Learning outcomes
The contemporary age reveals a crucial “ambiguity”: the «paradox» of a historical period which, more than any other, is heavily dependent on science but, at the same time, is less at ease with science’s achievements and their societal, political, and environmental consequences. Twentieth century science and technology seem to stand out for those public controversies that they have frequently triggered. By and large, their development - in the contemporary age - seems to deal with the historical category of “social struggle”, in spite of society has become tightly dependent on tecnoscience.
The course "Science and Society" aims at increasing students’ knowledge of those key historical factors that have shaped the complex relationship between science, technology and society from the early 20th century up to the present. The emphasis will be laid on some emblematic “conflict-based” case studies and on the strong connection between science, the media, art and literature. The student will be able to gain knowledge and methodological tools which can be useful to better understand some "science and technology topics" of high impact on the contemporary society, such as - for instance - those about environmental issues.

Learning outcomes:
- knowledge of some main issues both of the contemporary debate about science and environment and of those social as well as societal conflicts that it can trigger;
- knowledge of some methodologies of research in history and social sciences;
- ability to gain a basic scientific knowledge (in an interdisciplinary perspective) and learning of the corresponding "storytelling strategies";
- ability to discern the main differences between science and pseudoscience;
- public speaking ability, communication and analytical skills.

Prerequisites
There is no prerequisite for this course.

Course content
The course is divided into two parts and it deals with the following topics.

GENERAL PART (about 30 hours)
- Definition, themes and problems of the cultural history and the history of imagery;
- Imagery of science in mass culture and its social representation;
- Contemporary interactions between science, art and mass media;
- Science, urban legends and fake news;
- Analysis of some case studies, with emphasis on environmental issues, such as climate change, pollution, waste;
- Storytelling and writing composition strategies about science and environment.

MONOGRAPHIC PART (about 34 hours)
This part of the course analyses the narrative relationship between ecology/nature and literature in the 20th century, especially focusing the class on some works by Italo Calvino and Primo Levi.
In particular:
- Italo Calvino
"La nuvola di smog",
"La formica argentina",
"La speculazione edilizia",
"Le città invisibili";
- Primo Levi
"Storie naturali"
"Vizio di forma"

Mode of delivery
The course is scheduled in 64 hours of lectures. Students will be also encouraged to interact each other and with the teacher during the class. Some seminars may be arranged in order to delve more deeply into some key topics.

Assessment method and criteria
The exam is an oral interview, which aims at assessing the knowledge of the main topics discussed in the class and included in the reference books. The interview includes - at least - one question on each reference book and - at least - one question on the learning material uploaded to the e-learning platform.
The grade (out of thirty) is formulated on the basis of:
- accuracy of answers (65%),
- language skills and argumentative capacity (15%),
- critical analysis skills (20%).

Reference books
1. The complete study of the following book is required:

Andrea Candela, "Dal sogno degli alchimisti agli incubi di Frankenstein. La scienza e il suo immaginario nei mass media", FrancoAngeli, Milano 2013;

2. and then a book to choose between:

- Marco Ciardi, Pier Luigi Gaspa, "Frankenstein. Il mito tra scienza e immaginario", Carocci, Roma 2018;
- Niccolò Scaffai, "Lettera