Teaching Workshop: Philosophy Workshop 6
A.Y. 2024/2025
Learning objectives
Undefined
Expected learning outcomes
The workshop aims to develop the following skills:
Critical thinking skills:
By the end of the workshop, students will display a sufficiently independent critical approach in selecting and interpreting the notions that are most relevant their area of study and to the broader socio-cultural context in which they operate
Communication skills:
By the end of the workshop:
- students will be able to effectively communicate the acquired knowledge and disseminate it to the general public;
- student will have developed basic IT skills concerning knowledge preservation and transfer.
Learning skills:
By the end of the workshop, students will have developed the learning skills required to continue their studies in keeping with their own research interests. In order to meet this objective, students will also develop relevant skills in the independent interpretation of sources and in the use of basic IT tool for bibliographic research.
Critical thinking skills:
By the end of the workshop, students will display a sufficiently independent critical approach in selecting and interpreting the notions that are most relevant their area of study and to the broader socio-cultural context in which they operate
Communication skills:
By the end of the workshop:
- students will be able to effectively communicate the acquired knowledge and disseminate it to the general public;
- student will have developed basic IT skills concerning knowledge preservation and transfer.
Learning skills:
By the end of the workshop, students will have developed the learning skills required to continue their studies in keeping with their own research interests. In order to meet this objective, students will also develop relevant skills in the independent interpretation of sources and in the use of basic IT tool for bibliographic research.
Lesson period: Second semester
Single course
This course cannot be attended as a single course. Please check our list of single courses to find the ones available for enrolment.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
Second semester
Course syllabus
Module "Professionalizing philosophical workshop round No. 6: How to avoid sexism in the Italian language"
The professionalizing workshop "How to Avoid Sexism in the Italian Language" aims to give those who attend it the necessary tools to critically approach the use of a non-sexist language.
The workshop will consist of 5 lessons, each lasting 4 hours.
Lessons 1 and 2 will lay the contextual theoretical foundation for the use of nonsexist language. Lessons 3 and 4 delve into the topic of language sexism and into the strategies to counter it, ranging from "classic" challenges (women's erasure) to "new" challenges (non-binary people's erasure). Finally, Lesson 5 will allow those attending the workshop to put what they have learned into practice through the analysis and rewriting of two case-studies.
The program will follow the following detailed organization:
- Lecture 1: "But shouldn't we change the reality first and then the language?"
Introduction to the course: the syllabus and testing methods will be explained.
Introduction to the concept of gender as distinct from sex and overview of the relationship between sex and gender from a historical and cultural perspective.
Relationship between language and human perception of reality: how language influences the way we categorize reality.
Insight into the concept of political correctness, with focus on types of linguistic taboo and euphemistic strategies.
- Lecture 2: "But there's far worse than linguistic sexism!"
Insight into hate speech, focusing on the most recurring themes in online misogynistic hate speech and communication from the incel and redpill communities.
Insight into the concept of micro-aggressions and the different ways they can be implemented, with a focus on sexist micro-aggressions in science and academia.
- Lecture 3: "Linguistic Gender and Linguistic Sexism in Italian."
Introduction to the concept of linguistic gender, with focus on: a) distinction between semantic, morphological and phonetic properties of gender; b) how grammatical gender relates to the gender of the referent person.
Introduction to the concept of sociolinguistic varieties and linguistic register.
Insight into the characteristics of linguistic sexism, and especially on: a) environmental invisibility and social invisibility; b) inequality of social treatment.
In-class analysis of major official guidelines for non-sexist language, from Alma Sabatini (1987) to today's university guidelines.
- Lecture 4: "The more or less new challenges for a nonsexist language: non-binary people and AIs"
Introduction to the concept of gender identity of non-binary people, in the terms of the American Psychological Association (2015).
Insight into gender neutralization strategies, their use, potential and problems: a) non-standard strategies (e.g., schwa, asterisk, etc.); b) standard strategies (e.g., epicene, collectives, periphrases, etc.).
Introduction to the concept of large language models (LLMs) (the so-called AIs) and how they work.
Insight into sexist biases in machine translation (representational harm, allocational harm) and the language production of LLMs.
- Lecture 5: "For a non-sexist language in practice."
In-class analysis and rewriting of two case studies.
(a) Journalistic narrative of feminicide, between romanticization and justification;
(b) For gender-fair administrative texts: the example of documents for an alias career application.
These analyses are very useful to better understand how to carry out the final paper.
Meeting schedule:
Friday 14/03/25 h.14:30-18:30, room 211 (Festa del Perdono)
Friday 21/03/25 h.14:30-18:30, room 211 (Festa del Perdono)
Friday 28/03/25 h.14:30-18:30, room Sant'Antonio I (Sant'Antonio)
Friday 11/04/25 h.14:30-18:30, room Sant'Antonio IV (Sant'Antonio)
Friday 09/05/25 h.14:30-18:30, room Sant'Antonio IV (Sant'Antonio)
To attend this workshop, make a pre-registration as indicated in the Workshops section of the Philosophy website:
https://filosofia.cdl.unimi.it/it/insegnamenti/laboratori
The professionalizing workshop "How to Avoid Sexism in the Italian Language" aims to give those who attend it the necessary tools to critically approach the use of a non-sexist language.
The workshop will consist of 5 lessons, each lasting 4 hours.
Lessons 1 and 2 will lay the contextual theoretical foundation for the use of nonsexist language. Lessons 3 and 4 delve into the topic of language sexism and into the strategies to counter it, ranging from "classic" challenges (women's erasure) to "new" challenges (non-binary people's erasure). Finally, Lesson 5 will allow those attending the workshop to put what they have learned into practice through the analysis and rewriting of two case-studies.
The program will follow the following detailed organization:
- Lecture 1: "But shouldn't we change the reality first and then the language?"
Introduction to the course: the syllabus and testing methods will be explained.
Introduction to the concept of gender as distinct from sex and overview of the relationship between sex and gender from a historical and cultural perspective.
Relationship between language and human perception of reality: how language influences the way we categorize reality.
Insight into the concept of political correctness, with focus on types of linguistic taboo and euphemistic strategies.
- Lecture 2: "But there's far worse than linguistic sexism!"
Insight into hate speech, focusing on the most recurring themes in online misogynistic hate speech and communication from the incel and redpill communities.
Insight into the concept of micro-aggressions and the different ways they can be implemented, with a focus on sexist micro-aggressions in science and academia.
- Lecture 3: "Linguistic Gender and Linguistic Sexism in Italian."
Introduction to the concept of linguistic gender, with focus on: a) distinction between semantic, morphological and phonetic properties of gender; b) how grammatical gender relates to the gender of the referent person.
Introduction to the concept of sociolinguistic varieties and linguistic register.
Insight into the characteristics of linguistic sexism, and especially on: a) environmental invisibility and social invisibility; b) inequality of social treatment.
In-class analysis of major official guidelines for non-sexist language, from Alma Sabatini (1987) to today's university guidelines.
- Lecture 4: "The more or less new challenges for a nonsexist language: non-binary people and AIs"
Introduction to the concept of gender identity of non-binary people, in the terms of the American Psychological Association (2015).
Insight into gender neutralization strategies, their use, potential and problems: a) non-standard strategies (e.g., schwa, asterisk, etc.); b) standard strategies (e.g., epicene, collectives, periphrases, etc.).
Introduction to the concept of large language models (LLMs) (the so-called AIs) and how they work.
Insight into sexist biases in machine translation (representational harm, allocational harm) and the language production of LLMs.
- Lecture 5: "For a non-sexist language in practice."
In-class analysis and rewriting of two case studies.
(a) Journalistic narrative of feminicide, between romanticization and justification;
(b) For gender-fair administrative texts: the example of documents for an alias career application.
These analyses are very useful to better understand how to carry out the final paper.
Meeting schedule:
Friday 14/03/25 h.14:30-18:30, room 211 (Festa del Perdono)
Friday 21/03/25 h.14:30-18:30, room 211 (Festa del Perdono)
Friday 28/03/25 h.14:30-18:30, room Sant'Antonio I (Sant'Antonio)
Friday 11/04/25 h.14:30-18:30, room Sant'Antonio IV (Sant'Antonio)
Friday 09/05/25 h.14:30-18:30, room Sant'Antonio IV (Sant'Antonio)
To attend this workshop, make a pre-registration as indicated in the Workshops section of the Philosophy website:
https://filosofia.cdl.unimi.it/it/insegnamenti/laboratori
Prerequisites for admission
No prior knowledge is required
Teaching methods
The workshop will have a practical approach, so it will alternate between different teaching methods, also trying to make four hours of class time approachable.
Moments of frontal lecture, necessary to explain the densest and most complex concepts, will be alternated with moments of dialogue and class discussion, as well as practical exercises also carried out with reasoned gamification strategies (e.g., annotation of hate speech and micro-aggressions).
Each lesson will include an internal break of 20-30 minutes.
Moments of frontal lecture, necessary to explain the densest and most complex concepts, will be alternated with moments of dialogue and class discussion, as well as practical exercises also carried out with reasoned gamification strategies (e.g., annotation of hate speech and micro-aggressions).
Each lesson will include an internal break of 20-30 minutes.
Teaching Resources
The professor will provide the PowerPoint presentations of her lectures.
Required readings:
- Capecchi, S. (2018), La comunicazione di genere. Prospettive teoriche e buone pratiche, Roma, Carocci.
- Thornton, A.M. (2020), Per un uso della lingua italiana rispettoso dei generi, L'Aquila, Università degli Studi dell'Aquila, in rete all'indirizzo https://www.univaq.it/include/utilities/blob.php?item=file&table=allegato&id=4925
It is not mandatory to read them, but they are recommended for further study:
- Gheno, V. (2021), Femminili singolari. Il femminismo è nelle parole, Firenze, Effequ.
- Pepponi, E. (2024), Parole arcobaleno. Storia del lessico LGBT+ in Italia, Sesto San Giovanni, Mimesis Edizioni.
- Comandini, G. (2021), Salve a tutt@, tutt*, tuttu, tuttx e tutt@: l'uso delle strategie di neutralizzazione di genere nella comunità queer online. Indagine su un corpus di italiano scritto informale sul web, Testo e Senso 23, pp. 43-64.
- Thornton, A.M. (2022), Genere e igiene verbale: l'uso di forme con ə in italiano, Annali Del Dipartimento Di Studi Letterari, Linguistici E Comparati. Sezione Linguistica, 11, pp. 11-54. https://doi.org/10.6093/2281-6585/9623
Required readings:
- Capecchi, S. (2018), La comunicazione di genere. Prospettive teoriche e buone pratiche, Roma, Carocci.
- Thornton, A.M. (2020), Per un uso della lingua italiana rispettoso dei generi, L'Aquila, Università degli Studi dell'Aquila, in rete all'indirizzo https://www.univaq.it/include/utilities/blob.php?item=file&table=allegato&id=4925
It is not mandatory to read them, but they are recommended for further study:
- Gheno, V. (2021), Femminili singolari. Il femminismo è nelle parole, Firenze, Effequ.
- Pepponi, E. (2024), Parole arcobaleno. Storia del lessico LGBT+ in Italia, Sesto San Giovanni, Mimesis Edizioni.
- Comandini, G. (2021), Salve a tutt@, tutt*, tuttu, tuttx e tutt@: l'uso delle strategie di neutralizzazione di genere nella comunità queer online. Indagine su un corpus di italiano scritto informale sul web, Testo e Senso 23, pp. 43-64.
- Thornton, A.M. (2022), Genere e igiene verbale: l'uso di forme con ə in italiano, Annali Del Dipartimento Di Studi Letterari, Linguistici E Comparati. Sezione Linguistica, 11, pp. 11-54. https://doi.org/10.6093/2281-6585/9623
Assessment methods and Criteria
How will you be assessed?
Drafting of a final workshop's report (10,000-15,000 characters), which will present a reasoned rewriting of a text according to the criteria for non-sexist communication seen in class. The rewriting should be followed by a reflection on the original issues of the text (e.g., gender stereotypes, invisibilization of subjectivities other than male, etc.) and the strategies used to achieve a gender-fair result.
Evaluation criteria:
- autonomy of judgment;
- ability to cooperate in a working group;
- communication and expression skills, including with the use of information technology;
- ability to synthesize and write correctly;
- autonomy in the use and checking of sources, basic bibliographic and computer tools for research and scientific updating
Drafting of a final workshop's report (10,000-15,000 characters), which will present a reasoned rewriting of a text according to the criteria for non-sexist communication seen in class. The rewriting should be followed by a reflection on the original issues of the text (e.g., gender stereotypes, invisibilization of subjectivities other than male, etc.) and the strategies used to achieve a gender-fair result.
Evaluation criteria:
- autonomy of judgment;
- ability to cooperate in a working group;
- communication and expression skills, including with the use of information technology;
- ability to synthesize and write correctly;
- autonomy in the use and checking of sources, basic bibliographic and computer tools for research and scientific updating
Laboratorio Professionalizzante
- University credits: 2
Humanities workshops: 20 hours
Professor:
Comandini Gloria
Ricerca Bibliografica e redazione di un testo scientifico filosofico
- University credits: 1
Humanities workshops: 16 hours
Professor(s)