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? Historical and contemporary perspectives". 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. We will also discuss how the region can be best understood today, interrogating the relationship between different countries and the relationship between the region and Europe.
2 - "Pluralism and Contemporary Societies: theoretical and empirical perspectives". Through in class lessons and online exercises, we will discuss the public role of religion in secularised societies, the relationship between pluralism and radicalization, the place of religion in liberal democracy and the mutation of secularism from legal principle to national narrative.
3 - "Transcultural Communication in the Mediterranean"; these group of lectures will concentrate on communicative patterns and strategies in contemporary Mediterranean societies.

Selected texts will be presented to the class at the beginning of the course.

Learning outcomes will be verified through written and oral tests.

The course adopts a blended modality and will be articulated in in-class lectures and online activities; course activities will include exercises presentations, small group work, student led presentations, and individual research projects.

English

written and oral