27280 - Seminars (1) (G.D)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the seminar students will be able to interpret issues related to specific historical phenomena in a diachronic and transversal perspective, thought the elaboration and synthesis of the data coming from the analysis of written records and material sources and from the collective debate originated from the contact with other people. They will be able to formulate autonomously and in an organized way a research path or an intellectual work, using the specific acquired tools with methodological rigour, precision and accuracy.

Course contents

The seminar will deal with the memory of the Cold War from a bottom-up perspective. The general objective will be the collection and discussion of oral testimonies, after the identification of the various local actors involved in the general historical phenomenon of the Cold War: conscripts; conscientious objectors; political activists; inhabitants of militarized areas who made a living from the military settlement, and after the end of the Cold War had to emigrate or convert to other occupations.
Conceived in a local history dimension, the seminar will attempt a comparison with experiences on a national, European and global level. Therefore, the seminar will include the participation of Cold War and memory studies scholars.
The seminar will include a theoretical and methodological introduction to oral history, in order to provide participants with the tools to collect and manage testimonies.
A detailed program, comprehensive of the external guests list, will be published before the start of the seminar.

Readings/Bibliography

1. Methodology:

A. Portelli, Storie orali. Racconto, immaginazione, dialogo, Donzelli, 2017.

B. Bonomo, Voci della memoria. L’uso delle fonti orali nella ricerca storica, Carocci, 2013.

 

2. About the Cold War:

O.A. Westad, La guerra fredda globale, Saggiatore, 2005.

 

3. Debate materials

B. Bonomo, Storia, memoria, soggettività, fonti orali, in Meridiana, 2023, N. 106, pp. 253-266.

E. Traverso, La tirannide dell'io. Scrivere il passato in prima persona, Laterza 2022, in particolare il capitolo Presentismo, pp. 143-166.

F. Romero, Indivisibilità della guerra fredda. La guerra totale simbolica, in Studi Storici, Anno 38, N. 4, Pubblico e privato nella storia americana novecentesca, pp. 935-950.

P. Buton, O. Büttne, M. Hastings (dir.), La Guerre froide vue d’en bas, CNRS Editions, 2014 [disponibile in open edition al link https://books.openedition.org/editionscnrs/23612 ], specialmente i capitoli:

- Les grammaires émotionnelles de la Guerre froide vue d’en bas

- Émotions nucléaires

- Les dynamiques mémorielles de la Guerre froide

F. Romero, Indivisibilità della guerra fredda. La guerra totale simbolica, in Studi Storici, Anno 38, N. 4, Pubblico e privato nella storia americana novecentesca, pp. 935-950.

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Teaching methods

The seminar is divided into three phases:

(a) an introduction to the theory and methodology of oral history, in order to provide participants with the tools to tackle the next two phases;

(b) a series of meetings with experts in Cold War history, or with scholars who are carrying out researches focused on its memory from below; at the same time the participants, divided into working groups, will have to identify witnesses of the historical phenomenon which is the theme of the seminar, and carry out the interviews;

(c) the last phase of the seminar will be dedicated to the discussion of the materials collected by the different working groups, who will present the testimonies and discuss them with the other participants.

Assessment methods

To achieve the 6 credits of the Seminars activity, students will have to attend at least 12 seminar meetings, for a total of 24 hours out of 30.
Attendance will be recorded by signature.
The verbalization of the activity is subordinated to the collection, processing and discussion of one or more interviews, to be integrated with those collected from the other participants and systematized in a report from a minimum of 10,000 to a maximum of 20,000 characters (5/10 pages).

Office hours

See the website of Jacopo Lorenzini