Knowledge and understanding: students must demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the main issues relating to Modern History in the border region of Upper Adriatic.
Applied knowledge and understanding: being able to apply the knowledge acquired to understand the evolution of the social/political/cultural dynamics of Modern history in the border region of Upper Adriatic.
Students will also be able to elaborate the acquired knowledge in order to develop autonomous judgments and ability for critical reflection on the social/political/cultural dynamics of Modern history in the border region of Upper Adriatic.
Communication skills: being able to present the contents learned with sufficient mastery of the subject’s proper languages and categories.
Ability to learn: the course will provide students with the opportunity to establish a solid framework of understanding helpful in other areas of knowledge.

None

The course will address the main problems and issues of the Upper Adriatic history in the Contemporary age, after a brief overview of previous historical periods.

A transnational perspective will be adopted, in consideration that the border area of the upper Adriatic represents a concentration of some of the main dynamics of Modern history in Central and Eastern Europe (nationalisms in plural identity contexts, overlap between national and social conflicts, city-countryside polarizations and regionalisms, impact of totalitarian ideologies and logics of violence, national-cultural simplifications). The prevailing perspective will be political and geopolitical, but with frequent insights into the fields of social and cultural history.
This in general will be the pattern of the topics:
Upper Adriatic frontier, Caput Adriae, Venezia Giulia, Borderlands, “Confine orientale d’Italia”: denominations and geographical limits.

Free cities and economic take-off of Trieste and Rijeka; the parallel nationalizations in the Habsburg Empire and in the Austrian Littoral; irredentist movements and "Adriatic socialism"; the post-Habsburg transition, fascism and the denationalization of Slovenes and Croats; the Second World War, the Nazi occupation, the Resistance and the foibe; the Italian exodus from Communist Yugoslavia; the "question of Trieste" up to the Treaty of Osimo.

Lecture notes and power point; website https://confinepiulungo.it/; materials provided by the teacher.

Plus one book from the following:
- E. Apih, Trieste, Laterza, Roma-Bari 1988
- M. Cattaruzza, L’Italia e il confine orientale, Il Mulino, Bologna 2007
- R. Pupo, Adriatico amarissimo. Una lunga storia di violenza, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2021
- G. Valdevit, Trieste. Storia di una periferia insicura, Bruno Mondadori, Milano 2004
- M. Verginella, Il confine degli altri. La questione giuliana e la memoria slovena, Donzelli, Roma 2008

Here's a detailed list of the topics that will be explored in class:
Economic Takeoff and Cosmopolitanism in Trieste and Fiume / National Conflicts in the Habsburg Empire and Parallel Nationalizations in the Austrian Littoral / Democratic, Nationalistic, and Cultural Irredentism / Adriatic Socialism / The Great War and the Unforeseen Consequences of the Post-War Period / Right and Left-Wing Paramilitarism in the Post-Habsburg Transition / Borderland Fascism, the Slovenian Community, and Armed Anti-Fascism / World War II, the OZAK, the "Istrian Foibe," and the "Julian Foibe” / The Resistance in Friuli, Istria, and Trieste / The "Long Exodus" from Istria, Rijeka, and Dalmatia in the post-World War II period / The "Question of Trieste" up to the Treaty of Osimo

Lectures with use of multimedia tools, workshops, monographic insights with the help of experts.

Reading materials will be available on Moodle / MsTeams. Erasmus students are kindly requested to contact prof. Raoul Pupo.

The oral exam, which will take the form of a discussion with the examiner, will cover the topics and concepts explored in class and considered in the prescribed bibliography. The aim of the exam is to test the depth and breadth of the student’s knowledge, to assess the students’ skills to critically analyze, discuss and evaluate the main themes of the course and to ascertain their ability to articulate an argument and communicate what they have learnt. The examination will last approximately 20 minutes.