English

This course presents a history of music in film by examining the development of key trends and significant composers from the "silent" era to the present day. It considers the place of music, and the soundtrack more generally, in the film production process and in terms of the relationship between composer and director. A focus on Hollywood, with its proclivity for bespoke orchestral scores, are supplemented by investigating a range of other styles (e.g. pop, jazz, electronica) and international (primarily European) examples. It provides an overview of the field while alighting upon case studies, for which fundamental theoretical concepts are introduced. Major mainstream film composers are featured alongside more experimental recent practitioners and composers better known for their work in the concert hall.

This course explores the chemistry and biochemistry of fermentation and microbial metabolism, with a focus on their applications in metabolic engineering and enzymatic conversion. Students examine current trends and industrial examples involving the production of food biomaterials, biofuels, chemicals, and bioplastics through microbial fermentation. Emphasis is placed on both fundamental principles and applied strategies for microbial process development. Students gain a comprehensive understanding of fermentation chemistry and acquire applied knowledge in microbial metabolic engineering for the production of value-added products such as food additives, industrial chemicals, and renewable biofuels. 

Prerequisites: Prior coursework in biochemistry and microbiology is strongly recommended. 

This course is designed to advance conceptual and applied understanding of bottom-up approaches in sustainability governance. Students are offered theories and concepts to understand the emergence and persistence of unsustainable practices and are equipped to propose which elements of these practices should change to achieve more sustainable outcomes. This regards individual and household practices, as well as the degree to which actions, rules, norms and values applied by governments, international bodies and private rule-making authorities like NGOs and companies are equipped to shape everyday practices. Be introduced to theories and concepts that address the interaction between everyday practices, transformations, systemic change and governance. Students are expected to have basic knowledge about social science theories of the environment, e.g. those presented in Social-Scientific Analysis of Environmental Issues (ENP24803).

This course explores mathematical concepts that are useful and frequently used in machine learning. Students examine linear algebra (vector spaces, scalar products, orthogonal vectors, matrices as linear mappings, determinants, eigenvalue and eigenvectors), analysis (differentiation), and probability theory (multidimensional probability distributions, calculations with expected values and variances). The class also discusses some contemporary applications of mathematics in machine learning. 

The course thematizes how the law shapes the contemporary organization of the political economy and how the ever changing political economy in turn shapes legal change. Based on Karl Polanyi's classic scheme, the course focuses on three pillars of the political economy - labor, nature/land and money - which Polanyi famously and influentially identified as the three 'fictitious commodities'. The first part of the course provides an in-depth overview of how the main authors of modern political economy understand the role of law in the economy (namely: Smith, Marx, Keynes, Hayek). Parts two, three, and four are devoted to an extended analysis of the legal regulation of labor, money and land/the environment.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. At the end of the course, students master some of the main notions of philosophical aesthetics in order to use them as tools to account for contemporary phenomena in which the aesthetic plays a crucial role on the cultural and experiential levels. Students acquire a good degree of autonomy in analyzing aesthetic-philosophical texts concerning discussions carried out over the last few decades. In particular, the course stresses topics and problems that have emerged more recently in the international discourse and that pertain to the nexus between the experiential dimension, the elaboration of expressive languages, and the formal and design-related articulations taking place within the field of the aesthetics. The aim of the course is to reflect on the (dis-)continuity and the (a-)symmetry between the conceptual-theoretical and the operative-experiential levels, and thus contribute to the development of a critical and non-dogmatic attitude toward the contemporary horizon that characterizes the aesthetic.

The course addresses a category which has traditionally been either problematic for, or foreign to, aesthetics: function. The course shows that, when understood as something operative and transformative and not merely contemplative and conservative, the aesthetic possesses an inherent functional character. Aesthetic function is dealt with through different philosophical perspectives, ranging from pragmatism to critical theory, to the more recent everyday aesthetics.

The course examines the genre of science fiction from 1945 to the present. Students learn about the development of the genre, major works within it, and productive theoretical and methodological approaches to it.

Often called "the language of business," a basic knowledge of accounting is essential to becoming a successful business manager. This course teaches basic accounting concepts to read and analyze corporate financial statements. The first part of the course focuses on the core financial statements: Balance Sheet, Income Statement, and Cash Flow Statement. It also covers some important accounting topics such as the globalization of accounting standards and the double-entry accounting process (journal entries, posting, preparing trial balances, adjustments, and closing entries). The second part of the course covers various methods to read and analyze corporate financial statements, such as various financial statement analysis techniques used in both short and long-term analysis. Real examples (actual corporate financial numbers) are used for comparing and analyzing corporate financial performance.

This introductory course explores how political scientists and social analysts approach modern-day issues with modern-day methodological tools and explanations, delving into issues related to the empirical and theoretical causes and consequences of democracy and dictatorship.  The course also projects future institutional design and the change in relationship between actors. 

This course examines the functions of financial markets in society. It starts with the history of financial markets, then turns to a non-technical introduction to modern finance theory. Based on a solid understanding of the theory, students are able to interpret information revealed by financial markets and to recognize common abuses of such information in policy-making. The last part of the course concerns the interaction between finance and politics, i.e. how legislation and regulation directly influence the structure of financial markets and how players in these markets intervene in the political process to create or modify legislative and regulatory outcomes. Students participate in economic experiments that illustrate the fragility of financial markets.