GEOGRAPHIES OF MEMORY
- Overview
- Assessment methods
- Learning objectives
- Contents
- Full programme
- Teaching methods
- Contacts/Info
There are no prerequisites, but it is preferable to have already taken the examination of Geographies, Cultures and Territories (I year)
The final examination consists of an interview and is conducted by means of 5 questions, the answers to which are graded between 0 and 6 points. A total of 18 points are required to pass the examination.
The questions assess the students‘ knowledge and preparation on the scientific material shared and studied during the course, both from a mnemonic point of view and, above all, from a critical and logical point of view, ascertaining the candidates’ ability to connect theory, history and current affairs, correlating quantitative and qualitative aspects and grasping the concatenations of causes and effects in territorial analysis.
Specifically:
3 questions deal with the scientific material studied and analysed during the lectures and shared via the E-Learnig platform;
2 questions deal with the paper (traditional or multimedia) prepared individually or, in the case of students who do not have the opportunity to attend lectures, with additional specific material made available via the E-Learnig platform. (The modalities of the final paper and the terms of its validity will be explained during the lectures).
Through the analysis of a plurality of case studies, from the local to the global scale, from the 20th century to the present day, and starting from the study of the main scientifically recognised interdisciplinary sources (of a sociological, historical and anthropological as well as geographical nature), the Geographies of Memory course: 1) offers a path of critical reflection on the (current and contested) theme of collective memory as a political and social fact of a spatial nature and, 2) proposes research exercises on the places of memory, the public use of history and the production of social space correlated to identity processes.
The course has three main training objectives
- the study of collective memory as a social product of an eminently spatial nature
- the study of the places of memory (with particular attention to commemorative toponymy) and their relations with social identities also through the public use of history
- the sharing of territorialisation and active citizenship exercises
The expected learning outcomes include
- refinement of individual geographical perceptions and sensitivities
- ability to detect and critically analyse territorialisation processes at different geographical scales;
- ability to politically read lived space and the everyday landscape;
- ability to interpret collective memory as a social and cultural arena with particular attention to odonomastics and its effects on urban landscapes;
- ability to critically interpret memory spatialisation policies, with attention to both institutional memory practices and bottom-up instances.
The course offers a formative and participative course focusing on the theoretical and practical study of ‘places of memory’, that is, all those relational spaces, both physical and symbolic, created to legitimise a particular historical representation in society (archives, anniversaries, museums, monuments, commemorations) and which play a fundamental role in defining the identities of social groups (also in the form of a patrimony/heritage, more or less shared). Places of memory are real media that promote a public use of history and function as agents of history, supporting an alternative and/or polemical reading of the past with respect to the widespread and established historical and historiographical common sense.
With particular attention to the geo-historical stratification of toponyms and odonyms (street names), the course intends to deepen these notions and apply them to the Italian case with respect to the production and re-production of national identity in the unitary period, the fascist period and the republican period, up to today's practices of memory, which include debates and disputes on colonial memory, anti-fascist memory (and convex to the persistence of places of memory of fascism), gender memory, anti-Mafia memory and more visible civic memories (environment, labour, etc.). )
Parallel to the theoretical phase, the course aims to stimulate and involve the class in a real personal field research, aimed at defining ‘their’ identities of belonging and therefore at identifying and critically studying ‘their’ places of memory of reference.
Educational objectives and expected learning outcomes
Through the analysis of a plurality of case studies, from the local to the global scale, from the 20th century to the present day, and starting from the study of the main scientifically recognised interdisciplinary sources (of a sociological, historical and anthropological as well as geographical nature), the Geographies of Memory course: 1) offers a path of critical reflection on the (current and contested) theme of collective memory as a political and social fact of a spatial nature and, 2) proposes research exercises on the places of memory, the public use of history and the production of social space correlated to identity processes.
The course has three main training objectives
- the study of collective memory as a social product of an eminently spatial nature
- the study of the places of memory (with particular attention to commemorative toponymy) and their relations with social identities also through the public use of history
- the sharing of territorialisation and active citizenship exercises
The expected learning outcomes include
- refinement of individual geographical perceptions and sensitivities
- ability to detect and critically analyse territorialisation processes at different geographical scales;
- ability to politically read lived space and the everyday landscape;
- ability to interpret collective memory as a social and cultural arena with particular attention to odonomastics and its effects on urban landscapes;
- ability to critically interpret memory spatialisation policies, with attention to both institutional memory practices and bottom-up instances.
Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites, but it is preferable to have already taken the examination of Geographies, Cultures and Territories (I year)
Course content
The course offers a formative and participative course focusing on the theoretical and practical study of ‘places of memory’, that is, all those relational spaces, both physical and symbolic, created to legitimise a particular historical representation in society (archives, anniversaries, museums, monuments, commemorations) and which play a fundamental role in defining the identities of social groups (also in the form of a patrimony/heritage, more or less shared). Places of memory are real media that promote a public use of history and function as agents of history, supporting an alternative and/or polemical reading of the past with respect to the widespread and established historical and historiographical common sense.
With particular attention to the geo-historical stratification of toponyms and odonyms (street names), the course intends to deepen these notions and apply them to the Italian case with respect to the production and re-production of national identity in the unitary period, the fascist period and the republican period, up to today's practices of memory, which include debates and disputes on colonial memory, anti-fascist memory (and convex to the persistence of places of memory of fascism), gender memory, anti-Mafia memory and more visible civic memories (environment, labour, etc.). )
Parallel to the theoretical phase, the course aims to stimulate and involve the class in a real personal field research, aimed at defining ‘their’ identities of belonging and therefore at identifying and critically studying ‘their’ places of memory of reference.
Teaching methods
The course takes place in face-to-face lessons that envisage the active participation of the class and that may include the guided use of audio-visual documents, in particular films and documentaries, the shared reading of scientific articles and products of international research, as well as the participation of experts in the field and privileged witnesses, presentations of research, guided visits and field trips.
For attending students, the course entails the preparation of a short research paper in traditional or multimedia form (analysis of punctual case studi
The course takes place in face-to-face lessons that envisage the active participation of the class and that may include the guided use of audio-visual documents, in particular films and documentaries, the shared reading of scientific articles and products of international research, as well as the participation of experts in the field and privileged witnesses, presentations of research, guided visits and field trips.
For attending students, the course entails the preparation of a short research paper in traditional or multimedia form (analysis of punctual case studies or of circumscribed socio-spatial situations, or other scientific exercises of a geographical and social nature), which must be publicly exhibited during the last lessons of the course and which will be valid for the final examination. For those who cannot attend, however, there will be additional reading focused on scientifically relevant empirical cases.
The teacher receives the students by appointment by e-mail.