Teaching code

4S008066

Teacher

Lorenzo Bernini

Coordinator

Lorenzo Bernini

Credits

6

Language

Italian

Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)

SPS/03 - HISTORY OF POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS

Period

CuCi 1 A, CuCi 1 B

Courses Single

Authorized

Lessons timetable Moodle Seminars 0

Learning objectives

The course provides students with a learning path on the development of political systems and political thinking, with particular reference to the issues of democracy, citizenship and rights in the western political tradition. Within this framework, the discussion of current sociopolitical topics will be encouraged as an exercise in critical thinking and as a practice of public communication. At the end of the course the student should demonstrate: - to have acquired a precise knowledge of the topics addressed in the course; - to be able to expose them in an orderly and synthetic way; - to have developed the ability to formulate his/her own judgment.

Prerequisites and basic notions

The course is introductory and does not require any specific prerequisites.

Program

Course title:
Witches and zombies versus werewolves, or: on the sex of the State.
Course content (for attending and non-attending students):
1. At first, through the analysis of the thought of classical political philosophers (Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx), the origin of the concepts through which modernity has mostly thought about the State institution (individual, individual rights, representation, sovereignty) will be investigated, and the main political doctrines that have guided the functioning of politics in modernity (absolutism, liberalism, democracy, socialism) will be explained.
2. Secondly, using the philosophical critique of feminism and queer theories, it will be shown how the false sexual neutrality of the individual whom Hobbes compares to a wolf is actually a disguise of the white bourgeois man's patriarchal domination of women and sexual and racialized minorities.
3. Finally, witches and zombies will be used as figures of women's and minorities' rebellion against patriarchal domination to support the thesis that sexual binarism, compulsory heterosexuality, and racism can be considered political institutions on par with the State.

Bibliography

Didactic methods

Seminar lectures, discussions on the topics in the program.
Classes will be held in-person, will be recorded, and will remain available for one year.

Learning assessment procedures

For both attending and non-attending students: oral exam, lasting twenty /thirty minutes. Students are required to bring the exam texts with them.
The program will remain in effect for one year, then for six exam sessions (from January to September 2025).

Evaluation criteria

To pass the exam, students must demonstrate that:
- have acquired a precise knowledge of the topics on the syllabus;
- be able to expound them in a structured and concise manner;
- have developed their own autonomy of judgment.

Criteria for the composition of the final grade

To pass the exam, the student must demonstrate sufficient knowledge of the three parts.

Exam language

Italiano.