St. Clare's, Oxford

Studio Art (Francesca Shakespeare)
This course will introduce and develop the students’ practical artistic abilities: students will draw from observation, both outdoors and in Oxford’s museums and galleries as well as working in St Clare's well appointed art studio. 

Urban Sociology of Oxford (Peter Claus)
The overwhelming majority of Oxford’s varied population live outside its centre of ‘dreaming spires’ where the university is located. This course will quickly establish the theoretical basis of urban sociology and how space works and use examples from a city that is both ancient and modern to examine both its historical development and its contemporary existence. The emphasis will be on field trips outside the seminar room; examples of field trips include an Oxford college where the medieval and the modern co-exist, the multiculturalism of the eastern part of the city that reflects both Britain's colonial past and its European integration and a site in North Oxford where the class relations and property relations of the 1930s led to a wall erected in the centre of a road to separate public from private housing. 

Psychology and the Cinema (Anna Scarnà)
This course will use the medium of film to present basic psychological theories involving personality, abnormal and social psychology. Students will watch one film per session prior to a class discussion. The main protagonists of each film will be considered in the context of existing personality or diagnostic questionnaires. The history, experimental work and main debates surrounding each film and theory will be covered. Examples of films include Rain Man (for autistic spectrum disorder), As Good As It Gets (obsessive-compulsive disorder), Little Miss Sunshine (coping strategies, extraversion, stress, depression) Super Size Me (attitudes and beliefs, research methods). The course will develop students’ analytical skills and will introduce the concepts of experimental methods, ethics, questionnaire design and diagnostic criteria for psychological disorders.

International Business in the News (Barbara María Vargas Escobar)
The marketplace is becoming increasingly globalized. This affects every aspect of business, even domestic companies that are not involved in the international business system, cannot be isolated from what is happening in the world today. No firm, for example, can be exempt from the consequences of the international financial crisis, or the creation of trade blocks or the direction of capital flows. This course will provide insight into international business strategies in a globalised world. We will cover international trade and international business theory as well as government influence on the pattern of world trade. We will use case studies (e.g., ENRON, Wal- Mart, Nike, Body Shop, Merrill Lynch Bank, Coke and Pepsi, IBM, BP) to discuss the economics and politics of international trade. Global business, finance and economic news will be analysed to understand the impact of international and national economic policy on international businesses. 

Tribes: Identity, Diversity and the notion of Tolerance (Anna Castriota)
In the globally connected world in which we live, many issues (political, economic, religious, etc.) divide peoples. Among the issues that divide peoples, identity and diversity are arguably the most difficult to resolve. This course focuses on the concept of “identity” and how it is used to distinguish and unite us all. We will analyse the concept of “identity” through the following themes: National identity and the politics of multiculturalism; whose rights are right; culture, individual/group identities and tolerance in a globally connected world.