History

This course examines the development of social policy in Barbados since emancipation. It traces the transformation in government and popular approaches to education, health services, poverty alleviation, housing, community development, culture, and women's affairs from a laissez faire orientation to the birth and interventionism of the Welfare State.

This course examines the major problems and issues, both historiographical and historical, relating to women in 20th century Africa, including focusing on the changing status of women in Africa within the context of the efforts to extend capitalism and to democratize society across the continent. The course covers the following themes: the discourse on the impact of the emergence and operation of modern nation-states upon the status of African women; the pervasive role of traditional, Islamic and Western influences in African historical evolution tradition.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. This course analyzes different aspects of spatial imaginaries in the context of colonial and post-colonial history. The main focus of this course concerns visions of international order after empire in the twentieth century. The course is divided into five parts. The first part of the course concerns an introduction to the category of ‘space’ in historical studies in order to provide an analytical framework to imperialism and colonialism. The second part of the course focuses on the spatial dimensions of the colonial and imperial rule. In the third part, students discuss nationalist and federalist visions for post-colonial order, analyzing the relations between nationalist movements and supra-national political spaces. The topic of the fourth part is about the idea of pan-regionalisms, looking at three specific case studies. The last week is dedicated to the connections within and between the imperial and colonial spaces and visions of international and global order. At the end of the course students reach an understanding of the social and cultural history of areas of the world that have been subject to modern colonial rule and that, in most cases, experienced a subsequent phase of political decolonization. Students will be able to critically engage in the study of different kinds of sources, using a comparative perspective. They will acquire the analytical tools needed to properly investigate the complex social, cultural, and political realities of colonial and postcolonial spaces. At the end of the course, students will also be able to deploy their analytical skills in professional activities linked with the popularization and public use of historical knowledge.

This course examines the history of sexuality from the Ancient world, through the 18th and 19th centuries, ending up in the twentieth century.

The ancient Greek world is well known for its remarkable political developments, striking military successes and lasting cultural achievements, yet the economic base which sustained all these things has long been regarded as a simple agricultural subsistence economy, typical of the pre-industrial world. This course examines whether the evidence for economic development across Greece in the archaic period (c. 750-450 BC) and the economic systems of Athens and Sparta in the classical period (c. 450-300 BC) supports that characterization or suggests a more complex picture. 

This course provides an overview of the political history of France from 1815-1940. It covers the failed Second Republic, neither democratic nor liberal; the return of imperial France, a final transition between an authoritarian regime and a liberal regime; the Third Republic, a severe struggle between the royalists and republicans; and the radical party, aimed at a liberal democracy. The course highlights how, through the end of the 19th century, the installation of the Republic was fraught with economic crises and political oppositions. 

This course explores the role of seapower and empires in the development of modern warfare, strategy, and international relations. Students examine the role of sea power in imperialism and the relationship between East and West, the role of technological innovation in the ability of sea power to affect war and politics both at the global and regional levels, the role of maritime geography as a structural impediment and enabler in the projection of power, and the conceptual complexities involved in the terms empire and imperialism as tools for understanding the strategic challenges that face the world today.