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. Geography, gender, and ethic is an advanced course of cultural geography. The course provides in-depth and critical knowledge of topics and perspectives that lie at the core of contemporary geographical debates, such as gender studies and ethical issues. The course provides an understanding of these subjects and perspectives within today’s geographical debates as well as the intersection of these topics and other fundamental topics in the field of cultural geographies, such as mobility. The course addresses two main thematic pathways: 1) contemporary evolution of feminist and gender debates in the geographical field. 2) the intersection between gender geographies and ethics. The topics addressed include: feminisms, methodology, and ethics in geographical research; concept of positionality; contribution of feminist and gender studies to ethical issues concerning, for example, subjectivity, difference, and the overcoming of culture/nature; feminisms, transfeminisms, and more-than-human and posthuman geographies; geographies, feminisms, and concepts such as "trans-species"; and ecofeminisms.

This course provides general knowledge of Italian contemporary history and the main interpretations of it. The course prepares students to transmit the knowledge acquired, adopting the appropriate vocabulary and being versed in the historiographical debate. It covers the methodologies used by the research on social classes including basic mass culture and consumption phenomena. It provides awareness of how sources and choice of methodology bear on the ultimate result. The course covers: Italy from the First to the Second Republic; the main political, economic, and social junctures that represented the framework within which the democratic political system was reconstituted in Italy in the aftermath of the Second World War; the institutional as well as the economic and social framework, always keeping the international context as a reference perspective; the various moments that have marked the history of the Italian peninsula since the Second World War, from reconstruction to the economic boom, from the years of revolts and movements to the crisis of the First Republic and of that party system that had contributed to rewriting the democratic political framework. Finally, attention is focused on the different generations of men and women who were protagonists of that history.

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 analyzes the connections between artistic practices and political issues in relation with the development and expansion of digital technologies. The course gives a historical-political perspective on the evolution of digitization from the birth of the internet to platform capitalism through a visual approach drawing on the main artistic movements that reflected on new technologies. The course is articulated into three parts. First, the course frames a political genealogy of the digital technologies, highlighting the philosophical issues they pose. For this reason, a brief history of the evolution of internet until the burst of platform capitalism is presented. Then, the course focuses on some of the main cultural paradigms about the technological innovation (Californian ideology, Transhumanism, Accelerationism, etc…) to analyze the way they frame the relationship between the digital and the human. Finally, the course explores how artists embedded and renewed such paradigms in their practices and how art changed thanks to the introduction of digital tools (artificial intelligence, NFT, etc.)

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 provides an overview of labor market policies, highlighting the main areas of intervention and the beneficiaries: employment protection legislation, income support, promotion of job opportunities and training, and employment services. A comparative analysis of the evolution of labor policy regimes will be carried out with particular reference to current demographic, social, and economic challenges, considering the influence of politics on labor market policies. At the end of the course the students are able to: have a knowledge of the main areas of intervention of labor market policies and their beneficiaries; identify and compare the different labor policy regimes; gain an expertise as regards to the definition and planning of active and passive labor market policies; recognize the current characteristics of the labor market and the employment system, the emerging risks and the related needs in terms of labor market policies; and interpret the influence of politics in labor market policies. The course adopts an iterative approach between theoretical debates and the analysis of cases and empirical examples, also based on current events and trends, and aims at integrating in a transversal way a focus on the gender aspects of the issues addressed.

The topics for this course differ each term. In spring 2024, this course has a special focus on The Origin and Development of Political Psychology: From Plato to Martha Nussbaum. Political Philosophy is conceived as the application of philosophical investigation to politics and thus as a study of the contribution that philosophy may give to political practice. This implies both a clarification of the terms used in our everyday political vocabulary and an attempt at designing models of a just society. The course provides the following: a) notions on methodology in historical investigation; b) the ability to analytically read a text while at the same time situating it into the historical and linguistic context of the age; c) knowledge of the perennial tasks of political philosophy; d) an introduction to political realism. The course is devoted to the examination of the origin and development of political psychology. It starts with Plato's notion of the tripartite soul and arrives to the role of emotions in Martha Nussbaum's thought. The first part is devoted to a clarification of the notion of 'political philosophy' and to an account of the methodology in the history of political thought.

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 provides knowledge of the multilateral trade system (the WTO system) and international investment law. The course teaches the ability to recognize the interests underlying those rules and legal instruments to enforce them, especially through the dynamics of argumentation emerging from international litigation. The course contains: an overview of the WTO system; the dispute settlement mechanism of the WTO; the most favored nation clause; the national treatment principle; GATT Article XX trade & non-trade values; the WTO TBT Agreement; the precautionary principle and the SPS Agreement; the New Government Procurement Agreement; the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS); the Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (TRIPs); China in the WTO; DSM the cases concerning natural resources; WTO and climate change; WTO and energy; the new generation of EU Free Trade agreements; principles of non discrimination and of fair and equitable treatment; direct and indirect expropriation; interpretation and application of investment treaties; investment dispute settlement mechanisms; transparency in investment arbitration proceedings; investment and sustainability issues; and protection of foreign investment, environmental, and human rights protection. For students who have not previously attended a course on International Law, it is advised to read Jan Klabbers, Cambridge University Press, 2020.

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 develops an appropriate knowledge base of theories of gender in relation to cultural processes and an understanding of the relevance of gender as a lens to analyze operations of power. In addition, it develops a good awareness of methodological issues in the study of gender and space/place and their mutually constitutive nature. The course focuses on the analytical skills needed for digesting complex theories to put theories to use in engaging with contemporary debates inside and outside of academia. Finally, this course develops appropriate and diverse research and communication skills where theory can be applied in projects outside of the classroom. This course explores the construction and lived realities of gender in its intersection with race, space, and place. Exploring “gender” as a fluid, socially, and spatially constructed category, the course guides through the ways that gender, race, and space intertwine in theory and in lived experience, both historically and in present times. Taught through interdisciplinary contributions ranging from social, feminist, queer, and affect theories – across disciplines such as anthropology, political geography, cultural studies, architecture - the course examines the diverse and interconnected understandings, experiences, and effects of “gender” as a system of meaning-making and power across spaces, places, and historical times. The course includes gender and feminist theories, starting from the nature/culture divide through to the contestation and dissolution of gender binaries. The course further examines the interface between gender theory and a variety of other theoretical perspectives applied to the study of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, including postcolonialism, postmodernism, and poststructuralism. The course also investigates central questions of epistemology and methodology in relation to the application of gender theories in the field of cross-cultural studies. The main focus running through the course is the body, and body politics. The class pays particular attention to introducing diverse feminist trajectories and embodied politics, including Black feminism, Islamic feminism, feminist liberation movements in the Global south, and others.

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 studies contemporary forms of terrorism, its definitions and origins, as well as its objectives, functions, and forms, with a particular focus on counterterrorism measures implemented both by individual states and the international community. It approaches classic and current scholarship on terrorism and counterterrorism and explores many of the research puzzles that remain unanswered. Underpinned by the existing debates among scholars of terrorism, ranging from mainstream to critical perspectives, the course examines the spectrum of terrorist motivations, strategies, and operations; the socio-political, economic, and other factors and causes that can create enabling environments for terrorist group activities; and finally, the means by which governments (especially liberal democratic states) react to contemporary forms of terrorist violence in different regions of the world. Classes are enriched by guest lectures who present case studies and focus on specific geopolitical spaces that are of critical relevance for current and future trends and scenarios on terrorism and counterterrorism. This comparative analysis develops a complex understanding of historical trends, meanings, contemporary dilemmas, and challenges related to this form of political violence.

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, through a comparative and international perspective, an understanding of: the criminal justice system and its changes introduced through the processes of internationalization and Europeanization, at the same time highlighting the importance of the comparative approach; the constitutional principles in criminal matters and the foundational concepts of criminal law, the structure of its main principles and categories, the punishment and the classification of different penalties; and the European criminal law developments, both regarding the legislation and the case law, as well as its influence on national criminal justice and law systems. Throughout this course, the theoretical framework is analyzed in the light of judicial decisions of national Constitutional Courts, the Interamerican Court of Human Rights and, finally, the International Criminal Court. This course provides a general understanding of the international framework, the European criminal law, and the complex issues relating to the relationship between criminal law and human rights. The first part of the course examines the most important provisions of international criminal law. The course uses both the comparative method and the analysis of (national and international) leading cases, in order to show empirical examples of the various issues related to the protection of human rights.

This course offers students the possibility to grow the knowledge and skills necessary to recognize, describe, and interpret structural and tectonic features at all scales of observation, and how to use structural geology to constrain tectonic and geodynamic scenarios recorded in the rock record. After completing the course, students are able to: recognize, measure, and plot the geometric features of a significant variety of geological structures, from the outcrop to the regional scale; understand the mechanics of deformation and assess the dynamic and kinematic framework within which deformation and strain localization have taken place; reconstruct modes and timing of deformation; and decipher the geodynamic environments that govern the first-order evolution of our Planet. Teaching includes a combination of theory lessons, practical sessions and one excursion to deformed areas of the Northern Apennines.