Università Roma Tre

Course syllabus

1. Monday, 26 February - Course presentation – Towards modern agriculture and regimes of foods: conflicts and changes – No readings

2. Tuesday, 27 February – Towards a legible and simplified space: Readings: James C. Scott (1990), Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, New Haven, Yale University Press - Introduction and 1st chapter (pp. 1-52)

3. Monday, 4 March – Agriculture as social engineering - Readings: James C. Scott (1990), Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, New Haven, Yale University Press - Introduction of the 3rd part and 6th and 7th chapter (pp. 183-261)

4. Tuesday, 5 March – High-modernist agriculture - Readings: James C. Scott (1990), Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, New Haven, Yale University Press - 8th chapter (pp. 262-306)

5. Monday, 11 March – Pioneering multilateralism? The International Institute of Agriculture – Readings: Niccolò Mignemi (2017), Italian agricultural experts as transnational mediators: the creation of the International Institute of Agriculture, 1905 to 1908, «Agricultural History Review», 65/2, pp. 254-276 ; Federico D’Onofrio (2017), Agricultural numbers: the statistics of the International Institute of Agriculture in the Interwar period, Agricultural History Review», 65/2, pp. 277-296.

6. Tuesday, 12 March - Food as a scientific problem and the first attempts from American philanthropy to ‘revolutionise’ its production – Readings: Nick Cullather (2013), The Hungry World: America’s Cold War Battle against Poverty in Asia, Cambridge (Mass.), Harvard University Press, 1st and 2nd chapter (pp.11-71).

7. Monday, 18 March - A global alliance between nutrition and agriculture: the establishment of FAO - Readings: Ruth Jachertz - Alexander Nützenadel (2011), Coping with hunger? Visions of a global food system, 1930–1960, «Journal of Global History», 6/1, pp. 99-119; Ruth Jachertz (2014), “To Keep Food Out of Politics”: The UN Food and Agriculture Organization, 1945–1965, in Mark Frei, Sönke Kunkel e Corinna Unger (eds. By), International Organizations and Development. 1945-1990, London, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 75-100.

8. Tuesday, 19 March – A ‘Rome consensus’ on land redistribution? – Readings: Jo Guldi (2021), The Long Land War. The Global Struggle for Occupancy Rights, New Haven, Yale University Press , Part I - 2nd and 3rd chapters (pp. 53-126).

9. Monday, 25 March – FAO’s technical assistance as knowledge infrastructure for peasants - Readings: Jo Guldi (2021), The Long Land War. The Global Struggle for Occupancy Rights, New Haven, Yale University Press, Part II – 4th, 5th and 6th chapter (pp. 127-206).

10. Tuesday, 26 March – Steel versus seeds: Asia at crossroads – Readings: Nick Cullather (2013), The Hungry World: America’s Cold War Battle against Poverty in Asia, Cambridge (Mass.), Harvard University Press, 5st, 6th and 7th chapters (pp.134-204).

11. Monday, 8 April – Famine as a diplomatic tool - Readings: Nick Cullather (2013), The Hungry World: America’s Cold War Battle against Poverty in Asia, Cambridge (Mass.), Harvard University Press, 8th and 9th chapters (pp.205-262).

12. Tuesday, 9 April - The ideological demise of land redistribution and its grassroots rebirth - Readings: Jo Guldi (2021), The Long Land War. The Global Struggle for Occupancy Rights, New Haven, Yale University Press, 9th and 13th chapter (pp. 258-283; 354-382).

13. Monday, 15 April – New tools and actors to fight hunger and for a more equitable agriculture – Readings: Readings: Ruth Jackertz (2015), The World Food Crisis of 1972-1975, «Contemporanea», XVIII/3, pp. 425-443; Alana Mann (2015), Food Sovereignty: Alternatives to Failed Food and Hunger Policies, «Contemporanea», XVIII/3, pp. 425-443

14. Tuesday, 16 April – Latest conflicts for accessing land – Readings: Stefano Liberti (2013), Land Grabbing: Journeys in the New Colonialism, London, Verso (Read at least 1st, 2nd and 4th chapter).


The final – further - part of the course will consist of:

- two events with the participation of experts and professionals with experience in the food and agricultural multilateral assistance sector.
- two lessons based on students’ presentations on selected course topics.

Attending students will have to follow the readings scheduled in the syllabus.

Not attending students are required to study these two books for the oral exam:

• Nick Cullather (2013), The Hungry World: America’s Cold War Battle against Poverty in Asia, Cambridge (Mass.), Harvard University Press,s
• Jo Guldi (2021), The Long Land War. The Global Struggle for Occupancy Rights, New Haven, Yale University Press.