92919 - Culture, Science and History (1)

Learning outcomes

The aim of this course is to provide the students the tools for understanding the historical relations between scientific activities and their wide and layered cultural contexts. These contexts include: popular cultures, intellectual traditions, social interactions, the relationships between politics and scientific authority, the influence of gender on science, and the interpretation of non-written sources.

Course contents

Gender, science and memory in the long 18th century (1680-1830)

 

This course offers an introduction to the relationship between women, gender and scientific knowledge in the long eighteenth century (1680-1830), a period characterized by profound transformations both in the interactions between science and society and in relations between men and women. Through the analysis of historical sources and case studies, we will explore forms of female participation in the scientific culture of the time, debates about women's knowledge, the spaces and practices of production and circulation of scientific knowledge, and the processes of construction (and concealment) of female memory in the history of science.

The course is divided into two parts. The first, Spaces, Knowledge and Women's Practices (lessons 1-10), provides historiographical and methodological tools for navigating historical studies on women, gender and science of recent decades. We will examine the sites of eighteenth-century scientific knowledge production – universities and academies but also and especially domestic spaces, workshops and places of care – and the role of women as producers and mediators of knowledge, as well as audiences for science. Adopting a social history approach, we will analyze not only celebrated figures but also groups of women engaged in everyday scientific practices: midwives, herbalists, laboratory "assistants," illustrators... We will also see how Enlightenment science "constructs" sexual difference and how such constructions interweave with the social hierarchies of the period.

In the second part of the course, entitled Women, Gender and Scientific Memory (lessons 11-15), we will address the problem of women's memory in the history of science, with particular attention to the Italian context. We will analyze the processes of construction and concealment of female memory in science, examine why some women are celebrated as 'great scientists' and 'exceptional figures' while other categories disappear from historical narrative, and interrogate the meaning of being 'visible' subjects in history and historiography. Finally, we will reflect on the cultural and political implications of these processes of selective memory.

Readings/Bibliography

1. Collection of sources discussed in class (on Virtuale)

 

2. Natalie Zemon Davis, Donne ai margini. Tre vite del XVII secolo, Roma-Bari Laterza, 2011 (ed. or. 1995), prologue, chap. 3, and epilogue (on Virtuale)

 

3. Choose one text from:

 

- Francesca Antonelli, Scrivere e sperimentare: Marie-Anne Paulze-Lavoisier, segretaria della «nuova chimica» (1771-1836), Roma, Viella, 2022.

· Paola Bertucci, Viaggio nel Paese delle meraviglie. Scienza e curiosità nell'Italia del Settecento, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 2007.

· Federica Favino, Donne e scienza nella Roma dell'Ottocento, Roma, Viella, 2020

· Nadia Maria Filippini, Tiziana Plebani, Anna Scattigno (a cura di), Corpi e storia: donne e uomini dal mondo antico all'età contemporanea, Viella, Roma, 2011.

· Luciano Guerci, La sposa obbediente. Donna e matrimonio nella discussione dell'Italia del Settecento, Torino, Tirrenia Stampatori, 1988.

· Vincenzo Lagioia, Maria Pia Paoli, Rossella Rinaldi (a cura di) La fama delle donne. Pratiche femminili e società tra Medioevo ed Età moderna, Roma, Viella, 2020.

· Massimo Mazzotti, Maria Gaetana Agnesi e il suo mondo. Una vita tra scienza e carità, Roma, Carocci, 2019.

· Rebecca Messbarger, La signora anatomista. Vita e opere di Anna Morandi Manzolini, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2020.

· Sabrina Minuzzi, Sul filo dei segreti. Farmacopea, libri e pratiche terapeutiche a Venezia in età moderna, Unicopli, Milano, 2016

Sandra Plastina, Filosofe della modernità. Il pensiero delle donne dal Rinascimento all'Illuminismo, Roma, Carocci, 2011.

· Sandra Plastina, Mollezza della carne e sottigliezza dell'ingegno. La natura della donna nel Rinascimento europeo, Roma, Carocci, 2017.

· Tiziana Plebani, Le scritture delle donne in Europa. Pratiche quotidiane e ambizioni letterarie (secoli XIII-XX), Roma, Carocci, 2019.

· Meredith Ray, Figlie dell'alchimia. Donne e cultura scientifica nell'Italia della prima età moderna, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 2022 (ed. or. 2015).

 

NB: Non-attending students will need to add the reading of Marta Cavazza, Laura Bassi. Donne, genere e scienza nell'Italia del Settecento, Milano, Editrice Bibliografica, 2020, with particular attention to pp. 13-36; 131-162; 217-258.

Finally, for a quick overview of the course themes, the reading of Francesca Antonelli, "Donne, genere e scienza", in Marco Beretta, Storia materiale della scienza, 3rd revised and expanded ed., Roma, Carocci, 2025, pp. 313-330, may be useful (althoug not mandatory).

Teaching methods

The course combines lectures and seminar sessions.

Active participation is strongly encouraged, including through the reading of brief sources taken from the "Collection of sources discussed in class," item 1 of the exam bibliography. Reading these short texts during the course is optional but recommended as it represents an opportunity to deepen understanding of the content, develop a critical approach to sources, and enrich classroom discussion. The complete list will be presented on the first day of class and will be available on Virtuale.

Assessment methods

Students are considered attending if they participate in at least 75% of the lessons. Attending students can choose between two exam formats:

A) Oral exam. The exam will consist of an oral interview aimed at evaluating knowledge of the required texts and the critical and methodological skills developed through the studied bibliography. The discussion may begin with a topic of choice, on which the student will have approximately 10 minutes for presentation; this will be followed by 2-3 questions from the instructor.

B) Written paper (10-15 pages, Times New Roman 12; 1.5 line spacing; left-right and top-bottom margins of 2.5 cm) on a topic and bibliography to be agreed upon with the instructor. In this case, the final exam will consist of an oral interview aimed at discussing the paper. The paper must be submitted at least one week before the exam session. It is possible to request one round of corrections of the paper before its final submission: in this case, the paper must be submitted at least 15 days before the exam session.

In the evaluation, particular account will be taken of the student's ability to navigate the sources and bibliographical material in order to extract useful information that will allow them to illustrate themes and problems and to connect them to each other. The following will therefore be evaluated:

• Mastery of content
• Ability to synthesize and analyze themes and concepts
• Ability to express oneself adequately and with language appropriate to the subject matter

The student's achievement of an organic understanding of the themes addressed in class together with their critical use, excellent communication skills and appropriate academic language will be evaluated with top grades. Solid knowledge of the subject, together with good synthesis and analysis skills expressed in correct but not always appropriate language, will lead to satisfactory evaluations. Knowledge gaps and/or inappropriate language – even with minimal understanding of the exam material – will result in grades that barely reach sufficiency. Knowledge gaps, inappropriate language, and lack of orientation within the bibliographical materials offered during the course will be evaluated negatively.

In the case where the student chooses exam format B (written paper to be discussed orally), the evaluation will also take into account the clarity and coherence of the argument, the critical use of historiography, and the quality of the writing (syntax, spelling, footnote formatting and bibliography, etc.).

Erasmus students may, upon request, take the exam in English, French, or Spanish.

Teaching tools

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.

Office hours

See the website of Francesca Antonelli