University of Bologna

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by permission of the instructor. Students selecting the Italian subject area must select the course readings in Italian. The course examines gender studies (theories and methodologies) in diverse cultural contexts with specific reference to the analyses of the notions of identity and otherness, difference, and diversity. The course favors the capability to deconstruct these notions in diverse texts (theoretical, literary, and visual). The course presents case studies in which texts (literary and visual) are in dialogue with theories and methodologies of gender and postcolonial studies. The texts elaborate on the issue of gender, identity, difference, race, and politics of the body in the representations, transmissions, and elaborations of traumatic events in literary and visual texts (with specific reference to utopian and dystopian fictions). Lessons make reference to memory and trauma studies, dystopia, and science fiction within a gender and postgender perspective. The course elaborates on debates on the intersectionality of gender(s) and race in theories, and visual and literary texts, and to analyze issues related to utopia/dystopia/science fiction within a postcolonial and posthuman perspective. The main theoretical issues discussed by the course include critical theories and methodologies of gender and women's studies and queer studies; re-reading of the notion of identity, difference, and diversity; gender as a social construction; women’s and postcolonial re-visions of the symbolic and social order; the construction of sexual difference as a deconstructive strategy; re-writings of the body; French Feminism(s) and African American and Postcolonial responses; postcolonial and African American critical debates on the representation and deconstruction of the notion of gender and race. New politics of identity and difference; intersectionality of race and gender(s); and the interconnection of gender, ethnicity, and race in trauma and memory studies.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program in semiotics. The course is intended for advanced levels students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. The course introduces the theoretical and methodological foundations of the interdisciplinary field of gender studies. The course maps the genealogy and main contemporary debates in feminist, LGBT, and queer studies, with particular attention to the study of queer sexual cultures. The course analyzes some of the major topics within the transnational fields of gender and queer studies, from an intersectional perspective. The first lectures focus on the historical, social, and cultural construction of the sex/gender system in Modern Western culture, placing it within the processes of nation building, colonization, and racialization. The second part of the course is devoted to the history of feminisms, with a special focus on black, postcolonial, and decolonial feminisms. LGBTQIA+ knowledges and politics are also discussed along with queer theories and their pivotal role in reconfiguring the very categories of gender and sexualities. An analysis of queer and feminist posthuman perspectives concludes the course.

The course focuses on the principal facts and crucial questions regarding Italian art from the fifteenth century to the end of the eighteenth century. In particular, the technical methods that define style and form, iconography, and technique and the connections to the historical, social and cultural timeframe in which the works of art were produced. Students are expected to become familiar with the key themes and particularities of the period along with the ambitions of the artists themselves. Students are also expected to be able to identify and comment on the works of the most representative artists and movements of the periods. It begins with the life and work of Leonardo da Vinci and concludes with the careers of Antonio Canova and Jacques-Louis David. It focuses on artists, movements, and essential topics, and at the same time provides students with the tools for understanding and analyzing the works of art, in relation to their historical and cultural context, their style, iconography, and technique. Students are expected to complete the knowledge and skills acquired during lectures with the assigned background readings.

The course focuses on the key grammatical points in intermediate Italian. Students refine their ability to talk about family, studies, and free time and to produce simple texts regarding familiar subjects and personal interests. Students refine their use of the past tense to express events that have already taken place and to use the future tense to describe dreams, hopes and ambitions. Students also refine their use of grammatical structures necessary for expressing opinions. Admission is by entrance exam only. Course is taught by University of Bologna instructors and includes laboratory exercises. Course is graded on P/NP basis.

Laurea Magistrale program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by consent of the instructor. This course sheds light on the nature and problems in the relations among the main regional actors in Northeast Asia (including the United States), by examining the changes that have taken place, especially in the last decade. These countries’ economic systems and their characteristics are also carefully discussed. This course is an overview of international relations of the East Asian region, which aims at broadly exploring the economic and political issues surrounding the Asia-Pacific rim. At the end of the course students are able to examine topics related to historical and contemporary patterns of state relations in East Asia, US security alliances in East Asia and the new Asian Pivot, the rise of China, nuclear crise in the Korean Peninsula, territorial disputes, regional multilateral institutions, East Asian development models and economic integration, environmental challenges, energy security, and other related issues.

The course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by consent of the instructor. This course explores the history of the body through the study of the practice of anatomy as it emerged as a scientific discipline through a few key authors and themes. These include medieval medicine and the early anatomical school at Bologna; the role of gender and generation in the development of medieval and renaissance dissection as a university practice; the criminal and the saintly body; the spectacle of dissection; anatomical illustration from Leonardo to Hunter; and malleable bodies: ceroplastic and the tridimensional representation of the human body. The course aims to refine student’s analytical skills and abilities to interpret both the primary and secondary literature to contextualize the history of scientific thought in relation to the history of philosophy, intellectual and cultural history, social and political history, and the institutional history of the time.

This course is part of the LM degree program. The course is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by permission of the instructor. The course aims at training students to apply gender studies’ key concepts and theoretical approaches to the analysis of a series of contemporary social challenges and transformations in the fields of culture, sexuality, work, technologies, and politics, amongst others. After completing the course, students can recognize gender as one of the basic principles organizing human society and culture, mobilize the gender studies’ concepts to produce critical knowledge, and apply a gender-sensitive perspective in imagining emancipatory strategies and policies. The course introduces students to the main analytical perspectives of gender studies by analyzing a series of key-concepts developed by literature in women's studies, men's studies, and queer studies. Lectures focus on key-concepts including gender order, intersectionality, heteronormativity, (positive) marginality, care, androcentrism, subjectivity, and performativity. These concepts are analyzed theoretically and, later, applied to the analysis of concrete social phenomena and contemporary social transformation. The course includes lectures, seminars, group readings/discussions, and movie screenings. Students who successfully complete the course, are better prepared to participate in and contribute effectively to the larger public conversation regarding the role of gender in society and are able to apply the critical tools of gender studies in their academic, personal, and work environment.