English

This course provides an introduction to the comparative politics of the US and the UK.  Attention is given to similarities as well as differences, and the course uses comparative analysis to throw light on the political systems in both countries.  Occasional reference is made to other countries. The course is structured around four themes: ideologies and foundations, institutions, political actors, and policy.

Both the melodrama and the film noir have attracted considerable critical attention and have been instrumental in the development of film theory. The course considers formal, ideological, political, and historical aspects of melodramas and noirs from around the world focusing on aspects of gender, space, and aesthetics.

This course examines sensation and perception, with an emphasis on the psychology of seeing. Specific topics include the following: examination of the functional properties of sensory systems (e.g., auditory system, color vision, vestibular system, touch and kinaesthesia); phenomenology of sensation and perception; psychophysical limits of perceptual systems; goals of sensory coding; structure and evolution of sensory systems; theories of perception. 

The course provides an elementary introduction to probability and statistics with applications. It covers statistical methods often used by decision makers to present and describe data and how to draw conclusions about populations and make reliable forecasts. In addition, since many statistical calculations are only feasible when one uses computers, students will also learn how to use Microsoft Excel to perform statistical analyses. 

This course offers an introduction to the religion of Islam. It explores the key texts, central beliefs, and rituals, as well as the main branches and traditions of religious thought and practice, which developed over the centuries following the rise of Islam up to the modern period. It covers central elements and concepts of the religion of Islam. These include the central texts of Islam, the Qur'an and Hadith, as well as the role and significance of the prophet Muhammad, the central beliefs and the major ritual duties. The course also explores the main divisions of Islam and various aspects of Islamic thought, such as law, theology, Sufism, and political thought.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. This course provides students with the advanced knowledge to the field of network analysis and its usages in other fields of research. At the end of the course, students gain knowledge on the Web as a socio-technical system involving specific processes, entities, and behaviors, using interdisciplinary methods that blend computer science, sociology, ethnography, economics, linguistics, etc. The students are able to analyze the Web phenomena similarly to typical objects from natural sciences, distinguishing between data and applications, agents from computationally generated profiles, and addressing the characteristics of networks of entities emerging from the informational, physical, social, and conceptual spaces constituting the Web.

The course introduces students to important grammatical features of Classical Chinese. Lexical study and some knowledge of Chinese writing system will also be examined for their contribution to the understanding of Classical Chinese. The course focuses on the analysis of Pre-Qin literature. Classroom activities include lectures, group discussions and some take-home assignments. The course requires students to take a prerequisite.

Students examine how we form opinions about the world, cases of conflict, diplomacy, and the role of non-state actors and major global institutions in creating/sustaining the world around us today. In particular, students assess the different assumptions within particular approaches to IR, their methods and understanding of who and what matters in global politics; how approaches conceptualizes international institutions, and the relationship between agency and international structure. Students investigate issues like whether there is equal sovereignty in the world today, what do we mean by "North-South relations" and the links between theory and practice. Key concepts include anarchy, sovereignty, power, hegemony and empire, the state, and the international system.

This course introduces students to the main narrative features of the novel tradition by concentrating on generic and formal approaches to reading novels. This course looks at novels from the late 18th century onwards and focuses on their generic form. The main objective of the course is to demonstrate the importance of narrative form in critical engagements with novels. Theoretical and historical study of the two dominant narrative forms in the novel tradition - romance and realism - is thus emphasized and students are encouraged to look at their approach to the novel with these theoretical perspectives in mind.

This is an advanced course in corporate finance, with the goal of bringing students to the frontier of knowledge so that they can start doing their own research in this field. 

This course focuses on nine topics in applied corporate finance:

(1)Topics related to accounting irregularities and misreporting;

(2)Topics related to the CEO's early life experience and CEO management styles;

(3)Topics related to the Fetal origins hypothesis; 

(4)Topics related to the issues of climate change risk and opportunities exposures, pollution on investor behavioral bias, and on corporate policies, and Greenwashing versus brownwashing;

(5)Topics related to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies;

(6)Topics related to token-based platform finance and B2B financing;

(7)Topics related to innovation & entrepreneurship;

(8) Topics related to intergenerational persistence of occupational choice, and 

(9) Trending topics, including water quality.