New Courses
General Modules
Migrations in World History
Instructor: TBA
Transport History
Instructor: TBA
Ideas and Cultures in Motion
Instructor: Lucio Biasiori
The goal of this course is to understand ideas and cultures on the move, showing how they have been transmitted and are the result of continuous contacts across global spaces, particularly during the Renaissance. Instead of de-constructing the Renaissance and showing many Renaissances in other civilisations, such as those of China, India and Arabia, the course aims to re-construct another Renaissance, when Italy – and Florence in particular – was deeply connected to the rest of the world through economic, artistic and cultural exchange.
Urban History
Instructor: Aristotle Kallis
Cities are in a constant state of flux, in response to new ideas and new challenges. While their individual histories are local, the context in which these histories have unfolded has been influenced by increasingly more complex regional and global factors. The course examines the role of mobility (of ideas, people, knowledge and expertise, objects) in the shaping of the modern city c.1850-c.1970.
Communication and Media in History
Instructors: Federico Mazzini and Paola Molino
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.
History and Social Sciences
Commodity Chains in World History
Instructors: Andrea Caracausi and Shi Xie
This course introduces students to the study of economies and historical systems, combining the heuristic tool of the commodity-chain approach (CCA) with the methods of the historical sciences. Conceiving commodities as the outcome of labour- and production-process networks, we will focus on the social relations and economic organisations that characterise production, distribution, marketing and consumption. Monopoly, ownership, labour control and cyclical economic changes will allow us to understand economic convergences and divergences across the world over the last millennium. While case studies will include drugs, foodstuffs, textiles and other global commodities, the second part of the course will have a special focus on Early Modern China (1300–1800) and its dynamics.
History of Tourism
Instructor: TBA
This course will be available since a.y. 2021-2022
Demography of Migration
Instructors: Irene Barbiera, Gianpiero dalla Zuanna and Joaquin Arango
Migration has been a successful strategy of adaptation and colonisation since the beginning of human evolution. However, the reasons why, where and how people move, as well as the demographic consequences of migration, have greatly changed through time. From a demographic and quantitative perspective, this course will explore change and continuity in human mobility in different contexts and historical periods, both from the point of view of migrants and the communities of departure and reception.
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: TBA
This course will be available since a.y. 2021-2022
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.
Theory and Methods
Digital Tools for Mobility Research
Instructor: Lucio Biasiori e Federico Mazzini
program will be published soon
Big Data and Social Network Analysis
Instructor: Thomas Wallnig
This course is an introduction to basic DH tools and methods necessary for successful work in Mobility Studies, and in the humanities at large. It teaches students to describe and contextualize the epistemic peculiarities of digital humanities research, to assess the various stages of data lifecycles, and to understand and apply different computational methods (like topic modelling, or SNA) to appropriate historical datasets. A good command of English, but no previous programming skills, are required. Parts of the course will be held at the University’s “Mobilab”.
Literature, Law and Social Sciences
English as a Global Language
Instructor: Larysa Fabiano
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: TBA
This course will be available since a.y. 2021-2022
Digital Philology
Instructor: TBA
This course will be available since a.y. 2021-2022
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
Statistics and Databases
Instructor: Gianpiero dalla Zuanna and Irene Barbiera
This course will be available since a.y. 2021-2022
Public History
Instructor: Federico Mazzini
This course will be available since a.y. 2021-2022
Others
Internship
Coordinator: Elena Canadelli
Final Project