02052 - Social History

Course contents

The course is divided in two parts.

The first part will answer to the following question: what is Social history? The path of the Social history will be adressed from its birth as opposed to the political and diplomatic history to the latest branches. This part will explain how the Social history arose thanks to a progressive open up to sociology, antropology, economics, statistics, demography, philosophy and it grew up trough the cross disciplinary approach. The main school will be presented. Among them:

• Les Annales (M. Bloch, L. Fevbre, F. Braudel, R. Chartier, B. Lepetit). From structural history to the History of mentality and representations.
• The english Labour history (E. Hobsbawm, E. Thompson, The History Horkshop Journal).
• The History of the “total institutions” (prisons, mental asylums), History of marginality and Knowledge history (M. Foucault)
• Race, culture and “style” of the subultern classes (Cultural studies, S. Hall)
• The scales of analysis, the agency, the norm and the anomaly (Microhistory, C. Ginzburg, G. Levi, E. Grendi, J. Revel)
• History and sociology, the Socio-histoire (P. Bourdieu, A. Sayad, G. Noiriel)
• Post colonial, Global History, decolonial
• Race, gender and classe: open problems (the intersecionality, K. Crenshaw)

In the second part (10h), the course will take the form of a workshop on the 1994 exhibition The Lie of Race.

Readings/Bibliography

The literature for attending students will be communicate at the beginning of the class.

Students who are not able to attend face-to-face lectures will have to study the following literature:

Carlotta Sorba, Federico Mazzini, La svolta culturale. Come è cambiata la pratica storiografica, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2021

Alberto Mario Banti, Vinzia Fiorino, Carlotta Sorba (a cura di), Lessico della storia culturale, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2023

Teaching methods

The course is delivered through face-to-face lessons with the help of audiovisual materials (Power Point presentations, movies, music). Moreover, it provides working groups, reading documents, expositions by students, speeches by guests, educational walks in town, the implementation of interviews. The course is held in Italian. The frequency is compulsory, and it will be verify by signs. The attending students will be participate in at least 75% of lessons. The non-attending students will study a special program for them.

Assessment methods

For attending students, assessment will take place during the course through participation in the activities proposed by the instructor: reading documents, articles, book excerpts, public presentations, and research work.
For non-attending students, assessment will take the form of an oral exam consisting of an individual interview lasting approximately 25 minutes, during which the candidate will typically be asked three questions covering the entire syllabus. Preparation will be considered satisfactory (with a grade expressed out of thirty) based on the clarity of the presentation, accuracy of language, appropriate use of terminology, and the ability to engage in critical argumentation.

Teaching tools

Audiovisual materials, PowerPoint presentations, video clips, educational walks.

Office hours

See the website of Andrea Rapini