This core module introduces students to the critical and comparative study of citizenship as both a theoretical concept and a lived, historically contested practice. Moving beyond the idea of citizenship as a fixed legal status, the course traces its intellectual development and diverse applications, paying particular attention to the late twentieth century to the present, when debates around globalization, migration, inequality, and belonging have reshaped citizenship discourse. Students will engage with key theoretical approaches—including liberal, republican, cosmopolitan, feminist, and postcolonial perspectives—and interrogate how these frameworks conceptualize rights, duties, participation, and identity.

The course aims to equip students with basic knowledge of social science research methods and enable students to develop appropriate research methods to answer their own research questions. In addition, it focuses on the implementation and discussion of global research methods to equip students with the ability to develop regional or global research capabilities.

This course explores the power of citizen activism in advancing just and sustainability transitions. Students will examine how grassroots movements, civic organisations, and community initiatives respond to the challenges of environmental degradation, climate crisis, and social inequality. This course introduces several interconnected concepts and themes about sustainability and justice with examples of case studies across the world. By analysing the strategies, opportunities, and dilemmas faced by citizen activism, and by considering how these actions shape changes in policies, governance, and everyday life, students will develop the ability to critically assess the role of civic engagement in building more just, democratic, and sustainable futures. The course also aims to inspire students to take action themselves, equipping them with knowledge and tools to engage meaningfully in future social and environmental change.

This course is designed to offer an interdisciplinary framework for understanding geopolitical economy in our world today. Designed for enhancing students’ critical understanding of how the struggles for global political-economic space are being conducted in the twenty-first century, this course will be organised according to five major themes: Theories of global geopolitical economy, Actors of global geopolitical economy in the twenty-first century, Drivers of global geopolitical economy in the twenty-first century, Domains of global geopolitical economy in the twenty-first century, Taiwan as a central case of global geopolitical economy in the twenty-first century.

This course will introduce students to global studies as a discipline and its intersection with diverse global learning mechanisms (e.g., global education programs) and processes (i.e., learning from multicultural experiences), and from this perspective consider some of the major issues faced collectively by humanity. Students will acquire a basic understanding of the way major thinkers in economics, political science, environmental science and cultural studies articulate the acute issues characteristic of the Global Age. Students will also learn how these same disciplinary perspectives may contribute to policy, entrepreneurial and advocacy solutions. At its core, this course hopes to inspire students to consider the intersection of the particular to the universal, personal to social, and local to global. Beyond our focus on global studies and global issues, we will also consider the nature of pluricultural learning from global educational experiences.