48126 - Seminar of Comparative History and Politics

Learning outcomes

The seminar is intended to introduce students to the analisys of  case-studies and research topics.

Course contents

Seminar Title: Politics and society in Europe
The seminar will take place in the second semester and will be conduct by visiting professors . The seminar will be divided in three units. Each unit will take place during a single week ( 6 hours + 2 hours for the intermediate test). Students are required to attend classes.

Unit 1 Prof. Morten Reitmayer, University of Trier (from 2 March   to 6 March)

Martedì 11 – 13 Sala Lettura
Mercoledì17 – 19Aula 3
Giovedì 11 - 13 Aula 4
Venerdì 15 - 17 Aula A

Course Title: West Germany in the 1970ies. Structural Fractures and Revolutionary Social Change?
The lecture will discuss recent historical findings and interpretations about the decade in question. Doing this we will examine whether there were fundamental changes in economy, culture and society which distinguish clearly the years from about 1970 onwards from the West German history after 1945, shaped by economic recovery, consume and trust in modernity, or whether we should place the recent past better in the continuity of "normal", incremental (und only sometimes ruptured) modifications.

Unit 2 Prof. Thomas Mergel, Humboldt-University of Berlin(From 20 April to 24 April)
Course Title:  Germany and Europe in the 1980ies.

Martedì 11 – 13 Sala Lettura
Mercoledì17 – 19Aula 3
Giovedì 11 - 13 Aula 4
Venerdì 15 - 17 Aula A

Unit 3 Prof. Stephen Creuzberger (University of Potsdam)(from 4  Mai to 8 Mai) Martedì 11 – 13 Sala Lettura
Mercoledì17 – 19Aula 3
Giovedì 11 - 13 Aula 4
Venerdì 15 - 17 Aula A
Course Title:The Decline and Collapse of the Soviet Empire, 1970–1991
After 1953 Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev tried to repair or conceal the fissures left by the Stalin's terror regime in 1953. But neither the spasmodic reformism of Khrushchev nor the systematic stand-pattism of his successor had much effect. Despite superpower status abroad and repression at home the Soviet Union was driven in critical situation of decline. It was Mikhail Gorbachev, the newly in March 1985 elected General Secretary of KPSS who believed to overcome the crisis by returning the Soviet Union back to its Leninist roots. Perestroika, glasnost', demokratizatsiia – these were the tools Gorbachev hoped to rejuvenate the socialist system and make it fit for the second millennium. But whatever he attempted to stop the decline of the Soviet empire, he unwittingly dismantled the USSR.

The unit will give insights in the origins and multifarious processes which finally led to end of the Soviet Union. It will be mainly focused on the Gorbachev Era discussing the domestic, economic and foreign political reasons for the collapse of socialist Russia.

More details and timetable will be online at the beginning of the semester on this page
http://didattica.spbo.unibo.it/cgi-bin/adon.cgi?act=idx&sid=37

Readings/Bibliography

Specific readings could be required during the seminar

Teaching methods

Lecture with discussion with seminars' participants

Assessment methods

At the end of each part of the seminar students students must take a written exam

Links to further information

http://didattica.spbo.unibo.it/pais/cavazza/index.html

Office hours

See the website of Stefano Cavazza