College Algebra

This course sits at the intersection of two related fields: transitional justice that studies ways to deal with past human rights violations and memory politics that looks at who and how creates, transmits and reinvents collective memories and to what political purpose. By exploring the multifaceted and often country-specific approaches to justice and memory, we will evaluate the effectiveness and usefulness of the various methods of dealing with the past and study how new memory regimes have been forged in the post-World War II period.

This class focuses on developing students’ communication skills, with emphasis on vocabulary building and grammar usage. Activities will use comics and cartoons to strengthen comprehension, reading, writing and speaking skills. Our goal in this class is to create our own individual comic strip at the end of the course. NO prior experience in drawing or art are necessary. Students must be able to draw circles, lines, crescents and dots to take part.

English and Critical Thinking          This seminar is designed for students, especially those in the social sciences, who want to improve their writing. Classes will focus on how to write an argumentative or persuasive essay, as contrasted with a “narrative essay.” Our main focus will be on “academic” or professional writing, in which the author poses a significant question and sets out to answer it, presenting evidence and drawing on relevant literature on the issue. We will also examine persuasive writing directed to a larger, non-professional audience, including those addressed to citizens generally. Students will write four or five essays during the course.

A short-10 lessons course to introduce students to the terminology and biology of eukaryotic cells. We will first dissect basic cellular components (organelles, DNA, RNA and proteins) and functions (cell replication, cell communication, cell differentiation), to then zoom in on a specific cell type. B lymphocytes, central components of the immune system, will be introduced to students as an example of the importance of individual cell subsets. The cells and their derivatives (antibodies) will be discussed in biological and pathological settings. Their exploitation for diagnostic and therapeutic applications will also be explored to link between basic science and medical translation. Three teachers with long-lasting interest in research, Anna Mondino (AM), Valeria Poli (VP) and Anna Rubartelli (AR), will jointly run the course, which aims at raising curiosity on the mechanisms of action and at increasing knowledge of fundamental biological events subtending day-to-day life. The lessons will attempt to engage students with real-time questions, and at home assignments, which will be then anonymously discussed in the following lessons. Slides encompassing “easy to follow images”, and “associated easy-to-read text” will be provided to enable the student to visually follow the lesson, and to study off-line.  Modules will be of maximum 1.5 hours.