Cultures and Religions

Is it possible to make the history of sexuality? What defines sexuality and terms such as heterosexuality, homosexuality, transsexuality? What knowledge and institutions have defined the characteristics of sexual experience over time? What is the relationship between sexuality and gender and in what terms do these categories allow us to understand social relations? What political significance has been attributed to sexual experience and how has this affected the definition of rights? The course aims to answer these and other questions, questioning the role of sexuality in history, its transformations in time and space, its significance in relation to processes of identity construction, individual and collective, the role of the tension between nature and culture, the impact of gender, and the political significance attributed to sexuality in history. The course will focus on the tension between the disciplinary dimension, relating to the role of discourses and norms, in particular of science, law and religion, and that of the practices and experiences of individual and collective subjectivities.

Adequate knowledge of the fundamental events of contemporary history is highly required.

Mandatory readings: 1. Jeffrey Weeks, What is sexual history?, Polity Press, Cambridge 2016 2. Michel Foucault, La volontà di sapere, Feltrinelli, Milano (qualsiasi edizione) One book to be chosen among the followings: - Alberto Mario Banti, L’onore della nazione. Identità sessuali e violenza nel nazionalismo europeo dal XVIII secolo alla Grande Guerra, Einaudi, Torino 2005; - Barbara Sorgoni, Parole e corpi: antropologia, discorso giuridico e politiche sessuali interrazziali nella colonia Eritrea, 1890-1941, Liguori, Napoli, 1998 - Dagmar Herzog, Unlearning Eugenics: Sexuality, Reproduction and Disability in Post-Nazi Europe, University of Wisconsin Press, 2020

Attendance is highly recommended.

The examination will be conducted orally in Italian, unless otherwise agreed. The assessment will focus on the knowledge acquired, the ability to place issues and events in their complex spatial and temporal context, and the adequacy of the conceptual, linguistic and argumentative tools related to historical knowledge.

Lessons will be conducted in a lecture format, using multimedia materials, maps and documents, supplemented by seminar-style discussions based on materials prepared by the students.

Is it possible to make the history of sexuality? What defines sexuality and terms such as heterosexuality, homosexuality, transsexuality? What knowledge and institutions have defined the characteristics of sexual experience over time? What is the relationship between sexuality and gender and in what terms do these categories allow us to understand social relations? What political significance has been attributed to sexual experience and how has this affected the definition of rights? The course aims to answer these and other questions, questioning the role of sexuality in history, its transformations in time and space, its significance in relation to processes of identity construction, individual and collective, the role of the tension between nature and culture, the impact of gender, and the political significance attributed to sexuality in history. The course will focus on the tension between the disciplinary dimension, relating to the role of discourses and norms, in particular of science, law and religion, and that of the practices and experiences of individual and collective subjectivities.

Adequate knowledge of the fundamental events of contemporary history is highly required.

Mandatory readings: 1. Jeffrey Weeks, What is sexual history?, Polity Press, Cambridge 2016 2. Michel Foucault, La volontà di sapere, Feltrinelli, Milano (qualsiasi edizione) One book to be chosen among the followings: - Alberto Mario Banti, L’onore della nazione. Identità sessuali e violenza nel nazionalismo europeo dal XVIII secolo alla Grande Guerra, Einaudi, Torino 2005; - Barbara Sorgoni, Parole e corpi: antropologia, discorso giuridico e politiche sessuali interrazziali nella colonia Eritrea, 1890-1941, Liguori, Napoli, 1998 - Dagmar Herzog, Unlearning Eugenics: Sexuality, Reproduction and Disability in Post-Nazi Europe, University of Wisconsin Press, 2020

Attendance is highly recommended.

The examination will be conducted orally in Italian, unless otherwise agreed. The assessment will focus on the knowledge acquired, the ability to place issues and events in their complex spatial and temporal context, and the adequacy of the conceptual, linguistic and argumentative tools related to historical knowledge.

Lessons will be conducted in a lecture format, using multimedia materials, maps and documents, supplemented by seminar-style discussions based on materials prepared by the students.