93629 - DIRITTI UMANI E CITTADINANZA NELLO SPAZIO GLOBALE

Learning outcomes

The course aims at providing students with the fundamental historical and theoretical tools for critically understanding the main Western doctrines on human rights and citizenships, their relationships and links with other key concepts of Western political thought (sovereignty/order, peace/war, identity/difference, equality/freedom), as well as their international projection. At the end of the class, students know the main doctrines on human rights and citizenship and are able to contextualize them; have the needed theoretical tools to understand the links between theoretical doctrines and the historical and institutional development at the national, European and global level.

Course contents

The course will analyze the most important phases of the Western history of human rights and citizenship by paying particular attention to the most relevant moments of semantic and institutional discontinuity as well as to their links with other key concepts of Western political thought (sovereignty/order, peace/war, identity/difference, equality/freedom.

The course will be structured around six main moments/theoretical questions centred on:

1) the modern origins and configuration of these concepts;

2) the changes produced by the 18th-century revolutions;

3) the beginning of the processes of legalization of citizenship and human rights;

4) the changes that emerged after the affirmation, at the domestic level, of the contemporary form of constitutional democracy and, at the international level, of the role of the United Nations and of the other regional/international organisations;

5) the main critiques that, throughout the centuries, have been raised against the many forms of (gender, class, race, nationality – based) discrimination and exclusion that form part of their modern and contemporary history;

6) the challenges human rights and citizenship are exposed to due to the ongoing processes of globalization (and post-globalization?).

Readings/Bibliography

Students who attend classes

The bibliography for students who attend class is composed of the books, chapters and essays listed under letter A and B.

The materials listed under letter B, which could be slightly amended or supplemented with additional references depending on the number of attending students and thus on the discussion methods that will be adopted (see Teaching methods section), will be the object of class discussions, will be provided by the instructor at the beginning of the class and made available on Virtuale.

The specific sections within the materials under letter A and B to be prepared for class discussions and the final exam will be indicated at the beginning of the class.

 

A.

• A. Facchi, Breve storia dei diritti umani, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2007.
• P. Costa, Cittadinanza, Milano, Laterza, 2005.

B.

• R. Gherardi (a cura di), La Dichiarazione universale dei diritti umani: Storia, tradizioni, sviluppi contemporanei, Roma, Viella, 2021 (selected parts).
• G. Gozzi, Diritti e civiltà. Storia e filosofia del diritto internazionale, Bologna, il Mulino, 2010 (selected parts).
• E. F. Isin and P. Nyers, Routledge Handbook of Global Citizenship Studies, London and New York, Routledge, 2014 (selected parts).
• Le Carte degli Altri, numero monografico della rivista «ParoleChiave», 37/2007 (selected parts).
• S. Mezzadra (a cura di), Cittadinanza. Soggetti, ordine, diritto, Bologna, CLUEB, 2004 (selected parts).

Students who do not attend classes

The bibliography for students who do no attend class is the same as that to be prepared by students who do and will be illustrated in details in the Syllabus made available on Virtuale. Students are kindly invited to get in touch with the instructor in due time and at least once before the exam to receive instructions on the study of the bibliography.

Teaching methods

The course will be articulated into both lectures and class discussions.

Lectures may include seminars by external experts and the projection of materials and documentaries.

The methodology adopted for class discussions (group discussion, whole class discussion, presentations, Q&A) will be defined at the beginning of the class taking into consideration its size. Students are required to carefully read the assigned material before the class discussion and to actively take part in it.

Particular attention will be paid to the reading and discussion in class of the works of the main Western political thinkers with the aim of allowing students to gain the conceptual tools and specific lexicon of the history of political thoughts.

The aim of the teaching methodology adopted is to activate the informed critical discussion of topics among students and to facilitate the interaction and exchange between the instructor and the students.

Assessment methods

Students who have attended classes

The assessment of the acquisition of expected knowledge and abilities by students who have attended class is based on the following two components: 1. Final written exam and 2. (Optional) oral exam

The final written exam is a two-hour test that consists of 5/6 open questions on the bibliography and the topics discussed in class aimed at assessing the acquisition of the expected knowledge as well as of methodological and critical skills.

Students who have attended class who miss or fail the written exam will undergo an oral exam on the entire syllabus after the end of the class.

The oral exam will take place after the end of the class and will consist of four/five questions aimed at assessing the level of knowledge of the bibliography and of the topics addressed by the course, as well as the students' ability to critically analyse and verbally articulate them.

The final evaluation will be the score of written exam and/or of the possible oral exam.

Students who have not attended classes

Students who have not attended class will undergo an oral exam.

The oral exam will consist four/five questions aimed at assessing the level of knowledge of the bibliography and of the topics addressed by the course, as well as the students' ability to critically analyse and verbally articulate them.

Teaching tools

Lectures and class discussions will be held with the support of audio-visual tools (ppt, web, short documentaries).

Office hours

See the website of Annalisa Furia