History

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 seminar the student is able to read and discuss scientific essays in comparative politics and history and is able to interact appropriately in a seminar situation. The Seminar consists of participation in a series of lectures given in English by the lecturer and visiting professors on the main topics of European history, politics, and culture in the 20th and 21st centuries. The Seminar introduces students to international research. By the end of the workshop, students will have improved their ability to discuss research topics, to explore the topics studied in depth using international literature as well as to conduct small comparative literature searches and to translate this knowledge into a short paper written using word processing systems. Part of the lectures are given by historians and political scientists mainly coming from foreign universities such as university of Trier, Sciences Po Lyon, Berlin Humboldt, Potsdam, and Dresden. The lecturer coordinating the seminar explains to the students how to write the paper according to a historical perspective.

This course examines the ways in which revolutions have transformed the world. It explores what drives popular uprisings and how revolutionary change has shaped the modern world. This understanding will be developed through case studies of particular revolutions, such as the French, Haitian, American and Irish Revolutions.

This course explores the evolution of the railway throughout history and its impact on the development of Spanish rail technology and society. Topics include: origins of rail transport around the world; the first industrial revolution and the railway; Spanish railways in the 19th century; development of railways in the 20th century; women in the railway field; high-speed rail in Spain; the future of the railway.

The course explores the relationship between history, fiction, and collective memory through the study of literature and film. Students examine how societies construct narratives about the past and how those narratives influence contemporary understandings of identity, politics, and social change. Topics include war and violence, gender, migration, human rights, power, resistance, and historical memory. Through readings, film analysis, and discussion, students develop a critical perspective on the ways cultural representations contribute to the interpretation and reconstruction of modern history.  

This course provides an overview of the main facts about world economic history before and after the Industrial Revolution, focusing on the economic changes over the past 1,000 years.

The course examines the historical development of Barcelona from its Roman origins to the present day, exploring the city’s political, social, economic, and cultural transformations. Topics include medieval Catalonia, imperial conflicts, industrialization, urban development, Modernisme, the Civil War, Francoism, and democratic transition. Through historical analysis and primary sources, students investigate how Barcelona’s identity has been shaped by regional, national, and global influences.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. During the course, students learn how to critically engage with the historiographical debates that characterize the fields of Indian Ocean Studies and African History. They reflect on the historical and cultural connections between the African continent and the Indian Ocean World and what this meant for the societies involved. Students gain an understanding of processes of South-South relations within the Global South and learn how to adopt a longue-durée perspective in the study of history. Thanks to the reading of archival sources, historical novels, and scholarly works, students are able to conceptualize the movement and circulation of people, goods, and ideas beyond landlocked nation-states and land-based histories, without necessarily starting from Europe. At the end of the course, students reach an understanding of the history of Africa and its relations to Indian Ocean cultures, economies, and societies, and are able to engage with a non-Eurocentric approach to historical processes of globalization. The course is separated into three parts: The spatial and chronological boundaries of the Indian Ocean; East Africa and the Indian Ocean; and the circulation of people and commodities in the Indian Ocean world.

The course discusses the global economy since 1500, from a European perspective. The focus is placed on the development of material living standards, political participation, and their interaction over time. Students understand the long-term perspective and the role of historical case studies for economic decision making. They gain new insights into long-term development and apply their knowledge of economic theory and basic empirical methods, together with a critical perspective on historical sources.

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 acquire knowledge of medieval art history and develop the skills necessary to familiarize themselves with the artistic production of the period. In particular, they analyze how medieval art is perceived and how it is valued in contemporary culture and in museum and exhibition systems. By the end of the course, students are able to analyze historically the main works of medieval art history and are able to implement specific choices for the knowledge and dissemination of medieval heritage. The first part of the course focuses on the study of artistic phenomena and their development in the medieval age (XII-XV century) and their revival in the contemporary age. The second part focuses on the study of heritage and museum and archive studies and digital heritage, media, and communication. This course addresses state-of-the-art initiatives, as well as challenges and strategic issues, in developing a digital medieval heritage ecosystem within the broader context of an emerging digital culture. Case studies are drawn from Italy and showcase the breadth of innovative ideas in delivering, communicating, interpreting, and transforming cultural heritage content and experiences through multi-modal, multimedia interfaces. Aiming to offer a balanced overview of digital heritage and culture issues and technologies.

The seminar begins with discussing the challenges academic research – even if mostly historically oriented – faces when investigating clandestine phenomena such as criminal networks. It then introduces core concepts of illicit markets including trafficking corridors, and the political economy of criminal violence. The seminar goes on to explore the historical origins (starting in the 1970s and 1980s) of drug trafficking in both regions using, among others, historical, journalistic and criminological accounts. From then on it proceeds chronologically until the 2010s with an outlook on the current situation. For both regions, the class examines and reviews the historical interface/interlinkages between state secret services and criminals (e.g. the use of criminals by the UDBA to eliminate Yugoslav dissidents in the West, or the use of Mexican drug trafficking networks to support clandestine aid to anti-Sandinista Contras). The final part uses the comparative material to formulate a historically grounded puzzle: Why did the two corridors follow such different trajectories of organized violence? The seminar concludes by mapping the divergence of historical pathways of violence and discussing tentative explanations suggested in the literature.