27906 - Communications and Territory (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

Students will hone their skills in analysing territories as a system of signs composed of different symbols and languages, some implicit and some explicit, that find expression through a variety of actants whose interplay indicates a set of possibilities for a more equitable future. 

Course contents

The course provides insights into the environmental humanities in relation to Italian society since the nineteenth century, in particular. The programme has five parts:

1. The Earth System, the Anthropocene, and the Ecological Crisis
2. Mapping Common Ground between Geography, Ecocriticism, and Environmental History
3. Walking, Breathing, and Knowing the Weather-World
4. Forces of Reproduction and Socialist Ecofeminism
5. Urban Corpographies as Cartographies and Micro-Resistances

Readings/Bibliography

Attendees

Our primary text is: 

• Marco Armiero et al. (eds), Environmental Humanities: Scienze sociali, politica, ecologia (Rome: DeriveApprodi, 2021)

Additional brief readings relating to each part of the programme are signposted in the course of lectures. 

Non-Attendees

Three books ought to be studied: 

1. Marco Armiero et al. (eds), Environmental Humanities: Scienze sociali, politica, ecologia (Rome: DeriveApprodi, 2021)
2. Daniela Fargione and Carmen Concilio (eds), Antroposcenari: Storie, paesaggi, ecologie (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2018)
3. Your choice between

• Carla Benedetti, La letteratura ci salverà dall'estinzione (Turin: Einaudi, 2021)
• Niccolò Scaffai, Letteratura e ecologia: Forme e temi di una relazione narrativa (Rome: Carocci, 2017)
  

Teaching methods

The course constitutes a collective undertaking that blends chalk-and-talk with flipping the classroom, including ample space for comments during lectures. The opening session is dedicated to comprehensive details of the programme, materials and assessment methods. Given the distinction between attendees and non-attendees, no lecture-capture is implemented. Whosoever wishes to be assessed as an attendee has to clear the 80% threshold. 

Assessment methods

Exam sessions take place monthly, amounting to 6 in total. Outcomes are released via AlmaEsami with an allowance of 24 hours for non-acceptance. 

You are being assessed on:

• Your depth of learning in key areas
• Your use of an appropriate nomenclature
• Your capacity to synthesize

A critical stance, terminological proficiency and lucidity are the cornerstones of top marks. Knowledge gaps, unsound statements or redundant details are grounds for failure.

Attendees are assessed in three parts: 

• A group presentation (5 minutes towards the end of the lecture programme)
• A critical dialogue with the course organiser (10 minutes)
• An essay (1000 words) and a learning diary (5 weekly entries of 150 words) - the deadline for submitting your document by email is 48 hours before the critical dialogue

Non-attendees have a twofold assessment: 

• A critical dialogue with the course organiser (10 minutes)
• An essay on a cultural artefact, such as a literary text or a museum holding, in relation to the prescribed reading (2500 words) - your approach must be agreed with two weeks' notice and the deadline for submitting your document by email is 48 hours before the critical dialogue 

Teaching tools

• PowerPoint slides
• Cloud-sharing
• Literary works
• Maps
• Social-media texts
• Visual art

Office hours

See the website of Daniel Andrew Finch-Race