Course 2020-2021 a.y.

• Introduction: Globalization in history.
• The economic decline of Empires.
• The Industrial Revolution.
• The First Globalization.
• The second industrial revolution.
• The World at war.
• The American Century.
• Decolonization.
• A third industrial revolution.
• The resurgence of a global economy.

• Understand better the concept of globalization in its manifestations.
• Apply historical knowledge to the understanding of contemporary phenomena, understanding better their intrinsic nature.
• Understand the historical roots of present international relations framework and apply the knowledge of historical events to the understanding of the present dynamics in the realm of contemporary geopolitics.

• Go beyond a mere factual approach dissecting the historical components of contemporary social, political, diplomatic and economic events.
• Make use of analytical tools in the examination of historical material, sources and documents.
• Compare events using alternative sources.
• Develop skills in academic writing.

• Face-to-face lectures
• Online lectures
• Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)
• Individual assignments
• Group assignments
• Interactive class activities (role playing, business game, simulation, online forum, instant polls)

• The teaching method is first of all interactive. Face to face lectures provide a general framework in which students will be requested to interact, in a continuous learning experience not limited to the classroom. The instructor will therefore use both the BB platform but also social media in order to provide online lectures, comments and questions for stimulating a permanent involvement of students.
• This will apply particularly to incidents, that is newspaper articles which will be given to students and commented by the instructor, both in class and online.
• The learning method in this course blends traditional frontal lectures with the vision of four movies, all connected to the concept of globalization, plus a group assignment of 800 words commenting the single movies and putting it in relation with the themes developed in the course.
• In addition, students (in groups) are engaged in two in-class sessions under the guidance of the instructor examining original documents, and producing at home a 500 words group essay criticizing the source and proposing interpretation of the events.
• The teaching method is completed by in class pop-up questions, some role-playing and the use of Instagram (experimental) as a teaching tool.

The assessment of the attending students’ preparation is composed by three items.

1. A final written exam based on a section of true/false with motivation questions, a section of multiple choice questions, a section of short open questions and the comment of a map/graph or an article related to the course’s contents. This item allows the instructor to provide an evaluation of the students’ acquired knowledge and understanding of facts and concepts provided during the lectures and class activities. This item counts for the 70% of the final grade.
2. The group essays commenting the movies and the primary sources, written during the course (continuous assessment) which count soverall for 30% of the final grade. These assignments test the ability of the students to apply the knowledge acquired during the course producing critical reviews of empirical evidence.
3. Class participation (discussion, pop-up questions and other), up to 1 (one) additional point to be added to the final grade, at total discretion of the instructor.

The exam is in a written form and is based on long (one page) open questions about the whole program of the course (50% of the final grade, assessing the understanding of historical events and factual evidence) and on a long critical essay (15 pages, 50% of the final grade) about a book suggested by the instructor, assessing the ability of the student of applying critically historical knowledge on a wide range of topics.

Attending students benefit of course materials, slides and suggested readings suggested by the instructor, plus a text:

• A. COLLI, A Global History of Globalization, summing up the contents of the lectures.
• Students are able to get all the materials they need through the course’s Bboard.

Non attending students base their preparation on the textbook:

• A. COLLI, A Global History of Globalization, and on the second book to be suggested by the instructor.