93613 - European Integration and Mediterranean Area

Academic Year 2025/2026

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Ravenna
  • Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Mediterranean History, Societies and Cultures (cod. 5974)

Learning outcomes

The course aims to reconstruct the European integration process, its origins, and its development up to contemporary challenges, starting from a continental perspective while giving particular importance to the interaction between the two shores of the Mediterranean region. Special attention will be given to the interconnection between the integration process and the evolution of the Arab world, with a focus starting from the major crisis of the early 1970s.

By the end of the course, students will be able to trace the main stages of the European integration process, identify its institutional actors, and situate its evolution within the context of the Cold War and the post-colonial transformation, with a specific focus on the southern shore of the Mediterranean.

Course contents

The objective of the course is to provide a comprehensive overview of the European integration process through the analysis of the development stages of European institutions and policies. Particular attention will be devoted to the relations between the two shores of the Mediterranean. The course will examine the origins of the integration process in the 1940s and 1950s, the challenges and the revival at the end of the 1950s and during the 1960s. A significant focus will be placed on the pivotal turning point of the 1970s, between the end of the Bretton Woods system and the birth of the European Monetary System. Special emphasis will also be given to the turning point marked by the end of the Cold War and the difficulties faced by the European Community in adapting to a globalized world with governance mechanisms in crisis. The final lessons will focus on current challenges faced by the EU, including migration issues and the dramatic resurgence of war.

Readings/Bibliography

Attending students

Mandatory book:

  • A. Varsori, Storia della costruzione europea. Dal 1947 a oggi, il Mulino, 2023

One book to choose among: 

  • S. Cruciani, M. Ridolfi (a cura di), L’Unione Europea e il Mediterraneo. Interdipendenza politica e rappresentazioni mediatiche (1947-2017), FrancoAngeli, Milano, 2017

  • S. Cruciani, M. Ridolfi (a cura di), L’Unione Europea e il Mediterraneo. Relazioni internazionali, crisi politiche e regionali (1947-2016), FrancoAngeli, Milano, 2017

  • S. Fabbrini, Nazionalismo 2.0. La sfida sovranista all’Europa integrata, Mondadori, 2025

  • M. Granata, Una questione meridionale europea. Ocse e Paesi mediterranei nel dopoguerra, Rubbettino, 2025

  • G. Lella, Mitterrand, l’Italia e la costruzione europea, Carocci, 2025

  • A. Missiroli, L’Europa come potenza. Diplomazia, sicurezza e difesa, Il Mulino, 2022

  • S. Paoli, Frontiera Sud. L’Italia e la nascita dell’Europa di Schengen, Le Monnier, 2018

  • D. Pasquinucci, Il frutto avvelenato. Il vincolo europeo e la critica all’Europa, Le Monnier, Milano, 2022

  • D. Pasquinucci, L. Verzichelli (a cura di), Contro l’Europa? I diversi scetticismi verso l’integrazione europea, il Mulino, Bologna, 2016

 

Non-attending student

Mandatory book:

  • A. Varsori, Storia della costruzione europea. Dal 1947 a oggi, il Mulino, 2023

Four books to choose among:

  • S. Cruciani, M. Ridolfi (a cura di), L’Unione Europea e il Mediterraneo. Interdipendenza politica e rappresentazioni mediatiche (1947-2017), FrancoAngeli, Milano, 2017

  • S. Cruciani, M. Ridolfi (a cura di), L’Unione Europea e il Mediterraneo. Relazioni internazionali, crisi politiche e regionali (1947-2016), FrancoAngeli, Milano, 2017

  • S. Fabbrini, Nazionalismo 2.0. La sfida sovranista all’Europa integrata, Mondadori, 2025

  • M. Granata, Una questione meridionale europea. Ocse e Paesi mediterranei nel dopoguerra, Rubbettino, 2025

  • G. Lella, Mitterrand, l’Italia e la costruzione europea, Carocci, 2025

  • A. Missiroli, L’Europa come potenza. Diplomazia, sicurezza e difesa, Il Mulino, 2022

  • S. Paoli, Frontiera Sud. L’Italia e la nascita dell’Europa di Schengen, Le Monnier, 2018

  • D. Pasquinucci, Il frutto avvelenato. Il vincolo europeo e la critica all’Europa, Le Monnier, Milano, 2022

  • D. Pasquinucci, L. Verzichelli (a cura di), Contro l’Europa? I diversi scetticismi verso l’integrazione europea, il Mulino, Bologna, 2016

 

Teaching methods

Lectures and seminar activities.

The course includes traditional lectures complemented by student participation in classroom debates based on documents and readings assigned during the course.

Assessment methods

Attending students: a written exam based on the course lectures and the required textbook; an oral exam on one monograph of their choice.

Non-attending students: an oral exam on the required textbook and four monographs of their choice.

Teaching tools

Texts are available through the Central Library of the Ravenna Campus and the AlmaRe platform (the University of Bologna's Electronic Resources Library), as well as audiovisual materials.

Students who, due to disabilities or specific learning disability (SLD), require compensatory tools are invited to inform the instructor of their needs, so they can be referred to the appropriate support staff and suitable accommodations can be arranged.

Office hours

See the website of Michele Marchi