English

This is a graduate level course that is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. This course analyzes the way the western media covers the developing world and the humanitarian emergencies. Specifically the course explores the emerging and historical humanitarian narratives, with particular reference to the way in which the activities of NGOs are reported; how we understand and explain faraway disasters; how the media representations of suffering and violence has changed in the post-cold war period and in the digital era; the relationship between media, aid, corporate communication, and branding; and the relationship between power, media, and migration. This course encourages students to think sociologically about a range of issues and “social problems” related to the different ways in which media is used to report on humanitarian situations, and what impact this has. It also serves as an introduction to some important themes and issues within humanitarianism and migration. Areas under study include: the construction of “social problems,” media, ethics, human rights, disaster relief, war, famine, refugee camps, social movements, and NGOs.  A special focus is dedicated to the mediated performances that contribute to create the spectacle of the humanitarian border, which is physically and symbolically enacted by the different actors involved in contemporary management of migration. Moving from the assumption that our awareness of nearly all humanitarian issues is defined by the media, this course looks at the literature associated with humanitarian organizations and the NGO narratives, tracing the imagined and real encounters between solidarity, participation, and citizenship in the context of larger social processes of mediation and globalization. Examining humanitarian communication through various forms of aesthetic activism - documentary, photojournalism, benefit concerts, celebrities, and live blogging, the course explores how the circulation of humanitarian images and narratives impact the peoples it aims to serve, and what can be learned about global inequality from the stories associated with it. The course also focuses on how several news media framed Covid-19 as an invisible enemy, using metaphor of war to describe the current situation. The definition of the emergency as a war conducts inevitably to the identification of an enemy. The hyper-visibility of the war against this invisible enemy leads to a generalized fear of ‘the others’ and to the identification of this invisibility in visible bodies. Finally, the course reflects on long-term implications of the pandemic on mobility justice and what Mbembe (2020) has defined the “right to breath.” There are two versions of this course; this course, UCEAP Course Number 169A and Bologna course number 81782, is associated with the LM in Language, Society and Communication degree programme. The other version, UCEAP Course Number 169B and Bologna course number 75073, is associated with the LM in Sociology and Social Work and LM in Local and Global Development degree programmes.

This course provides an introduction to group counseling as well the basic concepts of clinical and ethical issues in group counseling. Students are required to participate in a group presentation outlining a group counseling proposal.

This course explores the institutions and practices of international aid through the lens of development and humanitarian expertise. The course is structured around a visit in the last lecture from aid practitioners such as from the British Red Cross who discusses their work and how to get into the profession of development, humanitarianism, and other related careers. Students work in groups throughout the semester to prepare for this event, ultimately producing blog entries that showcase what they think anthropology can offer to understand humanitarian and development issues. 

This course examines current development and issues in the asset management and private banking industry. The issues identified may be related to new business opportunities, new risk areas, and new development affecting the AMPB market/industry.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. This course addresses topics and texts in moral philosophy at an advanced level. At the end of the course students are expected to possess the main abilities required from a professional moral philosopher. These include being able to: appraise theories and justify one's own position about them; critically analyze philosophical texts, both from classical and recent authors; elaborate on them; and in an original manner, provide fresh points of view and good working hypotheses to address them. Students are expected to be able to analyze knowledge received in the ethical and meta-ethical field, and to reconstruct it on an original basis. Moreover, they are expected to be able to write on moral topics in a professional, opinionated, and thorough way, and to effectively communicate their views to an audience. The topic for the course varies each term. For the most up to date topic, access the University of Bologna Online Course Catalog. The topic for fall 2023 is: J.M. COETZEE’S FICTION. The course explores the philosophical significance of novelist and essayist John Maxwell Coetzee’s oeuvre, especially in connection with his ethical stance on the treatment of animals. Students have the opportunity to discuss, more generally, his critical attitude toward philosophical argument and toward reason as an exclusive tool for moral guidance and intelligent experience of our environment. After introducing, in broad outline, Coetzee’s personality and published work, the course devotes a few lessons to the philosophical subfield of animal ethics. The main philosophical approaches are outlined. Once equipped with some conceptual and historical background, the course turns to analyzing some of the key texts in this connection, especially Coetzee’s 1999 “novella of ideas” THE LIVES OF ANIMALS, and his subsequent and related novel ELIZABETH COSTELLO. Secondary literature is reviewed and put to use.