Geography

In the course, students will be able to answer the broad dilemma of how to understand Latin America today?, from an interdisciplinary analysis that emphasizes the connection between history, geography and political science in order to unravel and read the various dynamics and challenges of the region. Through methodologies such as lectures, case studies and debates, they will be able to understand the changes, continuities and cultural, social, economic and political projections of the region.

This course examines water as a resource. It covers the hydrologic cycle and quantification of the water balance, water use and supplies and the human impact upon water including runoff amount and quality.

This course explores the intersection of climate change and other contemporary global environmental challenges and the future of the Mediterranean. Students gain an understanding of Mediterranean geographies, environments, and societies, along with past and future climate trends. The course examines the potential impacts of 21st-century climate change on ecosystems, human well-being, and social systems. The course provides an analysis of similar ecosystems across the globe that face climate-related challenges, and of the national and transnational policies that are or are not in place not only in the Mediterranean basin but also in locations such as in California, Australia, Chile, and South Africa.

Key topics include the fundamentals of climate science, relationships between human and natural systems (such as water supplies, agriculture, public health, and biodiversity), and the law, politics, and societal debates as pertain to possible solutions to reduce the magnitude and impacts of climate change. By studying these issues in the context of Sicily, students develop insights into global climate challenges and localized responses. The course also provides a historical perspective on Sicily’s environmental and social changes over time. Students explore how the region's long history of cultural and political shifts has shaped its environmental practices and adaptation strategies. Additionally, the course addresses the growing issue of climate-induced migration to Sicily, examining its impacts and the region’s ability to adapt to these growing population movements.

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. The course focuses on the analysis of geopolitics and international politics from a geographical perspective. By linking the history of geography and geopolitics to colonialism and European imperialism, the course introduces the students to critical human geography and the understanding of how spatial theory and spatial practices are related to power and culture. Students learn how to critically reflect and analyze contemporary cases of geopolitical interventions and discourses.

The course is divided into four parts:

• In the first part, the course introduces the origins and the development of geography and political geography since the end of the 19th century.
• In the second part of the course, the course explores the crisis of modern sovereignty and the emergence of a new power horizon associated with biopolitical governmentality.
• The third part is dedicated to the geographies of otherness. This part discusses the relation between traveling, field trips, and geographical exploration in their connection with European colonialism.
• The fourth part of the course will be dedicated to the history and the contemporary use of Geopolitics and the different stages of geopolitical theories.

The course will provide a vision of the geological, biological, historical and pre-historic processes to understand the geography, natural and human history of the Atacama Desert. The course addresses the evolution of the landscape from a geological and climatic point of view, man's adaptation to his changing environment, natural resources, and their historical management and exploitation. The discussion of these topics is expected to address and generate an interdisciplinary view towards the construction of a sustainable relationship for the 21st century between society and the use of the natural resources available in the Atacama Desert.

This course introduces population geography to undergraduate students and focuses on the causes and consequences of population change. It enables students to understand demographic dynamics brought about by birth, death, and mobility. The course examines the tension between how demographic knowledge (and in particular, demographic categories) has been constructed and how such categories are used. The course pays special attention to the spatial mobility of human beings as the increase in human mobility receives increasing attention from both academia and policy-making. 

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 focuses on two main topics: summary of fundamentals (deformation, stress and strain, porosity and permeability, brittle and ductile regimes, kinematic and dynamic approach to deformation), and faults and fault-related structures (fault core vs. damage zone; permeability changes along and across fault zones; basic elements of discrete fracture modelling.)

This course provides an overview of the role deformation plays in both the genesis and spatial distribution of ore deposits. This is done by combining traditional class lectures and lab style exercises with seminar-style classes based on reading and student presentations and a few days directly at the outcrop. This combined approach allows students to develop theoretical and practical skills related to asking and assessing scientific questions as well as summarizing and presenting the results of scientific studies dealing with the role exerted by rock deformation and fluid/rock interaction in deformed contexts. The course reviews the concepts, theoretical knowledge and techniques of Structural Geology that are relevant to understanding ore genesis and exploration of ore deposits. It also provides hands-on field work to help strengthen the theoretical knowledge and provide the students with a solid understanding of the involved mechanisms and processes. Students thereby learn the simple principles of “Structural Control” and how to elaborate the best practices for structural data collection and analysis in mineral exploration and mining.

In Spring 2025, there is a 5-day field trip to the Island of Elba and southern Tuscany, which exposes students to outstanding examples of hydrothermal deposits. Fieldwork is used to unravel and constrain the genetic relationships between brittle deformation, fluid ingress, and flow and ore genesis.