Course description
Various things make Venice a place of particular interest: the fact that it was built on water and marshland; the way its inhabitants shaped the Lagoon and managed the environment; the relationship with Byzantium and the East; the way it became the capital of a merchant empire; its role as a center of the printing industry, art production and Humanism; its development into a city of pleasure; the sudden loss of independence; the 19th Century cultural myth of its death; its rebirth with the Risorgimento of Italy; the creation of a new urban order, from the industrial port of Marghera to the beach resort at the Lido; the great social transformations of the 1950’s-1970’s, leading to a 'Greater Venice'; its becoming an overtouristed world heritage city and a capital of contemporary art; the way the city still represents an alternative ideal of urban space. The course covers all of these themes through interactive lectures and a wide use of multimedia sources (images, videos, music), focusing on the relationship between the environmental setting, the morphology of the city, and its social life and political institutions.

Course structure
The course will be divided in three parts:
- Week 1-4 The urban form 421-2020 (global image, narratives of foundation, building the city, maintenance and preservation)
- Week 5-8 Venice, modernity and postmodernity 1866-2020 (industrialization, Greater Venice, environmentalism, overtourism, contemporary perspectives, conflicts and debate)
- Week 9-12 The historical heritage 726-1848 (rise, expansion, "decline", political system of the aristocratic Republic, welfare, carnival, "death" and Risorgimento)
The course will involve several site visits (most probably: Biennale, Ghetto, Ducal Palace, Lagoon, Pellestrina, Seawalls, Industrial Port), which will be offered to students in Venice.

Course aims
The aim is to provide students with an introduction to ways of looking at the history Venice, making them aware that the same methods can be applied to the history of other places; assisting them to develop themes of personal interest; encouraging them to build historical discourses and share individual perspectives with their peers; training them to see the signs of history in the Venetian landscape and to perceive the city as a "machine for living".

What is expected
Detailed information, guidelines, recorded classes, readings and videos will be available week by week during the semester in the e-learning platform.
Students are expected to actively contribute weekly with two posts in the online forum, produce one oral presentation and a final research paper. One of the weekly post is in reaction to what said in class and/or the material uploaded online, another should be in reaction to a peer's post. Group work mixing nationalities will be encouraged for oral presentations. Research papers must include bibliographical references and notes. Students will be assisted by the professor in the preparations of both presentations and papers through preparatory meetings. Topics can range from Literature to Economics, from Law to Cinema. Past themes have included: the Fourth Crusade, the Courtesans, the Doges, the Plague, the Bostonians, Fascist Architecture, Mass Tourism and Art Biennale
Participants in Venice are expected to attend live classes and course visits. They will be encouraged to walk around the city and explore places mentioned in class. Students away from Venice will be expected to watch recorded classes and interact with other students in the forum. Classes in which away students are scheduled to produce their presentations will take place online live.

Evaluation method
40% weekly contributions to the online forum
30% oral presentation in class
30% written final research paper

Main Bibliography
(A longer list will be available in the e-learning platform)

BOSWORTH, RICHARD, Italian Venice. A History, Yale University Press, New Haven and London 2014 (329 pages) - the history of Venice from the annexation to the present, told by an Australian political historian (famous for his works on Italian Fascism) from the University of Oxford. A most recent book, which roots narrative in visible elements of the urban environment (monuments, buildings, places), aware of Italian Historiographical works. 945.31/BOS VEN
CROUZET PAVAN, ELISABETH, Venice Triumphant: the Horizons of a Myth, The Johns Hopkins University Press 2005 - top French scholar on Medieval Venice deconstructs myths and tells the history of the city and the Republic before 1797, paying attention also to urban daily life and the relationship with water: excellent book. 945.31/CRO VEN
FERRARO, JOANNE M., Venice. History of the Floating City, Cambridge University Press 2012 (214 pages) - most recent overview of the History of Venice as a city and a state, assuming postmodern approaches: the construction and evolution of identities; the multiculturalism of material life; social hierarchy; and gender as a cultural construction - by an American Historian. 945.31/FER VEN
GIANIGHIAN, GIORGIO AND PAVANINI, PAOLA, Venice: the basics, Gambier Keller 2010 (80 pages) - introduction to urban Venice as a built environment by two Venetian architectural historians (Gianighian is professor of restoration at IUAV and at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and teaches a course on UNESCO World Heritage Sites at VIU in the Fall semesters). 720.945311/GIA VEN
LANE, FREDERIC, Venice. A Maritime republic, The Johns Hopkins University Press 1973 - the classic textbook on the History of Venice, which keeps being reprinted. Lane has been the most outstanding US economic and social historian on Venice (esp. Renaissance): very reliable and clear. 945.31/LAN VEN
ORTALLI, GHERARDO AND SCARABELLO, GIOVANNI, A Short History of Venice, Pacini Editore 1999 (126 pages) -the best very brief and reliable chronological synthesis of Venice as a city-state and power, widely available, by two scholars of Ca' Foscari University. 945.31/ORT VEN
PLANT, MARGARET, Venice. Fragile City 1797-1997, Yale University Press 2003 (424 pages) - this illustrated book encompasses politics, culture and architecture of the city after the fall fo the Republic, using also Italian scholarly research. The author is Professor Emeritus in Art History in Melbourne, Australia. 945.31/PLA VEN