Italy

This course examines competing hypotheses on the role of geography, institutions, and culture for long-term economic growth and cross-country differences in economic outcomes. It also studies the role of religion (and religiosity) for accumulation of human capital and economic progress. Finally, the course analyzes how cultural distance may affect migrants’ assimilation and it studies how local culture and institutions shape technological progress and inflows of innovative ideas. 
Themes discussed include: The Role of Geography for Economic Growth and Development; The Role of Institutions for Economic Growth and Development; The Role of Culture for Economic Growth and Development; The beginning of modern economic growth: geography, institutions, and culture; The Interaction between Culture and Institutions; Flows of Technology and Flows of Ideas; The Economics of Religion; Diversity, migration, and assimilation. 

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.

Students are required to have attended the Heart and Lung Disease course and to have achieved an adequate level of proficiency in the subject. At the end of the course, students will be able to:
- Describe in depth the indications for surgical intervention, the main surgical techniques, and the expected outcomes in the correction of congenital and acquired heart defects in both pediatric and adult patients.
- Apply the theoretical knowledge to real or simulated clinical cases, identifying the most appropriate surgical approach based on the pathology and clinical context.
- Critically evaluate the indications, risks, and benefits of different surgical options, developing sound clinical judgement in a multidisciplinary setting.
- Communicate clearly with peers and instructors, using appropriate terminology to discuss procedures, risks, and outcomes related to cardiothoracic surgery.
- Demonstrate the ability to identify reliable sources and begin developing an independent learning approach to stay informed about advances in cardiothoracic surgical techniques and guidelines.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. By the end of the course, students understand the impact of tectonic, geomorphologic, and hydrogeologic hazards (volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, and floods), biophysical hazards (pandemics and panzootics) and atmospheric and climatological hazards (in particular those related to climate change). They know the interdisciplinary methods of research for the investigation of past disasters and are able to reflect on the limits and advantages of the archaeological approach through the analysis of a diverse set of case studies. They understand the complexity of the economic, technological, and religious responses adopted by the affected societies in the post-disaster phase and become familiar with key-concepts such as risk, disaster, collapse, resilience, and the Anthropocene. They are also able to critically assess the scientific debate developed around those topics by deepening, from an archaeological perspective, methods and themes of cultural and political ecology. They ultimately know the potentials of archaeology in risk reduction, risk prevention, and risk communication in the contemporary world.

The course is divided into two parts: In Part 1, the course discusses the ‘vocabulary’ of disaster studies and disaster archaeology and explores in detail the occurrence of natural hazards such as floods, landslides, earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions. In Part 2, the course adopts a more theoretically informed approach to investigate concepts such as resilience, transformation, cultural change, and collapse.

This is an advanced level painting course for students who have experience in painting techniques. Enrollment is by consent 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 involves the study of all aspects of painting from pre- to post-production and of the technical processes involved. Students develop techniques and learn to critique their own works.  Assessment takes place throughout the semester and with a final evaluation of the artworks completed. 

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 academic year 2024-2025, this course is one of the modules of the exam "Digital Heritage and Multimedia". There is a second module (Museology, Museography and Virtual Environments).

Interaction Media Design focuses on the design of interactive applications in the humanities and specifically in the domain of Cultural Heritage. During the course, media are treated (images, audio, video, 3d, etc.), together with their acquisition and processing. Main design principles are discussed in relation with CH and cognitive sciences. The course is divided in 6 areas:

• Cognitive-Emotional goals of Interactive Media Design
• Human Computer Interaction for Cultural Heritage
• Digital Images and Digital Photography
• Beyond Multimedia: from digital images to virtual experiences
• Interactive Media Design principles and Tools
• Hands-on: the Design Process

At the end of the course students are put in touch with the intangible cultural heritage mediated by computer science and expressed under the form of practices, representations and skills that the multimedia research community recognizes as part of its identity. Students are able to reflect upon and manipulate a variety of digital instruments, including objects, artifacts, and cultural spaces, manifested through interactive multimedia signs and actions.

The course explains the major steps that have shaped the world economy to its present configuration. The topics covered include the diversity of pre-modern economies, the impact of colonialism, the birth of the modern economy in Europe, the varieties of forms of enterprise and of national approaches to the governance of the economy and the role of international crises. At the end of the course, the student has a better knowledge of the major economic challenges to be faced today.

The course content includes:

1. The pre-industrial economy and the preparation of the "great divergence" of Europe. The role of institutions.
2. The British Industrial Revolution and the process of imitation
3. The second Industrial Revolution, the rise of USA and the creation of an international economy
4. World War I and its effects
5. The first major world crisis starting in 1929 and its economic and political impact to WWII
6. The birth of a new international economic order, the golden age and the process of European economic integration
7. The third industrial revolution and the return of instability: globalization, financialization, the demise of Soviet Union and its legacy
8. New protagonists of the "great convergence": the developing world, the rise of Asia
9. A polycrisis world: the 2008 financial crisis, the Covid19 pandemic, wars.
10. The present day challenges: the fourth industrial revolution, AI, the environment. How not to destroy humanity

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. Why do people commit crime? Why and how do we punish offenders? This course addresses all these fundamental questions through engaging with core criminological and sociological theories and debates on crime and its responses. At the end of the course unit, students: know the most important concepts of sociology as applied nowadays with reference to criminal phenomena and their punishment, with an emphasis on the evolutionary dimension of relevant theories and the comparison between European and North American approaches; and are capable to apply those concepts independently, especially in fields covering deviance and social control.

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 is an advanced level course for students who have prior experience in drawing and illustration. Enrollment is by consent 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. This course focuses on the picture book, in which words and illustration are intrinsically linked. Students study classic and contemporary picture books. With guidance from the instructor, students develop their own works with attention to narrative structure, selection of scenes to be illustrated, technique, storyboard, etc. Book layout is completed through specific software. Final assessment involves a presentation of the projects developed during the course.