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This project concerns itself with the controversial 12th century saint and abbot, Bernard of Clairvaux, so influential that his contemporaneity has been called ‘The Age of Bernard’. The project bases its method on Gadamer in an attempt to locate the man behind the legend. Working towards this, primary sources have been read, analyzed and contextualized with secondary sources in order to shed light on Bernard as he conducted himself and was seen by his contemporaries. The project concludes that while passing definite judgment on Bernard is impossible due to the limited availability of primary sources, it is possible to produce meaningful theories and interpretations of his letters, miracles and actions as both an abbot and a politician – he truly was a ‘difficult saint’.

This project aims to examine the historical source that mappa mundi is. The project is based on a literature study of primarily four carefully chosen writers. The writers are respectively historian of cartography David Woodward, Professor of Renaissance Jerry Brotton, Professor of History Evelyn Edson and Art Historian Naomi Reed Kline. The project is based on a variety of topics through which the use of the Hereford map as a historian source is highlighted and discussed. The premise of the study is a critical position in relation to the conclusions drawn by the chosen authors. The intention is to challenge the inferences made to reality. The conclusion of this report is that interpretations are based on the respective methods and their various viewpoints.

In this project, we discuss the phenomenon of UAV warfare. By conducting a discourse analysis of two speeches, one conducted by then counterterrorism advisor John Brennan and one by President Barack Obama, we investigate how UAV use is justified. We briefly discuss the historical background and contemporary public opinion in order to contextualize the discourse presented in the two speeches. The discourse analysis is structured in three analytical categories: how are representations of identity are articulated, how the speakers make claims about the future and finally the specific nature of the justifications of UAV use. Finally, we discuss how our empirical findings relate to the discussion of the changing nature of warfare, as well as we present a brief critique of a position in the current UAV debate. Our main argument in this discussion is that UAVs should be discussed within the social, discursive practice they are used, and not regarded merely as technological objects distinct from the context they exist in.

Summary The Future About the Past is an examination and discussion of non-traditional ways of engaging with a difficult past. In this case the past in question is South Africa’s and its difficult memories of racism. Specifically it is an analysis of the 2009 science-fiction film District 9, directed by the South African Neill Blomkamp. In the project the idea of depicting history on film is discussed, especially inspired by the thoughts of the historian Robert A. Rosenstone. He argues that film can be depictions of the past – and therefore history in its own right and should not be judged on the same scale as written history. From that starting point, I go on to discuss historiography in a South African context and include thoughts on depictions of South Africa on film and cinematographic examples as such. I attempt to analyse District 9 from a historical point of view, especially focusing on what role the film can play in engaging with a difficult past and what it may say about the white, Afrikaans speaking minority’s view of their past. I conclude that the film has its merits as a way of depicting history, but has an underlying problematic view of history that includes racist stereotypification. The analysis leads to a discussion of the possibility of using film when engaging with a painful past. In this case I use examples from the discussion of depictions of Holocaust and argue that alternative films, for example science fiction, have the possibility of engaging with a difficult past in a better way than mainstream cinema and possibly written history.

This paper investigates the study of Neuromarketing, it includes how methods within this study are developed and used, and if these can be used in an unethical way. To illustrate how neuromarketing got approved as a study, the history of neuroscience through a psychological perspective and the history of marketing will be presented. Furthermore the philosopher Immanuel Kants’ (1724-1804) thoughts of moral will be hold up against the methods of Neuromarketing. In continuation of this, the paper will include an experiment where subjects are presented for a Coca-Cola Christmas commercial. While they watch the commercial they are wearing a Neurosky Mindwave EEG-scanner. This is done to measure how much, and where they pay attention through the commercial, to determine that the effects of Neuromarketing works. The experiment is build around the hypothetico-deductive method. Lawsons design method from the book How designers think, are used during the design process. In this method; analysis, synthesis and evaluation are steps to reach the final design product, which in this case is a short movie to inform of the marketing strategy, Neuromarketing. Through the empirical data and the theories it is concluded that, it is possible to measure attention on the subjects during a commercial. Also the knowledge used in Neuromarketing possibly would not be ethical correct according to Immanuel Kants thoughts of moral.

This project sets out to investigate the role of security in the Chinese Western Development Plan (WDP) and its application in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, along with the consequences of this for the Uyghur community. The analysis of this project begins by unraveling the historical role of security and the central components in the Sino-Xinjiang relation. Combined, these form the context from which the WDP was formulated and implemented in Xinjiang. Through an analysis of the rhetoric of the WDP we establish that the role of security accords with that of a non-traditional security agenda, as opposed to the previously dominant traditional-military security agenda in Sino-Xinjiang relations. However, this change in the role of security remains rhetoric, as the traditional-military security agenda that re-emerges with the formation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Global War on Terror not only co-exists with but gains prominence over the non-traditional security agenda of the WDP. As a consequence, the Uyghur population of Xinjiang continues to be sidelined by the Chinese government, despite the promise of the WDP.

The subject of this research project is to perform a comparative analysis of a section of the Danish media coverage in three different newspapers of the Israel/Palestine conflict, aiming to highlight an evolution or change, in the discourses used in these papers. The comparative analysis is based upon empirical material of eighteen newspaper editorials, discussing three chosen historical events, during the Israel/Palestine conflict. The historical events which the articles will represent, are the six-day war, the first intifada, and the second intifada. The reasoning behind the selection of these historical events is a necessity, for a broad perspective of the conflict, to make discursive changes more apparent. Additionally the chosen events are all substantial and well documented, and it is through these events that the change of discourse will be presented. To answer the research question thoroughly, a combination of the two distinctive theories relating the study of discourse will be used. The theories are Norman Fairclough’s ‘Critical discourse analysis’ and the ‘Discourse theory’ of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. Both offer an extensive look into the dynamic and complex structures of discourses, and will together provide a set of nuanced methods to complete the analysis. The overall scientific field in which these theories exist, is within the area of social constructivism which also relates to the theory of power by Michael Foucault. The analysis of the various discursive structures of the historical period in question, will focus on describing the more specific types of discourse of the different media outlets, separately and in unison, by shifting incorporations of the theories that have been presented. The precise method for this analytical procedure will be to locate and underline how certain phrases and specific usages of language are in a dynamic relationship with what they aim to represent, and how discourses in general seem to undergo striking, even insidious transformations through their use. Finally, the analysis of this paper attempts to answer the more difficult question, relating the causes behind these discursive transformations, and attributes them to the acknowledgement of discourses in general, as fundamentally transformative properties, where the use of language by its conception, is inevitably changing and dynamic in nature.

The motivation for this project was based on the newly founded movement DiEM25 (Democracy in Europe Movement 2025) and their manifesto. The movement’s ideas and visions are based on the critique of the European Union’s handling of the economic, refugee and migration crisis’, that has been debated throughout Europe in recent years. With their manifesto, DiEM25 has formulated an idealistic alternative vision for the future Europe. This assignment seeks to find answers to what kind of alternative this is. More specifically; which kind of cosmopolitanism is expressed in the manifesto, and which European concept historical traditions this cosmopolitanism builds upon. The analysis conducted in this project will be a comparative concept historian analysis of the cosmopolitan vision formulated in the DiEM25 Manifesto. The assignment concludes that the manifesto entails a potential utopian cosmopolitan vision of re-democratising Europe, and more specifically the EU in our present modern and globalised world. Furthermore, it concludes that the the cosmopolitanism in the DiEM25 Manifesto builds on a long tradition of cosmopolitan ideas, leading back to Immanuel Kant initial ideas of cosmopolitanism, through post world war and the thoughts of Ulrich Beck up until the 21st century and the notion of New Cosmopolitanism.

The project focuses on how the hungarian culture has been preserved throughout the years in the southeast region of Slovakia (Rye Island).

Calendars are the products which belong to astronomic development and results of human chronically observing nature phenomena. In the 3rd semester project, we are interested in researching history of the calendars and this project focuses on the Chinese calendar and the Gregorian calendar which are two different kinds of calendar: Astronomical calendar and Arithmetical calendar. The project is through the different developing processes of two calendars in order to investigate the Chinese calendar and Gregorian calendar’s historical background, besides convert between each other by mathematic functions. In the project, it is possible to convert from a Chinese date to a R.D. day number (one kind of intergradation) and changing the R.D. number into Gregorian date by functions from literature studying. In addition, the project contains the perspective of some calendars in the future. #