WOMEN'S AND GENDER HISTORY

The discipline belongs to the core educational activities of the Master’s Degree Programme in History from the Middle Ages to Present. Those activities prepare students to specialize in history in and outside Europe, acquiring a specific understanding of the fundamental epistemologies of a historian’s practice and of the methodology of investigation of primary and secondary sources.
Attendance and active participation in the training activity proposed by the class and individual study will enable students to: 1) acquire knowledge of the categories, theoretical issues, and main historiographical trends in women's history and gender history; 2) deepen their understanding of the theme "Love, Sexuality and Gender in Early Modern Europe" through reading and discussion of historical essays; 3) address the course topic through direct analysis of historical sources; 4) present orally and discuss a case study; 5) prepare a written text in the form of an essay, critically comparing bibliography and analyzing a source.

The attendance and the active participation at the course and the individual study will allow the students: 1) to acquire the knowledge and the understanding of the major categories, problems, historiographical trends related to women's and gender history; 2) to acquire a deeper knowledge on the monograohic theme by reading and discussing historical essays; 3) to approach this subject through the first-hand analysis and evaluation of primary sources; 4) to give an oral presentation on a case-study; to write a paper (essay) based on a critical analysis of the scientific literature and of sources related to a case-study

Goog knowledge of the Italian language.
Knowledge of the basic events of European History in the Early Modern and Modern Age, even if the student hasn’t passed yet the specific examinations.

What is intended by "women's history" and by "gender history"? When and in which contexts "women's history" and "gender history" first emerged? Which were in the last decades the main fields of women's- and gender history? How can we use gender as "a useful category of historical analysis" (Scott 1986)?
After the introductory lessons, the first part of the course will approach methodological and historiographical questions through participative seminar activities (reading, discussions, presentations).
The second part of the course, entitled ‘Bodies and Gender in the Early Modern Age’ will focus on the history of gendered bodies in the early modern age, at the intersection of science, law, religion, and art. From a social history and cultural history perspective, topics such as: the construction of the masculine and feminine; sexuality; generation and procreation; women's illnesses; the ages of life; and ‘non-conforming’ bodies will be brought into focus.

1. First part:
- Joan W Scott, Genere, Politica, Storia, a cura di I. Fazio, Roma, Viella, 2013, pp. 1-130;
- Gianna Pomata, La storia delle donne: una questione di confine, in Il mondo contemporaneo. Gli strumenti della ricerca 2: Questioni di metodo. Firenze, La Nuova Italia, 1983.
- Laura Schettini, L'ideologia gender è pericolosa, Roma- Bari, Laterza, 2024.
2) One of the following handbooks:
- Merry E. Wiesner, Le donne nell’Europa moderna, 1500-1750. Torino, Einaudi, 2017
- Gisela Bock, Le donne nella storia d'Europa, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2001.
3) two of the following books:
- Francesca Arena, Trouble dans la maternité. Pour une histoire des folies puerpérales, XVIIIe-XXe siècles, Presses Universitaire de Provence, 2020.
- - Maya De Leo, Queer. Storia culturale della comunità LGBT+, Torino, Einaudi, 2021.
- Umberto Grassi, Vincenzo Lagioia, Gian Paolo Romagnani (eds.), Tribadi, sodomiti, invertite e invertiti, pederasti, femminelle, ermafroditi…. Per una storia dell’omosessualità, della bisessualità e delle trasgressioni di genere in Italia, Pisa, ETS 2017.
- Nadia M. Filippini, Tiziana Plebani, Anna Scattigno (ed.), Corpi e storia. Donne e uomini dal mondo antico all’età contemporanea, Roma, Viella 2002.
- Nadia M. Filippini, Generare, partorire, nascere. Una storia dall’antichità alla provetta, Roma, Viella, 2017.
-Thomas Laqueur, L’identità sessuale dai greci a Freud, Roma-Bari, Laterza 1990.
- Laura Schettini, Il gioco delle parti. Travestimenti e paure sociali tra Otto e Novecento, Le Monnier, Firenze 2011.
- Giulia Sissa, I generi e la storia, Bologna, il Mulino 2024.
- Sylvie Steinberg (ed.), Une Histoire des Sexualités, Paris, PUF, 2018.
Other readings will be specified during the course.

Written examination with open questions + short oral interview. Active participation in the course will be evaluated (30%).

After the introductory lessons, the first part of the course will approach methodological and historiographical questions through participative seminar activities (reading, discussions, presentations).

Italian

written and oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Poverty and inequalities" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development