University of Bologna

By the end of the course the student: knows the categories and practices of contemporary art, both in terms of technical-linguistic and theoretical aspects; understands the role assumed by the visual arts in the transition between the 19th and 21st centuries, in their specific development and relation to the parallel trends of other artistic disciplines; is able to understand the contribution made by contemporary art to the development of visual culture with particular attention to technological, media, and social issues.

Course contents: contemporary art, i.e., the aspects that have developed and have been commonly accepted, in the transition between the 19th and the 21st century, as fundamental to defining artistic practices. In particular, the definition and meanings of contemporary art, the mediums and the characteristics of the work, the role of the artist, the dynamics of the art system—from the market to the different forms of circulation—and the evolution of a pluralistic and global perspective.

In the first unit, the main parameters of periodization of contemporaneity are exposed, the forms and contexts are identified, and the meanings usually attributed to contemporary art are discussed. The second unit is devoted to the work of art, i.e., the mediums commonly adopted by artists, issues related to the uniqueness of the work, and the rise of forms of expression that understand the work as an experience. The third unit considers the perception and social role of the artist, with a focus on the convergences between art and life, collective practices, and the evolution in the working methodologies of visual artists. The fourth unit considers the founding features of the art system, from the role of the public to the art market and the idea of the exhibition. Finally, the fifth unit examines the emergence of a pluralistic perspective in light of issues related to feminism, gender identity, postcolonialism, and globalization.

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 know how to interpret the characteristics of the contemporary city in a changing climate. The student will know the main available tools and methods to understand, plan, and design adaptive communities, taking into account the peculiarities of diverse context (urban, rural, island, mountain). Greening and ecosystem services are explored as a strong driver of resilience and sustainability, while the principle of environmental and climate justice is integrated throughout the course.

The course begins with an introduction to planning principles, processes, methods, and tools to support students' understanding around the concept of sustainability, resilience, and planning. Planning is considered in both rural and urban environments, considering those as a complex socio-ecological system. Around the idea of planning, the course touches upon the following topics: planning in a changing climate, but how is the climate changing?; climate and environmental justice; climate risks in urban and rural areas; urban areas: greening the city; rural regeneration theory and practice from case studies and projects; and landscape management and values.

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 module, students: know the most relevant univariate and multivariate analytical techniques and tools; can perform statistical analyses of cross-sector and longitudinal data and deliver suitable graphic representations, making results comprehensible to organizations’ decision makers.

The course content is divided as follows:

1. Introduction to data: Data basics; Sampling principles; Experiments and observational studies
2. Summarizing data: Examining numerical data; Considering categorical data
3. Probability: Defining probability; Conditional probability; Bayes theorem
4. Random variables: Discrete and continuous; Expectation
5. Distributions of random variables: Normal; Geometric; Bernoulli
6. Foundations for inference: Point estimates; Confidence intervals; Hypothesis testing

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 advanced understanding of the main challenges associated with the development of new products. More specifically, at the end of the course students are able to: design a new product development process; analyze the competitive advantage of a new idea; assess a new product idea’s value; make decision on whether or not a new product idea should/should not be launched in the market.

The course content is divided into five parts:

1) The new product development process. New product development as a process. The relationship between Research and Development.

2) Identification of opportunities. Ideas generation. Need analysis and classification.

3) Turn the consumer insight into a product. Preference analysis and concept development.

4) Concept testing and sales forecasting. Evaluating the market potential

5) New product Launch. Launching strategies, new product adoption and diffusion

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 fundamental principles of how ecological systems work. It focuses on the ecological problems caused by human activities as well. Fundamental and applied aspects of ecology are emphasized. An understanding of the scope of the problems facing us (climate change, unsustainable use of resources, pollution, extinctions, and the erosion of natural biodiversity) and the means to counter and solve these problems depend on a proper grasp of ecological fundamentals. Although the course analyzes all the main types of ecosystems, it works in particular on aquatic ecosystems, covering concepts such as sustainable development, ecosystem services, and environmental monitoring in detail.

The course content is divided as follows:

1. Introduction: the cultural roots of ecology, the aims of ecology, the levels of ecological organization, temporal and spatial scales, ecology as a science, ecological methods and tools
2. Interactions between organisms and their environment: ecological niche, life cycles and energy acquisition
3. The populations: life histories, growth models, life cycles, carrying capacity, the concept of metapopulation, examples of methods of sampling and estimations
4. Biotic interactions: competition, predation, parasitism, facilitation and other positive interactions, direct and indirect interactions
5. Communities and biodiversity: community structure, ecological successions, distribution, biodiversity and biodiversity indices, factors affecting biodiversity.
6. Ecosystems and their dynamics: food chains and food webs, ecosystem functioning, trophic cascades, disturbances and resilience, regime shifts, alternative stable states.
7. Ecosystem, general concepts: energy flow, biogeochemical cycles, biomass on earth, decomposition and detritivores, biomes, microclimate and Biotic pump.
8. Different types of ecosystems: lentic ecosystems abiotic dynamics, lentic ecosystems communities, terrestrial ecosystems, biomes and microclimate.
9. River ecosystems: lotic environments and their catchments: Hydrology, geomorphology and river community.
10. Natural depuration process (NBSs): riparian ecotones, characteristics and function, wetlands, natural phytodepuration systems, other NBSs.
11. Threats to biological diversity: habitat degradation and loss, pollution, eutrophication, overexploitation of natural resources, invasive species, climate changes.
12. Introduction to conservation biology: the natural capital, ecosystem goods and services
13. Conservation of populations and ecosystems: vulnerability and conservation status, reintroductions, restorations, protected areas, spatial planning, current legislations, examples of management of anthropogenic exploitation, success conservation and management stories, monitoring

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 focused on the effect of the synthesis of monomers and biopolymers on the environment, with a particular attention on their current and potential eco-sustainable developments and their effects on recyclability and biodegradability. At the end of the course the student has acquired important knowledge on the different types of biopolymers and their overall impact on the environment. The course is divided into 6 parts: Life without plastic; Polymers and green chemistry; Biopolymers chemistry; End of LIFE; Plastic pollution; Green polymers and Europe.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. Students learn about the theories at the core of the most relevant contemporary art practices of the late XX and early XXI centuries, maturing their skills to analyze and contextualize the main artistic currents since the 1950s. Students learn to critically evaluate the works of art and carry out independent research. In particular, they acquire the tools to interpret the peculiarities of today’s art in relation with media and politics.

The course explores 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. It opens with a discussion on various genres of painting of the post-war period, from Abstract Expressionism to Art Brut, in reference to the theories of “modernist painting” elaborated by Clement Greenberg. The second lecture discusss tactics such as détournement, assemblage and replica, variously developed within artistic movements that emerged in the 1960s in response to consumerist culture, from Situationism to Pop Art. Then, other artistic movements and practices of the 1960s are explored, this time based on the idea of art as a “process”, i.e. Minimalism and conceptual art in the third lecture, and some hybrid practices developed in response to or relationship with technology, i.e. video, cybernetics and intermedia, in the fourth lecture. The fifth and sixth lecture are dedicated to performative practices developed in reaction to some institutions, now those of art and now those of society, from Fluxus to feminist art. The next two lectures, seven and eight, focus on crucial issues of postmodernist art such as the appropriationist approach of the Pictures Generation and pastiche. While the ninth lecture focuses on anti-academic art practices, born in so-called underground or subcultural environments, from the tenth lecture onwards examine currents that have emerged since the 1990s in relation to the impact of globalization, the liberalist logic of media and economy, and the profusion of digital technologies and the Internet. These include: Post Human, Abject Art, YBAs, Relational Aesthetics, installation art, socially engaged art, post-Internet art and various contemporary forms of painting, photography and video installation.

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 basic statistical techniques concerning the data analysis. In particular, the student is expected to learn: foundations of probability, descriptive and inferential statistics, and simple regression. By the end of the course, students are better prepared to interpret cultural data, understand its relevance for policy, and engage thoughtfully in data-informed policy discussions in the cultural and creative sectors. The course content is divided into the following elements: data collection, management and visualization; descriptive statistics; foundations of probability; and statistical inference.

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 builds the ability to analyze in a critical and professional way current social and economic issues that are relevant for public policy, using the tools of economic analysis and considering the political aspects involved. Through an in-depth discussion of selected current issues and applying, among the others, the conceptual tools developed during the first year of the program, students learn (i) how to structure an economic analysis of a particular public policy issue, (ii) how to perform the analysis, (iii) how to write a policy report or briefing, and (iv) how to summarize and present it both orally (without support) and in a presentation (with support), in order to convey effectively such analysis is a non-technical way to the policy maker or to public executives.

Course contents:

• Analysis and Discussion of Current Public Policy Issues: The selection of topics may change annually, depending on the evolving economic and political landscape and the emergence of new issues.
• Policy Making Process Management: Regardless of the specific topics, students develop the ability to manage the entire process: framing, implementing, and presenting a policy report or brief.
• Writing an Effective Policy Report/Brief: Techniques and strategies for crafting clear and compelling policy documents.
• Effective Presentation of the Policy Report/Brief: How to persuasively and professionally present the findings of the report/brief.
• Oral Briefing to a Policymaker: Skills for orally communicating with policymakers, summarizing, and conveying policy analysis clearly and concisely.

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 goal of this course is to provide students with theoretical as well as applied knowledge of frameworks and tools for measuring, interpreting, and improving business performance and assessing financial risk. In particular, at the end of the course students are able to: use financial statement information to analyze business performance; implement a management system based on the use of performance ratios; and design a performance measurement system to support management control tasks.
 

Course contents include: accounting, accounting history, financial accounting, accounting standards, international harmonization of accounting, and financial audit; The bookkeeping process and adjustments at the end of the accounting period; Financial statements, statement of financial position, statement of comprehensive income, statement of changes in equity, and statement of cash flows; Explanatory notes and management's discussion and analysis; Revenue recognition and inventory; Financial Instruments: Assets and Liabilities; Property, plan and equipment, investment property, intangible assets, leases.