New Courses 2024/25
General Modules
Museums, Collections, Heritage
Instructor: Elena Canadelli
This course explores mobility as a defining characteristic in the life and history of objects. We follow different things through their uses, itineraries, trajectories and circulations in space and time. Key terms from museum studies and material culture – such as origin, provenance, collection and heritage – are addressed in the light of the so-called mobility turn. Students will be asked to be active learners through a variety of object-based activities and visits to museums throughout the course.
Ideas and Cultures in Motion
Instructor: Lucio Biasiori
Students of this course will become familiar with the processes of mobility of people, objects and especially ideas during the early modern age, discovering that many characteristics of the societies in which we live were prepared during the centuries from the fifteenth to the seventeenth. Although very different from the one in which we live, the early modern world found itself experiencing changes similar to those that more massively affect the present time: wars of religion, forced mobility of masses of people, migrations, religious conversions, the birth of increasingly vast commercial spaces, etc. The awareness of this interweaving of similarities and differences between the past and the present world can be useful also for a peaceful coexistence today.
Communication and Media in History
Instructors: Federico Mazzini
When moving across time and places, actors and the media shape networks and spaces of communication that systematically challenge the paradigms proposed by political and institutional history. In the past five centuries in particular, the dissemination of handwritten news, the spread of the printed book and the invention of the telegraph, television and, finally, the internet have all designed new geographies of communication and knowledge. This class is an introduction to media history and a methodological discussion on the mobility of knowledge and the study of its technical means.
Migrations in World History
Instructor: Niccolò Pianciola
The history of the world over the last five hundred years has been shaped by migratory flows over different distances, connecting all continents. The course will provide students with an overview of the evolution of these migrations, focusing on some key concepts and themes to understand migrations in the past and present. We will discuss, among other things, on the distinction between forced migrations and voluntary ones, and the grey area between the two; how migrants navigate different identity regimes as they move from one political and cultural context to another; how the history of migration is intertwined with that of the evolution of the concept and attributes of citizenship, and with that of the forms of labour, from slavery to free wage labour; how the global history of colonialism and decolonisation has shaped specific forms of migration; and how state borders operate as migratory filters.
Transport History
Instructor: TBA
The course will offer to the students a theoretical framework about the social, cultural and political (gendered) value of transport and mobility, giving them innovative and tools to define movements of people, object and ideas. The critical approach to the traditional historiography, as well as to the current policies in transport, will give them the skill to better frame transport´s culture(s) and mobilities in a long-term view.
History and Social Sciences
Sociology of Ideas and Intellectuals
Instructors: Matteo Bortolini
What is a cultural object? How is it created, produced and received? Can we locate and analyse the actors, structures, and processes that contribute to the diffusion and mobility of cultural objects across time and space? These are some of the key theoretical questions that the Sociology of Ideas and Intellectuals course seeks to capture in an interactive and dialogic way. Focusing primarily on institutions and networks, groups and the symbolic framework surrounding and influencing individual creators and intellectuals, each year the course pivots to a different theme: celebrity, scientific disciplines, creativity, peer groups, and so on.
History of Tourism
Instructors: Louisa Niesen
The course explores the history of modern tourism from the 1840s to the second half of the 20th century, focusing on key developments such as transportation, the rise of mass tourism, and global travel patterns. Taking an intersectional approach, we will work with both secondary literature and diverse primary sources to analyse how tourism shaped, and was shaped by, the experiences of tourists and local communities, government policies, and technological innovation. Through active engagement and varied assessments, students will practice their skills in historical analysis, academic writing, and presentations.
Demography and Migration
Instructors: Irene Barbiera
The course will be dedicated to the study of different migration dynamics and their demographic, social and economic effects both on origin and destination populations. Students will process first-hand data on migration in different countries around the world, which will then be interpreted in the context of the different theories of migration. Through the discussion of the different interpretative theories, the analysis of data and of different case studies, students will be confronted with the complex mechanisms that determine different migratory phenomena in the past and the present. The ability to critically analyse sources and data useful for understanding and interpreting past and present migratory phenomena in a global and interdisciplinary perspective will also be developed.
Space, Place and Mobility
Instructor: Chiara Rabbiosi
This course explores mobility as an empirical reality and an analytic paradigm from a human-geographic perspective. Key terms – such as place, the local, the global and territoriality – are challenged in the light of the so-called mobility turn. Reasons for movement, sensory aspects and mobility performances will also be questioned, as they blend with the diverse politics of space. Students will be asked to share their mobility experiences and take part in ongoing problem-based assignments.
Cultural Encounters
Instructor: Maria Teresa Milicia
This course examines the entwined histories of European explorations and the exploitation of Indigenous peoples during the colonial period. Focusing on the cultural and colonial encounters that led to the loss of Indigenous heritage, it details the mobility circuits of Indigenous Ancestral remains from colonial collection sites to global distribution networks and ultimately, to repatriation. Topics include the political economy of human remains, treatment of bodies in rituals versus scientific practices, ethical debates on public display, and repatriation movements. A special focus is given to the symbolic values of restitution in decolonization efforts.
Politics and Institutions on the Move
Instructor: TBA
Work, Migration and Globalization
Instructor: Francesca Alice Vianello
This course explores the relationship between labour regimes and migration regimes under a global perspective. The construction of a comprehensive theoretical framework to analyse this relationship involves the exploration of theories of migration, labour processes, social reproduction and globalisation. The acquisition of this theoretical lens will enable students to analyse various migration phenomena on a global level, which will be discussed in class through the reading of scientific articles.
Theory and Methods
Big Data and Social Network Analysis
Instructor: Daniel Zilio
This course is an introduction to basic Digital Humanities tools and methods necessary for successful work in Mobility Studies, and in humanities on a larger scale. Students will understand how information can be defined, represented, and manipulated in data structures. They will also understand how computational methods are used with data, using specific tools or directly with basic programming in Python. Sentiment analysis, topic modelling, SNA, and other digital methods and techniques will be presented, using datasets relevant to the specific context of Mobility Studies.
Archives and Libraries on the Move
Instructor: Paola Molino
Students will be introduced to libraries and archives from 1500 onwards, in the framework of the history of written cultures worldwide. They will become familiar with concepts and definitions related to libraries and archives history, and with different means of mobility of papers and people that are related to these two institutions, including loans, thefts, travel, colonial and war requisitions, circulation of catalogues. At the end of the seminar they will be able to provide a historical grounded definition of what libraries and archives have been in the past and how they can be thought and re-imagined in the future. They will be able to critically read primary sources related to the mobility of the book and written documents and will be introduced to some basic theories and practices of cataloguing through time and space, useful for possible future internships.
Literature, Law and Social Sciences
English as a Global Language
Instructor: Elena Borsetto
The goal of the course entitled English as a Global Language is to explore the dynamics that have made English a global language. Take a detour along the many Englishes and discover their different identities.
The classroom brings real-world experiences, creativity and fosters a dynamic academic environment where students are not only exposed to different kinds of accents, pronunciations, stereotypes, beliefs and behaviours, but they are also encouraged to think broadly, historically, and critically about what drives a language to spread, affirm itself and influence the way people think of it.
Texts on the move
Instructor: Ottavia Mazzon
The “Texts on the Move” seminar explores how mobility is an intrinsic feature of texts starting from the idea that texts live in a permanent condition of displacement: they are mobile as they are subject to change while they move through time, space, and social contexts, but they also have a mobilizing power, able as they are to transform the realities they come into contact with. The seminar introduces students to the processes of textual mobility through the lens of the history of ancient Greek and Roman texts from Antiquity to their contemporary reception. It provides the theoretical framework for the study of textual mobility, notions of material philology and book history, and ends with a collaborative analysis of a case-study in the reception of a story from ancient Greek mythology.
Digital Philology
Instructor: TBA
The purpose of the lecture is to offer a critical overview of the field of digital humanities applied to classical studies as well as an in-depth introduction to the principles of data structuring and text encoding for critical edition of Classics corpora.
Global Economy in historical perspective
Instructor: Lucia Coppolaro
The course will allow students to grasp the origin and the main characteristics of the global economy and to critically discuss the main arguments for and against globalization, the relation between globalization and democracy, globalization and inequality. Special attention will be dedicate to Europe and its role in making and governing globalization. […]
European and global citizenship
Instructor: Guido Gorgoni
The purpose of the course is to provide students with an understanding of the profound changes of the concept of citizenship, particularly in the European context.
By the end of the class, successful students will be able to a) identify the main developments of the European Citizenship in the context of the EC and of the EU; c) to distinguish the fundamental rights that constitute the content of European citizenship and their judicial protection; d) to understand the transformation of the concept of citizenship in the post-national context. […]
Gender EU politics and globalization
Instructor: Lorenza Perini
The aim of the course is to make the students aware that the impact of the process of policy- making, in all the possible fields of social and political life, can be intersectionally and this different impact can hide discrimination and imbalance. […]
Economic globalization and human rights
Instructor: Roberto Antonietti
At the end of the course, students will be able to find and interpret data and statistics concerning the globalization of production and the main human development indicators.
In addition, students should acquire the capabilities for a critical evaluation of the socio-economic impact of production globalization processes, with a focus on multinationals, foreign direct investments, and offshoring strategies.. […]
Laboratories
Narratives and Textuality
Instructor: Francesco Veronese
The course, framed as a series of highly seminal and interactive classes and workshops, will tackle issues concerning the transmission of texts over time and their dissemination and circulation in geographical as well as ideal spaces. The material and intellectual life of a text produced in the European early Middle Ages will be approached, starting from its origins, composition, and initial audience, and then moving to its afterlives. A special focus will be cast on its reconfigurations in recent media, such as movies, graphic novels, video games, etc., and on the new meanings it was loaded with in order to reach and convey messages to new audiences.
Map-Mobilities: Critical and Creative Approaches
Instructor: Laura Lo Presti
The laboratory aims to provide a comprehensive exploration of the primary theoretical, methodological, and practical approaches shaping the contemporary international discourse on map studies within the framework of mobility and migration studies. This includes perspectives from cartographic humanities and critical cartography. Through this course, students will cultivate a proficient ability to analyse and interpret the interplay between cartography, viewed as a mode of communication and imagination, bordering practices, and their implications for human movements.
Electronic Sheets for Historians
Instructor: Andrea Dalla Zuanna
Public Digital History
Instructor: Elena Maria RIta Rizzi
The workshop introduces students to Public Digital History by focussing on museums’ digital projects. It aims to examine how the digitalization of museums’ collections and digital projects can help mediate the physical artefacts and the multiple narratives they embody to various publics. By addressing several case studies, it also aims to understand how digital tools have transformed museums core activities like classifying, storing, conserving, curating, displaying, researching museums objects, and their relationship and collaboration with communities.
Data Visualization
Instructor: Marco Orlandi
The laboratory aims to provide an overview of the main techniques and methodologies for the graphical representation of information.
Students will be able to deal with one or more case studies through practical exercises.