IT4034 Italian Ecologies

Academic year

2024 to 2025 Semester 2

Further information on which modules are specific to your programme.

Key module information

SCOTCAT credits

15

The Scottish Credit Accumulation and Transfer (SCOTCAT) system allows credits gained in Scotland to be transferred between institutions. The number of credits associated with a module gives an indication of the amount of learning effort required by the learner. European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits are half the value of SCOTCAT credits.

SCQF level

SCQF level 10

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) provides an indication of the complexity of award qualifications and associated learning and operates on an ascending numeric scale from Levels 1-12 with SCQF Level 10 equating to a Scottish undergraduate Honours degree.

Availability restrictions

Students should be undertaking a degree with Italian as a named subject. Visiting students must seek approval from the IT Honours Adviser prior to enrolment. Student numbers are capped at 14. IT students have priority;

Module coordinator

Dr D Benvegnu

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module Staff

Dr Damiano Benvegnu

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module description

In this module, students focus on how Italian writers, visual artists and philosophers engaged with real and fictional environments, and how their engagements reflect, critique, and animate the approach that Italian culture has had toward the physical environment and its ecology since late antiquity. Through a comparative and interdisciplinary approach, we will explore topics including climate change, environmental justice, animal ethics, and the potential relationships between socio-environmental degradation and epidemics. We will thus analyze how Italian ecological narratives fit within the current transnational debate occurring in the Environmental Humanities. Our goal is to provide both an account of how Italian culture has shaped contemporary environmental thought and how Italian authors are presently developing unique ecological approaches to raise questions about the role of humans in a possible post-natural world.

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisites

PERMISSION OF HONOURS ADVISER IN ITALIAN

Assessment pattern

Coursework - 100%

Re-assessment

Coursework - 100%

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact

A 1.5-hour seminar per week for 10 weeks.

Scheduled learning hours

15

The number of compulsory student:staff contact hours over the period of the module.

Guided independent study hours

135

The number of hours that students are expected to invest in independent study over the period of the module.

Intended learning outcomes

  • apply their knowledge of Italian culture in a comparative and transnational setting;
  • understand the socio-cultural implications of ecological thinking in Italy;
  • recognize and discuss critically the cultural assumptions about ‘nature’ and ‘the environment’ informing a variety of significant (religious, philosophical and creative) texts;
  • compare Italian approaches to the Environmental Humanities with the field of the Environmental Humanities more generally;
  • appraise the implications of their own assumptions regarding nature and the body for their self-understanding, relations with others, and mode of being in the world.
  • further the development of their skills in the areas of research, textual analysis and interpretation, and communication, both oral and written.