Political Science

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. The course analyzes the genealogy of the relationship power-opinion-public-democracy, which is constituted in political modernity, observing its genesis, its aporias, its theoretical and historical transformations. At the end of the course, the student: is familiar with the political authors who have contributed to the reflection on this relationship; is able to understand the dialectic it establishes with other concepts of political modernity, such as domination, representation, freedom, both with respect to the crisis and to the new potentialities that the articulation of power-public-opinion-democracy is experiencing in the era of the digital revolution; is able to apply these categories to the analysis of the present . The course examines the nature, structure, and critical role of public opinion and its relation with political and social institutions in the 19th century. It includes readings by some of the most important political thinkers on the relationship between democracy and public opinion, like Alexis de Tocqueville and John Stuart Mill. The course analyzes the social and political transformations enabled in public opinion by the process of democratization during 20th century with the help of authors like Tarde, Bentley, Lippmann, Dewey, and Hannah Arendt. During the second part, the course uses authors like Adorno and Marcuse, Lazersfeld and Kaplan, Debord, Habermas, Baudrillard, and Bourdieu to understand the new political configurations of the public opinion in the age of mass democracy; finally, the course analyzes the crisis of public opinion in the age of globalization, the age of information, the show society age, the post-truth and fake news age, and the possibility for public opinion in contemporary democracies to gain (or not) a new political role.

Although Australia is one of Japan's most important partners in the current international arena, the real picture of Australian society remains unfamiliar to Japanese people. After fighting each other in WWII, Australia and Japan have built a firm relationship through human exchange and trade. In recent years, they are strengthening their ties in the field of security, resulting in a “special strategic partnership.” This course is expected to deepen one's knowledge about Australia - Japan's Asia Pacific neighbor. 

This course focuses on the substantive role that China plays in the Global South where its preponderance of material power and putative developing country status confers upon it a dominant position in bilateral and regional political economies.  China's economic position, coupled to an astute use of finances flowing from its mercantilist policies, has enabled it to become the leading trading partner and a significant investor in the developing world.  Moreover, the Global South is increasingly figuring in Beijing's expanding security interests and soft power provisions.  Interpretations embedded in prevailing academic discourses like socialisation, threat and peaceful rise take on new meaning when studied through the lens of ties with developing countries.  Understanding how dynamics in this relationship are impacting upon a host of global and contemporary issues (BRICs, multilateralism, peacekeeping, the environment) is crucial to the shape of the 21st century.

This course explores the role of the media in contemporary liberal democracies and the actors who intervene in the process of political communication: governments, political parties, journalists, interest groups, and social movements. It also focuses on the main theories on the social influence of the media and how to run an electoral campaign (interviews, debates, polls, ads, etc.)

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. The topics for this course differ each term. In spring 2024, the course focused on a close reading of selections from Niccolò Machiavelli’s major works. This course focuses on the major topics, ideas, problems, and authors of Western Political Philosophy and its history. The course introduces an advanced level of reading, analyzing, and deep understanding of key themes and concepts in the Western tradition of political philosophy. The course develops strong skills in critical reading, including describing and analyzing the conceptual framework of and the specific historiographical debates on some of the major texts in the field, in their historical and cultural context. The course also focuses on Machiavelli's historical background and influence. The course pays particularly detailed attention to the questions of power, violence, ontology’s relationship with politics, and Machiavelli’s reading of his classical and medieval sources.

This course introduces some major theories of international relations, providing students with a better understanding of world events and opportunities to critically engage with theories to assess their usefulness and limits. The course aims to equip students with intellectual tools with which they can better navigate themselves in the world as broadly informed and critically minded global citizens.  

This course examines human rights, their connection to the concept of citizenship, how and when they originated, and who their bearers are.

This  course explores the theoretical and practical intersections of filmmaking, social impact, and activism in international relations. It does so with a core focus on how filmmaking has been used to explore phenomena related to humanitarian issues globally, especially those linked to contexts of conflict, migration, and violence. Based on an interdisciplinary approach, the course delves into the rich scholarship of visuality across the social sciences, introducing that work both theoretically and practically in three main ways. First, the course engages with critical interdisciplinary perspectives on the role of visual media within contexts of violence through theoretical literature and audio-visual material. Second, it explores practical skills in visual research methodologies. As such, in this section of the course, students develop a short filmmaking project of their own. Workshop-format sessions are offered to develop the skills necessary to achieve this. Thematically, the course explores how filmmaking can illuminate questions concerning violence, humanitarianism, conflict, and migration in ways that connect local (i.e., Copenhagen) and global contexts. In addition, guest lectures inspire and connect students to experts in the field. Finally, the course reflects on broader questions, debates, and dilemmas that concern the use of filmmaking for social impact, activism, and/or political intervention. This ranges from the critical examination of storytelling techniques, ethical considerations, and the influence of the filmmakers situated gaze (i.e., positionality) on crafting visual narratives. The course engages these issues by collaboratively reflecting on the filmmaking project that each student develops in the preceding section of the course. Overall, this course provides a nuanced understanding of the transformative potential of filmmaking, alongside tools to navigate the many ethical challenges intrinsic to visual research.

This course offers a systematic review of international migration and refugee movements to, through, and from the Middle East and North Africa over the last decade. It addresses their trends, causes, and consequences for individuals and societies, and stresses the universality of international mobility determinants, as well as the specificity of the context in which they operate in the region.

This course examines how changes in early 20th century American domestic politics shaped the way American colonialism was imposed and practiced in the Philippines. The objective is to explore this topic from a comparative perspective (comparing the American and British empires) and looking at colonial state formation from the lens of the Gilded and Progressive Eras. The course also focuses on two powerful institutions – the police and the law. Finally, the course looks out the relationship between the Americans and Filipino elites and the larger society in terms of the former’s quest to gain the support of Filipinos.