International Studies

This is a graduate level course that 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 is designed to give students a general overview and understanding of the international and European criminological debate concerning border control and a detailed knowledge of key topics and key scholars in the field. Students are expected to be able to combine their knowledge of different contexts and disciplinary approaches when analyzing border policies. The goal of the course is that students acquire the competencies and knowledge necessary to analyze critically the contemporary policies of border control in different contexts, also in view of possible fields of work and research: border police, the role and functioning of administrative detention and deportation, the international relations of the externalization of borders, the use of criminal law in border control. The field known as "border criminology" is a new field of research which has emerged during the course of the last five years or so, especially driven by scholars as Mary Bosworth, Katja Franko Aas, Vanessa Barker, Leanne Weber among others. The label of "border criminology" identifies the body of criminological literature concerned with borders, and, more specifically, with how border control is bringing about important changes in the field of Criminal justice and punishment. The course first introduces students to the theoretical key concepts in border criminology: Illegality and deportability, border performativity, “crimmigration”, differential inclusion, borders and boundaries. In the second part of the course, the key topics of border criminology are discussed through empirical and theoretical research carried out in different contexts. The approach developed in the course sees the law, policies, and discourses as entrenched factors in driving the mechanisms of border control. Great importance is given to the role of gender, class, and race in the law-making and law-enforcement activities, and to the transnational dimension of border control. Specific topics include: the internalization and externalization of border control; human and sexual trafficking; border policing; administrative detention; deportation policies, readmission agreements, and international relations; asylum seekers and the reception system; surveillance technologies in border control; migrant struggles and crimes of solidarity; the nexus between migration and terrorism; borders as punishment and the changing role of the State in globalization.

This course covers politics and strategy in UN peacekeeping (UNPK) operations. To do this, the lecture relies on the works of Prussian officer and philosopher Carl von Clausewitz. The course mobilizes Clausewitzian concepts like the “means and ends”, “trinity”, “fog”, “friction”, "center of gravity” to examine their effects on the politics of UN peace operations. One assumption of this course is that UN Peacekeeping is often undertaken when it is not the appropriate instrument of policy. One of the problems of UN Peacekeeping operations is that they are not guided by a clear strategy. This problem can be traced to the political processes leading to their creation. The general objective of the course is to provide the intellectual tools to analyze more critically how UNPK is organized. The theories used to examine UNPK are mostly Realism (Classical, Structural), Liberalism, and Constructivism. The course focuses on critiquing but not rejecting UNPK. The goal is rather to try to fix the political and strategic problems surrounding this militaro-diplomatic tool invented between 1945 and 1956.

This course introduces students to the economics of globalization. It explores reasons why classical economists thought comparative advantage (or differences between countries) was the basis for international trade, when in the past few decades the bulk of international trade has been between very similar countries. Students study the effects of the growing importance of international trade, with a focus on recent trade agreements and their projected consequences. During the second part of the course, students study the causes and effects of migration, and data and policy analysis is conducted to investigate the immigration regimes of some popular migrant destinations.

The International Internship course develops vital business skills employers are actively seeking in job candidates. This course is comprised of two parts: an internship, and a hybrid academic seminar. Students are placed in an internship within a sector related to their professional ambitions. The hybrid academic seminar, conducted both online and in-person, analyzes and evaluates the workplace culture and the daily working environment students experience. The course is divided into eight career readiness competency modules as set out by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), which guide the course’s learning objectives. During the academic seminar, students reflect weekly on their internship experience within the context of their host culture by comparing and contrasting their experiences with their global internship placement with that of their home culture. Students reflect on their experiences in their internship, the role they have played in the evolution of their experience in their internship placement, and the experiences of their peers in their internship placements. Students develop a greater awareness of their strengths relative to the career readiness competencies, the subtleties and complexities of integrating into a cross-cultural work environment, and how to build and maintain a career search portfolio.