Italy

This course includes an introduction to cognitive neuropsychology and foundations of neuroanatomy, neurology, and neuroradiology; a discussion of cognitive neuropsychology of the agnosias, aphasias, alexias, agraphias, apraxias, and amnesias; and an over view of cognitive neuropsychology of the executive functions. The course covers the normal cognitive architecture, by means of the study of brain-damaged patients. The course requires a basic knowledge of psychobiology and cognitive psychology as a prerequisite.

The course focuses on the philosophy of contemporary language. This course includes an introduction to contemporary philosophy of language and focuses on truth and relativism and logical reasoning and rational argumentation on the topic of post-truth. The course includes lectures, quizzes on the e-learning materials, and peer instruction based on the Kahoot model. Assessment is based on a final research paper on a pre-approved topic and an oral exam on class lectures, required readings, and special materials.

This course examines the study of preferences and experimental aesthetics within its historical context, the main themes of neuroesthetics and topics of debate in the field, and the methodologies used in the empirical study of aesthetics. The course discusses topics including the definitions of art, empirical aesthetics, Darwin and evolutionary perspectives, sensory systems , reward systems, scenes and landscapes, motion, color, faces and body, and current debates and future developments. The course requires basic knowledge of the foundations of cognitive psychology, of perception, and of the neural basis of behavior.

This course offers a study of neurology. The course discusses topics including general knowledges of anatomy and biochemistry of the central nervous system including neurotransmitters; general knowledges of neuroimaging; and pathogenesis, clinical manifestations and prognosis, possibility of pharmacological and surgical treatment, and neuropsychological correlates of the following diseases: Alzheimer dementia, Parkinson disease, tauopathies; Huntington disease, Gilles de la Tourette syndrome, Epilepsy, cerebrovascular diseases, multiple sclerosis, and palliative care and end of life. The course requires students to have knowledge of the anatomy of the central nervous system and main vascular districts, and general knowledge of magnetic resonance imaging, PET, and SPECT, as prerequisites for the course.

This course is part of the LM degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. The course is organized into two highly interactive modules which discuss how to address business communication challenges and develop crucial skills to effectively navigate the workplace environment. These include (but are not limited to) such skills as: team building, public speaking, management of team dynamics, and professional business writing. This course is graded pass/no pass only.

This is a graduate level course that 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 analyzes the way the western media covers the developing world and the humanitarian emergencies. Specifically the course explores the emerging and historical humanitarian narratives, with particular reference to the way in which the activities of NGOs are reported; how we understand and explain faraway disasters; how the media representations of suffering and violence has changed in the post-cold war period and in the digital era; the relationship between media, aid, corporate communication, and branding; and the relationship between power, media, and migration. This course encourages students to think sociologically about a range of issues and “social problems” related to the different ways in which media is used to report on humanitarian situations, and what impact this has. It also serves as an introduction to some important themes and issues within humanitarianism and migration. Areas under study include: the construction of “social problems,” media, ethics, human rights, disaster relief, war, famine, refugee camps, social movements, and NGOs.  A special focus is dedicated to the mediated performances that contribute to create the spectacle of the humanitarian border, which is physically and symbolically enacted by the different actors involved in contemporary management of migration. Moving from the assumption that our awareness of nearly all humanitarian issues is defined by the media, this course looks at the literature associated with humanitarian organizations and the NGO narratives, tracing the imagined and real encounters between solidarity, participation, and citizenship in the context of larger social processes of mediation and globalization. Examining humanitarian communication through various forms of aesthetic activism - documentary, photojournalism, benefit concerts, celebrities, and live blogging, the course explores how the circulation of humanitarian images and narratives impact the peoples it aims to serve, and what can be learned about global inequality from the stories associated with it. The course also focuses on how several news media framed Covid-19 as an invisible enemy, using metaphor of war to describe the current situation. The definition of the emergency as a war conducts inevitably to the identification of an enemy. The hyper-visibility of the war against this invisible enemy leads to a generalized fear of ‘the others’ and to the identification of this invisibility in visible bodies. Finally, the course reflects on long-term implications of the pandemic on mobility justice and what Mbembe (2020) has defined the “right to breath.” There are two versions of this course; this course, UCEAP Course Number 169A and Bologna course number 81782, is associated with the LM in Language, Society and Communication degree programme. The other version, UCEAP Course Number 169B and Bologna course number 75073, is associated with the LM in Sociology and Social Work and LM in Local and Global Development degree programmes.

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 addresses topics and texts in moral philosophy at an advanced level. At the end of the course students are expected to possess the main abilities required from a professional moral philosopher. These include being able to: appraise theories and justify one's own position about them; critically analyze philosophical texts, both from classical and recent authors; elaborate on them; and in an original manner, provide fresh points of view and good working hypotheses to address them. Students are expected to be able to analyze knowledge received in the ethical and meta-ethical field, and to reconstruct it on an original basis. Moreover, they are expected to be able to write on moral topics in a professional, opinionated, and thorough way, and to effectively communicate their views to an audience. The topic for the course varies each term. For the most up to date topic, access the University of Bologna Online Course Catalog. The topic for fall 2023 is: J.M. COETZEE’S FICTION. The course explores the philosophical significance of novelist and essayist John Maxwell Coetzee’s oeuvre, especially in connection with his ethical stance on the treatment of animals. Students have the opportunity to discuss, more generally, his critical attitude toward philosophical argument and toward reason as an exclusive tool for moral guidance and intelligent experience of our environment. After introducing, in broad outline, Coetzee’s personality and published work, the course devotes a few lessons to the philosophical subfield of animal ethics. The main philosophical approaches are outlined. Once equipped with some conceptual and historical background, the course turns to analyzing some of the key texts in this connection, especially Coetzee’s 1999 “novella of ideas” THE LIVES OF ANIMALS, and his subsequent and related novel ELIZABETH COSTELLO. Secondary literature is reviewed and put to use.

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. The course deals with the analysis of the models of public intervention in the financing, commissioning and supply of welfare services–such as the health care and social care services–that are facing deep demographic, technological and socio-economic changes. The course follows a comparative perspective and focuses on the transformation from a setting in which financing, commissioning, and supply of services are all performed by vertically integrated public organizations, to a setting in which governmental bodies limit themselves to the financing, allowing other private or public bodies to manage the services under a regulatory framework. Using a case-study approach, students are led to investigate the distributive and allocative implications of adopting tools to imitate the working of markets (vouchers, auctions, contracting-out) or of other competitive frameworks (pay for performance schemes, incentives, information disclosure mechanisms). At the end of the course, students are able to critically evaluate the aforesaid mechanisms not only in terms of their distributive and allocative effects or their long term financial sustainability, but also with regards to the coherence of such effects with their institutional objectives. Course topics: the rationale for public intervention in the financing and supply of welfare services; classic models of financing and supply; recent problems of financial and political sustainability for the welfare services; new public management tools: public reporting, evaluation and incentives; private provision of publicly financed services: regulation of quasi markets, contestability, and freedom of choice.