Sociology

This course examines the Asian diaspora in Latin America. It explores issues of immigration and cultural hybridity as related to descendants and national identity. This course discusses the intertwined relationships among power, representation, and cultural production. It engages visual culture, popular culture and film, and other media, as a means to underscore the role that cultural production has played in transforming, adapting, and sustaining normative ideas regarding ethnicity, gender, and sexuality in relation to citizenship.

This interdisciplinary course aims to make sense of what it means for children to grow up into adults. It considers competing arguments that childhood has been extended in recent decades and that children are growing up "too fast," and it assesses the factors that contribute to a successful transition to adulthood. The course draws on perspectives from psychology, sociology, public health, cultural and environmental studies, anthropology, and geography. Students gain an understanding of the different perspectives from which this range of disciplines debate issues around transitions to adulthood, problematizing the key concepts and assumptions underlying these debates and critically examining processes of personal development and identity formation.

This course introduces students to current trends and discussions in American sociology. By looking at a variety of topics (exceptionalism, political sociology, constitutional framework, community, social capital, multiculturalism, religion, urban sociology, popular culture) students get an overall impression of the main developments in American society and how the social sciences have tried to analyze and understand them.

This course explores social and political issues concerning the city of Rome. It provides background on the role of the city in the unification of Italy, and then focuses chiefly on the period following the Second World War. Topics include the image of Rome in popular culture, the modern evolution of the city as a physical entity, the migration of southerners to the city, the dynamics of family, and the role of gender. Soccer is examined with particular reference to citizen participation. Local criminality is put in a national context. Other topics include the church, the education system, and government. Final consideration is given to Rome as a European capital city. Throughout the course, attention is paid to relevant administrative issues and social contexts in an attempt to gain a vision of Rome as seen in Italian and European perspectives.

This course s part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. Globalization dramatically changed the environment of political and economic activity, widening the context of social action and speeding up its pace. This course tackles the new ethical issues inherent in a globalized world of social change from a theoretical perspective, without neglecting the historical side. At the end of the course students have a deeper appreciation of the new ethical issues facing mankind in an era of globalization, have knowledge of the most interesting contemporary theories of the just society, and are capable of historically situating the current developments in society. This course examines three broad themes connected to the contemporary geopolitical circumstances: the question of the just society and the challenge of relativism, the dilemmas of globalization, and environmental ethics. The course examines how and to what extent globalization has changed politics and, strictly connected to this question, the issue of the just society in such different circumstances and the challenge posed by cultural relativism. Finally, the course tackles the problem of our responsibility towards the environment and towards non-human creatures.

This course delves into 20th- and 21st-century nationalism, trans-national exchanges, and identity formation in the Mediterranean, examining the unique foodways of Florence, Syracuse, and Istanbul. Exploring the roots of 19th-century nation-state formation and the subsequent emergence of nationalist propaganda and authoritarian ideologies in 20th-century Italy and Turkey, the course analyzes post-WWII economic development and the societal impacts of agricultural modernization and food industrialization. It critically evaluates the role of Neoliberalism in reshaping ethnic and national identities. The course explores the central role of food, food practices, and public food policies in nation-building projects. Additionally, the course investigates the rescaling of national economies and identities in the Mediterranean region. Through a critical lens, the course examines the intersections between the
local/national and the global, exploring the new relations, tensions, and conflicts that emerge. Topics of inquiry encompass contemporary ethnic politics, migration, the rise of new forms of racism and religious tensions, 20th-century modernization, evolving habits of mass consumption, and the effects of globalization on food systems. Special attention is given to the intricate dynamics of internal and international migration flows in the Mediterranean, particularly from Africa and the Middle East.

This course provides an introductory understanding of social work education as a profession. The course includes both cognitive and experiential knowledge on the needs of individuals, families and society, and the social work response in meeting these needs. Included are the mission, values and principles of the social work profession and its roles and functions in contributing to human well-being. As an integral and compulsory part of this module, students will visit social service organization.