and the students own practice. Finally, the third goal will be to develop four mini-projects to bring into practice some of the time concepts analyzed in class.

Keywords: contemporary art, image theory, aesthetic and art theory, history of photography, visual studies, psychology of social social recognition through images, contemporary artistic photography, applied thinking, beyond disciplines, methods in action

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The goal of this course is to introduce biology students to the mathematical modeling of living processes from a systems perspective. According to this perspective, biological processes emerge from the interaction between different elements, be them genes and proteins in the case of cellular processes; cells in the case of tissues; organs in the case of organisms and organisms in the case of ecosystems. We will learn how to represent these interactions mathematically, how to simulate them in a computer, and how to generate predictions that can be compared with reality.

Keywords: Genetic circuits, population dynamics, differential equations, computational biology, non linear dynamical systems, synthetic biology, beyond disciplines, methods in action

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The course aims at providing basic knowledge to understand the big issues that corrent biology has generated in society. These debates transcend the strict scientific field and require basic awareness and serious discussion platforms. The course aims to interest students in the Humananities, Law, Economy and, generally speaking, to any Student with a humanistic aspect who is interested in the biologic side the human being in a social context. 

Keywords: Biodiversity, primates, evolution, genetics, human diversity, human populations, beyond disciplines

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El curso tiene como principal objetivo profundizar en los procesos de influencia del mensaje publicitario y en los efectos que el discurso comercial genera en la sociedad. En este sentido, la propuesta se basa en el análisis y en la comprensión de la incidencia que la publicidad tiene en determinados públicos específicos.

Para ello, se aplicará la valoración de elementos como el recuerdo, la persuasión y las actitudes hacia anuncios y campañas publicitarias en formato audiovisual.

Partiendo del target infantil, el curso hace un recorrido por diferentes públicos objetivos y estrategias a las cuales recurre el discurso publicitario. Las sesiones teóricas se combinarán con sesiones prácticas dedicadas a analizar y a elaborar campañas publicitarias a partir de la reflexión y la crítica alrededor de los temas trabajados en clase.

Keywords: Publicidad, efectos psico-sociales, públicos específicos, consumidores, beyond disciplines

Video

This workshop course introduces participants in the world of transmedia narratives. After a general introduction of the distinctive features of this kind of stories, the workshop presents a series of examples of transmedia storytelling experiences (fiction and non-fiction) to understand the logic behind this narrative strategy. During the workshop the participants will develop a transmedia narrative project working in groups of no more than three students. The project may be oriented to fiction or non-fiction narratives. The story to be expanded may be of own creation or it may be worked from an existing story (novel, videogame, film, comic, etc.). Each project should also include a strategy for encouraging and managing user-generated contents. The final objective of the workshop is to make participants "think in transmedia" and apply the basic principles of this narrative strategy.

Keywords: transmedia narratives, ecology of communication, semiotics, narrative theories, narrative design, applied thinking, beyond disciplines

Video

The current popularity of yoga across the world has led millions of people to practice it — and has made millions more aware of its existence. How different are modern yoga practices and understandings from the discipline that developed in the Indian subcontinent over 2,000 years ago? To answer this question, we will explore the evolution of yoga practice and its cultural, political and social meanings from its earliest textual traces to its present-day status. We will trace the history of yoga from ancient texts such as Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras to the practices developed by T. Krishnamacharya and B. K. S. Iyengar in late-colonial and independent India. We will also examine yoga practice in contemporary societies and the varied responses — from uncritical embrace to passionate criticism — that it has inspired.

In this way, we will discuss the cultural, political, and religious debates that surround the practice of yoga. Is yoga “Indian”? Is it a “religion”? What is its relationship to Hinduism? What about its links with Buddhism and Islam? How has it been adapted to new contexts? Who has adapted it — and who has benefited financially from it? Can yoga practice be a form of cultural appropriation? Through a critical exploration of the global phenomenon of yoga, we will understand how bodily and spiritual practices are transformed by social, cultural and political circumstances.

Keywords: Modern South Asian History, Global History, British Imperial and Colonial History, Cultural Encounters, Gender, beyond disciplines, applied thinking