Women’s & Gender Studies

This course provides an overview of "classical" and contemporary theorizations of gender, and of the multiple ways in which gender is encountered in every aspect of our lives. The different ways of defining gender issues and shaping gender politics in Western and non-Western societies are considered. Students study the historical and cultural contexts in which the main debates have arisen and analyze themes such as gender, identity, sexuality, motherhood, nationhood, ethnicity, race, and religion. A variety of genres including press, novel, film, and essay are examined with the purpose of considering how gender and sexuality are conceptualized within Western society, focusing on the UK. Students explore how media and popular culture can reinforce or challenge traditional notions of gender that perpetuate inequalities.

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This course focuses on different body-political movements. Which bodies are excluded, suppressed, bequeathed, violated and how? Which resistances are formed against this? How do they organize themselves? What significance does corporality have in these resistances? For this purpose the course examines activist practice, as well as some theory. The course includes guest speakers (currently planned: "Sex Worker Action Group Berlin" and "Disabled and Crazy Celebration Pride Parade Berlin"), participatory observations, and opportunities to exchange knowledge, experiences, and different perspectives. This course includes a short review of topics covered during the first semester version of the course.

This course provides an overview of important moments in contemporary history relating to gender equality. It covers classical feminist theory as well as that from the Enlightenment; liberal feminism and suffragism; socialism and feminism; totalitarianism and the role of women; and feminist struggles in the 1970s.

This course addresses the concept of gender in Islam from historical, socio-political, and legal perspectives. A broad range of topics including contemporary debates on identity, feminism and sexuality are covered. The areas of Islamic law pertaining to women’s legal rights is another topic of discussion. The changing discourse regarding construction of gender identities is explored through studies of women’s movements in Muslim majority countries. 

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program in cultural anthropology. The course is intended for advanced levels students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. The course focuses on Algorithmic Patriarchy? Feminist critiques of technosocietal relations

The course is a component of the integrated course (IC) in "Political Theory". Combining a close reading of some of the most recent contributions of feminist political theory to the understanding and critique of the “politics of the algorithm” with the reading and comment of some classic texts of women's political thought in the second half of the twentieth century, the course investigates how the algorithm redefines some key political concepts in the field of tension between masculine domination and women's freedom. Using conceptual history, and providing a political understanding of the technical dimension of algorithmic operations (such as search of keywords on internet, facial recognition, datamining) the course provides students with the tools necessary to highlight the continuities and discontinuities that the algorithm determines in patriarchal social relations and liberation practices starting from the reflection around some key-concepts for feminist political theory: nature (sex / gender, domination / power); identity (codification / politicization); recognition (discrimination / struggle); difference (universal / particular).

At the end of the course students will acquire a knowledge of the ways in which women had historically criticized the theoretical justification of their subordination articulated in Western political and social thought. By applying the fundamental tools of feminist and post-colonial theories, the course will provide an historical analysis of political and social concepts – such as authority, freedom, rights, citizenship, society, labor – as the expression of gendered relations of power.

The course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program and is intended for advanced level students. The course is taught in Italian. Enrolment is by consent of the instructor. The course has two separate modules on two different topics, PART A and PART B. Students who complete a research paper on a pre-approved topic are awarded 1 extra unit for the course. Maximum units for the course are 8, 4 for each part. The course focuses on diachronic aspects of the Italian literary tradition, the critical discussion regarding key issues about texts and authors, and the use of the principal tools of methodological analysis of texts and contexts. The topic for spring 2022 is on types of identity and women writings. Through a conceptual and thematic point of view, the course focuses on female identity in literature. PART A: The first module is dedicated to the writings of Elena Ferrante, Goliarda Sapienza, and Maria Rosa Cutrufelli. PART B: The second module is devoted to Sibilla Aleramo and Anna Banti. The course includes traditional lectures and seminars on specific texts as well as the use of audio and visual materials.

This course examines issues of gender and sexuality in either the Greek or the Roman world. Students study contrastive portrayals of women and men, ideals of masculinity and femininity, sexual norms and codes, theories about the male and female body, views on marriage, rape, adultery and prostitution, and the relation between art and ‘real life’: what we may deduce from texts and visual sources about the gender roles men and women were expected to play within family and state.

From the lenses of cultural studies and gender studies, this course examines how fiction throughout various eras has treated, whether directly or indirectly, questions of seduction, femininity, masculinity, and the meaning of virility. It explores the manner in which political and ideological disruptions have modified the figure of the seducer and vamp, and how this is presented in various cultural productions of stories, novels, poems, frescoes, paintings, opera, film, television series, and video games. 

The course examines how gender, and multiple other categories relating to personal and political context, has influenced personal and public effort and experience. It examines a variety of topics to show diversity and continuities across social class, political change, time, and place. Students learn about political, intellectual, and social contexts from the late 18th century to the present. Students analyze both historical and contemporary effort and lives. In so doing, they acquire critical insight into themes of international interest and the opportunity to discuss questions of personal interest. A core object is to reveal the complex extent of connections, continuities,and change in a variety of contexts.

This course introduces the main contemporary debates around human reproduction and discusses their potential impact on society, particularly as regards gender roles and family diversity. The course reflects on issues such as the possibility of diverse families and individuals to have children by using assisted reproductive technologies, the question of whether surrogate motherhood or social egg freezing are liberating or on the contrary oppressive for women, and the social implication of whether parents should be allowed to choose some attributes of their future offspring (such as eye color, height, or IQ) if able to do so. The course explores how current events such as the COVID-19 pandemic or the war in Ukraine have impacted the reproductive rights of various categories of individuals and the regulation of human reproduction in different countries, as well as at international level. The course builds on several disciplines, particularly law, gender studies, sociology, and bioethics. It discusses court cases (especially from the European Court of Human Rights), pieces of legislation, media articles and videos, and sociological and philosophical writings and other sources. Students work on topics related to human reproduction as policy makers, law makers, or gender and LGBT+ human rights specialists.