AI AND WORK IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

Term            

Spring

ECTS credits

5

Lessons per week

90 + 90 min

Language

English

Instructor

Milan Kovacevic

Form of the course

Elective course – 2x per week

Description:

Work is, and always has been, one of the most defining aspects of our lives. Work matters—to us as individuals, as well as the communities and societies in which we live. Driven by globalization and technological change, much of what we have taken for granted about work and employment is undergoing major transformations. As the certainties of the past are being replaced by ambiguity and concern, practitioners, academics, and policy- makers are coming up with diverse predictions about what the future of work might look like and how different actors can shape it.

In this interdisciplinary course, students will critically examine the changing nature of work and employment from a range of perspectives including economics, history, sociology, and philosophy. Students will be immersed in the debate about the future of work, critically evaluate a range of views on this topic, and gain insight into theoretical and practical frameworks that will help them understand and engage with the changing world of work in the 21^st century. Focusing on the impact of two major forces that are shaping the future of work—globalization and technology—the course traces the history of work and employment, and considers the contemporary challenges facing workers in the context of labour market and wider social changes. It examines how work is shaped in the era of globalization, the emergence of new forms of work in the digital economy, the transformations brought about by automation and AI, fears of technological unemployment, increasing job insecurity and precariousness, developments in working hours and the organization of working time, the phenomenon of ‘bullshit’ jobs, the impact of COVID-19, and universal basic income.

AMERICAN UTOPIAS AND DYSTOPIAS

Term            

Spring

ECTS credits

5

Lessons per week

90 + 90 min.

Language

English

Instructor

Tor Lindbloom

Form of the course

Elective course – 2x per week

Description

This course will focus on three novels which look critically at how societies are organized. The first,

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Blithedale Romance, is based on his experience at Brook Farm (one of the utopian communities which sprung up in 19th century America and then failed). The second, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, stands in contrast to 1984, as it posits a future where government control is achieved through providing constant pleasure and entertainment to the masses. While Orwell’s novel is based on his view of the USSR under Stalin, Huxley’s is based on his travels to the US and his view of American culture and capitalism. Finally, we will read the famous feminist dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.

Our course will focus on putting these novels in their historical, political and literary contexts. The course, therefore, will allow students to explore some important issues connected to political science as well as to build on their abilities to understand, interpret and appreciate literature. Given the themes of these novels (such as idealism versus realism, religion, social control, the status of women and the role of science in society) class

discussions will undoubtedly be lively.

CONTEMPORARY DEBATES IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Term            

Spring

ECTS credits

5

Lessons per week

90 + 90 min

Language

English

Instructor

Mgr. Clarissa Tabosa, PhD.

Form of the course

Elective course – 2x per week

Description

The aim of the course is to introduce the students to the main contemporary debates and issues in IR. We will address challenges posed by the changing world order, its current dynamics and the future challenges it faces.  Can America ever lead again? What does the rise of China (and “the rest”) mean for the international community? What does the fact that power is now more diffused mean for IR? We will also focus on the multidimensional phenomenon of regionalism, the role(s) which it plays in the global system and the variety of agendas and problems that are associated with it. The course will also give the students specific knowledge about some of the world’s microregions.

DISCOVERING ONESELF: A HISTORY OF WOMEN IN THE 19^TH CENTURY

Term            

Spring

ECTS credits

5

Lessons per week

90 + 90 min.

Language

English

Instructor

Katalin Nun Stewart

Form of the course

Elective course – 2x per week

Description

The 19th century was the key moment in history when women in larger numbers became dissatisfied with the limited possibilities for education and self-development. This dissatisfaction led to conflict and social-political change. Although the French Revolution ostensibly declared equality and human rights, in reality these things were only reserved for men. Women remained consigned to the narrow and closed private sphere of the family, and their subordination to men was codified by the law and countless customs in mainstream bourgeois society. However, gradually the number of social spheres where women gained the opportunity to become active increased: Women from wealthy families could afford to devote themselves, for example, to writing and publishing literary works, even if for long time, they could only publish these under a male pseudonym or anonymously. Many of these literary personalities had salons that influenced politics and society significantly, though indirectly. Other women chose the life of a vagabond and travelled throughout the world. The Industrial Revolution forced many women from the less privileged classes to take up employment. They usually had to work long hours often under horrible conditions, but the women who became organized in the labour movement were also crucial in the suffrage movement.

Our focus in this class will be on how women step by step became conscious about their situation in society, and in what ways they demanded opportunities for development for themselves and others in the Western World. We will examine the historical and social context of these radical changes, including the point of view of men, the lived experience of women, the traditional and the new roles that women could have, and the domains available to women for self-realization.

The class will be divided into three main units, each with its own focus. In the first unit, the focus will be on questions regarding society, politics, and legal matters. The second unit is concerned with philosophy and feminism. In the last unit we will examine the perception of women in literature and the literary production of women. Throughout the course the goal will be to create a critical debate: on the one hand, a debate between the different authors that we will be reading and, on the other, a debate, of course, in the class itself. We will also try to attain a rich and diverse overview of the status of women in several different countries: France, England, USA, Norway, and Denmark. This class is of course not just for female students. On the contrary, male students with their opinions and perspectives are more than welcome!

The class will help to develop important skills such as reading primary source texts, formulating and defending one’s opinion both in writing and orally, and critical thinking and reasoning. In addition, our goal is to learn the relevant factual information about the history of women in the 19th century, especially as it is related to the texts that we will be reading. The course is interdisciplinary, and the readings come from the fields of history, literature, social-political thought, and philosophy. This course can be seen as complementing and supplementing the following BISLA courses: Western Civilization II: The Modern World and The History of Political Thought: Modernity.

INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC LAW

Term            

Spring

ECTS credits

5

Lessons per week

90 + 90 min

Language

English

Instructor

JUDr. Sylvia Tiryaki, PhD.

Form of the course

Elective course – 2x per week

Description

This course will help you to gain a general understanding of basic principles of International (public) law. After establishing a firm grounding in the sources and techniques of public international law, including customary international law and the law of treaties, we will develop familiarity with such matters as sovereign immunity, acts of foreign states, extra-territorial jurisdiction. We will examine the role of international law in shaping behaviour in areas of international conflicts, including maritime and environmental disputes, war crimes and the use of force. We will also build some appreciation of the role

of the United Nations, particularly in peacekeeping and sanctions.

KMEŇOVÁ MYSEĽ V 21. STOROČÍ

Term            

Spring

ECTS credits

5

Lessons per week

90 + 90 min

Language

Slovak

Instructor

Egon Gál

Form of the course

Elective course – 2x per week

Description

V roku 2005 predniesol 43 ročný americký spisovateľ a esejista pre absolventov Kenyon liberal arts college príhovor nazvaný This is water, ktorý uviedol krátkou anekdotou:. Plávajú dve mladé ryby a po ceste stretnú staršiu rybu, ktorá pláva oproti nim. Stará ryba im kývne na pozdrav a povie: Tak čo mladí, aká je voda? Dve mladé ryby plávajú ďalej, po chvíli sa jedna z nich otočí k druhej a opýta sa „čo do pekla je voda?

Pointou tejto anekdoty je myšlienka, že tie najzjavnejšie, najdôležitejšie a všadeprítomné veci, ktoré formujú naše životy a dávajú im zmysel sú banality, ktoré máme veľmi často problém vidieť a obyčajne o nich nedokážeme rozprávať.

Čo vidíme a o čom dokážeme rozprávať je paradoxná situácia, v ktorej sme sa v 21. storočí ocitli: Ako môžu ľudia, ktorí rozmýšľajú o konštrukcii mysliacich strojov, sekvenujú genóm, skúmajú Big bang a evolúciu života na Zemi veriť konšpiračným teóriám, fake news post pravdivej rétorike a iným hlúpostiam?

Je za týmto paradoxom niečo zjavné, dôležité a všadeprítomné, čo nevidíme a o čom nevieme rozprávať, iba preto, že nám v tom bráni štandardné nastavenie mysle?

THE POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE GLOBAL WORLD: AREAS, BORDERS, JUNCTIONS, LIMITS

Term            

Spring

ECTS credits

4

Lessons per week

120 min

Language

English

Instructor

Adam Bence Balazs

Form of the course

Elective course – 1x per week

Description

The importance of human geography in ongoing regional conflicts: that’s the ‘geo’ part in geopolitics. I currently teach that, to show students that behind the usual excuses (ethnicity, religion, ‘clash of civilizations’) there are much more immanent facts and reasons: terrain, topography (access to the sea, corridors etc.).

• The Annales School, especially Lucien Febvre and Fernand Braudel’s specific focus on geography in historiography. How human cultures impact the environment and vice versa, why no border has ever been ‘natural,’ geographical time as the deep logics of history far beyond ‘events’ are some of the Annales’ main interests and methodological keystones.
• The different scales (concentric circles) we live in (the local, the national, macroregional etc.) – see my book.
• Human geography and the different layers of time in politics and history: short term, medium term, long term. Exploring different scales in space is a great opportunity to explain the ‘grammar of time,’ especially in this short-sighted present of ours. Geography is space, but also a combination of time-spans.
• Urbanism: understanding infrastructure. How to orient ourselves in modern metropoles? A look at their evolution before and through the Industrial Revolution might be more useful than Google Maps. The infrastructure of cities inspired great classic novels of the 19th century, their plots and structure. Social, political, and narrative space meet in these classics and give us an angle on our own 21^st century modernity.
• The logics of borders in the globalized world: a border is a line in space that calls for geographical analysis. But a border is also a place in movement where ethnic, religious, and gender distinctions are present and highlight inequalities (women are exposed to higher risks when crossing borders in the context of migration, for instance). Analysing the geography and geopolitics of borders is an opportunity to reflect on other, social, cultural boundaries (the colour line, to add another example). Ethnic and gender structures also allow a digression on anthropology, i.e., the spatial structures and the location of cultures. I have quite substantial teaching material on the geopolitics of borders and these interdisciplinary ramifications.
• The weight of geography in globalisation and the ongoing process of digitalization: here, geography is a metaphor to describe cyberspace, its borders, and limits. ‘Network’ is also based on a spatial metaphor. On the other hand, while we mostly discuss climate change online these days, the real challenge is ‘out there.’ Geography is a metaphor, but geology has turned into a political reality. Hence, it is key to get familiar with human geography, especially for younger generations who have grown up in the stream of virtual reality and instant communication.

SCIENCE LITERACY AND SCIENCE DENIAL

Term            

Spring

ECTS credits

4

Lessons per week

120 min

Language

Slovak

Instructor

Kristína Kállay

Form of the course

Elective course – 1x per week

Description

This course aims to provide an overview and critical discussion of core issues at stake in the philosophy and history of science, social epistemology and science literacy (science studies). Briefly tracing the earlier history of the social dimensions of knowledge, the course will examine Enlightenment (Hume, Locke), Marxist as well as contemporary (Foucault, Kuhn, Peirce, Popper, Feyerabend, Lakatos and others) claims, the problem of defining and justifying knowledge, the fraught relationship between race, class, gender and science, indigenous and colonial knowledge, as well as the groundwork of realist and post humanist perspectives. Finally, we will delve into more contemporary and pressing issues concerning social epistemology (such as expert vs. lay knowledge, science relativism and science denial. Our main two case studies will be global warming and the anti-vaccination movement. These will be situated in their historical (social, political and economic) contexts. Crucially, we will discuss knowledge and expertise in the context of democracy and public policy. Classroom discussion will be based on assigned reading, as well as accompanying audio-visual material.