European Studies

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by permission of the instructor. This course will help students to develop a general vision of the relationships between Italian Literature and other Arts, from the nineteenth century to present, with a focus on painting. The course discusses the most relevant works of literature which interact with images and analyzes critical, theoretical, and literary texts regarding visual arts. In addition to the interactions between literature and the arts, the module introduces students to the following themes and areas for in-depth study: 1) the interaction between literature and the visual arts; 2) the issue of the gaze in literature; 3) iconology, the "visual turn" and the “pictorial turn;” and 4) literature and visual arts facing the crisis of modernity and postmodernity. In particular, the course delves into the intermedial influence of the visual arts (painting, illustration, and photography) and the reflection on the gaze in some works by Italo Calvino and Gianni Celati in the last decades of the 20th century.

The Nordic countries have often been regarded as model societies, famous for their high levels of economic prosperity, social equality, and political stability. Students discuss the historical roots of this distinctive Nordic experience and how it has changed since the end of the Cold War, as the Nordic countries have needed to adopt to new regional, Europewide, and global developments. The historical introduction is followed by a thematic examination of contemporary Nordic societies in a comparative perspective, looking at the varied legacies of the Nordic model. Topics include Nordic foreign and security policy, domestic politics and the rise of the populist right, immigration and integration, crime and justice, gender equality, environmentalism and Nordic co-operation. It should be noted that a focus on the Nordic countries also provides a new perspective on some of the most important developments affecting the whole of Europe over the last 30 years. 

This course gives insight into the making of European policies and their consequences for its citizens. The course uses both a bottom-up and a top-down perspective and focuses on the forces that speed up or slow down European integration, the formal and informal procedures by which European policy is made, and the effects of European decision-making for politics, society, and citizens. The course uses theoretical perspectives from public administration and political science. The knowledge gained from these insights is assessed using a written exam. Special attention is paid to: Brexit; the role of the EU in the financial crisis; the role of the EU in the refugee crisis; euroscepsis; enlargement of the EU and its consequences; what are the formal and informal venues for lobbying? What is the most effective strategy to influence decision-making on this issue? theoretical and practical insights will come together in a paper that you write on a case of lobbying in Europe; a case selected by yourself by either a civil society actor or governmental actor. Questions addressed in the paper include: how does EU decision-making work in this issue area and what is a realistic lobby strategy?

This course provides an exploration of the relationship to Eastern European Jewishness, both secular and religious, from the end of the 18th century to the present, marked by profound social, economic, political, and cultural transformations. The complex relationship between all of them reflects on the evolutions of Jewish singularity, paradigmatic to other minorities. This interdisciplinary course introduces a modern encounter between Jews, societies, and States, both in culture and politics, including the consequences of the Holocaust and its legacy in the present. It offers a precious key to understand the diversity of contemporary debates on singular versus universal rights, traditions versus modernity, rural versus urban cultures, religiousness versus secularity and beyond that, the condition of modernity in Europe. Olga Tokarczuk's Nobel Prize-winning book, THE BOOKS OF JACOB, is the focus of reflective, historical, and creative work throughout this course. The creative cartographies produced are presented to and potentially commented on by the author.

This course provides a conceptual and historical approach of nations, states, and nationalism in Europe from the late 19th century to the present. It examines the transnational dimension of European political frameworks and considers current political issues in the light of European history. The course fosters analytical distance and questions the nation-centered view of the world, familiarizes with the academic debates on nation-building and nationalism, and examines the historical processes and steps that have led to the success of the national category.

This course studies European democratic developments in the twentieth century by considering the fluctuating nature of democracy as a fundamentally historical phenomenon, whose reputation has been judged in changing ways over time. It develops a historically grounded and argued understanding of the question of changes in democracy.

The course analyzes the main historical, political, and institutional developments in the evolution of the European Community/European Union from 1945 to circa 2000. Topics include the unique nature of the European Union polity, the origins & developments of European Integration from 1945 to circa 2000, the evolving role of key EC/EU institutions, key EU treaties, the enlargement process, and Ireland's membership of the EU. 

After its total defeat in World War II, a divided Germany developed differing forms of socio-political organizations in an attempt to find a sustainable response to the challenges posed by modern industrial society. While the East experimented with state socialism, the West implemented a liberal democracy. Yet despite their political division, the two German states remained deeply interconnected through economic linkages, a shared cultural heritage, and similar ambitions to redefine their nationhood and global position. This course explores their special relationship against the backdrop of the global Cold War. Topics include political consolidation, East and West European integration, consumption and identity, the role of the cultural institutions, social movements and dissent, immigration and ethnic diversity, holocaust memory and foreign policy, the collapse of communism and reunification. It engages critically with the attempts of both German states to deal with their problematic history, and the way history was used to legitimize the different regimes. 

This course highlights the political and intellectual bases of the European project since the 19th century to better understand the current transformations.

This course explores EU enlargement dynamics, focusing on the process, negotiation, and accession of candidate countries. It examines pre-accession processes, enlargement negotiations, and the reasons behind EU expansion from legal, economic, and political perspectives. The course compares past enlargement rounds and assesses their impact on EU institutions and policies, highlighting the evolving nature of enlargement dynamics. It introduces the scholarly debate on conditionality and the EU's approach to current candidates' membership aspirations, emphasizing the need to adapt the EU's institutional structure. Through a simulation exercise, students participate in EU negotiation simulations, discussing and negotiating specific policy domains based on EU acquis chapters. This approach fosters teamwork, critical thinking, and a deeper understanding of the negotiation process. The course also critically analyzes the principles and concepts underlying European enlargement policies, equipping students with comprehensive knowledge of enlargement negotiations, membership conditionality, and the interaction between candidate states and the EU.