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. At course completion, the student possesses knowledge on: the potential of biotechnology based genetic improvement to develop resilient cultivars suitable for sustainable agricultural systems; the molecular genetic control of the main features of agronomic interest including the response to abiotic and biotic stresses, the efficient use of water and nutrients, and host-pathogen interaction; genetic improvement methods that integrate assisted selection, phenotyping high-throughput, genetic engineering and genomic editing. In particular, the student possesses the skills to: participate in the management of genetic improvement programs aimed at varietal development in seed and nursery companies; evaluate and incorporate the appropriate biotechnological tools into genetic improvement programs; recognize and manage the positive aspects and critical issues of varietal innovation in agricultural systems, considering the entire production chain.

PREREQUISITES: The student who accesses this course must have a good knowledge of the fundamentals of mathematics, chemistry, plant biology, agronomy, crop biology and physiology, plant pathology, and the fundamentals of statistical analysis (sample, mean, variance and standard deviation). Most importantly, students must have already a clear and good knowledge of the fundamentals of Agricultural Genetics. 

The course is divided into two parts: Genetics for sustainable agriculture; and Plant breeding and biotechnology for sustainable agriculture. During and at the end of PART 1, exercises are proposed to the class, and evaluations are assigned. Students that: i) attended the course, ii) scored positively (>18) to the exercises for PART2, in the final exam will be asked to defend PART2 only.

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 provides students with a comprehensive understanding of the comparative dimension of the European legal space through primary institutions and principles, with a particular emphasis on solidarity. The course will lead the students to acquire and improve the following skills: techniques for reading and understanding constitutional norms, legislation and case law from different legal systems, as well as critical skills for the comparative examination of European constitutionalism; ability to find and understand legal sources of the European legal space; skills to elaborate innovative norms and policies in both the public and the private sector.

The course content is divided as follows:

• Comparative Methodology
• Practical and Theoretical Targets of Legal Comparison
• European Legal Families and Political/Territorial Systems
• European Constitutionalism and Comparative Understandings of the Principle of Solidarity
• EU and Domestic Legal Framework of Solidarity
• Solidarity in Inter-territorial relations
• Financial, Migration, and Environmental Norms and Policies on Solidarity
• Constitutional Adjudication and Interaction with European Courts

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 the methodological and theoretical tools of 'Atlantic History,' which redefines the spatial limits of modern politics, considering Europe, Africa, and the Americas as part of one and the same global experience. This perspective, well-developed in North American universities, is extended to the history of political concepts, with a special attention to antagonistic political cultures and resistance movements, but also to the colonial dimension embedded in the great classics of modern and contemporary political thought. The course deals with the history of modern political thought, with a special focus on the development of fundamental concepts such as sovereignty, state, rights, property and war, in a global perspective, which assumes the opening of the new Atlantic political space and the problems involved in European expansion overseas as a crucial background for understanding the emergence of new discursive strategies and new political categories in the early modern age.

After an initial lecture designed to provide a general overview of the methodology, the subsequent weeks of classes are divided into three distinct but interconnected units. The first unit deals with the theoretical and methodological tools of conceptual history and its redefinition from a global and oceanic perspective. It is argued that the history of concepts has provided an essential framework for understanding and criticizing the foundations of modern politics, but the Eurocentric coordinates underlying the traditional versions of this approach must be radically revised in order to grasp the genealogy of our global present. The second unit addresses the emergence of the Atlantic space and its distinctive phenomena and actors as a decisive factor of historical transformation that radically displaced the traditional coordinates of politics. On this basis, the development of a new political framework and the modern theory of state sovereignty is understood as a response to this crucial challenge. This is illustrated through a close reading and discussion of relevant passages from classical thinkers such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Thomas Paine. The third unit offers a spatial reading of the work of the legal scholar Hugo Grotius in the light of the perspective outlined in the first two units. Grotius – who has been traditionally considered one of the founding fathers of modern international law and modern maritime law, but who was also a crucial figure in the context of the creation of the Dutch "seaborne" empire in the East and West Indies – constitutes a compelling case study because his legal and political theory can be situated in a transitional moment between the medieval and humanist tradition on the one hand and the emergence of a modern outlook on the other, while reflecting the entanglements between states and colonies, land and sea, the territorialized order of sovereignty, and the fluid power of commercial empires and trading companies. An analysis of his work can therefore allow us both to grasp the complex origins and characteristics of modern political space and to elucidate the global genealogy of European modernity.

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 provides students with notions of comparative grammar, which allows them to recognize the main differences between east-Slavic (Russian in particular), west-Slavic (Polish) and south-Slavic (Bulgarian) languages. The course also provides an accurate knowledge of Slavic medieval history, within the broader context of European and Mediterranean culture and civilization. Students will acquire the knowledge and skills to read and comprehend short Slavonic texts.

In Fall 2025, the course concerns the figure of Michael Trivolis, a Greek monk who lived between the end of the 15th and the middle of the 16th century, known in Russia as ‘Maximus the Greek’ (Maksim Grek). Born in Arta, in the Epirus region of Greece, pupil of John Lascaris in Corfù and Florence, collaborator of Aldo Manuzio in Venice, at the service of the court of Mirandola, once again in Florence as Dominican monk, Michael Trivolis trained at the school of Italian humanism. When he was about 35 years old, he returned to his fatherland and entered the Vatopedi monastery on Mount Athos. After 12 years, in 1518, he was sent to Muscovy with the task of correcting the church-Slavonic translations which were in use there (with particular reference to the Psalter). In the Rus’, the first half of the 16th century was a time characterized by the struggle against heresies on one hand, and by an harsh debate on church properties on the other. Maximus the Greek’s friction with the political and ecclesiastical power earned him imprisonment and ostracism: up until the moment of his death, which took place almost 40 years later, he has never been allowed to leave the Rus’. It’s been written that Maximus “had been prepared for a mission to Muscovy, but Muscovy was not yet ready for him”. Nevertheless, besides being one of the most prolific writers in the entire Slavic Middle Ages, Maximus the Greek has been read and loved by many people, to the point that he became very soon worthy of veneration (but the Russian Church canonized him only in 1988).

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. This course consists of two modules: Marine Renewable Energy and Bioenergy, Hydrogen, and Heat Recovery Systems. 

For Marine Renewable Energy, students acquire the ability to assess marine renewable energy potential and to conceptually design energy devices. They are able to assess marine energy potential (wind, waves, tides, currents, etc.) and have knowledge about devices for marine energy harvesting and technological challenges, and assessment of environmental, social, and economic impacts. The module covers the following topics: Marine renewable energy: sources (wind, wave, tide) and variability; Type of marine renewable energy converters; Environmental impact and cost of MRE devices; Optimal mixing of MRE; Multi-use marine areas and integration of different economic activities: MRE, aquaculture, tourism, maritime hubs; and Re-purposing of O&G platforms.

Bioenergy, Hydrogen and Heat Recovery Systems module provides the student with knowledge and understanding about: Biomass and alternative fuels for energy application: production, treatment and storage, thermochemical conversion, environmental and economic aspects; Hydrogen for energy and transport applications: characteristics, production, gas-to-power (G2P) and power-to-gas (P2G) systems, technologies for upgrading fuels (synthetic methane), fields of application, integration into the existing infrastructure; Heat recovery systems: cycles and working principle of the main heat-to-power (H2P) technologies (Organic Rankine Cycle and Stirling engine). After completion of the course the students should (i) gain general competence related to bioenergy and hydrogen-based systems and their potential in future energy supply; (ii) working with cross-cutting problems related to bioenergy and hydrogen; (iii) analyzing potential and characteristics of Organic Rankine Cycle systems heat recovery from medium and low-temperature heat sources. 

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. This course provides students with the scientific foundation of modern, anthropogenic climate change and its impacts. The course focuses on (1) the observational evidence of present climate change, (2) fundamental physical processes that shape climate (e.g. solar variability, orbital mechanics, greenhouse gases, the carbon cycle, atmospheric and oceanic circulation, and aerosols), (3) the modern description of climate change (radiative forcing, feedbacks, climate sensitivity) and (4) the physical understanding of predictions of future climate change (for example, how global warming will impact the global water cycle). At the end of the course, students are able to understand and discuss about material consequences of climate change, like sea level change, variations in precipitation, extreme events and abrupt climate change. This course also examines the science behind mitigation and adaptation proposals.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. This advanced course provides students with the ability to: acquire basic critical and methodological tools for the study of works and authors linked in an interdisciplinary sense to the philosophies of theatre and to the theories of representation, in an intercultural context; acquire advanced knowledge of the main historiographic, critical, and aesthetic perspectives of theatre studies in the contemporary international scene, also thanks to the analysis and collective discussion of works that are paradigmatically susceptible to a philosophical reading; arrive at a complete overview of the aesthetics and theories of theatre whose area of application includes both past theatre works and contemporary performances. In terms of skills, this knowledge provides the student with analytical and philosophical-aesthetic tools that enable him/her to inscribe past and present performances in a wide and conscious framework of meaning, within a polyphonic history of scenic culture marked by systemic continuities and paradigm shifts.

The course begins with a reflection on some fundamental philosophical ideas within the symbolic grammar of the theatrical event, namely space, time, body, and voice. These concepts are connected to corresponding theatrical experiences—not as mere illustrations or examples, but as scenic moments inherently full of meaning—belonging to different historical and cultural periods. In the second part of the course, the focus shifts to the actor and the complex relationship between person and character. To explore this relationship, attention is given to mimesis as both a process of identification and imitation. To ground these theoretical considerations in specific practices, Diderot’s Paradox of the Actor is read and analyzed, situating this work within the context of 18th-century French theatre. The final lessons of the module are devoted to experimenting with individual and collective critical-philosophical writing exercises. These exercises are related to performances that students will have attended during the course period, either live or via video.

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 purpose of the course is to provide students with a background in science to the methods and policy tools used in environmental and resource economics in order to achieve efficient management of pollution and environmental resources. More specifically, the course will introduce the concept of environmental externalities as the main source of environmental degradation, and the policy instruments used to correct these externalities. The course also includes an introduction to climate change economics and climate policy. Student having successfully completed the course are expected have a good understanding of issues and economic policies related to controlling environmental pollution and climate change. The course covers the two main approaches to the economics of the environment and natural resources - Environmental economics and Ecological economics - with a special focus on the Economics of climate change. 

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. As a result of this course, students will know and understand the fundamentals of the virtual prototyping through the systematic approach to a complete DMU (Digital Mockup) that from the design concept leads to the engineering of a vehicle (car or motorcycle). Students will learn to work independently and apply multidisciplinary knowledge to the virtual design and optimization of systems and components in vehicle engineering. The students learn the most advanced techniques of interaction between real and virtual prototype through the principles of human-machine interaction. Students develop the ability to work within a workgroup, planning and managing the activities needed to achieve technically valid project results.

This course provides the skills and knowledge for the development of an innovative concept for new motorcycles and/or scooters. To achieve these objectives, the program includes the following activities: Definition of project objectives through Market Analysis and Competitor Analysis; Definition of Technical Specifications; Setting up the Product Architecture; Morphological matrix for the selection of integrated innovative solutions; Setting up the layout of the new motorcycle/scooter; 3D construction of the Digital Mock-up of the new motorcycle/scooter; Introduction to Aesthetics-Oriented Design; Definition of the new motorcycle vehicle concepts; Virtual and physical prototyping of the concepts.

The following prerequisites are required to participate in the course: Advanced knowledge of 2D CAD software, advanced knowledge of 3D CAD software for solid modeling, and advanced knowledge of 3D CAD (CAS) software for surface modeling. Please note that during the course, no class hours are dedicated to teaching 2D or 3D modeling software, which, as stated above, must be considered prerequisites.

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 student is expected to understand the functions and processes of transformations within the media industries and the innovations connected to new digital technologies applied to creative industries.

The digital revolution has fundamentally reshaped our world, transforming how we create, distribute, and consume everything from news and entertainment to social connections. This course is an in-depth exploration of the economic principles and models that govern this new landscape. The course is focused on two of the most important media industries, music and video. Each of them is introduced and analyzed in the value chain, all the relevant typologies of players, and how the technological evolution and the changes in consumer habits are influencing the markets’ dynamics and their structure.