The Department of Happiness Sciences embraces the development of skills and competencies to fulfil the potential of human beings. The Department offers a range of courses aimed at providing the theoretical framework and practical experience of how to improve and develop potential, happiness, and wellbeing.
3 semester credits. This course focuses on individual skills to succeed in social and personal life. It provides an introduction to the science of happiness, integrating findings from positive psychology, behavioural genetics, neuroscience, and behavioural economics. The course offers a set of tools and techniques to transform problems into learning opportunities and to develop and apply strategies and skills that promote overall progress in a person's psychological, physical, and social well-being.
3 semester credits. This course focuses on performance art, with particular emphasis on the role and use of one’s mind and body during performance. Students will learn about the history of the discipline and pioneers in the field. They will also be encouraged to engage in, produce, and critique their own performances. This course thus relies on an approach which merges theory and practice to generate awareness, mindfulness, and creativity. The mind and body are framed as interlinking components, which are to be comprehended and directed in order to create art. Students will gain knowledge about the roles that factors such as time, space, place, nature, and audience have on performances, and will ultimately work on the creation of an extended final performance, to be presented at the end of the course.
3 semester credits. This course is aimed to offer students already possessing a solid foundation of yoga knowledge and practice the tools to use the therapeutic functions of Hatha yoga in overcoming physical, mental, and emotional distress. Students will become familiar with health, wellness, and stress management topics through yoga practice in a therapeutic context. Through the hands-on approach to asanas, pranayama breathing exercises, and meditation techniques, students understand how to integrate yoga as a complementary treatment to medicine and a vital role in maintaining a healthy body and mind. The constant practice of awareness and observation combined with an analysis of anatomy and physiology applied to common pains and distresses will development the application of yoga therapy in individual and group contexts throughout the duration of the course.