University of Bologna

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program and is intended for advanced levels students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. The course considers the Indian Ocean as an interregional arena created by the intersection between maritime trade and cultural connections. It focuses on the circulation of people, goods and ideas across the oceanic space as a way to understand the connections and disconnections that created a unified system of cultural and economic exchange. The course adopts a longue durée perspective, in order to unravel the rise and development of an Indian Ocean regional identity. It considers the Indian Ocean as the first global economy produced by the decoding of the monsoon wind system and then explores the rise of Islam and the consequent development of the Swahili civilization along the East African coast. It analyses the indigenous responses to the European commercial intrusions that started in the 16th century and explores the impact of the development of formal colonial rule in the 19th century. Elements like port cities, littoral societies, trade diasporas, religion networks, long-distance trade routes, and different forms of slavery will be used as analytical tools to unravel the elements of unity and disunity in the Indian Ocean space. Particular attention is given to East African societies and their role in the Indian Ocean world. During the course, the students analyze travel accounts, novels, historical sources, and scholarly works and critically engage with the historiographical debates that characterize the Indian Ocean Studies field. At the end of the course, students reach an understanding of the Indian Ocean cultures, economies, and societies that transcends national histories and be able to engage with a non-Eurocentric approach to processes of globalization.

This is a special studies course involving an internship with a corporate, public, governmental, or private organization, arranged with the Study Center Liaison Officer. Specific internships vary each term and are described on a special study project form for each student. A substantial paper or series of reports is required. Units vary depending on the contact hours and method of assessment. The internship may be taken during one or more terms but the units cannot exceed a total of 12.0 for the year.

This course is part of the LM degree program and so is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. This course discusses fundamentals of the most important multivariate techniques that help to make intelligent use of large data base by recognizing patterns for predicting or estimating an output based on one or more inputs. At the end of the course the student is able; to represent and organize knowledge about big data collections; to turn data into actionable knowledge; and to choose the best suited methodology for the problem at hand to critically interpret the results. The course discusses topics including an introduction to supervised statistical learning; resampling methods: Cross-Validation, and Bootstrap; classification: Naive Bayes, k-Nearest Neighbors, Logistic Regression, and Linear Discriminant Analysis; Dimension Reduction and Regularization; Tree-based methods: Regression and Classification trees, Bagging, Random Forests, and Boosting; and an overview of the main machine learning methods: Support Vector Machines, and Neural Networks.

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 focuses on the history of Iran and Central Asia from the arrival of Islam to contemporary times. Special attention is placed on the methodology of historical research, and the treatment of historical themes in original and autonomous ways. Students are encouraged to evaluate sources and to know how to orient themselves with regards to specialized bibliographies. Emphasis is placed on how to prepare and communicate knowledge and how to make valid judgments in the historical field. The course is intended as a general introduction to the history of Iran and Central Asia in the Islamic period. Single historical periods are, broadly speaking, indicated below. Students are warmly encouraged to focus on specific thematic topics and to carry on, if possible, with further readings according to their personal interests. Basic historical periods covered: the Islamic penetration in Iran and Central Asia; the Mongol and Timurid periods, Iran and Central Asia under "Turkic" dynasties; the Safavid period and the formation of the so called "national state" in Iran; the contemporary condition of Caucasus and Central Asia and the relations of Iran with Ottoman Empire and Moghul India; contacts with Western countries: missionaries, diplomats and travelers; Iran under the Pahlavis, Caucasus, and Soviet Central Asia: "Cold War" challengers; the present-day situation: a "non-exotic" approach.

The course offers an introduction to contemporary philosophy and language and focuses on the nature of truth through an analysis of the main philosophical theories regarding truth as well as issues related to the value of truth, relativism, and the debate on post-truth. The course includes traditional lectures, slides, quizzes on the e-learning system, and experiments with peer instruction methods (Kahoot software). Assessment is based on a research paper and a final oral exam on lecture notes, the required readings, and the research paper.

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. Students acquire the fundamental knowledge in history of Medieval art and develop the necessary skills to familiarize themselves with the artistic production of the period. Students analyze some of the main works of the history of Medieval art using specific methodologies and compare these appropriately. The first part of the course focuses on the study of artistic phenomena and their development with particular attention to the mendicant orders (Franciscans, Dominicans and Augustinians). Attention is paid to the material aspects, techniques, form, and function of the works of art (architecture, paintings, frescoes, illuminated books) in relation to the liturgy, architecture, accesses, and pilgrimage routes. The second part of the course focuses on monographic terms of the spatial and decorative restitution of one of the most significant European monuments: the basilica of San Francesco in Assisi.

The course focuses on pathology and general causes of disease. Topics covered include genetic diseases and disorders, cell and tissue injury, the body's reaction to injury, physiology of the immune system and immunology, oncology, cardiovascular pathology, acute inflammation, environmental pathology, neoplasia, antigen capture and presentation, and antigen-antibody reactions. The course has both a lecture and laboratory component. The lab deals with histopathology analysis of virtual slides, hydropic and fatty change, coagulative and colliquative necrosis, acute inflammation, tissue repair and scar formation, chronic inflammation (TBC and foreign body granuloma), hypertension, atherosclerosis, and neoplasms (benign and malignant neoplasm). Assessment in the course is based on an oral examination of course materials and readings.

The course discusses the main aspects and trends of the world economy during the 20th and early 21st centuries. At the end of the course students understand the origin of the most important economic institutions and the features of the economic cycles so far experienced by the world economy. Topics addressed in more detail include the failure of the command economies, the construction of the European Union, the evolution and transformation of financial systems, globalization, and the regulation of the labor market in different countries.

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 covers basics concepts in the history of Italian cinematography. In particular, the course tackles a number of common focal points that link cinema with the history of Italian culture (method of representation, cultural industry, relationships with other expressive forms). The class starts with an analysis of the concept of “national cinema” for better understanding both the focus and the approach adopted by the lecturer in presenting the Italian case study. After this methodological introduction, the class investigates the history of Italian cinema from the silent era to nowadays. In doing that, Italian films are analyzed both as art form and as economic good. The aim of the class is twofold. On the one hand it investigates an historical path in order to retrace the evolution of Italian films in terms of style, aesthetics, themes, etc. On the other hand, it detects relationships between Italian films, Italian history, Italian art forms and Italian cultural industry. The investigation of Italian film history is supported by the analysis of some films which are particularly important for understanding key-periods and key-genres of Italian film history. The films are: MA L'AMOR MIO NON MUORE (1913) by Mario Caserini, CABIRIA (2014) by Giovanni Pastrone, OSSESSIONE (1943) by Luchino Visconti, LADRI DI BICICLETTE (1948) by Vittorio De Sica, RISO AMARO (1949) by Giuseppe De Santis, LA STRADA (1954) by Federico Fellini, DIVORZIO ALL'ITALIANA (1961) by Pietro Germi, PER UN PUGNO DI DOLLARI (1964) by Sergio Leone, BLOW-UP (1966) by Michelangelo Antonioni, PROFONDO ROSSO (1975) by Dario Argento, CALL ME BY YOUR NAME (2017) by Luca Guadagnino, DOGMAN (2018) by Matteo Garrone. The course is structured in lecture/seminars led by the teacher. Sessions are accompanied with power point presentations, video clips, and film screenings. All students are required to attend the class, the screenings and to actively participate in class discussion.