Do the Humanities matter? From which perspective and in whatever manner do we study histories, cultures, arts, literatures, social sciences? This course aims to familiarise students with key texts, concepts and methodologies in Cultural Studies and Critical Theory. It addresses the reasons why it is important to study theories on literary and visual cultures in a transnational and global perspective, opening up debates on Colonialism, Postcolonialism and Decoloniality; Orientalism, Occidentalism, and Border Thinking; Ethics, Aesthetics and the Imaginary; Subalternity, Indigeneity and ‘Minor’ Narratives; Feminisms, Gender and Sexuality; Migrations, Diasporas and Nomadic Subjectivities, and more. Far from being disconnected from issues of social justice, democracy and global citizenship, critical theory engages with ideas and questions that regard all of us as human beings and ‘organic intellectuals’ concerned with issues of culture and society, identity and alterity, literatures and media, arts and multiple ways of producing and communicating meanings, from a range of different perspectives and through a plethora of creative strategies of intervention and interruption. Critical Theory, addressed from a global perspective to include the intellectual and creative voices of scholars, writers, filmmakers and artists from different parts of the planet, first and foremost questions the ways in which we think of the world and make sense of it, through a critical appraisal of artistic and cultural artefacts, material and symbolic things, histories, memories and traces of the Human. This course is open to everyone who wishes to study cultures, histories, and arts by developing a self-reflexive approach to our experiences of the world and the ways in which we make sense of it. Main reference materials: Simon Malpas and Paul Wake (2013) THE ROUTLEDGE COMPANION TO CRITICAL AND CULTURAL THEORY, New York: Routledge Walter D. Mignolo and Catherine E. Walsh (eds.) On Decoloniality: Concepts, Analytics, Praxis, Duke University Press, 2018. Martha C. Nussbaum, Not For Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities, New York: Princeton University Press, 2010.

Main reference book, to be complemented with other materials assigned during classes and uploaded on Classroom: Simon Malpas and Paul Wake (2013) THE ROUTLEDGE COMPANION TO CRITICAL AND CULTURAL THEORY, New York: Routledge. Suggested readings: Walter D. Mignolo and Catherine E. Walsh (eds.) On Decoloniality: Concepts, Analytics, Praxis, Duke University Press, 2018. Martha C. Nussbaum, Not For Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities, New York: Princeton University Press, 2010.