Autumn Semester 2025

https://vorlesungsverzeichnis.unibas.ch/de/vorlesungsverzeichnis?id=295616

Environmental effects on the risk of infectious diseases are not new. Micro- and macro parasites share many fundamental properties with humans and animals. Hence, an ecological perspective is appropriate for understanding and controlling infectious diseases. Ecological thinking recognises the importance of fundamental physical, chemical and biological processes that affect the survival and reproduction of all living organisms. These include evolutionary, social, economic and political processes. Theoretical concepts move from “One Health”, which emphasises close cooperation of human and animal health interventions, to broader considerations of health in social-ecological systems.
Theoretical lectures and group work are combined with presentations from ongoing research projects on avian influenza, rabies, bovine tuberculosis, brucellosis and anthrax of the human and animal health research group at Swiss TPH. In this year, individual students are invited to contribute to a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on One Health.

https://vorlesungsverzeichnis.unibas.ch/de/vorlesungsverzeichnis?id=294638

Imagine the following exemplary situations of transcultural research collaborations: For her research, a Swiss PhD student visits partners and the case study sites in the Lao PDR, another Kenyan PhD student visits partners and case study sites in Switzerland, or a Peruvian researcher hosts visiting scholars from Germany. Such opportunities of intense transcultural collaborations are invaluable for deep learning and high-quality research and teaching. At the same time, they also bear risks of cultural misunderstandings, challenges in personal safety or data management, just to name a few. Especially PhD students in international research projects are often confronted with unfamiliar situations and contexts, for example, when they prepare for and conduct their data collection in case study sites abroad. In this course, PhD students are made familiar with various aspects of transcultural research collaborations. They reflect on their own values, privileges etc. and try to reflect on ethics and equality in transcultural collaborations. They learn how to analyse and understand an unfamiliar context, which forms the basis for behaving correctly, staying safe, and organising the research carefully. Further, the students learn about sensitive data management as well as personal safety and security measures. They also learn how to be conflict-sensitive and do no harm to anyone (including themselves, partners, participants etc.). Last but not least, they get familiar with dealing with emotions in challenging situations, which can arise often and unexpectedly when working in unfamiliar contexts and transcultural collaborations. As a result of the course, the students will have developed their own draft concept for their PhD research for being fair, contextually aware, conflict-sensitive, and safe in their PhD research project and on managing their research data sensitively.

Learning outcomes:

1. The PhD students understand relevant concepts, frameworks, approaches, and tools in the fields of positionality, contextual awareness, equality in collaborations, conflict sensitivity and doing no harm, sensitive data management, personal safety and security, and dealing with emotions in challenging situations.
2. The PhD students develop their own draft concept on being fair, contextually aware, conflict-sensitive, and safe in their PhD research project and on managing their research data sensitively.

In November 2019, the University of Lausanne and the IUCN signed a partnership agreement aimed at intensifying their exchanges around research work and its applications on the planet’s environmental concerns. This course is a concrete application of this partnership involving both various researchers from Unil and IUCN professionals. A convention is also being set up between the University of Lausanne and the Lavaux World Heritage Association to strengthen the scientific knowledge carried out in this protected area. This course aims to get better acquainted with this site and the conservation challenges it faces. Content

– Introduction to Nature Conservation
– Protected areas and landscape governance
– Conservation and management issues
– Management effectiveness, World Heritage, geoparks, biosphere reserves and Ramsar.
– Fieldtrip to Lavaux Unesco site
– Hunting, protected areas and conservation
– Fieldtrip to IUCN center
– Conservation by indigenous peoples and local communities
– Conservation and Education

The objective of this course is to bring elements of reflection and analysis to students concerning contemporary debates around the conservation and protection of nature. This course reviews the definitions as well as the historical and cultural aspects of nature conservation and the implementation of different protected areas around the world. It also addresses through various examples and case studies the current management issues in nature conservation. This course-seminar includes two field trips with meetings of IUCN professionals.

This course explores the complex dynamics of emotions in violent intractable intergroup conflict, utilizing the example of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Drawing on insights from social psychology and conflict studies, the course examines the multiple and nuanced – sometimes detrimental – functions of emotions in conflict escalation, but equally their potential for de-escalation and conflict transformation. In particular, students will investigate the limits and possibilities of distinct emotional mechanisms such as anger, hate, and humiliation, as well as hope, empathy, and trust. Students will familiarize themselves with a broad array of empirical mixed methods including natural language processing to understand the described dynamics at the nexus of intergroup entrenchment, collective action, and interactive conflict transformation.
Overall, the course will combine social psychology discussions of intergroup conflict with empirical research, and will also draw on interdisciplinary perspectives, including those from international relations, sociology, and critical peace and conflict studies.

Ce cours donnera les outils nécessaires pour développer un projet de développement ou de la conservation de la nature. Le cours, en 11 séquences articulé autour du « cycle du projet », focalisera sur les thèmes suivants : les politiques des projets, les besoins des acteurs, les demandes des bailleurs, la conception d’une idée de projet avec des acteurs, la théorie de changement, le cadre logique, la mise-en-œuvre, l’évaluation des projets selon les normes de sauvegardes environnementales et sociales, le suivi-évaluation et la phase de bilan (« learning ») pour informer futurs projets. Les étudient.e.s vont développer des projets utilisant un canevas d’un bailleur.

Human health is often cross-linked with environmental and social factors. Examples include – Land use practices that influence Malaria transmission rates, the contamination of human breast milk by pesticide residues from disease-vector control or plant protection measures, and hygiene-related problems in urban agriculture. The aim of the seminar is the acquisition of in-depth knowledge on primarly Africa-related specific topics in epidemiology and environmental sciences.

Every session consists of a student s report on a selected topic, preferably supported by a power-point presentation, followed by a detailed discussion. The report must be briefly summarized and distributed as a handout. The seminar is designed for arts and science students at MSc level.

Schedule
1) Introduction, outline the framework for the course, and nomination of speakers and their topics

2) Selection of topics covered (will be discussed in the first meeting):
Dams, irrigation and schistosomiasis; Climate change and vector-borne diseases; Contamination of human breast milk with pesticides; sources and mitigation measures; Integration of neglected tropical disease control programmes; Malaria and malaria control; Urban health; The Okavango insecticide spraying campaign; nothing learnt from former lessons?; Pesticide use in developing countries; environmental and human health risks; Does the improvement of cattle health cause the disruption of key ecological processes?
Economic crisis, food crises and health
Genetically-modified crops — to do or not to do

https://vorlesungsverzeichnis.unibas.ch/de/vorlesungsverzeichnis?id=294625

Description: Qualitative and mixed methods are making important contributions to public health research, and are increasingly used by researchers without training in social sciences. This course offers an introduction to the basic principles of qualitative research. Different methods will be discussed, and students will learn how to plan, conduct and analyze a qualitative interview.

Content:
Introduction to the principles of qualitative and mixed methods
Overview of common qualitative research methods and study designs
Conducting an interview from planning to analysis
Introduction to mixed methods

https://vorlesungsverzeichnis.unibas.ch/de/vorlesungsverzeichnis?id=294628

https://vorlesungsverzeichnis.unibas.ch/de/vorlesungsverzeichnis?id=295612

This PhD colloquium is dedicated to elaborating and discussing difficulties encountered during research. Each PhD student will be invited to present his or her most critical problem, which the group will then discuss along with potential solutions. The participating PhD students will find adequate answers to their main difficulties in research; this will enable them to improve the quality of their research.

Every PhD candidate holds one presentation. Moreover, every PhD candidate must participate on both days in order to obtain the 0.5 ECTS.

Learning Outcomes: The PhD candidates are
1) able to artiulate the research challenges (conceptually, thematically, methodologically) they face.
2) have adequate answers to their main difficulties in research.
3) able to improve the quality of their research

This course focuses on techniques and tools to evaluate large, medium and small conservation and development projects, from oil palm plantations and mining company projects to biodiversity conservation projects. Over 8, half days, the course will expose students to the issues and risks around project implementation from both environmental and social concerns, discuss environmental impact assessments (including strategic environmental impact assessments), High Conservation Value and High Carbon Stock approaches, the mitigation hierarchy, environmental and social safeguards, Free Prior Informed Consent, environmental defenders, and engagement with local communities.

Group projects will be conducted whereby students learn how to apply the Environmental and Social Management System (focusing on biodiversity, invasive species, cultural heritage, indigenous peoples and resettlement) used by organisations such as the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to assess conservation projects. Real-world projects will be assessed, using those developed for donors such as the Global Environmental Facility and the Green Climate Fund.

Current issues and debates will be explored (e.g. oil palm industry, project scandals by major conservation NGOs) and the class will visit IUCN Headquarters (Gland, Switzerland) to hear from specialists in the sector. A second field trip to an UNIL building work site is also planned. In class talks will be given by experts.