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 is aimed at the comprehension of the main biological process at a molecular level: structures, properties and function of biomolecules, molecular mechanism, route and law of bio- transformations, the base of microbiological physiology and genetics, enzymatic catalysis, and fermentation. The course is also aimed at the comprehension and application of the knowledge and acquired skills in the biochemical interaction among organisms and environment.

The course content is divided into two parts:

Part 1: Biochemistry

• 1. Macromolecules: Amino Acids, Carbohydrates, Lipids
• 2. Protein structure: Primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary
• 3. Plant biochemistry: Photosynthesis: light reactions, carbon fixation, synthesis of sugars, bacterial photosynthesis.
• 4. Catabolism of sugars: Glycolysis, Krebs cycle, respiration, chemiosmosis.
• 5. Enzyme catalysis: Substrate specificity, catalytic mechanisms, and enzyme kinetics

Part 2: Biochemical Methodologies

This part consists of experimental laboratory course, which introduces the students to the basic approaches for the determination of proteins amount, separation, and identification. During the practical laboratory, the following experimental activities are foreseen:

1. Determination of protein content by using a colorimetric assay;

2. Separation of a mixture of known proteins by using a chromatographic analysis;

3. Identification of purified proteins using spectrophotometric and electrophoretic techniques.

This course is part of the LM degree program and is intended for advanced students. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. The course examines the various fields of Etruscan civilization and of the pre-Roman Italian world; explores how to use the critical tools for a correct reading of archaeological documentation integrating it with historical and epigraphic documentation; and examines the depth of the territory, also through visits to the main museums and archaeological areas of the region, which enables students to acquire a complete and conscious approach to the discipline.

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 gives students a general overview and understanding of the international and European criminological debate concerning border control and a detailed knowledge of key topics and key scholars in the field. Students are expected to be able to combine their knowledge of different contexts and disciplinary approaches when analyzing border policies. Students acquire the competencies and knowledge necessary to analyze critically the contemporary policies of border control in different contexts, also in view of possible fields of work and research: border police, the role and functioning of administrative detention and deportation, the international relations of the externalization of borders, the use of criminal law in border control. 

The course presents the contemporary debate in the field known as "border criminology". At the end of the course, students are expected to be able to analyze the mechanisms of power subtending the processes of illegalization, detention, deportation, refusal, and criminalization of migrants. The perspective developed in the course embraces a critical approach and considers law, policies, and discourses as entrenched factors in driving the mechanisms of border control. The focus of the analysis is the European context, analyzed through comparative perspective as much as possible. Special attention is given to the intersection of race, class, and gender in the law-making and law-enforcement activities. Not only is the securitization of border taken into account, but also the more recently emerged “humanitarian control” is considered as an object of possible criminological enquiry.

Lectures first introduce the students to the critical perspective in criminology and to the main topics of the theoretical debate of border criminology. It then provides an introduction to the theoretical key concepts in border criminology, and especially the question of punishment, the nature of borders, and the transnational perspective we aim to adopt in the course, with an attention to the possibility of transforming borders from below. Then, the lectures investigate the different countries in Europe where one can observe the mechanisms of border control, highlighting the variety of cases. Each of them is discussed through empirical and theoretical researches carried out in different contexts.

The course focuses on the history of photography from its origins to the present with particular attention to technical and aesthetic developments. Special attention is placed on the role of photography in 20th century art and the application of photography in cultural industries such as fashion, publicity, and media. A section of the course is dedicated to contemporary artistic research and its applications in the field of communication. The first part of the course focuses on photography and art and the topics include the relationship between photography and art, definition/s of artistry in the 20th century, the role of the author and the production of the work of art, the contribution of technology in contemporary art, and contaminations between visual arts and other disciplines. The second part of the course focuses on photography and reality and discusses topics including the role of photography in 19th and 20th century art, the relationship with reality, the role of technology, painting and “ready-made” art, and the work of art and behavior.

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 basic algorithms, tools, and systems for the management, processing, and analysis of digital images. Special attention is placed on the design and development of simple systems oriented to real-world computer vision applications such as those requiring segmentation and classification of objects in digital images. The course discusses topics including basic definitions related to image processing and computer vision, image formation and acquisition, intensity transformations, spatial filtering, image segmentation, binary morphology, blob analysis, edge detection, local invariant features, and object detection. The theoretical part of the course is complemented by assisted hands-on lab sessions based on Python and the OpenCV library. Lab sessions cover selected topics such as intensity transformations, spatial filtering, camera calibration, motion estimation, and local invariant features. Students are provided with the software tools, image/video archives, and support that enable practical implementation and testing of most of the topics discussed in class, in order to provide in-depth analysis of the course subject matter.

The course is part of the LM degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by consent of the instructor. The course explores some fundamental moments in the history of contemporary art from the 1950s to the present, focusing on the main methodological, thematic, and theoretical issues that have emerged in the visual arts. Case studies are documented through the support of audiovisual materials. Places for incoming exchange students are limited and are reserved primarily for students enrolled in art related programs at their home university.

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 historical and epistemological relationships linking the development of archaeology and museology to colonialism. Special attention is placed on the current debates on decolonization and contemporary movements in countries with a colonial past that involve debates on topics such as repatriation of human remains and artefacts, local curators, and community archaeology. The course places the history of archaeology and museums in a wider epistemological framework and offers a critical analysis of archaeological and museological theory and practice. Students have a chance to apply their analytical skills to professional activities linked with the popularization and public use of archaeological and museum-linked expertise. The course deals with the development of Western archaeological/anthropological enquiry and museum collections in the wider historical and epistemological context of European colonial expansion and follows a roughly chronological order. Starting with the birth of antiquarian practices in the 16th century, the course explores the many ways in which scientific enquiry has been entangled with colonialism. Special attention is devoted to the study of extra-European peoples and pasts, with a specific focus on indigenous America. Selected case studies are explored in order to shed light on the ways in which the entanglement developed over the centuries, stressing not only how archaeological research and collecting practices benefited from European political domination of non-Western countries, but also how academic disciplines have been instrumental in providing the epistemological frameworks which legitimized colonial domination, thus creating a circular, self-sustaining relationship of mutual support. The last part of the course focuses on recent attempts at the decolonization of archeological and museum activities through the implementation of good practices such as collaborative and community archaeology, object repatriation, and indigenous curatorship.

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 188B and Bologna course numbers 29886 and 81714, is associated with the LM in Modern, Post-Colonial and Comparative Literatures and the LM in Geography and Territorial Processes degree programmes. The other version,  UCEAP Course Number 188A and Bologna course number 78696, is associated with the LM in Language, Society, and Communication degree programme.
This course examines languages as cultural features linking the human communities to their territories, history, and geopolitical evolution, with a particular analysis of the changes occurred in the spatial dimension of languages, in connection to acculturation processes and to linguistic policies. In this respect, the course deals with the regional division of the European languages and with the EU language policy both in respect to minority languages and to the process of linguistic education of its citizens. The relationship between linguistic diversity and biological diversity is also explored with a geographical focus on the issue of language death. The course examines the relationship between space/place and language from different perspectives. At the beginning of the course, the students explore the field of cultural geography and its main themes, concepts, and keywords. After having explored the differences between linguistic geography and geographies of languages, the course focus on the second and using both theories and empirical cases, looks at the interconnections between culture, cultural geography, and language geography; language as cultural phenomenon; toponyms and culture; and semiotics of space. Moreover, the course observes how the relationship between geography and language expresses itself in different configurations of bodies and spaces: digital and media spaces, literary spaces, migratory fluxes, terrorism discourses and place-bound semiotics, tourism performance, and cultural and intercultural spaces.