University of Bologna

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students interested in International Law. The three fundamental legal functions on which the legal dynamics of the international community is founded – law-making, law-determination and law-enforcement – are analyzed within the contemporary social context. International law is presented in its different dimensions: as a tool in the hand of international actors able to handle change in the international society and safeguard stability and predictability of international legal relations; as common language useful in reaching consensus or, at least, peaceful disagreement; and as key to understanding the reality of contemporary international relations. Bringing together different perspectives, the course demonstrates how international rules, while made by governments and mostly addressed to them, can be of great relevance to private actors and to their interests.

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 examines the history and the contemporary use of Geopolitics in order to critically examine the political geographies of European imperialism, cold war, and post-cold war geopolitics, and the contemporary geopolitical landscapes. In particular, questions of borders, migrations, and biopolitics are discussed in relation to the making of the European Self and its associated geographies. The postcolonial and the decolonial are also presented by taking into consideration a geographical perspective.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is generally restricted to local graduate level students and requires the instructor's direct permission to enroll. Enrollment by special permission only. This course offers an introduction to management consulting. A particular focus of the is given to the role of consultants in the strategic decision making of firms, to the management tools used by management consulting firms, to the methodology for the of top management decision making. At the end of the course, participants have a methodical approach to managerial problem solving in a business company. The course discusses topics including: development of a real business case to be solved in teams; management consulting toolbox; principles of management consulting written and oral communication; M&A; and digital transformation.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. The course is centered on the relationships between Italian Literature and Visual Culture, from the second half of the twentieth century to the first decade of the new millennium, with a focus on photography, graphic novel, advertising, cinema, television, and videogames. Special attention is placed on the identification and analysis of the interactions between the different languages and their contextualization in Italy’s contemporary cultural environment. Course topics change yearly. The 2023 topic is: A Transmedia Longseller: IL NOME DELLA ROSA (THE NAME OF THE ROSE) by Umberto Eco.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. The course introduces solution algorithms for nonlinear optimization problems that are the basis of many machine learning tools which find applications in telecommunications, electronics, automatic control, and decision support systems. The course is divided into two modules. The first module introduces solution algorithms for nonlinear optimization problems. Topics in this section include: nonlinear optimization: introduction to mathematical programming, models, and algorithms; nonlinear models: unconstrained optimization and constrained optimization; relaxations and penalty algorithms; convex optimization: Lagrangian relaxation and barrier algorithm; and applications of convex optimization to support vector machine and deep learning. The second module introduces basic machine learning techniques for classification and learning. Topics in this section include: algorithms for clustering and classification; neural networks; and laboratory activity on applications for machine learning algorithms arising in real applications.

This is an advanced intermediate Italian Language course offered by the University Language Center (CLA) for University of Bologna exchange students. The course is at the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) B2 level. Enrolment in this course is based on an entrance exam. Students enrolled in this course have generally successfully completed ITAL 132 as part of the UCEAP Intensive Language Program (ILP). At the end of the course students can understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in their field of specialization. They can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party. They can produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain a viewpoint on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options. The course covers the following grammatical points: use of verbs in the past - all tenses; the conditional and past conditional; the present subjunctive vs. the imperfect; the subjunctive: all form of the past; concordance of subjunctive verbs; the passive voice; relative pronouns; and presenting the future in the past. This course is available to UCEAP students in the spring semester only. The course is graded pass/no pass only.

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 explores some of the main dimensions of Soviet and Russian history in the 20th century. The course provides an overview of the social and political evolution of the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1991 and its legacy for post-Soviet Russia. The course discusses topics including: the main stages of social changes and political governance from the 1917 Revolution to the collapse of the Soviet Union; the social and political legacies of the Soviet experience for Russia after 1991; the major scholarly debates on State/society relationships; and how to contextualize Soviet social and political history in a broader framework, analyzing key junctures when Soviet international concerns or ambitions interacted with its domestic agenda.

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 offers basic knowledge of the methodologies and of the perspectives of near eastern art history and the reading of symbolism embedded in the material record. The course examines how to recognize and critically examine visual materials, and fine tune the critical tools needed for interpreting ancient visual communication. The course explores elements on sculptural complexes of the Bronze and Iron age in Syria and South-East Anatolia with particular reference to visual communication and architectural settings. Several contexts are analyzed according to a critical approach which are discussed together with the students also through the main scientific references on the relevant subjects. The course discusses sculptural complexes of the Bronze and Iron age in Syria and South-East Anatolia: visual communication and architectural settings.

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. After completing the course, students are familiar with the main theoretical, methodological and technical tools of the historical-religious disciplines of the social sciences, which address the study of the history of religions of the ancient world with mastery of interdisciplinary methods and contents. They are able to evaluate religious phenomena and dynamics in local and global sociocultural contexts, to identify connections, developments, persistence and transformations of religious phenomena and appreciate interaction between groups in complex societies. They understand the relevance of cultural-historical studies for historical enquiry and can identify the specific contribution that the historical sciences can make in addressing issues and problems of interest to the community, such as the critical promotion of the value of religious differences and religious pluralism. Also, through direct involvement in seminar-type activities on some monographic topics (personal reading and analysis of ancient texts and modern studies), they have knowledge of the sources and problems linked to the study of religions of the classical world and the general characteristics of polytheism. They know how to use the language and tools specific to the discipline. They are able to update their knowledge and elaborate autonomous analytical perspectives, applying the methodologies of investigation to specific problems and documents and considering the scientific and international debate related to the discipline. The 2023 course topic is: Religions as communication systems. Semiotics and semantics of the veil in the Ancient Mediterranean religious systems: a comparative overview of an element of clothing.

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 describes and evaluates the results of recent research on multisensory integration. First, the mechanisms underlying multisensory integration are outlined. The course then examines the perception of multisensory events, the advantages afforded by the ability to combine different sensory modalities and the key determinants of intersensory interactions. Another key question addressed is how multisensory interactions are linked to and modulated by attention. The course specifically considers the latest evidence assessing the role of exogenous and endogenous attentional mechanisms on cross-modal processes. In addition, the course also focuses on recent research concerning how multisensory information is used to create multiple spatial representations of our body parts and of the spaces within which they can act. The course reviews how these representations that are used to guide body movements through space show a considerable degree of plasticity. Finally, the course considers how the cortical system for perception may become radically reorganized after sensory deprivation and evaluate this surprising degree of cross-modal plasticity.