© 2025 Beatrice Sica.
In 2022-2023 I organised in Bologna the first Summer School of the UCL School of European Languages, Cultures, and Society (SELCS). The Summer School ran in June 2023 in collaboration with the Department of Languages, Literatures and Modern Cultures (LILEC) of the University of Bologna. Students from UCL and UniBo were taught by myself (12-16 June) and Selena Daly (19-23 June) through in-class lectures and seminars, and guided tours and site visits in Bologna, Forlì, and Ferrara.
What is a City?
This Summer School explored the notion of the city, using Bologna and the wider Emilia-Romagna region as a case study to investigate issues of memory and identity, both personal and collective, in today’s globalized urban areas. We explored how aspects of identity have been understood, experienced, and represented in Italy in the 20th and 21st centuries, with a focus on the Fascist period, the 1960s–80s, and contemporary society. We considered gender and sexual orientation, religious identities, histories of disability, and trauma in contemporary Italy, examining how the city has acted as an evolving space of oppression, liberation, and negotiation.
© 2025 Beatrice Sica.