Workshop: Sources and Methods for the Study of Institutional History and the Italian Parliament (19th-20th Centuries)

The workshop aims to introduce students to the study of the History of Institutions, with particular attention to the Italian Parliament activity between the late 19th and 20th centuries. Some of the most significant political and social-economic moments that have marked the history of the unification of Italy will be reconstructed with the help of documentation available in local and national archives, as well as parliamentary records (including stenographic transcripts of debates in the Chambers and in Committees, and draft bills). Students will be pre-sented with a series of topics to explore in greater depth, in order to draft and present a short final paper. The main objective of the workshop is to bring students closer to archival and printed sources, within the field of the institutional and parliamentary history, providing them with the methodological and content tools to build a coherent historical research project to be used also in the drafting of a degree thesis.

At the end of the workshop, students will have acquired the basic skills to critically and consciously approach the study of archival and printed documentation related to institutional and parliamentary history. They will be able to identify independently, select and analyze various types of documents (including the parliamentary records and other documentation available on the websites of the Chamber and Senate) and use them as part of a research project. The drafting and discussion of the short final paper will allow students to put the skills acquired into practice, along with their ability to integrate content, methodology and critical reflection.