University of Bologna

The course discusses the historical coordinates for the study of literature, the techniques of textual analysis, and competence in writing and the ability to read in-depth fundamental works of Italian literary tradition. The course provides a good knowledge of Italian literature by means of the direct reading of texts. The course topic varies each term; review the University of Bologna course catalog for the current topic for a specific term.

This course is part of the LM degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. This course discusses topics including climate change: the physical basis and impacts; carbon emission drivers, abatement strategies, and investment needs; transition dynamics and socio-economic impacts; climate-related macro-financial risks, and physical/financial asset stranding; mitigation policies: carbon pricing and permit markets; sustainable finance policy-making, and central banks and financial supervisors; climate economic modelling: the DICE model, IAMS, and CGE models; neoclassical transition modelling approaches; complexity-driven transition modelling approaches; and production and financial networks.

The course focuses on the fundamental elements of Roman artistic, architectural, and urban civilization and their role in the processes of cultural integration. The course highlights historical and cultural issues and places artistic productions in their social, political, and economic contexts in order to arrive at sound historical reconstructions. Students are encouraged to explore independently scientific instruments and bibliographical references that are of interest to them. The course focuses on typologies, functions, and significance of Roman monuments and artistic expressions. Attention is placed on chronological questions and the history of research methodologies. The course includes an optional seminar for art history majors. Specific topics include: A Plural Art–artistic Roman cultures from the Archaic period to the Late Antiquity; Rome in the Archaic period–places of power, cultural spaces, houses; the urbanistic and monumental evolution of the Urbe in the Republican and Imperial age; places of power, temples, and sanctuaries, spaces of entertainment, houses, tombs; originality of Roman art, relationships between Greek art and Classicisms; Romanization–diffusion and assimilation of romanitas, town urbanism and its public and private monuments; art of construction–techniques and materials; artistic “languages” Arte colta and arte plebea; sculpture, painting, and mosaics, Achillean statues, historical rendering, portraits. Assessment is based on an oral exam aimed at verifying knowledge of the materials presented in class as well as the assigned readings. Exchange students are given the option of a written exam in lieu of the oral exam, if they prefer. The written exam consists of four essay questions on the general themes of the course and the identification and analysis of specific works of art.

This course is part of the LM degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. The course addresses the main issues concerning cognitive science, both from a historical-theoretical point of view, and as regards the intertwining and connections with other disciplines connected to it or that are partially part of it. In particular, the issue of the gestation and birth of cognitive science, the status of cognitive science, and the evolution of cognitive science in its phases is discussed. With regard to the latter, problems concerning the classical artificial intelligence, the connectionist artificial intelligence, the developments of robotics and more contemporary approaches to artificial intelligence are addressed: all these developments are treated from the point of view of cognitive science evolution, closely related to artificial intelligence, and with specific attention to the philosophical and epistemological aspects of the discipline. The connection between cognitive science and psychology, neuroscience, and linguistics, as well as the contemporary debate on the status of cognitive science, its methodologies, its ontologies, and its scientific nature are also treated from an epistemological point of view. Within a constant philosophical framework of reference, the course is divided into four parts of equivalent length: the background and birth of cognitive science; classical cognitive science (and related disciplines); the new cognitive science (and related disciplines); and the relationship with other disciplines and the debate on the status of cognitive science.

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. The course focuses on the relevant themes related to blockchain technologies, cryptocurrencies, smart contracts, and novel applications that can be built over the blockchain. Students in the course develop simple smart contracts that can be deployed on a blockchain. Bitcoin and novel cryptocurrencies gathered momentum in the last months. More and more investors look with interest at these technologies, while others label them as a dangerous speculative bubble. The truth is that the blockchain, and the alternative implementations of a distributed ledger, represent very interesting technologies, that can be exploited to build novel distributed applications. The underlying building blocks are related to many concepts and research areas of computer science in general. This course illustrates the main principles and conceptual foundations of the blockchain and the Bitcoin network. The course discusses topics including introduction to peer-to-peer systems, overlay topologies and decentralization, introduction to Crypto and Cryptocurrencies, the blockchain: how to achieve decentralization, transactions and transaction scripting languages, mining, attacks to the blockchain, anonymity, and smart contracts.

This course is part of the LM degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. This course discusses bioinformatics and data science, with direct applications on molecular biology, genetics, genomics, and transcriptomics. The course discusses topics including next generation sequencing, bioinformatics file formats, the UNIX environment, online bioinformatics tools, gene networks, bioinformatics databases, cancer bioinformatics, sequence acquisition, phylogenetic analysis, R statistical environment, and graphics with R.

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. The course offers an overview of: how health economics theory and methods can be applied to understand the challenges facing health systems in low and middle income countries; the patterns and key issues of health systems and policies in developing countries, with an emphasis on critical assessment of current and future policy options. By the end of the course students are expected to be able to: appreciate the relevance of applying health economics methods in low and middle-income countries; assess alternative methods of raising revenue to fund health systems in low and middle-income countries; assess equity of access to health services and how health system can identify and respond to health inequities; assess policy options to improve health systems performance in low and middle-income countries; adopt a systematic view of health and health systems in developing countries, and develop independent thinking on future perspective regarding health sector reforms. Topics covered: the outlook of LMICs and overview of their health systems; assessing the performance of health systems in LMICs; identify key areas of debate that remain unresolved; the relationship between health and development: how much does disease depress development in human capital and income around the world?; effects of childhood health on adult income; effects of adult health on adult productivity; reverse causality; macroeconomic implications; health behavior and demand of health in LMICs; health disparities and policy interventions; access to Health Care in LMICs: supply side; the role of governments and budget allocations; international organizations; the quality of medical care as a function of competences and practices of providers; policy interventions; parental inputs, parental time, transmission, and children's health.

ADVANCED BEGINNING ITALIAN (A2) This course is designed to provide students who already have some familiarity with Italian, a more comprehensive knowledge of the language. The course follows the language proficiency guidelines set up the European level and is equivalent to the A2 level according to the European framework. At the end of the four-week intensive program, students are expected not only to be able to express themselves in a simple, fluid, and clear manner, and describe events that have taken place in the past and express personal preferences, but also to be able to talk about plans and projects using the future tense, express desires and hopes, and give suggestions using the conditional, and give commands, using the imperative in both the (Lei) and (tu) forms. Finally, the course focuses on storytelling, and the use of the IMPERFETTO vs. PASSATO PROSSIMO verb tenses. The course is designed to cover the second semester of Italian, and prepares students for the B1 Level according to the European framework. All four abilities including speaking, listening, reading, and writing are emphasized with the support of authentic materials (videos) and real-life situations such as visits to local venues and cultural sites. The course follows a communicative approach to language acquisition and involves opportunities for role playing, group activities, games, class discussions, and exchanges with native University of Bologna students. Activities outside the classroom are organized in order to reinforce observation and communication skills that facilitate immersion in Italian culture. The course includes a major field trip. Students select the number of quarter units from a minimum of 3 to a maximum of 6. The course is organized by Inlingua with supervision from the Study Center. Course materials are provided by Inlingua. The basic text for the course is: Nuovo Contatto A1 (Loescher, 2018)