B4804 - Transnational Social Movements and Political Cultures (1) (LM)

Conoscenze e abilità da conseguire

Aim of the course is to provide a theoretical framework and methodological tools, which will enable students to acquire a sound understanding of the transnational approach to global history. The critical analysis of sources will be the object of collective discussion. At the end of the course students will be familiar with the main historiographical trends in the field of global and transnational history and they will develop a research experience on specific processes of social mobilization in relationship with the formation of transnational political cultures in the 19th and 20th century.

Contenuti

The First World War marked an acceleration of social tensions and transformative processes with global reach. It created the conditions for a wave of revolutionary upheavals that swept away old empires and destabilized the political foundations even in victorious countries. Within this revolutionary wave, a renewed revolutionary and anti-colonial internationalism emerged—one that proved more attentive to the differences between political subjectivities than earlier internationalist traditions had been.

This course will explore key aspects of the complex effort to build transnational political connections and solidarities in the aftermath of the war. It will examine how these movements addressed the challenges posed by differences of gender and race, in their search for common ground in the struggle against economic exploitation and political oppression.

Main topics will be:

Marxism and Internationalism

The Second International and the Question of Race

The Birth of the Third International: The Colonial Question and the Question of Race

The Woman Question in the Socialist Tradition

"Women of the East" as a Political Category 

Language, Culture, and Nationalities in Soviet Policies

Black Internationalism: Traditions and Political Currents

The Comintern and the Black Question

The Indigenous Question and the National Question in Latin America

Knowing the Other: African and Oriental Studies in the Soviet Union

The Comintern Schools and their Legacy

A reading list for attending students will be presented and discussed at the beginning of the course.

 

Testi/Bibliografia

This bibliography provides general reference texts that will be used during the course. For the bibliography relating to the final exam, consult the appropriate section.

Anderson, Kevin B. 2020. Marx at the Margins. On Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Non-Western Societies. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Jürgen Dinkel The Non-Aligned Movement: Genesis, Organization and Politics (1927-1992), Brill, 2019

Aydin, Cemil. The politics of anti-Westernism in Asia: visions of world order in pan-Islamic and pan-Asian thought. Columbia University Press, 2007.

Connor, Walker. 1984. The National Question in Marxist-Leninist Theory and Strategy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Conrad, Sebastian, and Dominic Sachsenmaier. " Competing Visions of World Order: Global Moments and Movements, 1880s–1930s. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, 2007.

Drachewych, Oleksa, and Ian McKay. 2019. Left Transnationalism: The Communist International and the National, Colonial and Racial Question. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Keller, Shoshana. 2001. To Moscow, Not Mecca: The Soviet Campaign against Islam in Central Asia, 1917–1941. Westport, CT.: Praeger.

Louro, Michele L., Carolien Stolte, Heather Streets-Salter, and Sana Tannoury-Karam, eds. 2020. The League against Imperialism: Lives and Afterlives. Leiden: Leiden University Press. Project MUSE.

Löwy, Michael. 2020. Fatherland or Mother Earth? Essays on the National Question. Amsterdam: International Institute for Research and Education.

Mahler, Anne Garland, and Paolo Capuzzo, eds. The Comintern and the Global South: Global Designs/Local Encounters. Taylor & Francis, 2022.

Martin, Terry. 2017. The Affrmative Action Empire. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Petersson, Fredrik. 2014. Willi Münzenberg, the League against Imperialism, and the Comintern, 1925–1933. Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press.

Pons, Silvio. 2014. The Global Revolution. A History of International Communism 1917–1991. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Rees, Tim, and Andrew Thorpe, ed. 1998. International Communism and the Communist International, 1919–43. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press.

Studer, Brigitte. 2015. The Transnational World of the Cominternians. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

———. 2020. Reisende der Weltrevolution. Eine Globalgeschichte der Kommunistischen Internationale. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.

Young, Robert J.C. 2001. Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction. Oxford and Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.

Wolikow, Serge. 2010. L’ Internationale communiste (1919–1943): le Komintern ou le rêve déchu du parti mondial de la révolution. Ivry-sur-Seine: Les Éditions de l’Atelier.

Metodi didattici

Teaching method will be based on lectures and seminars.

The teacher will present the main historiographical positions on the course topics. Students will be asked to read essays and present them to the class and to participate to the collective discussions.

Starting from the second week, every Thursday will be devoted to student presentations and collective discussions.

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

Students who attend at least 75% of the lessons are considered to be attending.

The following instructions on the final exam concern the integrated course Global History (B4802 - 12 credits).

Attending students are required to participate actively to all classes and discussions on the reading texts listed in the class programm in due time; they will further write a 4500-word final paper on one of the following areas:

• End of Empires and transnational political movements after the First World War (to be agreed with Prof. Capuzzo)
• Ideas and practices of solidarity crossing European spaces in the late 19th and20th century (to be agreed with Prof. Tolomelli)

Students are required to choose a specific subject within one of these two areas with the advise of one of the two professors (Tolomelli and Capuzzo).

Deadline for the submission of the final paper is either on January 30th or March 30th.

The grade assigned to the paper will be based on:

- participation in class presentations and discussions;

- selection of the topic of the final paper and its relatedness with the course content

- ability to identify relevant bibliography

- critical analysis

- clarity in structure and aims

- language proficiency

The final grade will result from the evaluation of all aspects concerning the course: active participation in class; accuracy and punctuality in delivering the due papers; accuracy in oral presentation and academic writing; capability to deepen and master topics addressed during the course; ability to identify relevant bibliography; critical analysis; clear and logical structure of the final paper.

Proper language and the ability to critically analyze relevant topics will lead to a good/excellent final grade

Acceptable language and the ability to resume relevant topics will lead to a sufficient/fair grade.

Insufficient linguistic proficiency and fragmentary knowledge of relevant topics will lead to a failure in passing the exam.

 

Non-attending students are required to pass a written exam. For this module there will be a 50 minutes exam in which students are required to anser to 3 questions. 

Students are required to study accurately the following texts:

 

S. Conrad, D. Sachsenmaier, Competing Visions of World Order: Global Moments and Movements, 1880s–1930s, New York 2007;

G. Sluga,P. Clavin, eds., Internationalisms: a twentieth-century history. Cambridge 2017.

 

The final grade for non-attending will result from the arithmetic average of the marks obtained in the two sections of the exam. It will be based on:

- critical analysis of the texts

- conciseness and clarity in exposition

- terminological and conceptual accuracy

 

Students taking only the 6-ECTS course will take the exam according to the following procedures:

written 50 minutes exam in which students are required to answer to 3 questions.

Students are required to study accurately the following texts:

 

S. Conrad, D. Sachsenmaier, Competing Visions of World Order: Global Moments and Movements, 1880s–1930s, New York 2007;

G. Sluga,P. Clavin, eds., Internationalisms: a twentieth-century history. Cambridge 2017.

 

The final grade will result from the arithmetic average of the marks obtained in the two sections of the exam. It will be based on:

- critical analysis of the texts

- conciseness and clarity in exposition

- terminological and conceptual accuracy

 

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.

Strumenti a supporto della didattica

Lectures will be supported by power point presentations summarising the main points of the lecture as well as visual sources and maps.

Students who require specific services and adaptations to teaching activities due to a disability or specific learning disorders (SLD), must first contact the appropriate office: https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students

Orario di ricevimento

Consulta il sito web di Paolo Capuzzo