History

This course analyzes techno-science as a socio-cultural phenomenon. It offers an introduction to Science and Technology Studies (STS). It introduces students to the multiple ways in which science and technology; individuals and institutions mutually shape one another to the benefit and sometimes detriment of society. This course takes a critical approach to science and engineering. Students think critically but constructively about aspects of science and technology by focusing on different empirical domains such as human enhancement (e.g. Google glasses, Ritalin, Blade runner), disasters (e.g. Fukushima, Hurricane Katerina), the gene revolution (e.g. Monsanto) and the politics of artifacts (e.g. park benches, the UCM building, and nuclear plants) while using a set of principles and approaches from the field of Science and Technology Studies.

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 historical development of consumer capitalism, the fundamental elements of contemporary sociological theories of consumer action, and the main issues related to the politics of consumer culture. Emphasis is placed on how theories work in practice, by addressing key contemporary empirical phenomena in the sphere of consumption, with particular attention to social boundaries and social identities, commercial institutions, and the new challenges posed by environmental issues and the process of globalization/localization. The course aims at providing a theoretically informed sociological understanding of contemporary consumer cultures and practices. While adopting an interdisciplinary outlook, it deals mainly with the sociology of consumption, concentrating on contemporary social phenomena of global relevance. The course begins with a discussion of the historical development of so-called consumer capitalism, highlighting the relevance of urbanization, colonialism, changes in social stratification (class, gender) and international commerce. It then focuses on the most important theories of consumer action, considering how economics, sociology, and anthropology have provided several distinctive perspectives on the functions, meanings, and mechanisms of consumption. Finally, the course considers the politics of consumer culture and addresses cultural industries as a vehicle for hegemonic views of the “consumer,” commercially mediated spaces as institutional contexts for a variety of dominant or alternative consumer practices and identities, and the process of globalization/localization that takes place through the global standardization of commodity chains and alternative, locally grounded market circuits.

Students engage with the cultures and histories of Scotland through a multi-disciplinary perspectives offered by archaeology, Celtic languages, history, and literature all with the common question of how Scottish society has interacted with the outside world. Students consider how Scotland’s migratory, economic, intellectual, and cultural links overseas as well as its own distinctive experience of globalization influenced the development of a range of other societies while simultaneously transforming the country’s own domestic character and culture. This central theme of both influencing and being influenced by links with the outside world enables students to assess the global history of a non-US society in a multi-disciplinary way. In doing so, this course demonstrates how humanities-based disciplines explore the mutually influencing nature of the global, the national, and the local.

The course provides an introduction to the phenomenon of globalization from archaeological and historical perspectives. Topics covered include conditions and driving forces for the globalizing processes, the exchange patterns of the “pre-European” world, the European expansion from the 15th century, cultural encounters and hybridity, merchant capitalism and the East India trade, slavery and plantations, and the life of the non-articulate groups of humanity. Special emphasis is on ecological globalization and the threat to the global heritage caused by climate change.

Reflecting the increased focus on social and cultural themes in Irish historiography, this course addresses the ways in which historians are tackling a broad range of societal questions.  What characterised peoples’ family, working, and social lives? How did people interact with the apparatus of the state and of religious bodies? How did the evolution of media affect daily life? What forces and ideas shaped the provision of education and welfare? What impact did emigration have on both host and home societies? Key to the course is an understanding of what differentiated experiences; how did gender, class, geography, and moral/status hierarchies of different kinds shape individual lives? It also places the social history of Ireland in comparative and global contexts, in order to question ideas of Irish insularity and exceptionalism.

This course reviews the relationship between the Roman empire and the cultures outside its borders, focusing especially on the Germans and the Celts in the period 100 BCE to 400 CE. to 400 e.Kr. Class discussions address the material and cultural manifestations of the cultural encounter between the Roman empire and its neighbors, and reexamine key concepts such as imperialism, view of civilization, ethnic origin, social identity, romanization, and hybridity. Parts of the teaching take place at the Lund University Historical Museum and the National Museum of Denmark and the New Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen.