History

This course focuses on understanding how the interconnected world economy and the global economy emerged historically and how globalization transformed economies and societies around the world. The course learns that globalization has not been a one-way street and that modern history witnessed periods of both increasing and diminishing globalization. The course provides students with the tools for understanding economic and social change in a historical and global perspective. The teaching material helps students develop critical thinking and narrative skills. The course examines how the global economy emerged in the past and how globalization transformed macro regions of the world. The first part of the course traces the connection between western expansion and the rise of the global economy from the 16th to 19th centuries and explains what factors - social, cultural, and technological - limited early globalization. The course studies how growing prosperity in Europe compared with the development of other world regions. The second part of the course discusses globalization and deglobalization in the industrial age and the shifts of global economic power they brought about. The course discusses modern economic history in a global context and focuses mainly on non-European regions. 

This course charts the arc of political and constitutional change between Catholic emancipation and the full enfranchisement of women a century later. Although Britain's route to participatory democracy was comparatively smooth and peaceful (indeed, Britain was unique among its European peers in being untouched by revolution during this century), progressive reform was never inevitable. This course emphasizes the contingent nature of this process. British democracy was never pre-ordained, despite the claims of Victorian liberals who described successive reforms as evidence of inevitable 'progress'. Nor was the Westminster Parliament in the vanguard of democracy during this period. In 1914 Britain was governed by one of the least representative parliaments in the developed world. This course emphasizes the staying power of the ancient regime in the face of reform. During this period, parliamentary and other reforms were very often initiated by the political establishment itself with the intention of shoring up old systems rather than of bringing new ones into existence. This mentality, which has been described as 'reforming to conserve', is a key focus of this course.

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. This course offers an understanding of the different systems of attainment, transfer, and conservation of knowledge in ancient societies all over the world. The course focuses on the methods and procedures for exchanging and archiving wisdom in different cultures and offers a comparison with regard to specific aims and effectiveness in storing knowledge and information, with attention to material aspects. Emphasis is also placed on recently established databases that aim to collect data and texts of ancient authors and literary works, and to carve out new tendencies in the conception of modern storage systems on the basis of a widened perspective regarding the classification of cultural memories. Highlights of the course are the recent developments in Digital Papyrology and interdisciplinary and intercultural connections, as well as the application of different scientific approaches. The course focuses on how different ancient cultures across the world, from Greek-Latin to Indian, Chinese, Meso-American and the like, have faced and solved the problem of the organization and transmission of written data, both in the documentary field (the texts of everyday life and of administration: letters, accounts, contracts, lists) and in the literary field (books). Particular attention is placed on how, within different pre-modern cultural systems, people conceived and organized their archives. The preferred methodological approach is that of archiving as a social practice, which in turn allows for a cross-cultural comparison of phenomena beyond the European and modern idea of archive. Among the points to be explored are the difference between documents that can be discarded or that must be preserved (short or long term); the different ways of organizing the material writing support and – where possible – the physical place where the texts are stored; finally, the course refocuses attention on the activities of non-elite players and generally stresses the diffusion of archival practices throughout societies. Special attention is devoted to the implications of this methodological approach to the digitalization of ancient archives.

The city and language course introduces students to French history, culture, and language through team-taught instruction. In the “City as Public Forum” sessions, students are introduced to French history and culture through a series of lectures and site visits. Students discover some of the fascinating ways the core principles of social justice were tested in theory and practice on the streets of Paris in the past and explore how they evolved into the pillars of French society today. The course focuses on just how an ideal society should be forged, where all are free individuals and members of a cohesive community at the same time. Trying to make individuals believe—as religions do—in the primacy of the collective, and in its concomitant goal of protecting human rights, is at the core of social justice in France. From 52 B.C.E to today, France has been an exemplar of how—and how not—to construct a just society. To render these values visible, and therefore legible, to all by adding a physical dimension—whether constructive or destructive—to the usual means of establishing laws or setting policies, is what distinguishes the history of France's capital city of Paris. Those who control Paris—be they monarchs, revolutionaries, or presidents, past and present—believe that erecting all kinds of physical structures will render their values concrete and immutable. The ideal French society did not always necessarily mean a democratic or inclusive one. Since the French Revolution, however, institutionalizing the concept of “liberty, equality, and fraternity” has been France's greatest universal achievement and a source of constant upheaval, eliciting a unique form of secular activism that has led to targeting buildings and monuments that no longer reflect the collective's values. Students discuss how the diverse social actors, who constitute “the French,” continue to thrust their bodies and minds into the physical spaces of the public sphere in the pursuit of social justice. In the “Unlocking French” sessions, students learn targeted language skills through situational communication, so they have the opportunity to use everything they learn as they go about their daily activities. Advanced French students will participate in conversation courses on the program’s theme.

This is a special studies course with projects arranged between the student and a faculty member. The specific topics of study vary each term and are described on a special study project form for each student. The number of units varies with the student's project, contact hours, and method of assessment, as defined on the student's special study project form.