English

The purpose of this course is to provide students with opportunities to gain knowledge about the historical development of schooling and educational problems/difficulties in Japanese society as well as to consider the meanings and roles of education and schooling from different perspectives.  The main focus is on the primary and secondary education in Japan; however, students will also examine other countries’ education systems.  This course consists of a mixture of lectures, discussions, and presentations. Students are also expected to give classmates a broader perspective on education systems/efforts/issues that will be discussed in this course.

The course builds on the concepts of macroeconomics in an open economy to discuss the determinants of exchange rates and the consequences of exchange rate policies for output and prices in the short and long run. A brief history of the international monetary system also explains the establishment of the single European currency. Basic elements of European central banking are discussed and specific issues are dealt in more depth, mainly relating to recent monetary developments including the global financial crisis. The content of the course includes the following: the balance of payments and the foreign exchange market; a simple theory of exchange rate determination, in the short and in the long run; fixed exchange rates and foreign exchange intervention; monetary and fiscal policies with different exchange rate regimes; from Bretton Woods to the Euro: theory and experience of optimal currency areas; monetary institutions and strategies in the Euro area; the international financial crisis: monetary policies and financial stability; the coming future of the international monetary system: the dollar problem, the role of the euro, and the emerging importance of China's money and finance.

At the end of class, students are expected to have

1) solid foundation in economic theory

2) mathematical and quantitative skills to the analysis of the different tasks of central banking.

The course will emphasize

1) Ability to apply economic concepts to explain real-world phenomena;

2) Understanding of institutions and policies;

The monetary policy decisions of central banks around the world are seen as crucial in global financial markets. In major economies, such as the US, Japan, the EU, and others, central banks focus on setting short-term interest rates. Their decisions to adjust interest rates have enormous and closely watched impacts on stock markets, bond markets, and banking markets. The first part of this course will focus on understanding how central banks use their powers, the macroeconomic theory that underlies the decision making of central banks and their effect on the economy and financial markets.

Though standard economic theory may imagine financial markets as operating according to rules of competitive supply and demand, in fact, distinct financial intermediaries such as banks are essential for the smooth operation of markets. In the second half of the class, we will focus on the economics and institutions of banking. ​​​​​​​

This course tackles contemporary ethical issues regarding the development of technology and its impact on the environment by engaging with the latest research being done in this field. In order to achieve these goals, this class will be held in a “flipped classroom” style, wherein students will read through lecture materials in advance to allocate more time for classroom discussions on these pressing issues.

This course covers a roughly 250-year period of Japanese history: the Edo period (1603–1868). It was a time of immense change and vast creativity in visual culture, when the existing forms of representation started to break down, and new forms emerged. The course considers various topics beyond what is commonly considered as art, such as city planning, gardens, religious icons, play space, arts, and artists.

This course concerns the status, roles, and representation of women in medieval Irish and Welsh society. The student is introduced to primary material which can inform us about the socio-legal position of women in these societies as contrasted with that of men, including legal tracts, literary texts, historical texts and didactic writings, the originals of which were written in Irish, Welsh, and Latin (but read in English translation). The importance of marriage and other kinds of union in the lives of women is examined, and the impact these unions had on women’s social status will be assessed. Various literary texts are read, with a view to considering how femininities and masculinities are constructed in them, and the characters of prominent literary women are examined and analyzed. The question of women’s agency in society, especially in the area of learning, as well as the factors that wrought change on women’s social position, is also addressed.

The theme of the course is the relationship between private troubles and public problems, i.e. how the personal challenges many of us face in our lives are shaped and defined in ways that often appear to be beyond our direct control. The course introduces students to the sociological perspective by examining four significant topics in the discipline of sociology.
 

This course surveys the history and culture of Norway during the Viking Era (ca. 750-1030) and the Medieval Era (ca. 1030-1536), including mutual influences and interactions with neighboring regions and peoples. The course includes a focus on Norse mythology and covers the social and political contexts of Viking expeditions, national unification, and conversion to Christianity. It covers the medieval Kingdom of Norway’s period of relative peace and prosperity in the 1200s, and then the Black Death and Kalmar Union. Reading focuses on skaldic and saga literature (especially Icelandic and Norwegian) and other historical primary sources. Also included in this course is consideration of how the memory of the Vikings and Medieval Norway have influenced political and cultural trends in Norway over the past few centuries.

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 is a survey of the history of the concepts and practice of war and peace from the Renaissance to the beginning of the nineteenth century. It primarily explores the main ideas, events, aspects, and trends related to the topics of the classes. First, the course examines the period traditionally known as the Renaissance. The course then focuses on ideas on human nature, war, and peace in early-modern Europe. The course demonstrates how the medieval cultural attitude towards war and peace was replaced during this period by a new concept, based around novel ideas on the nature of man shaped by social and political tensions caused by unprecedented challenges which threatened early-modern European societies. Finally, the course addresses questions concerning modernity such as why European cultures increasingly relied on science and reason instead of religion.

The course aims at analyzing the process of economic and political integration of European countries, through a theoretical, policy, and political perspective. European politics occurs in national capitals and in Brussels. Traditionally much of the disciplinary focus has either been on the European Union and integration or the national politics in the Member States. Increasingly, this failure to adequately explore how both levels of government interact reflects neither the state of European politics nor the cutting edge of research. The politics part of this course introduces students to a basic toolkit used by researchers of advanced democracies and international interdependence (including spatial models, veto players, two-level games etc.) to understand both domestic and EU-level politics in Europe in conjunction. The economics part of the course starts with a general overview of EU integration from the 1950s until today. It then moves to discussing the EU budget, with its sources of revenues and areas of expenditure. The main features of the Next Generation EU strategy are also extensively covered. This lays the foundations for studying the main policies currently undertaken by the European Union: competition, agriculture, cohesion, and international trade. The connection between economic and political dynamics is addressed, with specific attention to the link between globalization, Brexit, and the success of nationalist forces in Europe. A substantial part of the course is devoted to the Economic and Monetary Union: origins, architecture, and evolution over the Great Financial Crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic.