29514 - Global History: Public Sphere and Mass Media (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students will be able to use the acquired conceptual and theoretical tools to build adequate analytical frames and approach specific historical subjects. Particularly, students will master theories and methodological approaches concerning the shape and changes of public spheres in contemporary history. Thanks to the knowledge of the national and international historiography, students will be able to manage on their own further historical research on a specific topic. At the end of the two modules of the course, they will be aware of the methodological orientations prevailing in the global history, particularly with regard to economic matters, material cultures, environmental changes and changes in the public sphere. This will allow them to be critical towards the information, the texts and data and their historiographic relevance.

Course contents

Building relationships and public spheres through solidarity: transnational and global dimensions

The course (module 1 of the integrated course in Global History)  will introduce and analyse the the building of transnational as well as global public spheres emerging out of solidarity practices, campaigns for human, social, political rights. It will begin with the setting of a theoretical frame, considerations on the use of the concept of public sphere as well as of solidarity from the end of the 19th and along the 20th centuries.

We will follow a chronological red thread starting with first conscious experiences of building transnational solidarity networks, so as to enlighten forms of circulation of peoples, ideas, discourses and practices.

The programme is articulated in 5 weeks, each of them will focus on specific topics.

Week 1: Building the analytical frame: introduction to key concepts and analytical categories of the programme: Global history, transnational history, public sphere, solidarity.

Week 2: Natural rights, universalistic discourses and political limits. the making of a transnational public sphere in the Atlantic area concerning slavery and slaves trade.

Week 3: Human rights and citizenship's rights: the public sphere of workers' internationalism and socialism between main abtract goals and real barriers.

 Week 4: Citizenship's rights and women's rights: from the early transnational movements to the rise a feminist public sphere of "a only one world".

Week 5: Human rights, social rights and global justice. Latin America as a laboratory for global solidarity, communication, and political practices of global relevance: from the Tricontinental Conference to the Zapatist movement.  

At the beginning of the course there will be organized presentations of readings uploaded on Virtuale (“teaching materials”). The texts will be presented either individually or in small groups accordingly to the effective number of attendind students. 

 

Readings/Bibliography

The books listed below are references for topics tackled in class. They can serve as starting readings for the preparation of the final paper.

On methodological, historiographical and conceptual issues:

Craig Calhoun (ed), Habermas and the public sphere, The Mit Press, Cambridge 1992;

Sebastian Conrad, Storia globale: un'introduzione, Roma: Carocci, 2015;

J. Habermas, Storia e critica dell'opinione pubblica, 3. ed
Roma-Bari, Laterza 2008;

Jürgen Habermas, Nuovo mutamento della sfera pubblica e politica deliberativa, Milano: Raffaello Cortina, 2023

Stefan-L. Hoffmann, Civil Society 1750-1914, Palgrave New York 2006;

Marek Tamm, Peter Burke (eds.), Debating new approaches to history, London, Bloomsbury 2019;

Marica Tolomelli, Sfera pubblica e comunicazioni di massa, Bologna, Archetipo 2006;

On the historical topics:

Sarah Adams, Repertoires of Slavery. Dutch Theater Between Abolitionism and Colonial Subjection, 1770-1810, Amsterdam 2023

Alfio Aloisi (a cura di), L'internazionalismo in Giappone : dagli esordi del movimento operaio alla controrivoluzione staliniana, 1897-1930 : antologia, Milano 2013

Elena Apostoli Cappello, Tutti siamo indigeni! Giochi di specchi tra Europa e Chiapas, Padova, CLEUP, 2013

Giulia Bonazza, Abolitionism and the persistence of slavery in Italian states: 1750–1850, Palgrave Macmillan 2019

Burton, Eric, Dietrich, Anne, R. Harisch, Immanuel and C. Schenck, Marcia. Navigating Socialist Encounters: Moorings and (Dis)Entanglements between Africa and East Germany during the Cold War, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2021;

Samantha Christiansen, Zachary A. Scarlett (eds.), The Third World in the global 1960s, New York, Berghahn Books, 2015;

Francisca De Haan et al., Women's Activism: Global Perspectives from the 1890s to the Present, London, Taylor & Francis 2013

Lucy Delap, Femminismi. Una storia globale, Milano 2023

Daniel Hallin, The uncensored war. The media and Vietnam, 1986.

Georges Haupt, L'Internazionale socialista dalla Comune a Lenin, Torino 1978

Eric Herschthal, The science of abolition: how slaveholders became the enemies of progress, New Haven-London 2021

Lynn Hunt, La forza dell'empatia. Una storia dei diritti dell'uomo,
Roma-Bari 2010

Jane Jaquette (ed.), Feminist Agenda and Democracy in Latin America, Durham 2009

Christoph Kalter, The discovery of the Third World. Decolonization and the rise of the New Left in France,1950-1976, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 2016

N. Karagiannis, Multiple Solidarities. Autonomy and Resistance, in Varieties of world-making : beyond globalization, edited by Nathalie Karagiannis and Peter Wagner, Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 2007, p. 154-72.

Alex Khasnabish, Zapatismo beyond borders. New imaginations of political possibility, University of Toronto Press, 2008

Kathryn Kish Sklar, James Brewer Stewart (eds.), Womens rights and transatlantic antislavery in the era of emancipation, New Haven; London 2007;

Kathryn Kish Sklar, Women's rights emerges within antislavery movement, 1830-1870 : a brief history with documents, Boston-New York 2000

Carmelo M. Lanzafame, Carlo Podaliri, La stagione della solidarietà sanitaria a Reggio Emilia: Mozambico 1963-1977, Torino 2004;

Giancarlo Monina (cur.), Novecento contemporaneo. Studi su Lelio Basso, con la guida alle fonti per lo studio dei Comitati di solidarietà democratica, Roma: Ediesse, 2009

Jocelyn Olcott, International womens year : the greatest consciousness-raising event in history, New York: Oxford University Press, 2017;

Bianca Pomeranzi, Femministe di un unico mondo, a cura di C. Cotti, Roma 2024;

Mariuccia Salvati, Solidarietà, Roma 2023.

 

Teaching methods

For the preparation of class discussions the texts will be uploaded on the "didactic materials" related to teaching.The course includes lectures alternating with debates in which active participation of students is required. Some readings to be discussed in class will be assigned in the first week of lessons. 

For the preparation of class discussions the texts will be uploaded on the "Virtuale" platform related to course.

 

Assessment methods

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

Attending students are asked to produce a written paper on a theme pertaining to one of the two modules, to be agreed with the teacher of the respective module. For a 12-credit-essay it is required a length of about 7.500 words.

The paper will be evaluated both in terms formal aspects of presentation and articulation of the work, clarity of exposition,  accuracy in the use of historiographic concepts and categories, and in terms of the ability of critical elaboration of the bibliographic material used and its coherence in relation to the subject of the paper. In the evaluation of attending students, systematic and active participation in class will also be taken into account.

 

In addition to the final paper, not-attending students must take a written exam - valid for both the two modules of the integrated course - on the following books:

Sebastian Conrad, Storia Globale. Un'introduzione, Carocci, Roma 2015. 

Christophe Bonneuil, Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, La terra, la storia e noi. L'evento antropocene, Roma, Treccani, 2019

The exam, to be done in 90 minuts, will consist of open question, three for each book. 

The overall grade of the first module for not-attending students will be the average obtained between the written exam and the final paper (to be agreed with one of the two teachers of the integrated course).

With regard to the outlined criteria the evalution will result from following assessment scale:

• Excellent (30 cum laude)
• Very Good (28-30)
• Good (25-27)
• Satisfactory (22-24)
• Sufficient (18-21)

This 6 CFU course can be chosen as a part of the 12 CFU Integrate course "Profili di storia globale (C.I.) (LM)". If the student has the Integrated Course (12 CFU) in his/her study plan, the final grade will result from the arithmetic average of the marks obtained in the two parts (“Global history: Public sphere and mass communication (1) (LM)" and “Global history: Economics, Environment, Society (1) (LM) “).

Teaching tools

The weekly readings will be made available on the "Teaching materials" related to teaching. Knowledge of English is desirable as some of the readings will be in English.

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:LINK

Office hours

See the website of Marica Tolomelli