Italian

The course provides students with the fundamental coordinates of modern political conceptuality (individual, the State, conflict, freedom, people, representation, etc.). The lessons focus on a series of classic authors of the history of political thought, addressed in their specific characters and supported by the reading and commentary of texts in the classroom. The course follows a monographic red thread - the birth and (presumed) end of modern political conceptuality - and does not claim to cover the entire history of political thought. Fundamental authors live in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, just as essential foundations are laid by ancient and medieval thought. The purpose of this monographic choice is to investigate those passages that best allow the questioning and exposition of the implicit assumptions of our contemporary political life. In particular, two key moments are analyzed: the birth of modern political conceptuality (16th-17th centuries), and the point of greatest tension of this conceptual apparatus in the XXth century. In outlining its fundamental passages, we constantly wonder about the persistence or the crisis of this conceptual apparatus in our contemporaneity: how modern is the implicit assumptions of our political action? What contemporary transformations have instead radically changed the scenario? How have the relationships between society, the State and market changed historically? Are there constants of human action and is it possible to study them?

At the end of the course, students: know the fundamental features of the modern and contemporary History of Political Thought; know the main forms of political communication and understand the complex relationships between ideas and facts; know the most important political doctrines and are able to critically analyze them in connection with the relevant cultural, institutional, historical and social context; are able to understand the most important political and institutional changes in Western history.

The course provides advanced knowledge to the archaeology of Mesopotamia, Syria-Palestine, and Anatolia. It focuses on civilizations and artistic cultures of Mesopotamia, Syria-Palestine, and Anatolia during the Bronze and Iron ages. Students learn the methodologies and the perspectives of near eastern archaeology and art history. They learn to recognize and critically examine archaeological and visual materials, to characterize material culture, and acquire the necessary tools for framing data within their chronological, historical and political framework.

This is an advanced level painting course in the Laurea Magistrale degree program for students who have experience in painting techniques. Enrolment is by permission of the instructor. The course includes lectures and studio time for individual projects. Students are required to attend both the theoretical part and the studio laboratory and to complete individual projects. The course focuses on all aspects of painting from pre- to post-production, as well as all aspects of the technical processes involved. Assessment is based on the evaluation of assigned projects and the artwork completed.

Students must have attained the equivalent of A2 Italian language level as a prerequisite. This course is graded pass/no pass only.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. In Spring 2025, the main topic of this course was Soul and Body: Metaphysics of the Person in Plato and Aristotle. The aim of the course is to verify these attributions through the “slow reading” of an anthology of passages taken from the works of the two Greek philosophers, also in light of the most recent critical literature on this topic.

At the end of the course the student has acquired (1) the in-depth knowledge of a philosophical topic or problem typical of Greek and Roman antiquity and (2) three types of skills: (a) philological – he/she knows how to analyze an ancient text using the advanced philological tools needed for the study of Greek and Roman philosophy; (b) dialectical – he/she is trained to discuss a philosophical problem in a synchronic and diachronic way, through the comparison between ancient and modern philosophers; (c) rhetorical – he/she is capable of arguing exegetical and philosophical theses in oral and written form.

This section of the course focuses on art and fascism: critical debate and operational choices. The course investigates the ways in which, in an increasingly pervasive way, the fascist regime influenced artistic production and exhibition policies, increasingly eroding the margins of autonomy of artists. The course provides critical and methodological tools to address the analysis of the relationship between art and fascism; enables students to grasp and verify the changes in the critical fortune of artists and works along a diachronic axis; and encourages the identification of autonomous paths of study, applying the knowledge and method acquired to personal research, which are shared through a seminar-type comparison. This course is taught in Italian and is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree.

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 analyzes urban spaces through the use of semiotic tools, with special regard to urban forms, urban practices, and representations.

Main topics of the course:

• Urban semiotics: development of the discipline, approaches and methods.
• The form of the city: evolution, permanence, transformations.
• Cities between text and practice: semiotic tools for analysis of (urban and non-urban) space. Lived/represented/designed city: the city as text versus the city as subject/object of discourses.
• Interdisciplinary dialogues: urban ethnography, cultural geography, urban studies.
• City, memory, identity: (urban) places of memory and cultural heritage.
• City and conflict: spaces of power and spaces of protest - places and dynamics of urban conflicts (peripheries and banlieue) - city and war.
• The multicultural city: spaces of inclusion/exclusion - immigration and urban conflict.
• Digital city: Smart Cities and impact of ICT in urban practices.
• City between commons and places for consumption: public/private dynamics - urban creativity (street art and grassroots cultural production) - commercial and cultural tourism and strategies of city branding.

The course is divided into two sections. The main themes and methodologies of Medieval Archaeology in Italy and Europe are presented during the first section. The lessons therefore address the ways of city dwelling and farming the countryside since the Early Middle Ages to the Modern age (5th-15th c.); Archaeology of craftsman, production and building techniques; the evolution of funerary practices and ritual. The second section focuses on a number of specific insights about the material culture in different European regions. By the end of the course, students have a basic knowledge of archaeology and the history of medieval art from the 5th-6th to roughly the 12th century. From specific cases, they are able to describe the cultural encounters and understand multicultural contexts on the basis of surviving artworks and products of material culture. They learn to listen, understand, and debate respectfully with different viewpoints, and learn to spot tie-ups among different disciplines.

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 focuses on the analysis of geopolitics and international politics from a geographical perspective. By linking the history of geography and geopolitics to colonialism and European imperialism, the course introduces the students to critical human geography and the understanding of how spatial theory and spatial practices are related to power and culture. Students learn how to critically reflect and analyze contemporary cases of geopolitical interventions and discourses.

The course is divided into four parts:

• In the first part, the course introduces the origins and the development of geography and political geography since the end of the 19th century.
• In the second part of the course, the course explores the crisis of modern sovereignty and the emergence of a new power horizon associated with biopolitical governmentality.
• The third part is dedicated to the geographies of otherness. This part discusses the relation between traveling, field trips, and geographical exploration in their connection with European colonialism.
• The fourth part of the course will be dedicated to the history and the contemporary use of Geopolitics and the different stages of geopolitical theories.

The course outlines Archaeology and Greek Art History, from the Protogeometric period to Hellenism. During the starting lessons, the teacher gives advice on the studying, explains the exam carrying out, and gives the outlines of the basic elements of the discipline, in order to fill in possible gaps in students' knowledge: Introduction to Greek civilization through its historical and geographical framework; the periodization and the specific terminology; and main aspects of architecture, urban planning, artistic, and handcrafted production of the Greek World (sculpture, painting, mosaic, pottery) in the Protogeometric, Geometric, Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods.

By the end of the course students have a basic knowledge of Greek civilization, in its historical and artistic development. They will be familiar with the history and geography of the first millennium BC, according to the traditional periodization of Greek civilization: Protogeometric, Geometric, Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods. They will also have mastered the languages, topics, and methods of the discipline when interpreting artistic and cultural phenomena from a historical angle. They will be able to use cultural material to describe cultural encounters, be able to speak and write using terminology appropriate to their scientific discipline, and also have learned to listen, understand, and debate respectfully with different viewpoints, and know how to spot tie-ups among different disciplines.