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 from a non-Eurocentric perspective. To introduce the notion of Europe, we will consider how and why ideas of Europe changed with respect to macro geopolitical and cultural developments in modern times and in the second half of the 20th century in particular. The course will then Europe in Global History from a gender perspective, addressing global entanglements and the role of supranational institutions, such United Nations, in facing issues of global social justice and women's rights. The module consists of 15 meetings in 5 weeks scheduled as follows:

Week 1: Dealing with European history from a non-Eurocentric perspective

1. What is Europe? Acknowledging the cultural and political understanding of Europe in history.
2. Navigating decolonization in the Cold War: "Europe after empires".
3. Discussion: in class students will bring their experiences and knowledge about their familiarity with European history and the approaches they have been taught in their previous education path. The discussion will then focus on methodologies apt to overcome eurocentrism by investigating European history.

Week 2: Feminism and women's movements in the making of a new, just world order (1945 to the early 1970s)

1. Framing the post-WWII context: decolonization and gender injustice in light of the UN, Universal human rights and the Cold war.
2. Geographies of international and European women's movements navigating the Iron curtain: the case of WIDF.
3. Presentation and discussion of following chapters taken from R. Adami, D. Plesch (Des), Women and the UN. A new History of women's international human rights, Routledge 2022: a) ch. 2: E. Dietrichson, F. Sator, The Latin American women: How they shaped the UN Charter and why Southern agency is forgotten, pp. 17-38; b) ch. 3: K.S. Rathore, Excavating hidden histories: Indian women in the early history of the United Nations, pp. 39-54; c) ch. 4: R. Adami, International welfare feminism: CSW navigating Cold War tensions 1949, pp. 55-70; d) C. Donert, From communist internationalism to human rights. Gender, violence and international law in the Women's International Democratic Federation mission to North Korea, 1951, Contemporary European History, 25, no. 2 (2016): 313-33.

Week 3: Towards the UN Decade of Women (1976-1985)

1. Building the frame: From the "global 1960s" to the "shock of the global" in the 1970s and The Brandt Report on the North-South Commission (1979).
2. Changing the frame, 1975: the UN World conference on Women (Mexico City), the Helsinki Final Act and the Brussel Tribunal on violence against women (1976): bringing women's rights, human rights and the issue of violence against women to the fore.
3. Presentation and discussion of following readings: from R. Adami, D. Plesch (Des), Women and the UN. A new History of women's international human rights, Routledge 2022: a) ch. 6: A. O' Donoghue, A. Rowe, Feminism, global inequality and the 1975 Mexico City Conference, pp. 88-103; b) ch. 7: E. Chester, Who wrote CEDAW?, pp. 88-103. c) M. Cotey Morgan, The Seventies and the rebirth of human rights, in N. Ferguson (ed), The shock of the global. the 1970s in perspective, London 2010, Ch. 14, pp. 237-50; d) from the book by S. Snyder, Human Rights Activism and the End of the Cold War: A Transnational History of the Helsinki Network, Cambridge University Press, 2011: Ch. 5 Helsinki Watch, the IHF, and the Transnational Campaign for Human Rights in Eastern Europe, pp 115-134.

Week 4: Around Nairobi 1985

1. Building the frame: the North-South relations in the middle of the neo-liberal turn: European policies, the Brandt Report of the North-South Commission (1979)
2. Gendering the issue of development through networks and dialogue along the South/North trajectory: the cases of DAWN, WIDE and WEDO.
3. Presentation and discussion of following readings: a) S. Federici, The Legacy of Maria Mies to the Feminist Movement and the Struggle for Human Liberation, Development and Change, 55, (2024): 878-91; b) Ch. 3 from the book by D. Jain, Women, Development, and the UN, Indiana University Press 2005, pp. 73-95; c) pp. 95-101 from the same chapter as b) + R. Reddock, Peggy Antrobus, Development and Change, 37, (2006): 1365-77; d) Jean F. O’Barr et al. Reflections on Forum ’85 in Nairobi, Kenya: Voices from the International Women’s Studies Community, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, vol. 11, no. 3, (1986): 584–608, https://doi.org/10.1086/494266.
   

Week 5: NGOs-Feminism and new political strategies: achievements and limits

1. Framing the context: end of Cold War and establishment of global capitalism - political and social impact along the East-West divide and how this affected Eastern European women.
   
2. Preparing for Peking: a new NGOs-political culture addresses feminist claims. On the impact of new communication technologies: M. Marx-Ferree and T, Pudrovska, Transnational Feminist NGOs on the Web: Networks and Identities in the Global North and South, in Global Feminism, edited by Myra Marx Ferree and Aili Mari Tripp, New York University Press, 2022, pp. 247–72.
   
3. Shared discussion of chapter 4 from the book by D. Jain, Women, Development, and the UN, Indiana University Press 2005, pp. 102-34.

Readings/Bibliography

1. Adami, R., & Plesch, D. (Eds.), Women and the UN: A New History of Women's International Human Rights, Routledge 2021
2. Antrobus P., The Global Women's Movement. Origins, issues and strategies, London 2004

3. Basu, A., et al. The Challenge of Local Feminisms: Women’s Movements in Global Perspective. Westview Press, 1995

4. Bozo F. et al (eds.), Visions of the end of the Cold War, 1945-1990, New York 2012
5. Brandt W. et al, North-South, a programme for survival: report of the Independent Commission on International Development Issues, Cambridge (Mass.), 1980
6. Buettner E., Europe after empire : decolonization, society, and culture, Cambridge UP, 2016
7. Chakrabarty D., Provincializing Europe: postcolonial thougth and historical difference; with a new preface by the author
   Princeton, 2008
8. Dainotto R., Europe (in theory), Durham 2007
   
9. G. Garavini, After empires. European integration, decolonization, and the challenge from the global south, 1957-1986, Oxford UP 2012
10. Garland Mahler A., From the Tricontinental to the Global South: Race, Radicalism and Transnational Solidarity, Durham, Duke University Press, 2018
11. Hewitson M., J. Vermeiren (eds.), Europe and the East. Historical Ideas of Eastern and Southeast Europe, 1789-1989, London 2023;
    
12. Jain D., Women, Development, and the UN, Indiana University Press 2005
13. Ferguson N. et al. (Des), The shock of the global: the 1970s in perspective, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010
    
14. Katz C., Dependency Theory After Fifty Years, Leiden 2022
15. Laqua D., Activism across Borders since 1870: Causes, Campaigns and Conflicts in and beyond Europe, London 2023;
16. Marx Ferree M., Tripp A.M. (eds.), Global feminism: transnational women's activism, organizing, and human rights, New York 2006
17. Mies, M. Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale: Women in the International Division of Labour. London: Zed Books, 1986
18. D. Motadel (ed.), Globalizing Europe: A History, Cambridge UP, 2025.
19. Olcott J., International women's year: the greatest consciousness-raising event in history, New York-Oxford 2017

20. Pietilä H. and Vickers J., Making women matter. The role of the United Nations, London: Zed books, 1990

21. Stråth Bo, The Brandt commission and the multinationals. Planetary perspectives, London-New York, Routledge, 2023.
22. Thomas, M., The End of Empires and a World Remade. A Global History of Decolonization, Princeton UP, 2024.
23. Westad A., The Global Cold War. Third World Interventions and the Making of our Times, Cambridge university press, 2007.
24. Francisca de Haan, Eugénie Cotton, Pak Choing-Ae, and Claudia Jones. Rethinking Transnational Feminism and International Politics, Journal of Women's History, 25, no. 4 (2013): 174-89.ù
25. M. Marx-Ferree and T, Pudrovska, Transnational Feminist NGOs on the Web: Networks and Identities in the Global North and South, in Global Feminism, edited by Myra Marx Ferree and Aili Mari Tripp, New York University Press, 2022, pp. 247–72.
26. M. Giacinti, Le Tribunal international des crimes contre les femmes (mars 1976): Un moment-clé dans la conceptualisation du féminicide?, Cahiers du Genre, 2022/2 n° 73, (2022): 85-110. CAIRN.INFO, shs.cairn.info/revue-cahiers-du-genre-2022-2-page-85?lang=fr.

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 concerning the assigned tasks. The third session of every week will be devoted to presentations and discussions to be held by students.

Students will then be divided into groups to be created at the beginning of the course, depending on the number of attendees. Particularly for the weeks 2 to 5 reading materials, instructions and guidelines for presentations will be provided and uploaded on Virtuale.

The active participation to all activities will greatly contribute to achieve the adequate preparation for the final exam.

Assessment methods

Regular attendance will make it easier to pass the exam. A student is considered attending if they participate in at least 75% of the classes.

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

Attending students (12 ECTS): The assessment consists of a 2-hour written examination, divided into two parts.

• Part I (1 hour): students will answer four questions based on the readings listed below.

• Part II (1 hour): students will be given two topics drawn from those discussed during the course and will choose one. They will be asked to develop a critical discussion of the selected topic and explain how they would design a research project on it. The answer should demonstrate the ability to formulate a historical research question, place it in its historical context, identify the main historiographical issues involved, and indicate the types of sources and methodological approaches that would be appropriate for investigating the topic.

Bibliography to be prepared for the written exam:

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

R. Adami, International welfare feminism: CSW navigating Cold War tensions 1949 in Ead. and Plesch, D. (Eds.), Women and the UN: A New History of Women's International Human Rights, Routledge 2021, pp. 55-70.

S. Snyder, Human Rights Activism and the End of the Cold War. A Transnational History of the Helsinki Network, Cambridge University Press, 2011: Ch. 5, pp 115-134.

S. Federici, The Legacy of Maria Mies to the Feminist Movement and the Struggle for Human Liberation, Development and Change, 55, (2024): 878-91

D. Jain, Women, Development, and the UN, Indiana University Press 2005, Ch. 4, pp. 102-134.

Manela, Erez. The Wilsonian Moment: Self-Determination and the International Origins of Anticolonial Nationalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Silvio Pons. The Global Revolution: A History of International Communism, 1917–1991. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. Chapters 1, 2 and 3.

Paolo Capuzzo and Anne Garland Mahler, Introduction, in Anne Garland Mahler and Paolo Capuzzo (eds.), The Comintern and the Global South: Global Designs/Local Encounters, London and New York: Routledge, 2023, pp. 3–46.

Michael Goebel, The Capital of the “Men without a Country": Migrants and Anticolonialism in Interwar Paris, in “American Historical Review”, 121, 5 (2016), pp. 1444–1467.

Marc Becker, Mariátegui, the Comintern, and the Indigenous Question in Latin America, "Science & Society", 70 (2006), pp. 450–479.

Kasper Braskén, ‘Whether Black or White – United in the Fight!’ Connecting the Resistance against Colonialism, Racism, and Fascism in the European Metropoles, 1926–1936, "Twentieth Century Communism", 18 (2020), pp. 118–145.

Non-attending students (12 ECTS): The assessment consists of a 90-minute written examination, during which students will answer six questions based on the following readings:

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

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

- S. Pons, The Global Revolution: A History of International Communism, 1917–1991, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. Chapters 1, 2 and 3

- A. Tooze, The Deluge. The Great War and the Remaking of Global Order, 1916–1931, London, Allen Lane, 2014.

Students taking one 6 ECTS module: The assessment will consists of a 45-minute written examination, during which students will answer three questions based on the readings listed below. The questions will deal with following books:

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

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

N.B.: The 6-ECTS option is available to Erasmus and Overseas students. Students enrolled in the GLOC programme are NOT allowed to take one module only!

The final grade will be based on:

• knowledge and critical understanding of the required readings;
• ability to analyse historical problems and formulate well-supported arguments;
• ability to connect different historical contexts and historiographical perspectives;
• clarity, coherence and conceptual precision in written exposition.

Deep historical knowledge, proper language and the ability to critically address a historiographical topic will lead to a very good/excellent final grade (28 to 30 with honors);

Satisfactory historical knowledge, acceptable language and the ability to analyze relevant topics will lead to a good/fair grade (24 to 27);

Basic historical knowledge, sufficient linguistic proficiency and basic ability to critically address relevant topics will lead to a low/fair grade (18 to 23);

Fragmentary historical knowledge, insufficient linguistic proficiency and poor ability to address relevant topics will lead to a failure in passing the exam.

The use of AI is permitted for non-substantial support activities only, it must be limited, justified and declared.

 

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