The course offers a critical understanding of the cultural and social issues that are debated in contemporary African and Middle Eastern societies. There will be a specific focus on multilingualism in Africa and the political and cultural significance in these areas of the circulation of linguistic codes of European origin (French, English, Portuguese, Spanish, etc.) and their regional interactions with local codes of different origins. Students will acquire a critical awareness of the challenges opened up in these areas by multilingual cultural productions: challenges that have recently assumed great cultural and political relevance in the global context.

The reflections developed within decolonial theories, matured in these areas, have contributed to the discussion on the epistemological paradigms of world studies (or global studies) and offer a valuable perspective on the most current cultural challenges. On the methodological perspective, the issues of multilingualism are investigated from a political-cultural perspective and are deepened, after a theoretical-historical introduction, by comparing different contemporary national contexts and commenting on case studies. The first part of the course introduces the context of cultural studies in Africa and the Middle East with a selection of the main themes useful for understanding and analysing the case studies that are presented in the second part of the course. Through classroom-based participatory teaching tools (working class), the Africa and the Middle East in the Global World course is geared to provide students with knowledge related to:

1: the cultural debate (the main historical issues) that marked the elaboration phases of national belonging in Africa and the Middle East on the subject of defining national languages (with a comparative approach within global studies),

2: the dynamic relations between the idea of "nation" and the linguistic-cultural complexity within countries (through case studies in Africa and/or the Middle East),

3: urban cultures, with a focus on the rapid formation of African and Middle Eastern metropolises in the last century and the challenges posed by these evolutions (including active innovations in the urban circulation of linguistic codes),

4: the issue of linguistic-cultural complexities in the literary, artistic, political debate (case studies),

5: the issue of mobility of people (and 'migration') in contemporary societies, viewed from African and Middle Eastern perspectives, and the relevance of the diasporic cultural debate in the global context,

6 to 10: monographic parts with selected in-depth studies on individual thematic and/or national case studies on multilingualism in Africa and the Middle East. Working and study materials can be agreed upon in different languages (French, English, ...), also adapted to one's own language skills.

In principle, unless otherwise required (which may be requested by attending students), the partition of topics presented here refers to the ten-week course.

P. S. In view of the start of this new teaching programme and considering the scientific maturity of Master's degree students, for this Master's degree course: students (both those attending and those not attending) are offered the opportunity to play an active part in defining the in-depth study of the monographic part of the programme (6-10) in relation to their own curriculum and professional expectations, i.e. a broad degree of involvement in the choice of topics for the monographic part.

Knowledge and understanding. The student will have to demonstrate a good knowledge of the course topics indicated in the programme and will have to show the ability to understand the critique of the categories of colonial orientalism. The student should also demonstrate a good knowledge of the periodizations of Arab history and of the political history of the Arab states (knowledge and understanding).

Applied knowledge and understanding. The student will have to demonstrate that he/she has the ability to interpret and apply his/her own knowledge, skills and understanding in the in-depth study of themes on the different Arab areas, with reference to concrete and specific contexts (case studies dealt with in class) and with an interdisciplinary approach (applying knowledge and understanding).

Autonomy of judgement. The student will have to integrate the knowledge acquired during the course with that of his/her own basic training and demonstrate the ability to interpret Arab political processes using the tools of comparison between areas of the world (making judgements).

Communication skills. The student will demonstrate the ability to communicate clearly and unambiguously their knowledge, to express their considerations and conclusions with reference to the lectures and also to the thematic seminars organised as part of the course (working class). The student must demonstrate that he/she is able to present the acquired notions with argumentative coherence, logical-systematic rigour and property of language (communication skills).

Ability to learn. The student will have to demonstrate that he/she has developed the ability to understand the complexity of institutional processes, as well as the ability to analyse the major economic and social issues that will allow him/her to contextualise the debate on current topics and to organise an autonomous constant updating of his/her own skills, making use of the tools acquired during the course (learning skills).

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

Frontal teaching may be complemented by cultural activities such as individual lectures or seminars with invited guest speakers.In addition, frontal teaching is supplemented with the support of:

• digital tools for analysing aggregated data (tools from international, continental, regional, academic organisations and study centres) to be queried with targeted queries, acquiring both awareness of the tools available and the ability to consult the data autonomously;
• projection of video materials and video news;
• recommended filmography.

Teaching

(a) Lectures; (b) digital content proposals on the topics; (c) working class.

Innovative teaching methods

For this specific teaching, the collective discussion in the classroom on the topics (working class) is particularly important. The work is carried out by means of participatory teaching tools in the classroom: students and students intervene - in the first part of the course - by means of real-time polls on each topic that is the focus of the lesson (in particular, by testing the gap between perceptions and real data on contemporary African culture issues) and - in the second part of the course - by actively participating in the selection of case studies and in the verification of the news that is proposed each week as an initial query for in-depth studies on the cases.

(*) For non-attending students who nevertheless wish to adhere to a form of participatory teaching, the working class "Become a citizen of an African/Middle Eastern country for a semester" is proposed (with digital sources made available by the lecturer at the beginning of the course, autonomous interaction with the contents and final objectives agreed upon at the beginning of the semester).

Attendance

- Participation in working-class discussions;
- The study of the texts here below (and/or agreed with the lecturer).

Course books

For attending students (students with at least 60% attendance at working class in the semester)

One text of your choice from the following:

• Alain Mabanckou, Penser et écrire l’Afrique aujourd’hui, Seuil, 2017.
• Yasir Suleiman, A war of words: language and conflict in the Middle East, Cambridge : Cambridge university press, 2004.
• Mamadou Diouf, L'Afrique dans le temps du monde, Sète, Rot-Bo-Krik, 2023.
• Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo, Decolonizzare la mente: la politica della lingua nella letteratura africana, Milano, Jaca Book, 2021.

Assessment

The assessment of learning, for students attending, takes place either during the working class activity (60%) and with a final oral assessment (40%).

(a) 60% working class. The course, of 40 hours, includes 20 topics to be discussed in working class and to be considered "attending" the student must participate in at least 12 working classes. [The evaluation of the active participation in the working classes corresponds to 60% of the assessment.]

(b) 40% final oral examination. The final oral test mainly assesses the knowledge acquired in the framework of the study programme [30%] and also allows to verify the acquisition of the appropriate vocabulary and of the basic skills necessary for the discussion of the themes of the course, as well as to assess the student's ability to synthesise, the aptitude for analysis and comparison, and communication and expressive skills (10%). [The evaluation of the final oral examination corresponds to 40% of the assessment.]

The overall examination is graded in thirtieths.

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.

Teaching

It is recommended that non-attending students consult the course's Moodle page for access to information on the semester's cultural initiatives and additional digital tools for contact with the lecturer (chat, forum, meet room).

Attendance

Accurate study of all the topics of the programme using the specified study texts.

(*) For non-attending students who nevertheless wish to adhere to a form of participatory teaching, the working class "Become a citizen of an African/Middle Eastern country for a semester" is proposed (with digital sources made available by the lecturer at the beginning of the course, autonomous interaction with the contents and final objectives agreed upon at the beginning of the semester).

Course books

Two texts of your choice from the following:

• Alain Mabanckou, Penser et écrire l’Afrique aujourd’hui, Seuil, 2017.
• Yasir Suleiman, A war of words: language and conflict in the Middle East, Cambridge : Cambridge university press, 2004.
• Mamadou Diouf, L'Afrique dans le temps du monde, Sète, Rot-Bo-Krik, 2023.
• Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo, Decolonizzare la mente: la politica della lingua nella letteratura africana, Milano, Jaca Book, 2021.

P. S. – One of the two texts may be replaced by a monographic part agreed with the lecturer in order to adapt the in-depth studies to specific interests, whether thematic or area-specific (if so, please email to define the programme upon receipt). It is also possible to replace one of the two texts with an academic article of your interest from among those available at africheorienti.com (all articles are fully open access). If there are no specific requests, please prepare two texts chosen from the list.

Assessment

For non-attending students, learning is assessed by means of a final oral examination of the examination texts and course materials.

The final oral test mainly assesses the knowledge acquired within the framework of the specified study programme [70%] and also verifies the acquisition of the appropriate vocabulary and of the basic skills necessary for the discussion of the themes of Arab cultural history (20%), as well as assessing the student's ability to synthesise, his aptitude for analysis and comparison, and his communicative and expressive skills (10%).

The overall examination is graded in thirtieths.

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.

For any needs or clarifications, please contact the lecturer by e-mail.

For in-depth academic studies on topics related to the study area: http://www.africheorienti.com