INTERACTION, COMMUNICATION AND TRANSCULTURAL PROCESSES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

The course looks at the Mediterranean as a complex geo-political space, founded on a process of communication between different cultures and languages. The presence, coexistence and interaction of different cultures represents a fundamental character of the Mediterranean, as a cultural and social space. The course will encourage students to interrogate realities, potentialities and problems of the Mediterranean area in historical perspective and in the present. Particular attention will be given to themes such as religious pluralism, migration and intercultural communication. We will look both at methodological and theoretical perspectives and at concrete case studies, able to highlight specific issues.

By the end of the course, students will have acquired competences and abilities suitable to be applied both in research and in professional setting, in relation to intercultural communication and the management of diversity.

In particular, students will be able to
1. develop a critical analysis of the Mediterranean as geo-political space and to discuss its interpretations
2. understand and apply key concepts, such as pluralism, secularisation, radicalisation, laicitè
3. recognise and apply conceptual definitions that find their basis in sociology of religion, in legal studies, in gender studies and in post-colonial studies.
4. identify key arguments in the field of inter-cultural communication

Students will also acquire methodological instruments necessary to pursue research in the are of social science and humanities, particularly in the fields of multiculturality and migration.

Criteria for admission are the same as for the study programme MIM. Other curricula will be evaluated on a case by case basis.
E' essenziale una buona conoscenza delle lingue inglese e francese.

The course is articulated in three main blocks of lessons.
1 - What is the Mediterranean? This part of the course will discuss the main efforts made by historians, sociologists and anthropologists to define the Mediterranean as a distinct cultural region, with common characteristics. We will discuss the potentialities and problems of different approaches and of the overall project of thinking of the Mediterranean as a whole.
2 - « Working on Pluralism in the Union: theoretical and empirical perspectives (with prof. Valérie Amiraux) The course will focus on Muslims in Europe and will be based on four interactive axis: - a strong theoretical perspective (inclusive of clear conceptual definition coming from sociology of religion, legal studies, gender, racial and post colonial studies); - a precise data collection (providing students with critical assessment of socio-demographic data, an exhaustive intra-European review of the literature helping them to identify the main research lines that have developed and dominated the field since the late 80s); - a fine methodological training (how to produce knowledge about religious minorities in the European context, the ethnographic turn); - a stimulating use of innovative pedagogical tools.
The sessions will articulate two interrelated dimensions: on the one hand, bearing on the public role of religion in secular contexts, it will look at “How the religion of some became the public concern of others”? On the other hand, looking at more recent news the public attention focusing on refugees and jihadism, I would emphasize the need to think about the articulation between the experience of pluralism and radicalization. Finally, the course would work as an opportunity to engage with the class in discussing core political issues such as the place of religion in liberal secular democracy and the mutation of secularism from legal principle to national narrative. In this perspective, working on the European Union also means addressing the role of law in designing the political and social conditions for dealing with religious pluralism at a community level.
3 - Transcultural Communication in the Mediterranean,with professor Ricardo Carniel; these group of lectures will concentrate on communicative patterns and strategies in contemporary Mediterranean societies.

Learning outcomes will be verified through written and oral tests.

The teaching method will include lectures and tutor presentations, small group work, student led presentations, and individual research projects.

English

written and oral