Communication

This course examines the parts of speech and meanings presented in literature and mass media. Weekly topics include: the factors and functions of semiotics, poetry and rhetoric; verbal versification; meaning, reference, context, situation, and theme; verbal and visual morphology; types of speech and strategy; narration and the effects of narration; manipulations in media, meaning, and speech; figures of speech.

This course explores communication across cultures and languages. It examines concepts of culture, focusing on non-essentialist perspectives and its role in the construction of (self) identity and others' identities. Focusing on both face-to-face and non-face-to-face, including digital communication, the course explores how people with different cultural backgrounds communicate and the issues that are likely to arise in cross-cultural communication.

This course addresses how history has been punctuated by civil resistance and disobedience movements whose characteristics, combats, tools, and arms get more sophisticated, shared, and reinvented as time moves forward. It identifies the news as a marker of movements of citizen protest, social opposition, demonstrations (such as Climate), and other acts of disobedience. From Thoreau to Gandhi, from Martin Luther King to the Extinction Rebellion movement, from Radio London (1940-1944) to the fight for the Larzac or the ZAD of Notre-Dames-des-Landes, this course explores how specific movements are born and fed and how media plays a role in the development or the resonance of these actions, from yesterday's press to modern platforms. The course includes analysis, readings, and deconstruction of what is called “civil disobedience and resistance,” in both democracies and authoritarian countries, from yesterday to today.

This course introduces the concepts and definitions of risk society, crisis and crisis communication; theoretical schools and communication mechanisms of crisis communication; topic management of crisis communication; information production and information release in crisis communication, as well as related special studies. Students gain a comprehensive understanding of the cause of crisis communication, the entire development process and the relationship between various links, and master the internal laws; they integrate theory with practice, master relevant basic principles and methods, and carry out case analysis and solve practical problems. The course also examines the latest development of domestic and foreign crisis communication theories, and correctly understand domestic and foreign theories and experiences.

The aim of this course is to inspire students about the possibilities of entrepreneurship. The Italian context will prepare students for the creative chaos of the entrepreneurial world.  There is no better international context for exploring this phenomenon.  From the Medici, who made a fortune and lost it again within a century, to Ferrari, the consummate entrepreneur; from Armani, Ferragamo and Gucci to Luxottica and Del Vecchio’s sunglasses empire, we investigate the essence of Italian entrepreneurship.  In addition, we scrutinize great examples of family businesses, in which each new generation exhibits entrepreneurship (FIAT, Ferrero etc.) as well as instances of entrepreneurships where it all went wrong (e.g. Parmalat). The world of entrepreneurship is evaluated from the perspectives of management, finance, and marketing as well as sociology in order to understand these enterprises.  The course is delivered using a large array of texts and academic sources that the students assess in real life case studies. We visit a wide range of entrepreneurial contexts and have the opportunity to interview at first hand a number of entrepreneurs and those that support entrepreneurship.  Students also critically evaluate major issues such as globalization, sustainability, and ethics, which affect entrepreneurship today. Each class is based on a set of readings, and it is crucial that students keep up with the readings and be prepared to discuss them in class. Some lectures directly engage our readings while others provide contextualizing historical and theoretical information. Lectures and class discussions are supplemented by visits in which we explore the structure, philosophy, values, and methodology of Italian entrepreneurs. Emphasis is placed on taking the theoretical approach and applying it directly to the Italian context. This course is designed for undergraduate students of business, communication, international studies, management, economics as well as students with an interest in entrepreneurship.