The course provides students with the skills to critically understand and reflect on the concepts of visual culture and visual history and the processes and interpretations of visual history in the twentieth century.

Particular attention will be given to the 1930s and the relationship between images and power in fascist Italy. The course also privileges the intersection of political history, with social and cultural history and assigns particular attention to gender and generation perspectives as well as to a global comparative key. 

At the end of the course, students learn about the specific characteristics of visual history from a global perspective and the social and political transformations that accompanied them during the 1930s. 

The course provides students with the skills to critically understand and think about processes and interpretations of cultural consumptions in the twentieth century from a global perspective. 

The frequency and active participation in the educational activity proposed by the course and the individual study will allow students/ students to:
- acquire knowledge of the theoretical and epistemological debate on visual culture, its main themes, and its representatives;
- to address specific topics of the course through the analysis of historical sources or historiographical essays;
- to present and discuss orally a historical review in a seminar context;
- prepare a written text as an essay, critically comparing it with historiography.

The course offers students the tools and knowledge to interpret the relationship between images and fascist political power through an analysis focusing on the Empire's visual, cultural, rhetorical, political, and military construction.

It, therefore, addresses some central interpretative nodes of the history of the twentieth century, such as national identity, fascism, colonialism, racism, and gender, through the innovative perspective of visual history. 

The are no bridging courses to respect.

Students have to reach these goals:

1. Understanding the main issues and problems relating to research methodology in visual culture and visual history. Knowledge of the main tools to do scientific research in contemporary history. 

1.1. Students will attain this knowledge by participating in lectures and studying the scientific texts proposed by the teacher and discussed in the classroom.

2. Applying knowledge and understanding: students should consolidate skills and ability to define simple research projects and deal with some typical problems.

2.1. Classroom discussions, tutorials, and a study of texts. 

3. Capacity of judgment: students should achieve criticism about the methods used in the most common empirical investigations.

4. Communication skills: discussion coordinated by the teacher on the course topics.

4.1. Development of opportunities for dialogue in the classroom.

5. Learning skills: developing critical skills, logic and problem analysis.

5.1. Classroom discussions, tutorials, a study of texts

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

Video – Multimedia – Mixed media

Teaching

Traditional lessons, seminars, conferences with external scholars, with multimedia materials.

Innovative teaching methods

Debate

Flipped classroom

Attendance

There is no obligation to attend.

Course books

Alessio Petrizzo, Cultura visuale, in Lessico della storia culturale, a cura di A.M. Banti, C. Sorba, V. Fiorno, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2023, pp. 57-75

più un testo a scelta tra:

Luca Acquarelli, Il fascismo e l'immagine dell'impero. Retoriche e culture visuali, Donzelli, Roma 2022;

Gianluca Mancosu, Vedere l'impero. L’Istituto Luce e il colonialismo fascista, Mimesis, Milano-Udine 2022.

Ask the professor for alternative texts.

Assessment

The exam will be held through an individual interview based on textbooks suggested. The aim is to evaluate both student's comprehension of the content and his ability in reworking concepts and in argumenting. 

For attending students, there is the possibility to take a written test at the end of the lessons or produce a thesis (details will be provided in the first lesson of the course).

Excellent grades will be given in presence of: a good critical perspective and in depth study; knowing how to link among them the main subjects addressed during the course; the use of an appropriate language.

Good grades will be given in presence of:  good mnemonic knowledge of the contents; a relatively good critical perspective and connection skills related to the treated topics; the use of appropriate language.

Sufficient grades will be given in presence of: the achievement of a minimal knowledge on the treated themes, even in presence of some gaps; the use of a not appropriate language.

Negative grades will be given in presence of: a difficult orientation related to the treated topics; knowledge gaps; the use of a not appropriate language.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

This course does not differentiate between “attending” and “non-attending” students with regard to teaching methods, attendance obligations, course books or assessment.

The student can request to sit the final exam in English with an alternative bibliography.