University of Bologna

This course is part of the laurea magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. Students develop a critical approach to the diffusion and use of digital technologies. They are expected to acquire a preliminary knowledge of the historical context of these innovations to strengthen their understanding of the challenges posed by digitization. Students consider art as a field in which these technologies are both applied and criticized. By the end of the course, students are able to evaluate the variegated cultural and political imaginaries that are contributing to shaping digital innovations.

The course is articulated into the three parts. First, the course frames a political genealogy of the digital technologies, highlighting the philosophical issues they pose. For this reason, a brief history from the birth of internet to the success of platform capitalism and the expectations on artificial intelligence are presented. Then, the discussion focuses on some of the main cultural paradigms about technological innovations (Californian Ideology, Transhumanism, Accelerationism, etc.) to analyze the way they frame the relationship between the "digital" and the “human”. The last part is more collaborative and interactive with guest experts facilitating a workshop on art curatorship and digital technologies, and students presenting their response papers to course topics.

This course is part of the laurea magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor.

At the end of the course, students have acquired the theoretical and practical conceptual framework of the field of literature and philosophy studies, gaining a deep understanding of how philosophy and literature are two ways of reflection and expression of issues in common that can illuminate each other. At the end of the course, students are expected to possess: (1) knowledge of key theories and texts for the study of the interdisciplinary field of literature and philosophy, including philosophical and aesthetic texts on the study of literature, rhetorical and literary approaches to philosophical texts and philosophical theories of literary criticism, as well as familiarity with exemplary historical connections with a particular focus on the German context; (2) the ability to analyze convergences and differences in the argumentative, representative, and performative modes of the two disciplinary approaches with a particular focus on the different uses and registers of language in one and the other disciplinary context, as well as the development of critical awareness in relation to both textual traditions and their ways of addressing issues of ethical, social, and political significance; (3) differentiated and convincing presentation and argumentation skills that produce an original point of view in the debate, starting from a critical analysis of both philosophical and literary texts.

This course follows the traces of melancholy as a phenomenon connected to the longing for reference in both texts in philosophy of language and literature. During the course, students apprehend an important part of Western literary and philosophical reflection on questions regarding the nexus between language and (mostly) existential and (to a lesser extent) political questions. Students read and collectively interpret canonical and less canonical texts, and train their presentation and discussion skills.

The course traces the tradition of the linguistic turn back to one of its potential roots or affine forerunners, i.e., Early German Romanticism, to see how similar constellations were discussed and expressed in Modernism, and finally engages with more openly postmodern texts. It ends on more optimistic tones (with Judith Butler) that stress the spaces of agency that open up when not being determined by a fixed reference scheme. Readings include: Derrida’s Grammatology; Friedrich Schlegel’s programmatic, theoretic texts; Hegel’s critiques; the novel Nightwatches of Bonaventura; Nietzsche’s Twilight of the Idols; Hofmannsthal’s programmatic texts for the Sprachkrise; Borges’ “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius”; Ellis’ American Psycho; Hermann’s text “Red Corals”; and end with Butler.

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.

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 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 course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. The program deals with the history of the Ottoman Empire with an emphasis on its geography, frontiers, and relations based on certain units/themes of study. The program follows a chronological approach and a thematic division of topics. The themes are chosen to elaborate on watershed moments in the history of the Empire, and to reflect on the Empire’s role in global events.

After completing the course, students have a detailed historical knowledge of the main cultural, social, and political transformations that took place in the Islamic world and in the Middle East from the 13th century to the contemporary era. They have analytical skills and are familiar with the theoretical, methodological and technical tools of the historical-religious disciplines and the social sciences for the study of relations between confessions and religions in the context of the Ottoman Empire, with attention to the socio-political implications of the interaction among groups. They are able to evaluate religious phenomena and dynamics in local and global socio-cultural contexts, to identify socio-cultural matrix of religions, as well as connections, developments, persistences, and transformations of religious phenomena in complex societies such as those of the Ottoman Empire and to address and solve issues related to the management of religious pluralism. They apply investigative methodologies to critically engage with primary and secondary sources useful for exploring the significance of the Ottoman Empire for world history. They are able to communicate in written and oral form using the different models and registers of communication of the historical disciplines and to give form, including project design, to the results of research, supporting with complete evidence the information on which they base their conclusions and accounting for the methodologies used. They know how to communicate, edit and publish research results including digital data.

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 interpretative views applied to premodern art history in thought-provoking/groundbreaking exhibitions and catalogues. Students thus familiarize themselves with the major perspectives and challenging topics that have engaged curators and specialists in the last decades, dealing with a sensitive plurality of contexts and cultural geographies. Through discussions and case studies, students can prove different critical paths, going beyond stylistic influence and center/periphery paradigms through artistic circulation to connected and rhizomatic histories. The course considers how ideologies, authoritative canons, racialization/stigmatization, imperialism, and colonialism have been the core forces behind collecting, trade, and the acknowledgment of aesthetic value, as well as museums’ storytelling and catalogs narratives.

The course explores the Mediterranean Renaissance and Global Renaissance/Baroque art by offering insights into intertwining key thematic issues: Global Catholicism, propaganda, power strategies, transformation of models, distributed agency, artistic migration, borderlands/disconnected paths, constellations/networks, wars anxiety, climate crisis, religious changes, political sovereignty, moral authority, and social emotions. Through the study of specific exhibitions, catalogues, and seminal essays/research projects, the course reframes curatorial practices, considering paintings but also prints, early modern illustrated books, devotional objects, maps, folding screens, and other pivotal materials in Europe and the Americas.

Students learn to interpret premodern and early modern art between the 14th and 18th centuries using methodological tools that question the "Global Renaissance." Beyond Eurocentric approaches, the course focuses on the challenges and applications of methods, theories, and concepts, connecting art histories through global perspectives and addressing cultural transformations and diverse historiographical approaches in curatorial practices.