This module trains students in the skills that are crucial for the scholarly study of politics and international relations, and introduces students to current...

This module trains students in the skills that are crucial for the scholarly study of politics and international relations, and introduces students to current issues and key debates in the field. It equips students will the most basic tools of research, which involve formulating clear questions and developing and defending answers to those questions, and it trains students in how to write clearly, how to frame and defend an argument, and how to express complicated ideas in oral presentations. Further, students will gain skills in critically evaluating theoretical arguments and empirical evidence.

Lie groups are continuous groups of symmetries, like the group of rotations of n-dimensional space or the group of invertible n-by-n matrices. In studying such...

Lie groups are continuous groups of symmetries, like the group of rotations of n-dimensional space or the group of invertible n-by-n matrices. In studying such groups we can use tools from calculus to linearise our problems, which leads us to the notion of a Lie algebra: a vector space with an antisymmetric product associated to any Lie group, which remembers everything about its algebraic structure. For example, the Lie algebra associated with the group of rotations of 3-space is just 3-dimensional Euclidean space with (twice) the vector cross product.

This course divides in two halves. In the first half we introduce the notion of a Lie algebra and the relationship between a Lie group and its Lie algebra. This will involve some ideas from geometry (manifolds and tangent spaces) which will serve you well in later courses. In the second half we study representations of Lie groups and Lie algebras, paying attention to the groups SU(2) and SU(3). This will be much more algebraic.

The aim of the course is to enable students who already have a good knowledge of German to acquire an advanced fluency in the language. Students should be able to communicate in all situations within German speaking countries. Students will be able to converse with native speakers, follow debates and give presentations relating to their degree as well as discussing current issues (local and worldwide) using more complex and linguistically accurate structures (different types of discourse, register). Medical related issues/vocabulary will also be covered. Cultural awareness will be further developed and raised within a European/global context. Language learning skills, including autonomous learning and how to approach authentic material, will be further enhanced to enable students to study in a German speaking university. Various transferable skills will also be covered.

For full module details please see the CLIE SSC language modules site at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/languages-international-education/study/modules/language-sscs