New Courses

General Modules

Migrations in World History

Instructor: TBA

Transport History

Instructor: TBA

This course will be available since a.y. 2021-2022

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