English

In this course, the topic of human rights is explored from a legal perspective, but with a view to discussing the salience of current political debates about human rights and against the background of the historical development of this field of international law.

Topics include

• Basic features of the protection of human rights in the international legal system I: Historical development and UN level
• Basic features of the protection of human rights in the international legal system II: The European regional level
• Critical perspectives on human rights
• Extraterritorial application of human rights
• Climate change litigation before human rights courts and treaty bodies
• Human rights in the digital sphere
• Decolonization and human rights
• Indigenous peoples and human rights
• Human rights in the urban age: The role of cities and local governments
• The Relevance of the African Human Rights System in the Urban Age

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. This course offers a study of electric drives. The course discusses topics including fundamentals of electromechanical conversion systems and fundamentals of electrical machines; DC machines; brushless machines with trapezoidal back emf; brushless machines with sinusoidal back emf; and principle of static conversion. The course discusses: the fundamentals of static and electromechanical conversion systems; the configuration of basic power electronic conversion systems, of main electrical machines, either direct current (DC) or alternate current (AC), and of electric drives used in automotive sector; the topology, control principles, input, and output characteristics of main DC and AC electric drives; modeling power electronic converters, control system, electrical machines, and full drive systems with reference to application for torque and speed control; and how to represent an electric drive in terms of energetic conversion system, for the integration in a multiphasic model of a vehicle.

This course surveys political thought in Meso- and South America, translated into English. It introduces a broad range of (mostly left) political currents in Castilian- and Portuguese-dominant societies, across historical periods. It covers a variety of thinkers and texts, including Vasconcelos, Mariátegui, Guevara, Anzaldúa, Nascimento and Quijano, among others. 

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the basic structures and pricing theories for financial derivatives, including an examination of futures, forwards, options, swaps, and credit derivatives. Topics include basic pricing theories for the derivatives, arbitrage vs. hedge transactions, bond pricing, duration, term structure of interest rates, interest rate derivatives, binomial option pricing model vs. Black-Scholes model, implied volatility, numerical analysis, exotic options, market risk vs. credit risk, and several cases of financial risk management.

This course explores a range of dramatic works produced throughout the Caribbean since the start of the 20th century.  Students study the colonial and postcolonial context of the Caribbean, and reflect upon the ways in which this informs the work of Caribbean writers.  Theories developed by postcolonial and performance studies scholars are analyzed and applied to the plays under consideration, and colonial and postcolonial discourse is put into dialogue with theories of performance and Caribbean identity. 

This course explores selected topics in the art and visual culture of Asia from Neolithic times to the tenth century CE. A wide range of objects from diverse media, including sculpture, painting, and architecture from India, China, Korea, and Japan, are examined within their respective historical, cultural, social, and religious contexts. Attention is also given to the transcultural paradigm of Asian art history. Topics include Indus Valley Civilization, Neolithic China, Shang Dynasty China, Zhou Dynasty China, Qin Dynasty China, Han Dynasty China, Early Culture and Art in Korea/Japan, Introduction to Buddhism, Early Buddhist Art and Architecture in India, Kushan Dynasty, Gupta Dynasty, and Buddhist Art in China/Korea/Japan.

Climate change, environmental pollution, waste of resources and the decline of biodiversity clearly show mankind that processes of change are necessary. On a policy level, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris climate agreement and the Green New Deal are setting the stage, at the corporate level, standards such as environmental social and governance (ESG) reporting, supply chain integrity and voluntary certification, and diversity are critical to long-term business success. How are companies innovating towards more sustainability today? What are the criteria, the success factors and the strategic approaches to tackle consumer, policy, employee and societal demand for more sustainability? This course looks at current sustainability frameworks, sustainable companies and sustainable innovation. Students get to know and to apply collaborative tools to be better prepared for a business environment. One focus is on the development of a sustainable business model or project, based on which students learn and try out modern methods such as the Sustainable Business Canvas, Design Thinking, Effectuation and the Blue Ocean Strategy.

This course provides a detailed introduction to complex function theory which interrelates the geometric and analytic aspects. A principal goal is Cauchy’s famous integral theorem and its many consequences.

The initial focus is on the emergence of the industrial core and its relationship with the wider world. By 1914 the USA was the world industrial leader, with industrial output equal to that of France, Germany, and Britain combined. Accordingly the case of US economic development is considered in some detail. Global economic history is not just a history of the industrial core, though, and accordingly Chinese and Japanese economic history are also studied in some detail. In the 20th century, elements of the world economy disintegrated during the 1920s and 1930s, most especially the networks of trade and the international monetary system. This led to widespread depression, including in the USA, and students seek to understand what went wrong. The course concludes with a discussion of a second era of global economic expansion since 1945.

This course takes a geographical approach to some of the world’s most complex moral issues. It gives students the chance to explore a range of moral questions from a geographical perspective. Arguably a geographical perspective, which embraces knowledge from other disciplines and not only its own, is well-placed to "join the dots" and grapple with the complexity of the world as it is, not how we want it to be. It explores these complex issues using a multi-scalar, place-sensitive approach, embracing not only key geographical thinkers, but also philosophers, political scientists, sociologists, psychologists, and economists.