University of Bologna

The course focuses on the history of North American cinema and in particular the identifying elements of production and industry (the genre system, the studio system, and the star system). Special attention is placed on cultural and formal elements as well as economic and distribution factors that have determined the success of North American cinema worldwide in a comparison with European cinema production. The topic for the 2025-2026 year is Hollywood Film Comedy (1920-1990). This course deals with, among others, the following thematic blocks: vaudeville comedy and film; slapstick comedy; screwball and romantic comedy; Hollywood comedians; New Hollywood comedy, Woody Allen.

Required readings include: 1) Institutional part: F. La Polla, Introduzione al cinema di Hollywood, Mondadori, Milano, 2006. Peter Decherney, Hollywood, Mulino, Bologna 2016. 2) Monographic course: Reference bibliography for preparing the paper will be available on the platform VIRTUALE from the beginning of the course.

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 role that visual imagery plays in contemporary society, by means of looking at the visual as a key communication as well as economic and cultural resource. The course offers both an overview of established critical theories of visual communication and more contemporary takes on visual analysis and visuality at large. To gain a critical understanding of the central role that visual communication plays in global and local contexts alike, the course relies on a wide range of examples and case studies from key communication industries including advertising, film, stock photography, branding, social media, and news media. As well as studying visual communication theories, methods for critical visual analysis and specific examples and cases, students develop their own original research on specific dimensions of visual communication.

In this course, anthropology is approached from a philosophical point of view and with philosophical methods. The course consists of three units. The following main topics are addressed: key concepts for the epistemology of anthropology, philosophical accounts of human nature from antiquity to modern age, and evolutionism and anthropology.

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 master a variety of North American literary productions in relation to their cultural, social, and technological realities. Students learn to appreciate literary productions as part of complex, trans-media, and inclusive contexts. Course topics vary each term. For the most up to date course topics, access the University of Bologna Online Course Catalog. The fall 2023 course topic is on “Counterecycling: Science Fiction and Cognitive Pollution.” Through an assessment of traditional North American Science Fiction stories (and media adaptations), this course investigates whether using (in fact reusing) this genre traditional literary language helps to truly understand new complex phenomena or whether, instead, it induces cognitive pollution, therefore inhibiting our ability to observe. Recycling is certainly a useful action for the environment, but recycling literary language is not necessarily useful for seeing the limits and potential of a situation, especially where ontological levels are confused through a shared semantic. Among the themes discussed are: inventing the future: literature and technology; the evolving semantics of Science Fiction; the evolving semantics of Technology; environmental explorations: from cyberspace to metaverse; and artificial or artful Intelligence.

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 addresses recent topics in the field of Global Health. Specific topics critical assessment of recent health care reforms in LMICs; efforts to extend coverage of health care and improve universal coverage; issues in financing schemes of health care in LMIC; definition of healthcare policy priorities and the assessment of economic burden of disease in LMICs; the role of NGOs and multilateral institutions; key policy interventions on prevention, workforce planning, and capacity building. The course examines global health issues from the standpoint of health policy and systems. It aims to provide an overview of key global health policies and an introduction to the main challenges, issues, and solutions in global health. The course covers the following topics: global health trends and estimates of health indicators; global health policy landscape; health systems approaches to global health challenges; global governance and health; global health financing architecture; financing health systems and universal health coverage; and evidence for global health policies. The course includes lectures, case studies, group discussions and presentations.

At the end of the course students can manage strategic issues at the business level. Business definition, critical factor of success, competitive analysis, internal resources, and strategic positions are discussed to define strategy in markets that can have different degrees of maturity and technology innovation. The course discusses topics including the definition of business models, the story of business strategy, goals and performance, the competitive environment, beyond industries, internal analysis, business strategy and competitive advantage, competitive dynamics, growth strategies, strategic alliances, innovative strategies, and strategy and social values. The course employs different teaching methods including lectures, team-based exercises, and case discussions.

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 discusses the conceptual grounds of the Universal claim in Roman culture, which are connected to political-military elements as well as to cultural and juridical patterns. The course examines elements of continuity and change in representations and auto-representations of the roman universal cosmic order within historiographical debate and will be able to critically assess the relevance of the theme in the actual organizational and political patterns. Students learn to apply a comparative approach to ancient sources and connect the roman idea of a Universal empire with other contemporary Universal empires, like e.g. Alexander the Great's empire or the Chinese Han dynasty’s Empire, as well as a diachronic approach, by considering how the notion of universal imperial rule has shaped the idea of international order after the end of Antiquity, from the Middle Ages to the present days. The course explores the reception of the historical experience of ancient Rome as a universal model, examining some aspects in which the influence of this historical experience was particularly significant.

The course focuses on the main connections between migration and learning processes, especially as they concern second generation immigrants; multicultural family models, with special attention to international adoption; developmental processes of children and adolescents with foreign origins (or internationally adopted); contemporary debates on multiculturalism and interculturalism. The course highlights: tools and strategies useful in planning training courses on intercultural education in extra-school contexts; the categorization processes related to the formation of stereotypes and prejudices; strategies for overcoming ethnic conflicts; historical, social, and cultural factors that lead to racist attitudes and behaviors. The first part of the course explores the main concepts and knowledge connected to multicultural societies. It aims to promote understanding and reflection on new possible approaches for active citizenship. The topics covered in the course are the following: globalization; multicultural societies and intercultural approach; stereotypes, prejudices, and the vocational approach; racism and cultural relativism; migration in the literature, the German and Italian case: a comparison; diversity, differences, valorization of differences; assimilation, segregation and integration; intercultural education: construction and evaluation of outside-school learning paths, conflict management. The topics are explained and discussed through traditional lectures and then the students are expected to develop the topics in which they are particularly interested through workgroups geared to the production of a multimedia presentation to be discussed and defended in class with the instructor and the other participants. students. The presentation is part of the final assessment. The second part of the course is tailored on the specific topics of this course and focuses on the pedagogical analysis of migration in the German and Italian cases.