The possibility that the early modern period witnessed the development of a ‘public sphere’ has proved to be of significant interest to scholars of...

The Public Sphere in Britain: Print Culture, Censorship and Propaganda A (HIST0353)

The possibility that the early modern period witnessed the development of a ‘public sphere’ has proved to be of significant interest to scholars of British history in recent years, following the translation of Jurgen Habermas’ influential account of The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere in 1989. The applicability of this concept to the period has generated some controversy, however, and this course explores the issues raised by Habermas’ work, not least the idea of a ‘bourgeois’ political nation, and a free domain of rational debate and discussion, and their relevance to the early modern world. It seeks to analyse the impact of the ‘print revolution’, and the extent to which political and public life became increasingly accessible to those traditionally considered to be outside the political elite, and the forces which impacted upon the nature of discourse in the public domain. It will examine, therefore, the development of print culture, and the variety of forms of printed literature, as well as the impact of censorship and government propaganda, in order to understand what could and could not be said, written and read during this period. It will also examine the factors affecting other means of participating in topical debate and the political process, by assessing the importance of petitions and elections, and by exploring the politics of public space – from streets and churchyards to the coffeehouses and corridors of power – and the efficiency of official secrecy.

During this module the students will gain basic theoretical understanding and practical experience in the major modern approaches used to studying neuronal...

Applied experimental approaches to studying neuronal circuits in health and disease (CLNE0043)

During this module the students will gain basic theoretical understanding and practical experience in the major modern approaches used to studying neuronal circuit function, both in health and disease. The course is arranged in three sub-modules, each of which consists of two 1 hour lectures and a 4 hour hands-on experimental session at the research laboratories of the Department of Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy in UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology. The covered topics are:


(i) Intracellular electrophysiological recordings: from ion channels to spiking activity.
(ii) Imaging synaptic and network activity with one or two photons.
(iii) Extracellular electrophysiological recordings and optogenetic manipulation of neuronal network activity.