Constellations
Discover interdisciplinary connections
Course "constellations" guiding interdisciplinary study
AUC encourages students to broaden their horizons and enhance their interdisciplinary knowledge and skills. To further support students’ mobility between majors and help them discover synergies between the Humanities, Social Sciences and Sciences, six course "constellations" have been developed that relate to VU and UvA research themes and focus on important societal challenges.
What is a constellation?
A constellation consists of 12 to 14 courses spanning AUC’s majors that examine complex societal issues. While students continue to concentrate on courses in their major, the courses in a constellation will help them discover new pathways through the curriculum to form multidisciplinary perspectives and explore pathways they may previously not have considered. The constellations serve as a source of inspiration and are not mandatory. Course constellations include:
- Cognition and Imagination: Topics include the nervous system, senses, consciousness, media and the arts.
- Digital Worlds: Topics include information systems, artificial intelligence, digital transformations, games, privacy and security.
- Energy and Climate: Topics include system earth, climate change, energy transition, and governance and legislation.
- Health and Society: Topics include human health, (international) public health, bioethics and health technology assessment.
- Human Development: Topics include evolution, the anthropocene, social and cultural change, migration and urbanisation.
- Order and Complexity: Topics include stability and resilience, cybernetics, origins of life and universe, material worlds and networks.
Read the complete descriptions and discover the courses of each constellation below.
Be inspired, not required
Please note that following a constellation is not mandatory. They should be seen as a source of inspiration for exploring interdisciplinary topics in the study programme.
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1. Cognition and Imagination
This group of courses explores how thought, cultural expression and perception of art come together to give us a deep understanding of human experiences. It covers the basics of art history, psychology, and human anatomy. At higher levels, this constellation connects how our mind works with how we observe and create our worlds.
100-level courses
- Introduction to Art History 1
- Introduction to Art History 2
- Psychology
- The Human Body - Anatomy and Physiology
- Introduction to Literature
200-level courses
- Cognitive Psychology
- Cognition Lab
- Modernism and Postmodernism
- Brain and Cognition
- Philosophical Logic
300-level
- Cultural Studies of Affect and Emotion
- Neuroscience
- The Empathic Brain
- The Art Market and Culture Industry
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2. Digital Worlds
This group of courses looks at how digital technologies are changing the way we deal with information, our concept of personal privacy and societal norms. It starts by addressing basic computational thinking and media analysis, and at more advanced levels, examines how digital technologies and AI impact intellectual property and forms of governance.
100-level courses
- Introduction to Media Studies
- Programming Your World
- Artificial Cognition: Pattern Recognition
200-level courses
- Digital Habits, Digital Lives
- Perspectives on Games
- Machine Learning
- Genes, Bioinformatics and Disease
- Data Futures Lab
- Media Lab
300-level courses
- Queering Media Studies
- Text Mining
- Mind Reading – Multivariate Pattern Analysis
- Political Communication and Data Analytics
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3. Energy and Climate
This group of courses delves into the science of climate change and the energy transition, from molecular details to planetary boundaries. It connects economic, governmental and legal aspects, focusing on the search for sustainable solutions, coupled with an examination of the central concepts used to make sense of our environment.
100-level courses
- Introduction to Environmental Sciences
- Environmental Economics
- Introduction to Climate and Sustainability
200-level courses
- Environmental Law & Policy
- Risk Management and Natural Hazards
- Cases in Cultural Analysis
- Literary Ecologies
- System Earth
300-level courses
- Global Environmental Governance
- International Sustainable Development
- Modern Philosophical Texts
- Climate Sciences: Past and Present
- Molecular Sustainability
- Case studies in Energy, Climate and Sustainability
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4. Health and Society
This constellation examines health by combining a focus on the individual body, its physiology and its sociocultural constructions, with an exploration of contemporary health-related challenges at the societal level. It starts with basic concepts in public health, resilience and nutrition before examining more complex topics such as gender, sexuality, epidemiology and medical anthropology. Advanced courses address urgent health issues such as stress and addiction and engage with representations of health and the body through different media.
100-level courses
- Introduction to Health and Wellbeing
- Introduction to Public Health
- Health, Resilience and Human Flourishing
- Challenges of Food and Nutrition Security
200-level courses
- Bodies on Display OR Portraiture & the Body
- Gender and Sexuality
- Epidemiology
- Nutrition and Health
- Medical Anthropology
300-level courses
- Film & the Body
- Addiction
- Human Stress Research
- Challenges in Health and Society
- Lifestyle & Disease
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5. Human Development
This constellation focuses on the emergence and spread of humans across the globe. Linking ecological foundations, basic principles of economics, history, and anthropology, the constellation moves on to more advanced investigations into urbanism, history of ideas, and emergence of complex social and political structures, such as empires and colonialism. Following these, further courses offer future outlooks on human development with topics such as conservation, postcolonial approaches, and global equity.
100-level courses
- Classical and Modern Anthropological Thought
- Early to Modern History
- Ecology: From Soil to Society
- Perspectives on Economic Thought
200-level courses
- The History of Ideas
- Introduction to Design, Architecture, and Urbanism
- Urban Ecology Lab
- Empire and its Afterlives
300-level courses
- Contemporary Postcolonial Literature
- Decolonization in Historical Perspective
- Conservation & Restoration Biology
- Human Evolution
- Contemporary Sociological Thought
- Development through an Equity Lens
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6. Order and Complexity
This constellation brings together the study of natural phenomena, societal frameworks and theoretical constructs to understand how they interact and influence our world. It starts by looking at the basics of life and societal evolution and our interpretations of them. The courses then progress to exploring models of complex systems. Advanced courses in this constellation deal with specific fields drawing from economics, law, and philosophy, emphasising how they are connected through model-building.
100-level courses
- Introduction to Cultural Analysis
- Life, Earth and Universe
- Law, Society, and Justice
- Classical and Modern Political Thought
200-level courses
- Complexity Lab
- Nations, Nationalism and Modernity
- Philosophy of Science
- Game Theory
- Dynamical Systems
300-level courses
- Behavioral Economics
- Media / Environment
- International Disorder: Past and Present
- Modelling Real World Problems
- More than Human