Global health is the health of populations in a global context and it goes beyond the
perspectives and concerns of individual countries. It is about the control of infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases. As a Biomedical Sciences or Medical student, studying global health and infectious diseases is relevant. Challenges of global health are at the intersect of molecular, clinical, epidemiological, economic and other socio-behavioural sciences.
This course reflects this multidisciplinary nature and offers you a broad scope of methods, instruments and techniques stemming from the different disciplines. The course is designed for you to acquire theoretical knowledge, practical insights and hands-on skills, e.g. through lab courses and literature review exercises. You will also learn how to translate scientific knowledge into policy recommendations and to deliver these in writing and through oral presentations in English.

In week 1 you will be introduced to global health and infectious diseases. Throughout the course you will gradually expand your view and breadth of analysis, from a molecular and
methodological perspective (week 2-5), and patient and clinical perspective (weeks 6-12), to a health systems and policy perspective (week 13-19). From week 13 onwards, you will work on your Global Health in Action project, a parallel group project for which you will study in-depth a highly relevant issue in global health. During the minor you will engage with leading researchers at Radboud and meet professionals working in Global Health and Infectious Diseases at public health institutions, knowledge institutions, and non-governmental organizations.

This course entails the following learning objectives:
1. Critically assess biological aspects related to the transmission of infectious diseases that are of global significance.
2. Appreciate the rationale and limitations of different diagnostic approaches for infectious diseases
3. Understand the different steps and evaluation phases related to vaccine development for infectious diseases
4. Understand the pathogenesis of selected infectious diseases.
5. Apply practical knowledge on the design of research programmes (including clinical trials); and get hands-on experience in the handling and analysis of collected data, and its interpretation in terms of assessing causality and for informing public health decisions.
6. Describe and analyse the main building blocks of a (national) health system and identify enablers and potential barriers to health systems performance.
7. Describe the main stakeholders and funding mechanisms in global health in relation to critical aspects of good health governance.
8. Design and use an evidence-informed deliberative process for priority setting of health interventions within fiscal space constraints.

Prerequisites: this is an advanced course in the broad field of Infectious Diseases. This course is only open for students from medicine, biomedical sciences or (human) biology.

Period: Course is two full days per week (Monday and Tuesday) September 2023-January 2024

Medical biotechnology comprises the application of living cells or cell material in the development or generation of products to prevent, diagnose or treat human disease. Historical examples of biotechnology in support of medicine are the development of vaccines against smallpox and the production of antibiotics or human insulin by bacteria or yeast. Exciting 21st century developments are genetic engineering with CRISPR/Cas (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020), gene therapy, mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 and stem cell-based regenerative medicine. Medical biotechnology is a fascinating and rapidly evolving field, integrating molecular, cell biological, genetic and immunological research areas.

The first part of this Minor runs together with the course NWI-MOL104 Medical Biotechnology for students from the Faculty of Science and provides an overview of how interdisciplinary efforts help shaping modern healthcare by developing biotechnological diagnostics and therapeutics for precision medicine. Principles and concepts of medical biotechnology will be discussed in a scientific and medical context, including legal, societal and ethical considerations. Together with students from different life sciences disciplines you will write a medical biotechnological research proposal and present this at a mini-symposium.

In the second half of the Minor you will carry out experiments in four different projects in the lab. These include molecular diagnostics (e.g., PCR, sequencing), recombinant DNA techniques, recombinant protein production, cell culture and adhesion assays, and cell transfection experiments mimicking gene therapy.

Altogether, Medical Biotechnology towards Clinical Practice presents an excellent practical and theoretical course for students interested in molecular life sciences and in biotechnological innovations for patient care.

Prerequisites: this is an advanced course in the broad field of Infectious Diseases. This course is only open for students from medicine, biomedical sciences or (human) biology.

Period: Course is two full days per week (Thursday and Friday) September 2023-January 2024

The discipline of infectious disease epidemiology focuses on the acquisition of essential scientific
and advisory knowledge and skills to contribute to healthcare. To have collective decision
making between institutes and hospitals concerning infectious diseases and outbreaks , it is
necessary to have knowledge about prevention, disease characteristics, containment, modelling,
sequencing, rational antimicrobial treatment and control of infectious diseases in both hospital
and community settings. Additionally, differences between communities are key in
understanding the epidemiology of an outbreak, for example hesitance and variety in low/high
resources facilities. Outbreak management, comparable to what we have experienced during
the coronavirus outbreak, will be discussed.

This course prepares students for a research and clinical internship in the area of infectious diseases and infection control. All knowledge gained through the varied forms of education, will be directly translated and used in a research team project. The course uses various interactive and experience-based teaching manners, such as lectures, group work, presentations, joining a point prevalence study in the hospital, a table-top exercise on outbreak control in the hospital, a serious on outbreak control in the community a serious game, and several excursions (TB clinic, RIVM).

This course entails the following learning objectives:
1. Gain profound understanding of how genetic diversity and antigenic variation in infectious diseases is related to infectious disease pathogenesis, transmission and evolution.
2. Participate in a multidisciplinary antibiotic stewardship team by having active knowledge of the
working mechanisms of antimicrobials, knowledge on when to use which antibiotic, and how
micro-organisms can counter antimicrobials (antibiotic resistance).
3. Develop and present hospital infection control programs by understanding the concept of hospital infection prevention and control on a patient level, including the understanding of different indications for patient isolation, different types of isolation and the criteria for ending isolation.
4. Apply the theoretical basis of infectious disease surveillance, outbreak investigation, vaccine
epidemiology and infectious diseases and prevention & control into practice and science settings. Acquire modelling skills and to be able to use them for the prediction of the effect of interventions on an outbreak.
6. Integrate the knowledge gained during the course into a small field-study, involving literature search, statistical data collection, analyses, and reporting writing a scientific article and& performing a presentation.

Prerequisites: this is an advanced course in the broad field of Infectious Diseases. This course is only open for students from medicine, biomedical sciences or (human) biology.

Period: Course is two full days per week (Thursday and Friday) September 2023-January 2024

The aim of the first introductory part is to give students a first impression of the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), without going into too much technical detail. The course will cover what AI is and an example of how AI techniques can be applied to an existing software system. In the part on probability theory, different aspects will be covered including probability distributions, conditional probability and Bayes’ theorem. In this part of the module, you will learn how to derive probabilities, as well as how to reason and calculate with them. In the societal impact part of the module, we will focus specifically on how recent developments in cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence and neuroscience raise various practical issues for individuals and society.
Moreover, we will apply a philosophical approach (conceptual analysis, ethical discussion, identification and clarification of intuitions, basic assumptions and potential societal implications) in order to address the fundamental questions underlying these practical issues.
Finally, we will practice how cognitive scientists could (and should) contribute to the public debate, thereby assisting responsible decision making about (un)desired research directions and applications of resulting technologies such as cognitive enhancement, robots and brain-computer interfaces.

The overall learning aims of the course • You’ll be able to recognise typical AI problems. • You’ll be able to explain the essence of different AI methods. • You’ll be able to understand the concepts of probability and uncertainty. • You’ll be able to display general knowledge of the philosophical foundations and implications of influential paradigms in AI and CNS, as well as their societal and ethical implications regarding topics such as autonomy, agency and privacy. • You’ll be able to discuss current topics, to work in a team , and be able to provide proper feedback. • Display a critical scientific attitude towards research in general and AI in particular.

Assessment: • Multiple-choice exam with a minimum passing grade 5.5 out of 10 • A written exam with open questions •
Assignments Period: August 2023 – December 2023

Courses:
Global Distributive Justice: An Introduction:

This course will:
• introduce you to the debate on global distributive justice;
• show why understanding our global order implies asking theoretical and practical questions of justice;
• combine normative questions with empirical research;
• and allow you to further develop essential skills related to argumentation, discussion, and public speaking.

In recent decades, national borders have become less important. In economic, political and cultural areas, transnational networks have emerged that take little or no account of the traditional territorial boundaries of nation states. This is a positive development for people who have the resources and capabilities to use these networks. However, a large part of the world population is cut off from these global networks and their benefits. Many people are well aware of structural injustice and better alternatives, but rarely have the opportunity to improve their situation. Against this background the question arises what ‘justice’ can mean in a world that increasingly becomes smaller. To what extent can we realize our ideals of freedom, equality, solidarity, and sustainability in a world in which individuals and communities are increasingly dependent on each other? Are there principles of global justice? And if so, who has the duty to comply with these principles, and which international structures do we need to guarantee them? These questions are dealt with on the basis of a problem-based approach that looks at current themes such as poverty and socio-economic inequality, international trade, social responsibility of multinationals, distribution of natural resources, and climate justice.

Test information
Students are required to write an essay and to give a presentation. The final result will be composed out of the following elements: – Examination: 50% – Presentation: 30% – Essay: 20%.

Philosophy of International law
This course provides a discussion of the foundations of and critical approaches to human rights. On successful completion of this course, you will be able to:
• explain different philosophical approaches to human rights;
• explain the strengths and weaknesses of the various foundations of and challenges to human rights;
• relate philosophical debates on human rights to current issues in human rights law;
• form an opinion on a current human rights issue, using philosophical approaches to human rights.
Since the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 international law has recognized an increasing number of human rights. Political activists in the North and the South appeal to human rights and so do many states (even when their actions violate human rights law).
Yet, despite becoming a global ‘moral lingua franca’, human rights remain controversial. Various social movements and thinkers call for the recognition of new human rights, such as rights of the peasants, LGBTI+-rights and collective rights. However, classic liberals, and states such as the US, have argued against what they see as the ‘erosion of human rights’ and want to limit human rights to a core of political and civil rights. More fundamentally, the legitimacy of human rights is hotly debated. Marxist, feminist and postcolonial critics argue that human rights do not represent universal values, but that these rights propagate an individualist and market-driven way of life. While some critics call for a transformation of human rights, others urge us to drop human rights altogether.
These debates raise all sorts of urgent questions: Are human rights genuinely universal, and, if so, what is the most appropriate foundation of human rights? Is it desirable to make room within international law for new rights? Are human rights really a defense against oppression or do human rights serve the powerful and deepen injustice? And, if we are to move beyond the (current) human rights framework, what alternatives exist to address injustice?
Tests: Take home essay

Global Labor Justice

At the end of this course, you are able to:
• Distinguish and describe several perspectives vis-à-vis the relationship between human rights and religion, reflect on them, and take an argued position of your own;
• Differentiate between the different generations of human rights, and explain the tensions between particular human rights, especially when it comes to the acknowledgement of religious and other normative perspectives;
• Explain and illustrate how human rights culture is induced or reduced by the convictions of normative communities and religious traditions;
• Recognize and describe specific contributions to human rights discourse coming from religious or normative communities;
• Apply concepts coming from the social sciences and religious studies to the study of human rights;
• Explain the context of contemporary issues in which human rights discourse and religion seem to clash.

The judicial inscription of human rights in legislation and regulation (i.e. the legality of human rights), is important, but the extent to which people at large agree with these positivized human rights and support them (i.e. the legitimacy of human rights) is at least equally meaningful. Acceptance and support of human rights is not only defined by individual circumstances, but it is also determined by the values and norms of the particular group(s) individuals belong to. These groups can be both religious and secular/philosophical in nature. In this course, we explore the relationship between human rights discourse and such normative communities.

Is religion good for the development of a human rights culture, or does religion hinder the application of human rights? This is a question that has been and is still discussed in philosophical as well as religious circles. In the first part of the course, we will encounter several different perspectives on this question, taking both extremes as their starting point, and students will be challenged to argue for their own position.

In the second part of this course, we will discuss contemporary contexts from around the world in which human rights discourse and normative communities are interacting or at odds with each other. We will get to know and apply concepts from the social sciences and religious studies, such as globalization, identity politics and fundamentalism to understand these situations better. Studying these contexts raises the question of whether human rights are and should be universal or not.

Test information
The examination is based on a written exam at the end of the term. A reflection paper on the student’s own position concerning the relationship between religion and human rights is also part of the examination.

Paper: 30%
Written end-of-term exam: 70%

The Radboud Faculty of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies offers three modules for IISMA students. The modules comprise three courses in the Philosophy, Politics and Society bachelor programme. You can only take a course (5 ECTS) if you also take the two associated courses during the same semester. An entire module will be 15 ECTS. In order to secure a diverse population at max three Iisma students can be allowed for a module.

This module comprises three courses

– Ecophilosophy in the Anthropocene
At the end of this course, you will have the ability to:
• identify the key debates, central issues and dominant philosophical positions with regard to the Anthropocene;
• critically assess the philosophical robustness and soundness of these philosophcal positions, and to identify options for their improvement;
• distinguish, assess and identify the basic eco-philosophical concepts and theories in the philosophical debates on the Anthropocene;
• critically apply these eco-philosophical concepts and theories to concrete current ecological and geopolitical issues.

There is hardly any question about it: ‘the environment’ dominates all the social, economic, political and even individual agendas in our days – climate change and rising sea levels, biodiversity and species extinction, pollution, sustainability, energy transition: there is no escape. For philosophers, these issues raise the most profound question in at least three areas: metaphysics, ethics and political philosophy – the three areas represented in the ‘Ecology and Sustainability’ module.

This particular course, ‘Ecophilosophy in the Anthropocene’, focuses on the Anthropocene as a new way of understanding the global ecological crisis, i.e., as the geological epoch following the Holocene, in which the human (anthropos) has become the most important geological factor, from now on crucially determining the fate of the biosphere. In general, this course deals with the metaphysical, ontological and anthropological implications of the Anthropocene and what it means for rethinking the human condition. It also reflects on the widespread recognition of an ecological turn in philosophy and the humanities more generally. The course consists of two parts.

In the first part we will first take a look at the scientific debate on the Anthropocene and then reflect philosophically on some of the central issues, in particularly focusing on (socio)ecological complexity and on the discussions around biodiversity and extinction, including the possibility of human extinction. We will also introduce students to geophilosophy and demonstrate its usefulness for reflecting on the Anthropocene. Authors to be discussed in this part include Gilles Deleuze, Michel Serres, Andreas Malm and Timothy Morton.

In the second part we will first present an overview of the prevailing narratives on the Anthropocene and then reflect on what these imply for rethinking the Earth and the relation between humanity and the Earth in light of the necessity of re-earthing humanity so as to ensure the possibility of human habitation on the planet. It will then focus on the technological dimension of the Anthropocene through a discussion of the notion of the technosphere as the new decisive geosphere, both on what this means from an energetic perspective and from the question of human agency and responsibility. Finally it will reflect on the necessity of a new terrestrial ethos in relation to the question concerning technology. Authors to be discussed in this part include Clive Hamilton, Bruno Latour, Peter Sloterdijk and Bernard Stiegler.

Tests
Paper

-Political Ecology

After this course, you will have the ability to:
• identify the possible political and social implications of eco-philosophical positions on environmental ethics, environmental collective action, and the relevant moral subjects of environmental thought;
• critically assess the philosophical robustness and soundness of these views, and to identify options for their improvement;
• distinguish, assess and identify the influence of basic eco-philosophical concepts and theories in ‘green’ political and political–economic thought;
• do the same with policy-informing scientific reports – and to identify and qualify any form of bias in such reports.
There is hardly any question about it: ‘the environment’ dominates all the social, economic, political and even individual agendas in our days – climate change and rising sea levels, biodiversity and species extinction, pollution, sustainability, energy transition. There is no escape. For philosophers, these issues raise the most profound question in at least three areas: metaphysics, ethics and political philosophy – the three areas represented in the ‘Ecology and Sustainability’ module.

This particular course, ‘Political Ecology’, focuses on debates on sustainability and environmental policy, economics and politics. Sustainability refers to the way in which resources of the planet can be used in such a way that needs and demands of current generations can be met while also guaranteeing the needs and rights of future generations of humans. The sustainability debate focuses, in other words, on the way in which human societies impact the global ecosystem and aims to find new concepts and understandings of politics and economy that reflect an understanding of the dependence of human well-being on the global ecosystems. Concrete topics include: Ecology and economy: new economic models (circular and steady state economy, bio-based economy, degrowth, commons, permaculture, etc.); Environmental and intergenerational justice; ecologism versus liberalism versus republicanism; ecomodernism; Climate politics and the IPPC process.

– Critique of Green Ideology
At the end of this course, you will have the ability to:
 
• identify key issues and debates within (critique of) green ideology
• situate critique of green ideology to related fields, such as ecocriticism and ecofeminism
• critically asses the concepts of ecology and sustainability, and identify options for their salvageability;
• critically apply these eco-philosophical concepts and theories to concrete current ecological, social and (geo)political issues.

Content
There is hardly an organization, business or government left that hasn’t put “sustainability” front and centre, our own university included. In the meantime, as the latest IPCC reports attest to, the climate crisis is deepening. What are we talking about when we talk about sustainability? And what do we aim to sustain? How to distinguish mute and/or strategic references to a sustainable world and greenwashing, from attempts to actually change things? In this course we explore the genealogy of the concept of sustainability, as well as that of ecology, and their functioning within “green ideology.”

In the first part of the course we trace the concept of ecology from its original conceptualization in the work of German zoologist and philosopher Ernst Haeckel, its development in the 20th century, both in science and the environmental movement from the 1950’s onwards, to the “explosion of ecologies” that is currently taking place, that some argue requires a general ecology and even concerns an “ecologization of thinking.”

In the second part of the course we engage with the concept of sustainability. Here we mainly focus on the transition of the concept from the 1970s onwards. We trace how it changed from a critical concept that challenged economic hegemony, reminding us of ecology and of the limits to growth, into “sustainable development” – more of a managerial concept than a critical (eco-)political one – to the “empty signifier” it seems to have become. Can the critical kernel of sustainability be salvaged?

In the third part we explore the functioning of these two concepts within green ideology, also addressing related ideals such as circular (bio-)economy, green growth and green capitalism, and notions such as resilience and regeneration. Do they really challenge the status quo or in fact strengthen it? In order to answer that question and find what a critique of green ideology requires and entails, we will discuss both (the possibility of) “critique” and (the functioning of) “ideology”. In order to do so properly, we will explore related fields of theory and critique, such as ecocriticism and eco-/environmental feminism as well.

Readings will include Val Plumwood, Timothy Morton, Yannis Stavrakakis, Bruno Latour and Slavoj Žižek.

Test information
The assessment includes a presentation, a midterm proposal and a final paper on (one of) the topics discussed in this course.

Medical biotechnology comprises the application of living cells or cell material in the development or generation of products to prevent, diagnose or treat human disease. Historical examples of biotechnology in support of medicine are the development of vaccines against smallpox and the production of antibiotics or human insulin by bacteria or yeast. Exciting 21st century developments are genetic engineering with CRISPR/Cas (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020), gene therapy, mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 and stem cell-based regenerative medicine. Medical biotechnology is a fascinating and rapidly evolving field, integrating molecular, cell biological, genetic and immunological research areas.

The first part of this Minor runs together with the course NWI-MOL104 Medical Biotechnology for students from the Faculty of Science and provides an overview of how interdisciplinary efforts help shaping modern healthcare by developing biotechnological diagnostics and therapeutics for precision medicine. Principles and concepts of medical biotechnology will be discussed in a scientific and medical context, including legal, societal and ethical considerations. Together with students from different life sciences disciplines you will write a medical biotechnological research proposal and present this at a mini-symposium.

In the second half of the Minor you will carry out experiments in four different projects in the lab. These include molecular diagnostics (e.g., PCR, sequencing), recombinant DNA techniques, recombinant protein production, cell culture and adhesion assays, and cell transfection experiments mimicking gene therapy.

Altogether, Medical Biotechnology towards Clinical Practice presents an excellent practical and theoretical course for students interested in molecular life sciences and in biotechnological innovations for patient care.

Prerequisites: this is an advanced course in the broad field of Infectious Diseases. This course is only open for students from medicine, biomedical sciences or (human) biology.

Period: Course is two full days per week (Thursday and Friday) September 2023-January 2024

Aims
At the end of this course, you are able to:
1. Recognise basic connections and tensions between biology and society through historic examples, in order to better appreciate such tensions in the current practice of biology.
2. Recognise and appreciate the variety of styles and organisation of research in research in reference to basic examples from the history of biology.
3. Recognise and understand the importance of social processes (such as fame, selective attention) for the development of research, at a basic level.
4. Understand how different approaches to history and current concerns affect how history is presented, based examples from the history of biology, at basic level.
5. Refer to the basic canon in the history of biology, including key names and crucial stories that are essential to the identity of a biologist (such as Darwin or Mendel).

The history of biology is rich and full of remarkable stories, which are often surprisingly relevant for the present. For example, some theoretical puzzles and tensions in taxonomy that date back to the 18th century remain unresolved today. Similarly, there are exciting analyses of the problematic assumptions at the historic roots of evolutionary theory. History also offers us important warnings, such as for what can go wrong once totalitarian regimes determine what is good science and what is not. With the right perspective and the right kind of questions, the history of biology can offer instructive insights for fundamental theoretical problems, for the sometimes difficult relations between biology and society, and even offer a glimpse of half-forgotten knowledge. History also offers reflection on what is probably the toughest question of the discipline: what actually is biology?
It may sound like a dreadful cliché, but the aim of this course is to learn from the past. The course will not present you with an endless stream of historic facts or isolated funny anecdotes (although some of the history of biology can be quite entertaining). The stress will be on the interpretation of history: we will try to understand patterns and relations in the development of biology, rather than list who discovered what, where, and when. To this end, the course is constructed around three main points: biology is diverse, biology is always connected to society, and biology has made mistakes from which we can learn a lot. For these purposes, the course will focus on the history of biology since the 18th century, where the most concrete connections with the current practice of biology can be made.
With respect to diversity, the course will offer an overview of styles in doing biology, which will show that, historically, there were many different ways of doing biology. For example, whereas current biology is often dominated by laboratories and molecular biology, biology also has a rich heritage of a taxonomical style of research. In this style, the most important centres of biological research were museums of natural history, botanic gardens, and other collections of specimen that were carefully collected, often on long and adventurous expeditions to exotic places. We will see how the laboratory gained a foothold in biology towards the end of the 19th century and then gradually expanded its reign through the rise of genetics and later molecular biology.
We will not only look at the development of biological ideas and research practices, but pay special attention to the development of the relation between biology and society. We will find out where biologists got their research funds in the past, how biological thinking incorporated ideas from wider culture, but also how biology had a profound societal impact itself. We will follow biologists around as they tried to improve agriculture, fought infectious diseases, or became activists calling for nature conservation and environmental protection.
If we want to learn from history, then we should not only focus on the success stories and show cases, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA, or revered heroes such as Charles Darwin. We should also have the courage to see the dark side of biology’s history, such as the flirtations with eugenics or racism. For it is only when we have the courage to look in the dark corners that we may find the means to confront such monsters, should they once again rear their ugly heads.
While the course does not require you to learn a lot of dates and names by heart, there is a basic list of names and stories any biologist should know, as part as your professional identity and frame of reference: the canon of biology. After all, how can you be a biologist and not know about Darwin, Mendel, or Watson&Crick. While any canon is somewhat aribitrary, this course too contains a list of essential names and stories in their historic setting.

Test
Assessment for the course consists of a computer exam (80% of the grade) with multiple choice and short open questions. The remaining 20% of the grade is based on answering at least five questions about the course material on joint bulletin boards. Strictly speaking, this is optional, but you need at least a 5 for the exam and a 5,5 overall grade to succeed.