English

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by permission of the instructor. The global aim of this course is to provide students with an expert knowledge on the use of language and other semiotic systems in contemporary discourse. Including lectures and language classes, the course covers a number of aspects of English linguistics in order to develop a critical understanding of the relationship between discourse and society and to strengthen English language proficiency. Students are able to identify and describe metalinguistic factors and semiotic resources at play in discourse as they are provided with theoretical knowledge related to one or more of the following areas of English linguistics: phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicology, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, stylistics, corpus linguistics, multimodality, and social semiotics. Theories and concepts are applied to samples of authentic texts (written and/or spoken, belonging to different registers), including the use of language and multimodal corpora as sources of examples. The course is divided into two modules. Module 1 aims at acquiring the theoretical knowledge and practical skills needed to master the relationship between language, cognition, and emotion within persuasive communication. Module 2 focuses on discourse as a social phenomenon.

This course provides a thorough introduction to child protection systems in Europe and how international humanitarian efforts address child welfare in developing regions, with a focus on West Africa. Divided into two modules, the first examines the European Union's child protection priorities—such as digital safety, AI governance, and deinstitutionalization—while the second focuses on the work of international organizations in tackling issues like poverty, gender-based violence, and conflict. Students engage with theoretical frameworks, case studies, and expert guest lectures to develop critical thinking and practical skills grounded in real-world policymaking and service delivery.

This course focuses on the economic aspects of innovation, diffusion, and protection, and on the effects of innovation at the micro-level of firms, the meso-level of industries, and the macro-level of national economies. Special attention is devoted to the role of green public procurement and innovation in services in the current economy as timely topics. This course includes an Honors component. A background in economics and innovation studies is useful, but not assumed.

The course explores the nature of civil society and the political role of civil society actors - at local, national, and global levels. Civil society's traditional role as a third sector between the state and the market is critically examined by considering both theories of civil society and empirical case studies of democratic activism and social change. The course covers the contested meaning of "civil society," attending to its historical and cultural variation. Empirical case studies consider a variety of social movements and, where possible, include meetings with activists and other practitioners. The course enables students to critically evaluate the changing role of contemporary civil society and develops a practical understanding of how civil society actors pursue social change, along with why they fail and why they succeed. 

This course offers a study of classical sociology. The course reviews work of early theorists such as Karl Marx, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, Sigmund Freud, and Georg Simmel. The course discusses topics including questions driving the formation of classical sociology and their relevance today, the basis of social order and structure, how and why societies change, the causes and consequences of conflict in society, and the place of the individual in society. This course consists of tutorial group meetings and lectures. Students read original materials accompanied by contemporary interpretations of the classics. This course requires that students have completed a course in macro sociology as a prerequisite.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by permission of the instructor. This course focuses on the historical, theoretical, and methodological foundations of iconographic and iconological research. Through a diachronic examination of some examples, from Prehistory to the Middle Ages, the course explores the world of ancient images and their semantic value. In particular, the topics covered include: reading images: theoretical approaches; history of the studies in iconology; iconography and iconology in archaeology; current research methods and tools and their issues; and case studies (in FALL 2023) in Mediterranean Antiquity, from Prehistory to the Middle Age (the presented samples change every year).

This course develops the knowledge of econometric techniques that are useful in the analysis of financial markets and macroeconomic phenomena.

This course examines advanced topics and techniques in database systems, with a focus on the system and algorithmic aspects. It will also survey the recent development and progress in selected areas. Topics include: query optimization, spatial-spatiotemporal data management, multimedia and time-series data management, information retrieval and XML, data mining.

Tales and tellers are core to the narrative art. Within the framework of folkloristics different genres of narrative are described, and their traits discussed. International Folktales and Legends create the corpus under examination. Irish examples of folk narrative are analyzed individually, and then are set within the framework of folkloristic theories. Similarities and differences between oral and literary narrative are illustrated, and the influences of folklore on the literature of Ireland are also discussed. By the end of this course, students are well acquainted with the standard reference works concerned with the cataloguing and analysis of oral narrative, and are versed in various theoretical approaches to the subject - such as psychoanalysis, functionalism, formalism, structuralism, and ethnography.

This course introduces foundational ideas from some of the most exciting and influential thinkers from ancient Greek philosophy. Students begin by looking at several important Pre-Socratic philosophers (such as Parmenides) with a particular focus on their contributions and approaches to epistemology and metaphysics. The course then traces the thread of these debates through to three towering figures of classical Greek philosophy and the western philosophical canon: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.