Unit CONTEMPORARY HISTORY I
- Course
- Philosophy and ethics of relationships
- Study-unit Code
- A001190
- Curriculum
- Filosofia e storia
- Teacher
- Paolo Raspadori
- Teachers
-
- Paolo Raspadori
- Hours
- 36 ore - Paolo Raspadori
- CFU
- 6
- Course Regulation
- Coorte 2022
- Offered
- 2022/23
- Learning activities
- Caratterizzante
- Area
- Discipline classiche, storiche, antropologiche e politico-sociali
- Academic discipline
- M-STO/04
- Type of study-unit
- Opzionale (Optional)
- Type of learning activities
- Attività formativa monodisciplinare
- Language of instruction
- Italian
- Contents
- General section: some examples of public uses of history will be described through depictions of the animated sitcom 'The Simpsons'. Monographic section: the Public History approach will be illustrated, based on the priority of bringing history to the public, of mediating historical knowledge with the public, accepting constant negotiation with memories and other views of the past.
- Reference texts
- General section: Giancarlo Poidomani, I Simpson e la Storia. Viaggio nel tempo a bordo di un divano, Milan, Sironi, 2016. Monographic section: Paolo Bertella Farnetti, Lorenzo Bertucelli, Alfonso Botti (eds), Public History. Discussioni e pratiche, Sesto San Giovanni, Mimesis, 2017. Students with disabilities and/or SLD, in consultation with the teacher, may request any teaching materials in accessible formats (presentations, lecture notes, workbooks), provided if necessary in advance of the lessons, as well as the use of other technological tools to facilitate study. For general information, please refer to the University Services at https://www.unipg.it/disabilita-e-dsa.
- Educational objectives
- It is expected that students, on one hand, understand how contemporary history is actually inextricably linked to all cultural production (high and popular) of the 20th and 21st centuries. On the other hand, it is expected that students are able to ask themselves what it means to think historically and realize how knowledge of the past is always a construction and not a discovery.
- Prerequisites
- To be able to sufficiently understand the contents of the course, students must know the principal features of contemporary age. Furthermore, students must have learnt, during the years of high school, the basic knowledge of the major historical events and processes occurred in the West in the nineteenth and the twentieth century.
- Teaching methods
- The course consists of two parts. The former consists of lectures regarding issues of the general and monographic section described above. They will be enriched by audiovisual and film screenings and by the illustration of graphs and photos, presented in Power Point format. The later will be held in form of seminar, inviting students to choose a reading about a topic concerned with the monographic section and expose it through a classroom discussion (with or without the aid of a Power Point presentation).
- Other information
- To prepare the general and the monographic sections the attendance of lessons is strongly recommended.
- Learning verification modality
- The course consists of a general section and a monographic section. To pass the first one, attending students must undergo an oral examination, of variable duration depending on the course of the examination itself. The interview aims to verify the levels of knowledge and understanding reached by students with regard to the themes of the general section and, at the same time, their capability to communicate with an appropriate language what they have learnt by the lessons and the reading of the recommended text. To pass the monographic section, instead, students must attend a seminar work, that will be held in the last phase of the course, where their capabilities of critical analysis and reworking of a written text (with regard to one or more topics about the monographic part) will be tested. Furthermore, students must be able to present the subject of that text to their colleagues and the teacher. Students not able to attend lessons must prove to have got the knowledge provided by the course in an oral exam, for what concerns both the general part and the monographic one. Students with disabilities and/or SLD: for the way the tests are conducted, students can make use of the inclusive technologies, compensatory tools and relievery measures provided for the regulations. Technologies, tools and measures must be requested and agreed with the teacher well in advance of the tests. For general information, refer to the University Services at https://www.unipg.it/disabilita-e-dsa.
- Extended program
- General section: some examples of public uses of history will be described through depictions of the animated sitcom 'The Simpsons'. Specifically, we will reflect on the vocation of the historian and the use of sources, the propagandistic role of historical narration, and the 20th century and its crises. Monographic section: the Public History approach will be illustrated, based on the priority of bringing history to the public, of mediating historical knowledge with the public, accepting constant negotiation with memories and other views of the past. We will therefore delve into what is the purpose of the public historian, i.e. to recognize the demand coming from society, to modulate own activity accordingly, and on this basis to open a common worksite, able to equip a shared path that leads the public from the past to history, from fact to interpretation, a collaborative and engaging process that shares questions and 'authority'.