Interdisciplinary courses

The course will be held in Italian. For further information please visit this page.

The course will be held in Italian. For further information please visit this page. 

The course will offer to the participants some interesting insights in the world of Physics.

Program

In this serie, we will explore how physics can be funny and useful, explaining the many facets of the world around us. Without using any mathematical formula, we will explore the most advanced, complex and mind-blowing recent concepts of Physics: from quantum mechanics to chaos, from light to levitation, from the super-small to the ultra-fast!

1) Physics of Star Wars: light sabers, invisibility, holograms, levitation… What is real, what is feasible and what simply impossible to ever achieve?

2) Living in a complex world: how can physics help us? We will discuss about quantum mechanics, teleportation, particle entanglement, chaos, time, entropy, life and the true comprehension of “how things work”.

3) The dance of molecules: from stroboscopic photography to ultrashort “flashes” of laser pulses, in search of the ultimate limits of the “smallest” and the “fastest”, to understand the chemistry of the biological world around us.

4) Light, color, vision: from the big bang to the color of the stars, let me “enLIGHTen” you on the spectrum of the light. We will discover that we all are light bulbs, that our eye is the one of the fishes, understanding the fascinating mechanisms of night vision and future sunlight energy.

When: 8, 15, 22, 29 April, from 6.40 pm to 8 pm

How: online through Blackboard

Coordinator: Dario Polli, Associate Professor of Physics, Physics Department – Politecnico di Milano

For further information: campuslife@unibocconi.it

Philosophy between cinema and literature: a reflection on Harry Potter

Taking a cue from "Harry Potter", the course aims at analyzing some philosophycal topics such as the pursuit of happiness, our fears, the definition of everyone's identity, our approach to pain and death.

Students will watch/read some excerpts from "Harry Potter" movies and books and discuss the topics.

The course will be held in Italian. For further information, please visit this webpage.

Population growth, environment and sustainability. A journey through time.

There is a close relation between population growth on Earth, increased pressure on resources, destruction of natural habitats, loss of biodiversity, and alteration of environmental dynamics at a global level.

The focus of this course will be the analysis of how the evolution of the world population has been and will be affecting the planet and possible future scenarios of demographic sustainability.

The course will be held in Italian. For further information, please visit this webpage.

Gulf countries between crises and new geopolitical dynamics

Course organized in collaboration  with ISPI (Institute for International Politics Studies) and held in English.

The Gulf has been on the spotlight for its geopolitical significance and its huge energy resources for a long time. Over the last decade, especially after the Arab uprisings, the Gulf region has increasingly become one of the main centres of the geopolitical and geoeconomic dynamics of the wider Middle East. Not only Saudi Arabia and Iran, whose geopolitical and religious rivalry has been affecting the entire region, but also smaller states such as Qatar and United Arab Emirates have emerged as more and more active and assertive players, leveraging on their large hydrocarbon revenues and financial resources. However, competition for influence and intra-Gulf crises have questioned regional stability, spreading their effects well beyond the Gulf and transforming Middle Eastern conflicts (i.e. in Syria, Libya and Yemen) into proxy wars. Recently, Covid-19 pandemic and plummeting oil price have put strain on Gulf states. In this context, what are the main challenges at stake for the Gulf states today? What are future scenarios?

Coordinator

Valeria Talbot, is co-head of the Middle East and North Africa Centre at the Italian Institute of International Political Studies (ISPI), in charge of Middle East Studies.

Schedule and Program

Wednesdays from 6.40pm to 8.10pm:

• 7, 14, 28 October 2020
• 4, 11, 18 November 2020

The course will be held online (Blackboard Collaborate)

October 7: Gulf states: what role in the new Middle Eastern dynamics?
Valeria Talbot, Co-head MENA Centre and Senior Research Fellow ISPI

October 14: Saudi Arabia between ambitions and challenges
Armando Sanguini, former Ambassador in tunisia and Saudi Arabia and Senior Advisor ISPI

October 28: The international projection of the United Arab Emirates
Giuseppe Dentice, Associate Research Fellow ISPI and Catholic University

November 4: Iran: a regional power looking for legitimacy
Annalisa Perteghella, Research Fellow ISPI

November 11: Iraq: in quest for stability
Andrea Plebani, Associate Research Fellow ISPI and Catholic University

November 18: Yemen lost in crisis
Eleonora Ardemagni, Associate Research Fellow ISPI and Catholic University

Registration: from 16 to 30 September through you@b Agenda

Spots available: 100