European Studies

Using examples taken from literature, art, television, stand-up comedy, and everyday discourse, this course explores the use of humor in British culture. A defining characteristic of Britishness, the use of humor is examined in a range of contexts, with a focus on literary and comic deployments of irony, satire, farce, surrealism, and incongruity. The course develops students’ ability to understand, describe, and analyze particular examples of humor, along with opportunities to practice their analytic writing skills.

This course endorses an interdisciplinary approach to the various issues that Europe (as European Union and non-European Union) must address, combining traditional and critical security studies, politics, political sociology, media studies, and European studies. It considers whether, through crises, Europe not only builds policies but shapes its collective polity, as well as the risk of European collapse. It looks at key elements related to European unity and disunity to explore various crisis scenarios faced by the continent and create a place for students to exchange ideas about current affairs and the future of Europe. 

This course provides an introduction to the political, economic, social, and cultural history of Britain between 1850 and 1997.

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 focuses on the founding principles of international criminal law and justice; the historical evolution of international criminal justice and their current mechanisms; how to critically assess the impact and effectiveness of the different responses to international crimes. Students are expected to acquire the skills necessary to identify the problematic issues of criminal law, both from a political and juridical viewpoint, arising in different contexts and related to different mechanisms (whether retributive or restorative and both at the national or international levels). The objective of the course is to provide students, through a comparative and international perspective, with an understanding of: the criminal justice system and its changes introduced through the processes of internationalization and Europeanisation, 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; 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 Inter-American Court of Human Rights and, finally, the International Criminal Court. The course has 3 Parts. Part I: Internationalization of Criminal Law; Part II: International Criminal Law; Part III: Leading Case Law Analysis.

The course explores, among others, the topics of aesthetic judgement, morality and ethics, political change, ideology, and the relation between language and reality. The core lectures introduce the broad parameters of the topics being studied, contextualizing thinkers and readings, and providing indications of ways of thinking through materials being read. 

This course introduces the debate about the state of democracy in Europe which is crucial to understand changes in today's politics. The course focuses on the most daunting challenges for Europe's democracy. The first part of the course discusses the theoretical foundations and the historical roots of Europe's democracy. The second part focuses on the current challenges including populism, authoritarianism, and technocracy. The last part envisions the future of democracy in Europe.

This course examines the political, cultural, and economic situation of the Jewish community in the 19th and 20th centuries.  Students analyze various forms of Jewish cultural and political identity. Students develop a better understanding of the context that led to the Holocaust and its dramatic consequences. Lastly, students familiarize themselves with the most important Jewish political writers.