B4803 - Europe in Global History (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

Through direct contact with some specific research fields students will be able to show capacity of a critical use of sources and literature as well as to apply research perspectives and methodologies aimed at challenging Eurocentric paradigms. Students will acquire awareness of research problems in a wide range of topics drawn from migration history, history of ideas circulation, social conflicts, transnational mobilization processes, power relations and resistance strategies, global labour history.

Course contents

This 6 CFU course is part of the 12 CFU Integrated Course “Global History (C.I.) (LM)".  

The course will focus on the changing role and understanding of Europe in contemporary history. To introduce the notion of Europe, we will consider how and why ideas of Europe changed with respect to macro geopolitical and cultural developments from the 16th to the 20^th century. Particular attention will be devoted to global entanglements forged by both power politics (colonialism and imperialism above all) and societal dynamics (migration flows, workers movements, anticolonial activism). After the first theoretical and methodological introduction (week 1), the course will address questions concerning Europe in Global History in the second half of the 20^th century, especially in the 1950s/60s (week 2 and 3) and the 1970s/80s (week 4 and 5). Program:

Week 1:

Thinking of Europe beyond a Eurocentric approach: Europe as a “node” in Global History. We will start by discussing some of the several visions of Europe that dominated in modern history and debating methodological questions on how to address European history from a non-Eurocentric perspective by considering the advantages (and limits) offered by Global History.

Week 2:

Criticising European hegemony and history: the post-war momentum of anti-colonial criticism from both the centres and peripheries of colonial empires. Particular attention will be dedicated to the changing geopolitical balances produced by WWII and its aftermaths and the building of discourses aimed at legitimizing arising decolonization conflicts by condemning the European dominance on the global scale.

Week 3:

Discourses and practices connected to decolonization conflicts: we will focus on the implementation of criticism, as expressed by ideas and discourses, into a broad scope of action. Also, we will assess forms and impact of anti-colonial, anti-imperialist activism and solidarity, the rise of so-called third-worldism, tricontinentalism and other movements aimed at forging justice on the global scale.

Week 4:

Europe at the crossroads between east-west tensions (Cold War) and north-south divide: following the establishment of several new states, the criticism and claims they expressed at the supranational scale (UNO a.o.) contributed to the rise of new European visions of world order. Parallel to these changes, Europe as an epicentre of the Cold War stimulated political efforts aimed at overcoming both the bipolar order and the north-south divide.

Week 5:

“Provincializing Europe”: we will conclude the course by addressing the impact of political and social activism aimed at implementing post-colonial criticism and new visions of world order in which Europe’s should have been one among a plurality of political actors. We will observe the impact of these changes on the level of both institutional politics and social activism with particular attention to the workings of the North-South Commissions and the dynamics unleashed by UN Conferences on Women (from Mexico City 1975 to Nairobi 1985).

Readings/Bibliography

1. Antrobus P., The Global Women's Movement. Origins, issues and strategies, London 2004
2. Bozo F. et al (eds.), Visions of the end of the Cold War, 1945-1990, New York 2012
3. Brandt W. et al, North-South, a programme for survival: report of the Independent Commission on International Development Issues, Cambridge (Mass.), 1980
4. Buettner E., Europe after empire : decolonization, society, and culture, Cambridge UP, 2016
5. Chakrabarty D., Provincializing Europe: postcolonial thougth and historical difference; with a new preface by the author
   Princeton, 2008
6. Dainotto R., Europe (in theory), Durham 2007
7. D’Auria M., F. Gallo (eds.), Mediterranean Europe(s)Rethinking Europe from its Southern Shores, ed. by, London 2023;
8. G. Garavini, After empires. European integration, decolonization, and the challenge from the global south, 1957-1986, Oxford 2012
9. Garland Mahler A., From the Tricontinental to the Global South: Race, Radicalism and Transnational Solidarity, Durham, Duke University Press, 2018
10. Hewitson M., J. Vermeiren (eds.), Europe and the East. Historical Ideas of Eastern and Southeast Europe, 1789-1989, London 2023;
11. Hong S.-Y., Cold War Germany, the Third World, and the Global Humanitarian Regime (Human Rights in History). Cambridge 2015;
12. Jansen J., J. Osterhammel, Decolonization: A Short History, Princeton 2017;
13. Kalter Ch., The discovery of the Third World. Decolonization and the rise of the New Left in France,1950-1976, Cambridge 2016
14. Karagiannis N., P. Wagner (eds.),Varieties of world-making: beyond globalization, edited by Nathalie Liverpool 2007;
15. Katz C., Dependency Theory After Fifty Years, Leiden 2022
16. Laqua D., Activism across Borders since 1870: Causes, Campaigns and Conflicts in and beyond Europe, London 2023;
17. Marx Ferree M., Tripp A.M. (eds.), Global feminism: transnational women's activism, organizing, and human rights, New York 2006
18. Monaco E., L’Europa di Jean Monnet. Una biografia transatlantica, Roma 2024;
19. D. Motadel (ed.), Globalizing Europe: A History, Cambridge UP, 2025.
20. Olcott J., International women's year: the greatest consciousness-raising event in history, New York-Oxford 2017
21. Slobodian Q., Foreign front : Third World politics in sixties West Germany, Durham 2012;
22. Westad A., The Global Cold War. Third World Interventions and the Making of our Times, Cambridge university press, Cambridge 2007

Teaching methods

The course is organized in a mixed form consisting of lectures and seminar moments. Students are asked to participate actively by reading and preparing class presentations of assigned articles, essays or book chapters. Reading groups will be created at the beginning of the course, depending on the number of attending students. Guidelines for the presentations will be uploaded on Virtuale. Readings:

Week 1 (13.11.):

Students must read and be able to discuss one chapter freely chosen from the following books:

Europe and the East. Historical Ideas of Eastern and Southeast Europe, 1789-1989, ed. by M. Hewitson, J. Vermeiren, London 2023, chapter 1. Patrick Pasture, Europe’s Many Easts: Why One Orient Is Not the Other; chapter 2. Gavin Murray-Miller, Europe and its Orientalisms: Epistemology and Practice in the Long Nineteenth Century;

Mediterranean Europe(s). Rethinking Europe from its Southern Shores, ed. by M. D’Auria, F. Gallo, London 2023, chapter 4. Felix Wiedemann, Cradle, Frontier, and Contact: The Mediterranean in Geohistorical Narratives of the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries.

Week 2:

19.11. Group A) Simone Weil, On colonialism: an ethic of the other; ed. and translated by J.P. Little Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003 (pages will be precised); Group B) Aimé Césaire, Discourse on colonialism. A poetics of anticolonialism + Introduction by Robin D. G. Kelley, New York: Monthly Review Press, 2000 (pages will be precised)

20.11. Group C): Appendix 4, 2 and 1 from the book by Kweku Ampiah, The political and moral imperatives of the Bandung Conference of 1955: the reactions of the US, UK and Japan, Folkestone, Global Oriental, 2007

Week 3:

Sources to be presented and critically analysed:

26.11. Group A) On the concepts of Third World and thirdworldism: Frantz Fanon, Conclusion, in Id., The Wretched of the Earth; Group B) J.-P. Sartre, Preface to The Wretched of the Earth; (every edition/translation can be used)

27.11. Group C) On the rise of Tricontinentalism: Trois continents, un même ennemi, un seul combat un monde nouveau!!! Asie, Afrique, Amérique latine, Paris: Tricontinentale-Sorbonne, Comité des 3 continents, 1968.

Week 4:

3.12. Group A): Claudio Katz, Chapter 4 - The Rise of Dependency Theories, in: Dependency Theory After Fifty Years, Brill 2022, pp. 59–75.

4.12. From the book Visions of the end of the Cold War, 1945-1990, ed. by Frederic Bozo et al. New York: Berghahn Books, 2012: Group B): Chapter 11 by G. Niedhart on Brandt’s Ostpolitik; Group C) : chapter 10 by L. Fasanaro on Berlinguer’s Eurocommunism.

Week 5:

10.12.: Presentation and discussion of sources taken from North-south: a programme for survival. Report of the Independent commission on international development issues, London-Sidney: Pan books, 1983. Group A): chapter 1; Group B): chapter 2; Group C: chapter 3. A scan of the chapter will be available on Virtuale.

Assessment methods

Students who attend at least 75% of the lessons are considered to be attending.

Attending students are required to participate actively to all classes, presentations and discussions as scheduled.

The following instructions refer to the final exam concerning both modules of the integrated course Global History (B4802 - 12 credits).

At the end of the course, students regularly enrolled at Bologna University will write a 4,500-word paper on one of the topics addressed by the two modules.

The topic has to be agreed with one of the teachers. Papers have to be submitted by the dates decided by the teachers. As for my module, students can find the submission dates on Almaesami.

The grade assigned to the paper will be based on:

- participation in class presentations and discussions;

- selection of the topic of the final paper and its relatedness with the course content

- ability to identify relevant bibliography

- critical analysis

- clarity in structure and aims

- language proficiency

The final grade will result from the evaluation of all aspects concerning the course: active participation in class; accuracy and punctuality by presenting the readings; accuracy in oral presentation and academic writing; capability to deepen and master topics addressed during the course; ability to identify adequate bibliography; critical analysis; clear and logical structure of the final paper.

Proper language and the ability to critically analyze sources and bibliography will lead to a very good/excellent final grade;

acceptable language and the ability to resume relevant topics will lead to a good/fair grade;

insufficient linguistic proficiency and fragmentary knowledge of relevant topics will lead to a failure in passing the exam.

Not-attending as well as Erasmus and other international guest students are required to pass a written test. For my module (6 credits) the test will consist of 6 open questions on two books, to be answered in 90'.

The questions will deal with following books:

R. M. Dainotto, Europe (in theory), Durham 2007

G. Garavini, After empires. European integration, decolonization, and the challenge from the global south, 1957-1986, Oxford 2012

For not-attending students who have chosen both modules of the integrated course in Global History (12 credits), the final grade will result from the arithmetic average of the marks obtained in the two sections of the exam. It will be based on:

- critical analysis of the texts

- conciseness and clarity in exposition

- terminological and conceptual accuracy

 

N.B.: Students with learning disorders and\or temporary or permanent disabilities: please, contact the office responsible (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students ) as soon as possible so that they can propose acceptable adjustments. The request for adaptation must be submitted in advance (15 days before the exam date) to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of the adjustments, taking into account the teaching objectives.

Teaching tools

Reading materials ppt presentations used during the course and other information materials will be uplaaded on the Virtuale platform linked to the course.

N.B.: Students who require specific services and adaptations to teaching activities due to a disability or specific learning disorders (SLD), must first contact the appropriate office: LINK 

Office hours

See the website of Marica Tolomelli