Italy

The course has 2 parts: A & B. Students must take both parts. Students who complete a term paper on a pre-approved topic are awarded 1 extra unit. Maximum units for the course are 8. Part A covers types of comics from the 13th century to the 16th century. Part A is dedicated to comic in literature. The first part focuses on Boccaccio with in-depth studies on the DECAMERON, and the second part is dedicated to the reading of Machiavelli. Part B discusses poetry and theater in the 18th and 19th centuries. Part B discusses Goldoni, Pascoli, and an in-depth study of Dante's INFERNO in the context of poetry.

Why are some countries rich while others are poor? Since the publication of the WEALTH OF NATIONS by Adam Smith, the sources of global inequality have been a key subject in economics. As Robert Lucas has famously claimed, once we start thinking about them, "it is hard to think about anything else." This makes the study of economic growth and development over the long run relevant for economics and the social sciences alike. Economic history introduces tools and methods of describing and analyzing growth and development and it develops critical thinking by demonstrating both the potential and limitations of economic theory in explaining economic change in the real world. The course consists of an overview of Western economic development from the early modern period, ca. 1500, to the present. The course focuses on the drivers of industrialization and of increased prosperity in the Western world and on the historical origins of the disparity in the wealth of nations today. The course is organized in two parts. The first part discusses the drivers of long-run development: the commercial, agricultural, and industrial revolutions, the role of institutions, and the origins of globalization. The second part illustrates the impact of major shocks on economic development in the 20th century: the World Wars, the Great Depression, and the challenges of the new globalization since the 1970s.

This course is part of the LM degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by consent of the instructor. The course examines Greek and Roman theatre as a whole (places of performance, festivals and dramatic competitions, poets and preserved works; directors, chorus, players; relationship with public and institutions; the different dramatic genres and their history) and develops a critical attitude towards the main issues concerning the Greek and Roman theatre. Course contents include dramatic performances in the ancient world, with a special regard to Athenian tragedy and its importance for the modern theatre, and Euripides and Alcestis.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. The course is intended for students who have a strong background in sociological theory. The terms of reference for the theoretical part are based on Italy and in particular on Palermo, Sicily, and the Zen neighborhood. The course focuses on the concept of community both in socio-cultural and socio-spatial terms as well as the relationship between the concepts of community and social capital, with particular attention to the question of environment from an empirical point of view. Special attention is placed on the concepts of community and social capital at the general theory level, standard and non-standard research tools, advantages and disadvantages of empirical environment research that focuses on community and social capital concepts. The course is divided into three thematic modules. The first module introduces the concept of community, both as a reference to classical authors such as Tonnies, Weber, and Park, and as a socio-cultural and socio-spatial meaning. In the second module, using the above theoretical framework, the relation between community and social capital is considered in order to develop the connection between these two concepts and the neighborhood, in terms of urban sociology and in the light of recent acquisitions of neighborhood studies. A special section is also dedicated to the question of urban sustainability with particular reference to the relation between the concept of resilience and the neighborhood approach. The third module is dedicated to studies that explore the relation between poverty, neighborhood and social capital through the development of a mixed methods approach. This section also stresses the importance of the distinction between structure and culture in the study of urban poverty. Required reading includes: COMUNITÀ, CAPITALE SOCIALE, QUARTIERE by M. Castrignanò, LO ZEN DI PALERMO by F. Fava, CERCANDO RISPETTO by P. Bourgois, and I REIETTI DELLA CITTÀ by L. Wacquant. Assessment is based on a final oral exam that covers the assigned readings and the social research methodology and techniques discussed in the course.

The course is part of the LM degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. This course studies the legal foundations of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) and the ECB mandate of monetary policy also in comparison with the Federal Reserve system and central banking in other relevant jurisdictions. Conventional and unconventional monetary policy instruments are considered in depth, also in light of relevant CJEU case law. Macroprudential supervision, lending of last resort and remits over financial stability are discussed in all their institutional and legal implications.

The course offers a panoramic view of the evolution of economic ideas from classical political economy to the recent developments in macroeconomic and microeconomic theory. The first part of the course reviews the Great Crisis and classical political economy and the early history of microeconomics such as the Marginal Revolution, the Ordinal Revolution, and the birth of game theory. The second part of the course reviews Keynesianism, monetarism, and new classical macroeconomics and beyond with a focus on macroeconomics before Keynes, the Great Depression and Keynesianism, the Great Inflation, and the Great Crisis and clashing approaches. The third part of the course reviews the recent history of microeconomics, the axiomatization of utility theory, the theory of risky decisions, and the rise of behavioral economics. Previous exposure to first-year undergraduate macroeconomic and microeconomic courses is necessary and compulsory as a prerequisite.

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 aims of the course are: to make students familiar with feminist and queer theories and critiques of liberalism and liberal legal systems to the extent that they incorporate biases relating to gender and sexual orientation; to show how seemingly neutral legal norms are shaped by particular conceptualizations of gender, sexuality and sexual orientation; to introduce the debate concerning the partnership of feminism and multiculturalism and prompt a reflection on what constitutes gender (in)equality in a culturally diverse world; to familiarize students with the ways in which the law has contended with sexual difference, sexual orientation, gender-based stereotypes and the meaning of sexuality in European, transnational and international contexts. This course is designed to provide students with a critical understanding of the gendered structure of the law. Feminist and queer critiques of liberalism have challenged traditional ways of thinking about law and legal systems and have called into question some of the fundamental tenets of liberal democracy, such as equality, neutrality, justice, non-discrimination and universalism. These theories have highlighted how the law has created and reinforced gender roles, and how gender-related social and cultural constructs have shaped the balance of power and privilege in a liberal society. In this light, the course addresses a wide range of both theoretical and institutional problems, as well as thematic issues, pertaining to different areas of law, including citizenship, reproductive rights, marriage, sexuality, and violence. The course highlights how legal norms reflect gender-based stereotypes and how these impact the lives of people of different genders and sexual orientations. It also focuses on the increasing difficulties that multi-cultural societies experience in conceptualizing gender equality, examining contentious issues such as the regulation of religious marriage, and other gender-related “cultural clashes”. Module 2 tackles these issues in the context of Muslim societies, with a particular focus on Islamic feminism and Muslim women theologians, family law and women's political participation in predominantly Muslim countries.

This course presents some basic techniques for the analysis of the uncertainty inherent in statistical information, with the goal of providing a correct evaluation and communication of risk. Basic notions of elementary probability theory and of Bayesian probability are introduced and discussed, and their application is illustrated in problems connected with the medical and psychological practice, also within the framework of recent Italian legislation on informed consent which imposes to all health care professionals a correct risk assessment and the adequate communication of it to patients. The course discusses topics including uncertainty in statistical information; problems related to the evaluation of risk and communication of risk; real-world examples; Bayesian inferences through the use of probabilities and by means of natural frequencies; suitability of the natural frequencies for a more intuitive and direct insight in both risk estimation and in a transparent representation of risk; examples focusing on the correct judgement of the probabilistic predictive value of medical diagnostic tests, and aiming at avoiding misleading risk information; cases related to the ongoing Covid-19 public-health emergency; evaluation of the effect of interventions, including relative risk and absolute risk, and relative and absolute risk reduction (or increase); and number needed to treat or to harm.

This 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 offers a critical understanding of global health policy as a historical, political, and moral assemblage that deals with the consequences of global inequalities. The course addresses the issue of illness and suffering as the personal embodiment of broader social processes within local moral worlds embedded in historically deep and geographically broad social dynamics. The course focuses on the following issues: The cultural construction of the experience of illness, the social production of medical categories and the illness experience, the concept of embodiment and its theoretical outcomes, the concept of social suffering, and the anthropological contribution to the concept of global health.

During the course the main topics in Health Psychology will be considered including health definition; health-risk and protective behaviors; reducing risk of disease at individual and population levels; symptoms perception, interpretation, and response from the psychological perspective; the consultation in health psychology; stress health and illness; the impact of illness on quality of life; pain perception and response; and the improving the quality of life in illness. The course addresses topics in health promotion including health risk and protective behaviors, health and illness definition and conceptualization, promoting health-protective behaviors and reducing risk behaviors, and promoting and developing intervention programs in health psychology. The course discusses health psychology in clinical contexts such as assessing psychosomatic issues including causal, maintaining, and exacerbating factors; definition of stress, stress effects on health, and stress management; effects of the illness on patients’ and caregivers’ quality of life; the psychological effect of pain on patients’ and caregivers’ quality of life; main illness model and illness perception; and understanding interventions in psychosomatic patients and caregivers. The course requires students to have basic clinical psychology knowledge and basic epidemiological knowledge as a prerequisite.