ID:
L00933
Duration (hours):
36
CFU:
6
SSD:
STORIA CONTEMPORANEA
Located in:
PESCARA
Url:
FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES/CORSO GENERICO Year: 3
Year:
2025
Course Catalogue:
Overview
Date/time interval
Secondo Semestre (15/02/2026 - 25/05/2026)
Syllabus
Course Objectives
The general educational objectives aim at equipping the attending students with some mental tools to:
a) understand the importance of historical knowledge
b) form a perspective that helps them think in a historical and critical way, over the long term
c) know at least some rudiments of the historian’s methods and profession
d) approach the most relevant issues of contemporary history, from the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 21st century, delving the issues raised by the mass media in modernity and the links between the historical acceleration of the last two centuries or so and the current events that students find themselves living in these years.
Course Prerequisites
Although a good basic knowledge of the fundamental historical issues of the contemporary era is desirable, the course is aimed, among other things, at filling any gaps for attending students.
Teaching Methods
The course is composed of a total of 9 credits, 6+3 (equivalent to 54 hours in total of classroom teaching). and will be held in the second semester, between February and May 2026, with lessons per week over two or three days, according to the calendar that will be made public.
The lessons will be deliberately based on dialogue and interaction between lecturer and students.
Depending on the interests shown during the lessons, it will be agreed between the teacher and the students whether or not to use additional tools (such as the use of audiovisuals or the organization of seminars led by historians or authoritative scholars, capable of broadening the educational horizon and cognitive stimuli).
Assessment Methods
The examination process consists of an oral exam.
The verification of learning will be based
1) on the contents of the reference text
2) on the study material that will be made available in PDF format by the teacher on the dedicated Teams channel for the course.
The exam will aim to ascertain the level of preparation.
What is of most interest, however, is not the knowledge about the specific themes of the texts, but rather other aspects.
Among these, the development of the following skills:
(a) to think 'historically', with the critical tools to approach the more recent past and its complexities
b) to organize one’s knowledge in a comprehensive way
c) to use the enormous possibilities of the Italian language with a certain property of language.
Texts
Who must study the following programme for the exam:
everyone, whether attending or not attending
- with the only difference between 6 and 9 CFU
- those who must take a course and sit a 6 CFU exam:
1) pdf 1: “History and Method”
2) pdf 2: 'Contemporary History Summary'
3) book: Francesco Filippi, ‘Five Hundred Years of Anger. Revolts and Means of Communication from Gutenberg to Capitol Hill’, Turin, Bollati Boringhieri, 2024,
https://www.bollatiboringhieri.it/libri/francesco-filippi-cinquecento-anni-di-rabbia-9788833942988/
- Those who must take a course and pass an exam worth 9 CFU must add the following text:
4) pdf 3: ‘Summary of General Communication History’.
How to find the reference texts:
- The volume referred to in point 3 can be purchased: on the publisher's website; in bookshops; on all major online book sales platforms
- The other three short texts (points 1, 2, 4) are PDF handouts that will be made available by the lecturer in the first weeks of the course on the institutional Teams platform, in a channel dedicated to teaching for the L11 degree program. You can access this channel by asking the lecturer for admission: the request can be sent by email or via Teams, specifying your degree program (as there are different Teams channels for other degree programs).
Contents
Attending students will be equipped with the tools:
1) to understand the importance of History and historical knowledge
2) to form a mental perspective that helps them think more historically and critically, over the long term
3) to know the main methods, meanings, objectives of the historian's profession
4) to approach the most relevant issues of contemporary history, from the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 21st century, delving into, among other things, the links between the historical acceleration of the last two centuries or so and the current events that students find themselves living in these early years of the 21st century.
5) to get to know and understand the historical evolution of communication, its means and their impact on societies at an international level, from the introduction of the press in the 16th century to today’s web and social media, across newspapers, cinema, radio and television.
6) understand how the mass media, since the invention of the printing press, have played a fundamental role in politics, protests and revolts up to the present day.
Course Language
Italian
More information
Class attendance is not compulsory.
The weekly reception will be used to clarify any doubts about the course.
For times and days of reception, please refer to the notices to be published.
Of course, the professor can be contacted on the institutional e-mail address: enzo.fimiani@unich.it
or on the Teams channel of the teaching course.
(expecting a reply within a reasonable timeframe and not immediately)
Degrees
Degrees
FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES
Bachelor’s Degree
3 years
No Results Found
People
People
No Results Found