93540 - Current Affairs Laboratory (LM)

Learning outcomes

The lab aims  to offer the student tools to analyze national and international politics through the analysis of individual cases. At the end of the course the student: - masters the analysis of a case study; - can analyze cases of international politics; - can apply knowledge in content production; - is able to investigate the news.

Course contents

The Current affairs lab will be divided into a series of conferences on current affairs or on historical themes which, however, always have a link with the present time. The aim is to train students to deal with and make complex national and international topics in writing through the identification of problems, the use of scientific literature and sources.Yhe  students will be expected to write essay on the topics ( 5000 characters).

Course organisation:


Each meeting includes one hour of lecture, one hour of discussion with the speaker and one hour of work on the content with the lecturer in charge of the workshop. Dutìring the third hour students wull discussed the topicc and the assignement of essay. At the end of the course the collection of essays will be assembled in a sort of  Journal of the course. To this end Students will be taught how to plan and layout a Journal.

Calendar of the Lectures

Lesson 1 Tuesday 22 March 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. AULA CAMINO
Presentation of the workshop
In this lesson the tasks of the class work will be assigned and the methods of preparation of the final paper will be defined. The most useful sources for the analysis of current affairs will be indicated.

lesson 2 Thursday, 24 March 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. AULA MAGRINI
The end of the Cold War and the new geopolitical structures
Federico Romero (European University Institute) (in Italian)

Lesson 3 Tuesday 29 March 10am-1pm AULA CAMINO
Fake news and social media
Anna Maria Lorusso (University of Bologna) (in Italian)

Lecture 4 Tuesday, 5 April 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. AULA CAMINO
The United States, China and the New Bipolarity in World Politics
Hanns Maull (Johns Hopkins University) (in English)

lecture 5 Thursday 7th April 10am-1pm AULA MAGRINI
Democracy and Post-Democracy in Eastern Europe
Emanuela Costantini (University of Perugia) (in Italian)

lecture 6 Tuesday 12 April 10am-1pm AULA CAMINO
Interpreting Brexit: media, politics and society
Miles Taylor (Humboldt University of Berlin) (in English)

lesson 7 Thursday 21st April 10am-1pm AULA MAGRINI
Populism and neo-nationalism in Europe
Stefano Cavazza (University of Bologna)(in Italian)

lecture 8 Tuesday 26th April 10am-1pm AULA CAMINO
Violence and Genocide
Marcello Flores (University of Siena) (in Italian)

Lecture 9 Tuesday 3 May 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. AULA CAMINO
Today's Europe and the European Union in Historical Perspective - Global Challenges and Regional Answers
Manfred Görtemaker (Universität Potsdam) (in English)

Lecture 10 Thursday 5 May 10am-1pm AULA MAGRINI
Final discussion Paper preparation And paper assignment

Teaching methods

If the restrictions due to the health emergency are lifted, the course will be held in presence, partly as a frontal lecture supplemented by a seminar-type discussion.

In the case of continuing restrictions due to the health emergency, , teaching will be carried out with teaching methods: traditional: the teacher will always be in attendance in the classroom designated for teaching, the students will alternate in attendance according to a schedule of shifts being defined (more detailed information regarding the shift and how to access the lesson in attendance will be provided later). It will always be possible to connect remotely and follow live lessons in the classroom via the TEAMS platform.

ATTENTION: Given the fluidity of  the emergency situation we are experiencing and since this program is published in July 2021, it is possible that the teaching methods  will change in the coming months. In this case,  communication will be given immediately through an update of this program, as well as through appropriate notices published on the usual institutional channels, namely: notices published on the teacher's website, on the website of the INCOM Degree Course and on the official FB page of the INCOM degree that all students are invited to consult periodically.

Assessment methods

Students should write a summary of the lecture. Every 15 days participants will be assigned the writing of a 5000 characters text on one of the topics that will be published in the Journal. At the end of the workshop the task will be assigned to write a paper of 40,000 characters on a topic assigned by the teacher and congruent with the topics covered. The paper and the topics will be finally discussed in an oral exam.

Teaching tools

beamer

Links to further information

https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/stefano.cavazza/

Office hours

See the website of Stefano Cavazza