University of Bologna

The course is part of the LM degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. The course reviews the political landscape of food and farming development in developed and developing countries. Policy initiatives by national governments can operate in coordination or conflict with private companies and corporations, international organizations, NGOs. At the end of the integrated course the student is able to: identify the different stakeholders operating the food and farming sectors; understand and evaluate objectives, policy instruments, and strategies that characterize an agricultural policy; identify public policies that address food waste prevention and reduction in developing and developed countries; to outline sustainable food and farming policy options, the implications of these policies for institutions, and their potential impacts on the food system; to analyze the policy formation and implementation processes in different countries, and evaluate costs and benefits of sustainable food and agricultural policies.

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. This course identifies the major categories of inherited diseases, the genetic mechanisms contributing to disease etiology, and their inheritance patterns. The course describes strategies to identify the genetic causes of inherited diseases. The course discusses the use of genomic data and technology in the management of inherited diseases and innovations in human genomic research and their applications in medicine. The course evaluates research articles pertinent to medical genomics. The course discusses topics including sequencing the human genome; medical genetics; identification of disease genes; Mendelian diseases; chromosomal diseases; multifactorial diseases; and pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine. Students design and perform experiments of molecular genetics, including PCR and direct sequencing using Sanger method, and evaluate the presence of variations/mutations in human DNA and their role in Mendelian disorders. The course is divided in two parts: a wet-lab course, where the students prepare PCR and sequencing reactions, and a part using informatics tools, including public programs and databases, in order to analyze the obtained sequences and evaluate the presence of variants/mutations and determine their possible pathogenicity.

This is an laurea magistrale course and is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. The course introduces students to the emerging field of urban studies in connection to climate change issues. The principle topics covered include the relationship between two global driving forces: urbanization and climate change; different theoretical and methodological tools used to understand, manage, and deal with the transformation of cities facing climate; and different approaches that promote more sustainable and resilient forms of urbanization and urban life. Climate change and unprecedented planetary urbanization remain two of the most urgent issues of our time, reshaping societies. Climate change has worldwide implications - from the exacerbation of urban inequalities, to the loss of environmental, social and economic security. In this regard, sustainable urbanization has moved more and more to the forefront of policy agendas and research. The course uses several theoretical approaches and empirical studies, and focuses on the forms and impact of urbanization processes; how climate change impacts different social groups in our urban systems; and post-carbon cities: adaptation and mitigation strategies being currently implemented.

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 examines the theoretical and practical aspects of international criminal justice. Subsequently, the course proceeds to examine the concept of international crimes and the fundamental distinction between retributive and restorative justice models. Thereafter, the course focuses on the different and numerous mechanisms of international criminal justice.

The first part of the course is devoted to an examination of the fundamental tenets and historical development of international criminal law and justice. In particular, the course examines the experience of the Nuremberg Tribunals, as well as the development of further mechanisms and institutions, both at a national and international level, including the International Criminal Court (ICC). The latter represents a significant case study, which offers a convenient vantage point from which to discern the characteristic traits of international crimes (large-scale violence accompanied by the requisite of “gravity”) along with the related obstacles to effective prosecution. After an overview of the trigger mechanisms of the Court, the course examines some relevant features of the Court (e.g., the Court’s composition, the criteria for the appointment of judges) as well as some of the most controversial judicial decisions, which have prompted debate about the challenges of a potentially universal jurisdiction. These decisions include, for example, those in the situations of Libya, Burundi, Comoros Islands (incident of “Freedom Flotilla for Gaza”), Myanmar, Sudan and Afghanistan.

Particular emphasis is placed on other mechanisms of a retributive nature that have been established to prosecute international crimes. These include the experience of the ad hoc Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, but above all the mixed (or hybrid) tribunals, which have emerged as a manifestation of an alternative paradigm of international justice. This paradigm involves, in various forms, national players in the efforts to deliver justice (e.g. judges, lawyers, victims, activists). It is noteworthy that the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia were established to try the former leaders of the Khmer Rouge, while the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Prosecutor’s Office, and the Extraordinary African Chambers in Senegal were created to try former Chadian ruler Hissène Habré.

The second part of the course examines some of the most intriguing and pioneering experiences that are anchored in the tenets of restorative justice, including the various Truth and Reconciliation Commissions. In this regard, the course analyses the Latin American experience, with particular reference to the cases of Colombia, Argentina and Peru. The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission will be treated as a case study of particular relevance.

The last part of the course is devoted to an examination of the most notable rulings handed down by regional human rights courts (notably, the European and Inter-American Courts of Human Rights) and national courts (from Latin America, Spain, Germany, Italy and France) on international crimes. The objective is to identify and examine the salient issues pertaining to international criminal justice at both the national and international levels. In particular, the course focuses on the challenging task of balancing the pursuit of substantive justice with the maintenance of strict and formal legality, and the competing demands of peace and justice.

At the end of the course students will have learned: the foundational principles of international criminal law and justice; the historical evolution of international criminal justice and its current mechanisms; how to critically analyze the different responses to international crimes. Students are expected to acquire the necessary skills to identify the political and juridical main concerns of the selected different contexts and mechanisms - whether at the national or international level, retributive or restorative.

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. This course provides a broad view of the major economic features of several artistic, cultural, and entertainment activities in creative industries. Upon completion of the course, students are able to: define the distinctive features of organizations operating in the creative industries; illustrate how these organizations can be financially viable; apply analytical, planning, and control tools such as the business model canvas and revenues and costs analysis; and analyze and critically evaluate the business model and governance solution of an organization operating in the creative industries. The course is organized around four themes: defining creative industries; defining business models and the Business model canvas; understanding better the Costs and Revenues components of the business model canvas; and governance and business model in the creative industries.

This is an advanced 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 three versions of this course; this course, “GEOGRAPHIES OF GLOBAL CHALLENGES,” UCEAP Course Number 177A and Bologna course number 81952, is associated with the LM in History and Oriental Studies degree programme. One of the other versions, “GEOGRAPHY OF GLOBAL CHALLENGES,” UCEAP Course Number 177B and Bologna course number 95931, is associated with the LM in Local and Global Development degree programme. The final version “GEOGRAPHY OF DEVELOPMENT,” UCEAP Course Number 176 and Bologna course number 19695, is associated with the LM in Local and Global Development degree programme.
Climate change offers the opportunity for a multidisciplinary analysis. The course discusses various aspects of the topic through a primarily geographical approach. The course is structured into three parts. Part one introduces climate change as a global phenomenon, with its natural and anthropogenic root causes. Students discuss and reflect on the socio-spatial inequalities inherent in the climate crisis. Part two analyzes climate governance, the Kyoto Protocol, and the Post Kyoto adaptation and mitigation strategies. In addition to the policy-making process, the course critically examines theoretical frameworks of adaptation, notions of climate justice, and intersectional approaches to addressing the climate crisis and its colonial roots. Part three concerns climate change and mobility. The course examines the complex interconnections between climate change and (im)mobility. Empirical examples are drawn from the #ClimateOfChange [https://climateofchange.info/publications-press/] interdisciplinary research project to contextualize the climate crisis as it is manifested, resisted, and understood from diverse locations across the globe. At the end of the course students show understanding of some of the global challenges the population of the planet has been facing since the second half of the twentieth century. Among these, the critical relation with the natural resources and with the concept of development and, above all, climate change, with its connections to territorial development, ecological risk, food security, and the consumption of natural resources. At the end of the course, the students have acquired the theoretical and empirical tools to critically analyze the global strategies of climate resilience and cooperation and the relation between climate change and tourism.

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 is designed to explore the frontiers of interaction between politics and markets. It addresses the factors underlying cross national variation in economic performance and income inequality by investigating the ways in which the international economy affects state autonomy, the welfare state and the politics of income redistribution. The course is structured around two key questions: to what extent do differences in institutional settings shape fundamentally different models of democratic capitalism; what is the role of institutions, firms and labor unions in determining the different arrangements in capitalist countries. This course examines cross-national evolution and variation in welfare states in industrialized countries and especially in Europe. Topics covered include: a comparison of the political economy of welfare states; differences in welfare state models; the extent to which differences in institutional settings, coalition politics, and economics shape fundamentally different models of welfare states. The methodology is comparative with a focus on theoretical models.

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 180A and Bologna course number 81779, is associated with the LM in Language, Society, and Communication degree programme. The other version, UCEAP Course Number 180B and Bologna course number 75074, is associated with the LM in Sociology and Social Work degree programme.
The course focuses on different notions of globalization, and how information technologies affect everyday life, markets, and the process of consumption. Emphasis is placed on a sociological reading of globalization, i.e. understanding the internet culture and the relationship between globalization and web society. Students analyze the impact on individual behaviors and society at large within social networks and online communities through the mainstreaming of private information posted to the public sphere. The course addresses the emergence of a new rhetoric concerning democratization and participation in the web society, the changing relationship between producers, consumers, and prosumers in the web society and the consequences and effects of the Digital Divide nationally and worldwide.

This course examines the literary history of the period at stake, and discusses literary tools to analyze fictional productions and question them in relation to the complex and heterogeneous North American realities. The course topic varies each year, review the course information in the University of Bologna course catalog for the topic for a specific term.