Women’s & Gender Studies

While the pursuit of happiness is an ideal present in many Western cultures, for the French, happiness takes various forms: a certain joie de vivre, an appreciation of life’s simple pleasures, and an affinity for companionship. Why is it, then, that France is consistently ranked as one of the least happy countries in Europe according to the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE)? The French may be known as contentious grumblers who are prone to flights of melancholy and often embroil themselves in gloomy philosophical reflection. And yet, the deeply-ingrained cultural desire to live a full life and find happiness is undeniably a major concern for the French. This course explores representations of happiness in French cultural production, with an emphasis on the city of Paris. Through the study of socio-cultural and historical events as well as critical, literary, and cinematic texts, students explore how the concept of happiness manifests itself in unique ways throughout recent history and in diverse social worlds. From the nineteenth century to the present, happiness has taken many forms: material seduction, consumer delight, everyday bliss, personal independence. The course explores how authors and filmmakers encourage us to reflect on a deceptively simple question: What is happiness and where can we find it? Is happiness to be found in the people and things that surround us, or are we to find it within ourselves?

This course examines French films from the birth of cinema in 1895 to the more recent creations celebrated at the Cannes Festival. The course studies selected avant-garde and popular films and explores how film narratives can reflect historical and social conditions in France during a given time. The following periods are discussed: Early cinema (the Lumière brothers, Alice Guy, Méliès); the Golden Age of French classical cinema (Renoir); the “New Wave” (Varda, Godard); the “Cinéma du Look” (Besson); “Heritage Cinema” (Claire Denis); and the challenges of Globalization (Sciamma). The course also covers several film genres, from the birth of the fantastique to the influence of the film noir on New Wave cinema. Students explore the cross-cultural interactions between French cinema and foreign films and how French cinema as an art form has had a deep impact on international cinema. Films and readings are supplemented by site visits. Most of the films chosen for this class were shot in Paris and reveal the city's different faces, going from the romanticized version in Agnès Varda's film or Claire Denis' grittier version.

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.

.

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 classic feminist theory 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.