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. The course analyzes the development of the photographic language, from its origins in the 19th century to recent experiences, focusing on artistic practices and those of the cultural and creative industries. Special attention is paid to exhibitions, both public and private, and their capacity to help the photographic language change its meanings and identities. Following a theoretical and historical approach, classes explore artistic poetics, creative ideas, and curatorial choices from an aesthetic point of view, reading photography as a social, political, and communicative issue. Several historical exhibitions are analyzed as case histories of the development of curatorial language and photographic display.

Students acquire the fundamental historical and theoretical knowledge that puts photography at the heart of artistic practices and of the cultural and creative industry. In particular, they develop methodological tools and interpretative skills useful to recognize the styles and poetics of the photographic display. They are also able to analyze and comment on display types with critical awareness.

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 program focuses on the protection of healthcare in the European Union and most notably covers the following topics:

• the major constitutional and political issues underlying this subject;
• the competences of the EU in the field of healthcare and the increasing role of the One Health approach in the EU;
• healthcare as an economic freedom;
• healthcare as a fundamental right;
• healthcare as a sectoral policy of the European Union: governance, institutional actors and regulatory framework;
• the case law of the Court of Justice on health services and access to cross-border healthcare; the pharmaceutical and medical devices market;
• the digitization of healthcare systems (e.g., e-Health, m-Health, Artificial Intelligence, and European Health Data Space);
• preparedness and response planning in the event of serious cross-border health threats: the Union’s response to COVID-19.

At the end of the course unit, students: possess an in-depth knowledge about the supranational legal mechanisms concerning health, with an emphasis on patient mobility and the cooperation between Member States to face transboundary health crises; can figure out (and solve) problems affecting the transboundary development of health policies at the European level, especially the provision of health services, and are capable to assess the abovementioned mechanisms in the framework of the applicable international legal regime, in particular the World Health Organization.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. International Security (a.k.a Strategic Studies) is an established field within the International Relations discipline, focusing on the role and functions of military forces in international politics. More specifically, the course covers both theory and practice of war and warfare, with emphasis on the contemporary era. It is subdivided into two sections (of different lengths). The first part ("Strategic Theory", shorter) examines some of the principal "theories of war" (e.g. Sun Tzu & Clausewitz ). The first part provides the participants with the relevant analytics tools to attend the second part ("the Tools of Warfare"), which is devoted to the application of those theories to modern warfare as well as an examination of the principal military doctrines, the weapons of mass destructions and irregular warfare (insurgencies, guerrilla and terrorism).

By the end of the course, students are able to: 1) Appreciate variation in conceptions of international security theories. 2) Understand the origins and evolution of mainstream theories on military strategy. 3) Understand the significance of alternative conceptions of national security for states' policies. 4) Develop an understanding of the capabilities and limitations of modern warfare in strategic international events. 5) Develop analytical skills to be applied to international security issues.

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 is meant to provide theoretical concepts and managerial tools to (a) understand and analyze the main models underlying organizational behavior and people management; (b) develop and increase critical skills in decision making through the analysis of the impact of theories; c) identify problem solving approaches through discussion of case studies.

The course is divided into 3 parts: The Individual in Organizations; Group and Team Processes; Power, Politics and Conflicts.

At the end of the course, students: know the salient characteristics of individuals, work teams, and organizational processes that influence organizational performance in face-to-face and virtual work settings; are capable of analyzing risks and opportunities of different work designs, managing complex decision processes, and detecting and implementing strategies to solve organizational conflicts, particularly in globally distributed teams.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by permission of the instructor. The course is divided into 2 modules. Module 1 builds on empirical analysis from current diplomatic practices, and module 2 is a historiographic-based course. 

The program for module 1 is as follows:
1.  The evolution of the functions of the professional diplomat;
2.  Bilateral relations: construction of privileged partnerships;
3.  When a dispute freezes the bilateral relationship: the case of the Italian Marines;
4.  Multilateralism today;
5. Conflicts, prevention, the fragmented world in which we live;
6. The consular function: at the service of Italians abroad;
7.  Economic diplomacy: the new functions of public support for internationalization;
8. Economic diplomacy: the Farnesina as an "Agency" for the promotion of our Country. Nation Branding and integrated promotion;
9. Economic diplomacy: the path from export to internationalization that many companies still have to complete and some to consolidate;
10. A glance to the future: the role of the professional diplomat in the years to come.

Module 2 focuses on the interplay between diplomacy and international economic relations from a historiographic point of view. It covers a period that spans from the immediate aftermath of WWII to the early XXIst century. This module explores a set of case studies that pertain to the diplomatic, economic, and political transformations of the international system as it emerged since the start of the Cold War. Classes are organized as follows:
1. XX century diplomacy;
2. Bilateral relations.;
3. Diplomatic discords;
4. The origins of multilateralism;
5. Failed agreements;
6. Migrations and diplomacy;
7. The history of the European Economic Community (I);
8. The history of the European Economic Community (II);
9. The web of international economic organization between the Cold War and the early-post Cold War era;
10. Diplomatic and economic challenges in the early XXI century.

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 develop a critical approach to the diffusion and use of digital technologies. They are expected to acquire a preliminary knowledge of the historical context of these innovations to strengthen their understanding of the challenges posed by digitization. Students consider art as a field in which these technologies are both applied and criticized. By the end of the course, students are able to evaluate the variegated cultural and political imaginaries that are contributing to shaping digital innovations.

The course is articulated into the 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 from the birth of internet to the success of platform capitalism and the expectations on artificial intelligence are presented. Then, the discussion focuses on some of the main cultural paradigms about technological innovations (Californian Ideology, Transhumanism, Accelerationism, etc.) to analyze the way they frame the relationship between the "digital" and the “human”. The last part is more collaborative and interactive with guest experts facilitating a workshop on art curatorship and digital technologies, and students presenting their response papers to course topics.

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 have acquired the theoretical and practical conceptual framework of the field of literature and philosophy studies, gaining a deep understanding of how philosophy and literature are two ways of reflection and expression of issues in common that can illuminate each other. At the end of the course, students are expected to possess: (1) knowledge of key theories and texts for the study of the interdisciplinary field of literature and philosophy, including philosophical and aesthetic texts on the study of literature, rhetorical and literary approaches to philosophical texts and philosophical theories of literary criticism, as well as familiarity with exemplary historical connections with a particular focus on the German context; (2) the ability to analyze convergences and differences in the argumentative, representative, and performative modes of the two disciplinary approaches with a particular focus on the different uses and registers of language in one and the other disciplinary context, as well as the development of critical awareness in relation to both textual traditions and their ways of addressing issues of ethical, social, and political significance; (3) differentiated and convincing presentation and argumentation skills that produce an original point of view in the debate, starting from a critical analysis of both philosophical and literary texts.

This course follows the traces of melancholy as a phenomenon connected to the longing for reference in both texts in philosophy of language and literature. During the course, students apprehend an important part of Western literary and philosophical reflection on questions regarding the nexus between language and (mostly) existential and (to a lesser extent) political questions. Students read and collectively interpret canonical and less canonical texts, and train their presentation and discussion skills.

The course traces the tradition of the linguistic turn back to one of its potential roots or affine forerunners, i.e., Early German Romanticism, to see how similar constellations were discussed and expressed in Modernism, and finally engages with more openly postmodern texts. It ends on more optimistic tones (with Judith Butler) that stress the spaces of agency that open up when not being determined by a fixed reference scheme. Readings include: Derrida’s Grammatology; Friedrich Schlegel’s programmatic, theoretic texts; Hegel’s critiques; the novel Nightwatches of Bonaventura; Nietzsche’s Twilight of the Idols; Hofmannsthal’s programmatic texts for the Sprachkrise; Borges’ “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius”; Ellis’ American Psycho; Hermann’s text “Red Corals”; and end with Butler.

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 urban spaces through the use of semiotic tools, with special regard to urban forms, urban practices, and representations.

Main topics of the course:

• Urban semiotics: development of the discipline, approaches and methods.
• The form of the city: evolution, permanence, transformations.
• Cities between text and practice: semiotic tools for analysis of (urban and non-urban) space. Lived/represented/designed city: the city as text versus the city as subject/object of discourses.
• Interdisciplinary dialogues: urban ethnography, cultural geography, urban studies.
• City, memory, identity: (urban) places of memory and cultural heritage.
• City and conflict: spaces of power and spaces of protest - places and dynamics of urban conflicts (peripheries and banlieue) - city and war.
• The multicultural city: spaces of inclusion/exclusion - immigration and urban conflict.
• Digital city: Smart Cities and impact of ICT in urban practices.
• City between commons and places for consumption: public/private dynamics - urban creativity (street art and grassroots cultural production) - commercial and cultural tourism and strategies of city branding.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. By the end of the course, students understand the impact of tectonic, geomorphologic, and hydrogeologic hazards (volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, and floods), biophysical hazards (pandemics and panzootics) and atmospheric and climatological hazards (in particular those related to climate change). They know the interdisciplinary methods of research for the investigation of past disasters and are able to reflect on the limits and advantages of the archaeological approach through the analysis of a diverse set of case studies. They understand the complexity of the economic, technological, and religious responses adopted by the affected societies in the post-disaster phase and become familiar with key-concepts such as risk, disaster, collapse, resilience, and the Anthropocene. They are also able to critically assess the scientific debate developed around those topics by deepening, from an archaeological perspective, methods and themes of cultural and political ecology. They ultimately know the potentials of archaeology in risk reduction, risk prevention, and risk communication in the contemporary world.

The course is divided into two parts: In Part 1, the course discusses the ‘vocabulary’ of disaster studies and disaster archaeology and explores in detail the occurrence of natural hazards such as floods, landslides, earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions. In Part 2, the course adopts a more theoretically informed approach to investigate concepts such as resilience, transformation, cultural change, and collapse.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. 

In academic year 2024-2025, this course is one of the modules of the exam "Digital Heritage and Multimedia". There is a second module (Museology, Museography and Virtual Environments).

Interaction Media Design focuses on the design of interactive applications in the humanities and specifically in the domain of Cultural Heritage. During the course, media are treated (images, audio, video, 3d, etc.), together with their acquisition and processing. Main design principles are discussed in relation with CH and cognitive sciences. The course is divided in 6 areas:

• Cognitive-Emotional goals of Interactive Media Design
• Human Computer Interaction for Cultural Heritage
• Digital Images and Digital Photography
• Beyond Multimedia: from digital images to virtual experiences
• Interactive Media Design principles and Tools
• Hands-on: the Design Process

At the end of the course students are put in touch with the intangible cultural heritage mediated by computer science and expressed under the form of practices, representations and skills that the multimedia research community recognizes as part of its identity. Students are able to reflect upon and manipulate a variety of digital instruments, including objects, artifacts, and cultural spaces, manifested through interactive multimedia signs and actions.