What is global history? And how do historians go global? Global history is deeply transforming the traditional academic field of "history" all over the world. It aims at overcoming borders and nations "as a form of historical analysis in which phenomena, events, and processes are placed in global contexts" (Conrad 2016). Such a definition challenges history, its methodologies and perspectives. As a result, even the most classical chronological definitions - the ones that any handbook presents to students - needs to be questioned: what does it means "Middle Ages", "Renaissance" or "Modern Age", if we stay out of the common European narrative? This course discusses those topics by analyzing them at a methodological level. We will focus on the most recent debates on global history and we will reflect together on its sources, its achievements and even on its fragilities. The first part of the course will present the issues of global history at a general level. In the second part, specific lessons will be devoted to the global turn in Middle Ages, Early Modern Centuries, Modernity and Contemporary history. In the final lessons, students will present short essays on the topics of the course. NB: this introductory course should be considered as a prerequisite to general history classes

Sebastian Conrad, What is global History? (Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford 2016) *** There are no additional texts for non-attending students.

Il corso intende fornire un'introduzione agli approcci globali allo studio della storia medievale, con particolare attenzione ai contatti interculturali tra Europa, mondo mediterraneo e Asia, esaminati attraverso modelli di scambio, interazione e fusione culturale. La prima parte sarà dedicata alla costruzione dell'Europa medievale attraverso il contributo delle diverse culture: dall'incontro latino-germanico alla convivenza con gli elementi greci, slavi, ebraici e arabi. La seconda parte sarà dedicata alle connessioni tra il mondo euromediterraneo e l'"Oriente" per comprenderne la pluralità di rappresentazioni che circolano in Europa. Particolare attenzione sarà rivolta sia ai rapporti culturali, linguistici e religiosi con il mondo musulmano, sia ai contatti con la Cina e il subcontinente indiano. Nella terza fase, gli studenti dovranno produrre un testo su un mercante, un missionario, un viaggiatore o un pellegrino con l'obiettivo di esplorare le declinazioni dell'alterità.

J.L. ABU-LUGHOD, Before European Hegemony. The World System A.D. 1250-1350, New York-Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1989, ch. 4, Introduction to part II, 5, 8, 10. D. ABULAFIA, The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean, London, Allen Lane, 2011, Part III. D. ABULAFIA, The Mediterranean in History, Los Angeles, CA, J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003, Introduction, ch. 5, 6. J.H. BENTLEY, Old World encounters. Cross-cultural contacts and exchanges in pre-modern times, New York, Oxford University Press, 1993, ch. 1, 3. E.R. DURSTELER, On Bazaars and Battlefields: Recent Scholarship on Mediterranean Cultural Contacts, in «Journal of Early Modern History», 15 (2011), pp. 413-443. C. HOLMES, N. STANDEN, Introduction: Towards a Global Middle Ages, in «Past & Present», 238, Issue suppl. 13 (2018), pp. 1-44. J. LE GOFF, The Medieval West and the Indian Ocean: An Oneiric Horizon, in Medieval Ethnographies: European Perceptions of the World Beyond, ed. J.P. RUBIÉS, Farnham, Asghate, 2009, pp. 155-173. J.R.S. PHILLIPPS, The Medieval Expansion of Europe, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1988, ch. 2. C. WICKHAM, Medieval Europe, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2016, ch. 2, 3, 4, 5.