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. The course focuses on the analysis of geopolitics and international politics from a geographical perspective. By linking the history of geography and geopolitics to colonialism and European imperialism, the course introduces the students to critical human geography and the understanding of how spatial theory and spatial practices are related to power and culture. Students learn how to critically reflect and analyze contemporary cases of geopolitical interventions and discourses.

The course is divided into four parts:

• In the first part, the course introduces the origins and the development of geography and political geography since the end of the 19th century.
• In the second part of the course, the course explores the crisis of modern sovereignty and the emergence of a new power horizon associated with biopolitical governmentality.
• The third part is dedicated to the geographies of otherness. This part discusses the relation between traveling, field trips, and geographical exploration in their connection with European colonialism.
• The fourth part of the course will be dedicated to the history and the contemporary use of Geopolitics and the different stages of geopolitical theories.

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 addresses the relationship between archaeology, media, and the public in the complex process of archaeological communication. The first part of the course examines the individual concepts and the evolution of archaeological communication over time, with a specific focus on the last twenty years and the role of digital dissemination. The second part of the course considers the specific case of the KALAM Project, specifically the different ways of communicating to the public the archaeological realities present in the territory of Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

By the end of the course students have an in-depth knowledge of the relationship between archaeological research, cultural heritage, media (meaning both traditional and new digital media), and the public. They will be critically aware of the strategies of communication and dissemination of archaeological knowledge adopted by the various people involved in the job of dissemination and enhancement. The knowledge acquired makes students proficient in assessing, monitoring, and reporting in the media on communication activities relating to archaeology and cultural heritage.

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 the student has a wide knowledge of the most important statistical techniques employed for forecasting and prediction purposes in modern business activities. In particular the student is able to: select the most appropriate predictive model to solve the business problem at hand; analyze the data and perform predictions using the statistical software R; report the results in a proper format for the business management. The course content includes: a probabilistic approach to the business prediction and forecasting problem, evaluation of predictions and forecasts, linear predictors, and forecasting models.

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 this course students learn advanced topics in the Python programming language. At the end of the course, students will be familiar with some of the most largely diffused Python's libraries and tools. More specifically, students will have acquired the knowledge of fundamental topics about i) optimization routines and ii) about the following libraries: NumPy (support to numerical calculus), SciPy (wide range of algorithms for optimization and many other classes of problems), Pandas (data analysis and manipulation tool), Statslib (tools for statistical and time series analysis).

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 content covers the following topics:

a) a review of theoretical models for interpreting daily life and daily social interactions as educational arenas

b) video-ethnographic methodological approaches centered on social interaction to identify and study educational processes in daily life

c) observation and analysis of video recordings of communicative and educational events in both ordinary (e.g., parent-child interactions in the family) and institutional contexts (e.g., pupil-teacher or parent-teacher interactions at school, doctor-patient or caregiver-doctor interactions in healthcare contexts)

d) the illustration of training perspectives that can be implemented to promote self-reflexivity and support the subjects involved in communicative and educational experiences

At the end of the course, the student knows: the main theoretical assumptions concerning the study of everyday life and mundane educational events; the main theories and theoretical-methodological approaches for investigating mundane interactions as occasions for learning, education, and socialization; the micro-pedagogical approach to education, i.e., the study of the ways in which the members of a community give meaning to their everyday lifeworld, construct, and transmit culture in and through their social practices and interactions. The student is be able to: analyze mundane practices and interactions by relying on a (video-)ethnographic approach and Conversation Analysis; identify the educational value of social interactions in a variety of ordinary contexts (e.g., parent-child interactions in the family, pupil-teacher or parent-teacher interactions at school, doctor-patient or doctor-parent/caregiver interactions in healthcare settings); reflect on mundane educational experiences and the role of language and interaction in education, socialization, and learning processes; use this knowledge and skills to act as a “reflective practitioner”, in order to implement interventions aimed at promoting self-reflexivity and awareness of the subjects involved in mundane educational experiences.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by permission of the instructor. By the end of the course, students know the main epigraphic disciplines from a comparative, diachronic, and diatopic perspective. They are able to analyze the writer’s intention implicit in every written document in relation to the support and the type of archaeological context. Students will know how to use the main methods of documentation and study of inscriptions, including new developments in digital epigraphy. They will have a critical understanding of a written document qua archaeological find, thus enhancing its purely material side. They will also make independent use of the main corpora and repertoires (even digital ones), as provided by the epigraphic disciplines.

The course focuses on the materiality of ancient Near Eastern written evidence. Starting from the emergence of the first written documents toward the end of the fourth millennium BC, the use of the cuneiform script, which was first invented to express Sumerian and was later adapted to write a variety of unrelated languages throughout the ancient Near East, is analyzed. Specifically, different material supports and the social, religious, archival, and archaeological contexts of writing are examined. Particular attention is devoted to the relation between writing and royal ideology, and to scribal training and education.

The course outlines Archaeology and Greek Art History, from the Protogeometric period to Hellenism. During the starting lessons, the teacher gives advice on the studying, explains the exam carrying out, and gives the outlines of the basic elements of the discipline, in order to fill in possible gaps in students' knowledge: Introduction to Greek civilization through its historical and geographical framework; the periodization and the specific terminology; and main aspects of architecture, urban planning, artistic, and handcrafted production of the Greek World (sculpture, painting, mosaic, pottery) in the Protogeometric, Geometric, Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods.

By the end of the course students have a basic knowledge of Greek civilization, in its historical and artistic development. They will be familiar with the history and geography of the first millennium BC, according to the traditional periodization of Greek civilization: Protogeometric, Geometric, Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods. They will also have mastered the languages, topics, and methods of the discipline when interpreting artistic and cultural phenomena from a historical angle. They will be able to use cultural material to describe cultural encounters, be able to speak and write using terminology appropriate to their scientific discipline, and also have learned to listen, understand, and debate respectfully with different viewpoints, and know how to spot tie-ups among different disciplines.

The course is focused on the principal themes of the discipline with particular attention to typologies, functions, and significance of the Roman monuments and artistic expressions with spots on history of research, methods, and chronological questions. By the end of the course, thanks to the presentation and discussion of the basic components and main manifestations of Roman art, architecture, and town planning, students are familiar with the main themes of the discipline serving as a basis for the definition of the problems in a context of historical–cultural interaction. Moreover, students acquire the basic skills for independent use of the research tools and scientific bibliography and are able to reason critically and analyze or interpret data. They also learn to listen, understand, and debate respectfully with different viewpoints, and know how to spot tie-ups among different disciplines.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by permission of the instructor.

Climate change is no longer an abstract future threat. Human population is at the center of the climate system. A demographic perspective is hence critical for understanding, on the one hand, the impact of human activities on the global climate, and, on the other hand, the impacts of climate change on human population. Upon successful completing of this course, students have the knowledge and skills to: 1) demonstrate an understanding of how human population contributes to anthropogenic climate change taking into account demographic heterogeneity; 2) demonstrate an understanding of how anthropogenic climate change differentially affects human health, wellbeing and livelihoods; 3) critically evaluate and explain different scientific and statistical evidence employed to study the links between population dynamics and climate change; 4) conduct research through the consultation of academic literature and/or through the collection and analysis of data; 5) work in groups and develop class discussions. The course topics include:

• Introduction to population and climate change interactions
• Climate change and demographic heterogeneity (e.g. age, gender, education, income, locations)
• Population and energy consumption/carbon emissions
• Population, water, and food
• Climate change and health and mortality
• Climate change and family and fertility
• Climate change and migration
• Climate change and future population dynamics
• Date and methods for the study of population and climate change

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, students will have acquired knowledge of the theoretical and critical reflections on the performing arts in Italy from the second half of the twentieth century to the first decade of the new millennium, with a particular focus on mise-en-scène and dance. Students will be capable of autonomously analyzing critical, theoretical, and poetic texts regarding the performing arts and will have acquired a series of tools for understanding pertinent iconographic and video documents.

What is performance? How is it related to its cultural and historical context? Which tools does its study provide to read the Italian contemporary culture? The course provides an answer to these questions in regard to the history of the Italian Performance Scene since the Sixties. After a methodological introduction on diverse concepts and theories of performance, the course focuses on the most relevant case studies of New Theatre with a focus on the most engaged forms of theatre, which allow for an introduction to the cultural, social, and political changes that shaped the Italian history in between the Sixties and Seventies. The course then focuses on relevant case studies in Applied and Social Theatre (theatre in prison, in health centers, and with vulnerable communities).