University of Bologna

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by permission of the instructor. The global aim of this course is to provide students with an expert knowledge on the use of language and other semiotic systems in contemporary discourse. Including lectures and language classes, the course covers a number of aspects of English linguistics in order to develop a critical understanding of the relationship between discourse and society and to strengthen English language proficiency. Students are able to identify and describe metalinguistic factors and semiotic resources at play in discourse as they are provided with theoretical knowledge related to one or more of the following areas of English linguistics: phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicology, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, stylistics, corpus linguistics, multimodality, and social semiotics. Theories and concepts are applied to samples of authentic texts (written and/or spoken, belonging to different registers), including the use of language and multimodal corpora as sources of examples. The course is divided into two modules. Module 1 aims at acquiring the theoretical knowledge and practical skills needed to master the relationship between language, cognition, and emotion within persuasive communication. Module 2 focuses on discourse as a social phenomenon.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by permission of the instructor. This course focuses on the historical, theoretical, and methodological foundations of iconographic and iconological research. Through a diachronic examination of some examples, from Prehistory to the Middle Ages, the course explores the world of ancient images and their semantic value. In particular, the topics covered include: reading images: theoretical approaches; history of the studies in iconology; iconography and iconology in archaeology; current research methods and tools and their issues; and case studies (in FALL 2023) in Mediterranean Antiquity, from Prehistory to the Middle Age (the presented samples change every year).

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by permission of the instructor. This course focuses on the linguistic theory related to the coding of the linguistic message into sounds, particularly the fundamentals of articulatory/acoustic phonetics and segmental/suprasegmental phonology. In particular, students are able to analyze the phonetic and phonological aspects of a language or linguistic variety from different perspectives: synchronic, diachronic, sociolinguistic, and acquisitional. Students analyze phenomena of phonetic and phonological disruption in pathological speech; and set up autonomously theoretical and experimental research in the fields outlined above. Topics include: articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics, form and substance of the signifier; and the development of phonetic/phonological competence during childhood.

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. There are two versions of this course; this course, UCEAP Course Number 180B and Bologna course number 75074, is associated with the LM in Sociology and Social Work degree programme. The other version, UCEAP Course Number 180A and Bologna course number 81779, is associated with the LM in Language, Society, and Communication degree programme. The course focuses on different notions of globalization, and how information technologies affect everyday life, markets, and the process of consumption. Emphasis is placed on a sociological reading of globalization, i.e. understanding the internet culture and the relationship between globalization and web society. Students analyze the impact on individual behaviors and society at large within social networks and online communities through the mainstreaming of private information posted to the public sphere. The course addresses the emergence of a new rhetoric concerning democratization and participation in the web society, the changing relationship between producers, consumers, and prosumers in the web society and the consequences and effects of the Digital Divide nationally and worldwide.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by permission of the instructor. At the end of the course the student is able to evaluate the scientific basis of Earth’s past climate system, identify past states of the climate system that offer the closest analogs to the climates of the coming decades, and appreciate the scientific context for the long view on a warming world, based on the recognition of natural, past climate variability rather than mathematical models of future potential scenarios. The course consists of two modules. Module I focuses on pre-Quaternary examples of global climate changes, including quantitative methods for the study of past global changes, examples of rapid climate changes in the geological past, and the relationships between geodynamics, paleogeography, and climate. Module II focuses on climate variability during the Quaternary (glacial and post-glacial), with emphasis on the high-resolution signature of climate change in the stratigraphic record on millennial to centennial timescales, from quantitative dating methods to climate proxies.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by permission of the instructor. This course introduces the main concepts of Python and its use in economic and econometric analyses. In particular, the course focuses on: 1) data types: definitions and use; 2) pandas; 3) basic programming structures (loops, if,...); 4) a primer on classes; and 5) applications to economics and econometrics.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by permission of the instructor. This course focuses on the awareness of the information and communication technologies (ICTs) and of their socio-economic impacts; awareness of main issues pertaining to the regulation of ICTS; knowledge of emerging aspects of European ICT Law; awareness the basic principles and issues on e-government, e-governance, and e-democracy; knowledge of the legal regulation of ICTs in the Europe; and awareness the Digital Agenda for Europe framework. The course discusses risks and opportunities of ICTs and addresses legal issues pertaining to ICTs in a European and comparative perspective. The course is divided into two parts. Part one is on Computable Law: legal retrieval systems, man-made models, and machine learning systems. Part two is on legal issues of AI and autonomous systems.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by permission of the instructor. The course provides advanced knowledge on US foreign policy from 1945 until the election of Donald Trump. Examining the role of the United States within the international system, at the end of the course students are able to: describe the different historical phases of US foreign policy; detect the multiple political, geopolitical, and economic factors that have affected the development of US foreign policy; analyze the transitional moments and the turning points in the evolution of US foreign policy; and understand the link between domestic and foreign policy. The course examines the history of United States foreign relations – broadly defined – from the end of second world war to the election of Donald Trump. Examining the US role and place in the world, specific questions are raised and discussed, including: what triggered the American hegemonic rise; how do we conceptualize the response to the deployment of America’s multifaceted global power; and how do we investigate the connection between domestic politics and foreign policy choices? The course considers the impact of the political, geopolitical, and economic transformations of the past century on the foreign policy choices and particular attention is paid to specific turning points and transition moments (i.e.: the modernization policy of the Sixties, the crisis of the Seventies, the end of the Cold War, 9/11, and the war on terrorism). After a broad introductory lecture on the origins of United States foreign policy, the course follows a chronological pattern. Historiographical debates and issues are also thoroughly discussed and examined, starting from the current debate on the end of the American century.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by permission of the instructor. There are two versions of this course; this course, UCEAP Course Number 152A and Bologna course number 90543, is associated with the LM in Sociology and Social Work degree programme. The other version, UCEAP Course Number 152B and Bologna course number 93217, is associated with the LM in Geography and Territorial Processes degree programme.

At the end of the course, students are able to: have a general overview of international migrations, their main interpretative models, and some related issues; and manage the main concepts for the study of migrations, without limiting to the classic economy and the demography ones, but paying attention also to some most recent approaches. The course provides the main conceptual and analytical tools for a sociological analysis of migrations, presenting the most accredited interpretation models, the most recent trends, and the social impact of this phenomenon in the Mediterranean area. The first part of this course considers the figure of the stranger and the interaction models with society as it emerges from the classical sociological debate (Simmel, Park, Thomas). The second part introduces the contemporary debate on international migrations and the interpretation models of this phenomenon from different disciplines. Special attention is given to: 1. theoretical contributions from the Chicago School of sociology in the 1920s; 2. considering migrations as a "total social fact," according to the Algerian sociologist A. Sayad; and 3. interethnic and cohabitation relations in urban settings. During the Laboratory experts and workers of the socio-sanitary field present their professional experience, in order to enlarge the debate with students about the main issues of the course of sociology of migrations.

The course focuses on issues, historical contexts, and social aspects of Spanish culture. Emphasis is placed on socio-cultural issues related to culture and the critical tools necessary for contextualizing, analyzing, and commenting on texts and documents in order to relate them to the most significant transformations in the areas of language reference. The course focuses on the analysis of excerpts of a selection of literary texts as well as documentaries of the time. Specific course topics vary each term. Access the University of Bologna Online Course Catalog for the most up to date topic for the course. The topic for Fall 2023 is the Re-elaborations and Cultural Transformations through the 20th Century and the Contemporary World. Specific topics covered include the Second Republic; the Civil War and the Francoist Repression; and the transition to democracy. The course focuses on how to retell history from realism to postmodernism and neo-modernity, and how historical memory is presented through different genres including theater and literature. The course also focuses on debates regarding ethical questions including collective memory, forgetting and recognition, reparation and post-memory, individual rights, and mass education. The analysis is based on images, sound documents, fragments of historical and philosophical essays, newspapers, and documentaries of the period.