English

This course is designed to explore what it takes to be a successful diplomat. The course works under the premise that many "qualified" leaders too often disqualify themselves by lacking the basic communication, presentation, leadership, empathy, and listening skills amongst many others. This workshop-style seminar highlights the most essential soft skills that are needed to make it in the world of politics. Toward that end, this course includes the teaching of advanced techniques for delivering great speeches as well as successfully taking charge and winning complex communication settings like negotiation, mediation, interviews, and debates. Media training, body language, emotional intelligence as well as negotiation strategies are the common thread underlying all lectures to practice the art of public speaking and negotiating. While this course develops these skills in a political and diplomatic setting, all techniques described and taught are applicable to any communication setting regardless of the occupation and background of the communicator. All skills reviewed in this course are presented from a theoretical point of view and taken into consideration with different layers of analysis: social, cultural, educational, religious, and generational background to name a few. In addition, the course offers a specific lecture designed for future women diplomats and political leaders to discuss the different pressures placed on them in a political communication setting and to raise awareness among male students.

This class explores several important themes in the political development of East and Southeast Asia. The first part of the course focuses on political culture, concerning the so-called 'Asian values' debate; the second part explores aspects of political information selection, and the third part covers topics of political participation.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. The course provides an advanced and critical overview and understanding of the role of victims of crime and abuse of power, social exclusion, and repression in contemporary society with regards to the main theoretical approaches in the discipline as a reflection of the changing of structure dynamics and relations at all level in the "global era". The course provides the skills to: analyze processes of victimization in contemporary societies in a broader political and socio-economic context; set the peculiar condition of victims in the frame of multiple interactions with regards to national and supra national institutions; recognize the ambivalence of victims’ role inside the judiciary and criminal justice systems in a comparative perspective; apply the “new” victimology of human rights in an original and interdisciplinary approach that transcends current official and social perspectives of victimization and its sources.

When car-use becomes restricted on streets, is that called opening or closing a street? The conflict around this question currently splits Berlin. As the automotive city planning paradigm of much of the twentieth century rolls out bumpily, many are ready to replace it with a paradigm that puts people instead of cars first. The claim is that the urban street of the future is not merely a transit space, but rather part of the urban commons, a space that is there for everyone to use. Climate mitigation, space justice, and mobility justice all play a role here as well. In this seminar, we will look at urban (street) space as urban commons, discuss the change of meaning that street space has undergone in the past and still undergoes and get a first-hand experience of the conflict described above by visiting reclaimed spaces and conducting interviews. We will also deal with specific examples of street reclamations worldwide.

This course instructs on python programming from a digital humanities perspective. It begins with the basics using interactive notebooks that require no installation. First, the course covers the basics of programming such as data types, loops, and variables. Later it explores and solves language-based and digital humanities problems using new programming skills and natural language processing (NLP) tools. Python 3 will be used in this course.

A research project that assigns students to expert professors in their proposed research topic. The course takes the students' research capabilities to a more professional level. This can be most closely compared to what is called a supervised research project in the USA.

This course provides an introduction to the theory and practice of using social media data for research and enables the development of transferable research and data skills. Such skills are in demand in the research and consultancy profession across the public and private sectors. After reviewing the different data types including Facebook and Twitter, students consider how to access and analyze such data. This, in part, includes developing the student’s critical data skills, hands-on training, and practice analyses on real social media data such as coding Tweets and blogs. This involves the use of on-line software to gather social media data. The course involves the development of research design skills including hypothesis testing, data analysis, and interpretation and writing skills. The emphasis on the use of real data to answer questions is designed to engage students and for them to consider using such approaches as part of their own dissertation research.

This course provides an understanding of Japanese society by discussing education from an interdisciplinary perspective. It begins with an overview of Japanese education and society, together with the basic approaches for data collection and analysis, and then goes on to discuss the Japanese education system, politics, and practices from both comparative and international perspectives. It ends by discussing recent controversies and issues in education in Japan. Although the emphasis of this course is on current education practices and issues, due consideration is given to the historical context. 

This course provides students with an introduction to the anthropological study of the USA, incorporating perspectives on a variety of topics and regions, and referring to research carried out at a range of historical moments. It provides a grounding in key debates. It shows how ethnographic work carried out in the US has influenced the discipline of anthropology. The course takes a (self)-critical look at what area-based foci of study do. Those teaching the course draw from rich ethnographies and from their own fieldwork experiences in the US.

Until the recent past, science and food were a combination to be encountered mainly in the food industry. Today, things are changing and we are witnessing a great deal of emerging new scientific ideas about how we (humans) relate to food: neuroscientists trying to understand how our brain creates flavors; physicists attempting to manipulate textures; talented haute-cuisine chefs aiming at creating startling multi-sensorial experiences.

Despite the scientific complexities, cooking is a simple endeavor that can be carried out by anyone. You can open a recipe book, get the ingredients and follow the instructions: a method that is easy to follow, but certainly not the whole story towards culinary success.

Every time you follow a recipe and prepare your favorite food, you are, in effect, performing a scientific experiment. You put matter together, modify the initial structure (for example, texture, flavor, etc.) by means of physical and chemical processes, and evaluate (by eating) the result of the experiment, possibly trying to understand what modifications can improve the result. The "experiment" can be a success or a failure, but understanding the science can increase the chances of success. Viewed like this, the kitchen becomes a science laboratory and cooking an experimental science.

This course embarks on a study of food and science (physics in particular) that is both entertaining and useful. The course explores the new dimension that opens up when the two areas fuse and how this combination can be used to boost creativity as well as critical thinking.

Part 1 of the course (Spring semester) focuses on basic notions such as the properties of food molecules (proteins, fats, carbohydrates) and basic science processes. Part 2 of the course (Fall semester) focuses on more advanced application like gels, emulsions, foams, fermentation, and baking.