In the first two years of the BA Program students are exposed to a societal challenge (“GRAND CHALLENGE”) aiming to promote their civic engagement. Under the supervision of an academic mentor, they develop and carry out a project work, research-oriented or policy-oriented, which can be also linked to an internship. This experiential learning involves ethnographic fieldwork in various locations throughout Rome, exposing students to diverse realities. Projects incorporate a civic engagement dimension, collaborating with NGOs focused on social services, environmental protection, social justice, and inclusion. Module 1 of the GRAND CHALLENGE is linked to the course SOCIOLOGY. It is obligatory that students take the compulsory course SOCIOLOGY and the compulsory Module 1 GRAND CHALLENGE during the same semester.

PROJECT WORK: The GRAND CHALLENGE consists of project work. In the context of the course SOCIOLOGY, students are assigned topics on which to develop the research-oriented projects of the GRAND CHALLENGE. In the SOCIOLOGY course, they learn how to identify real-world cases and formulate research questions, they learn how to plan fieldwork. As part of the GRAND CHALLENGE, they conduct ethnographic fieldwork and present their findings. The project work will expose students to selected realities outside Luiss and will require students to do ethnographic fieldwork in different places in the city of Rome. ENQUIRY BASED LEARNING: As part of the course SOCIOLOGY in combination with the GRAND CHALLENGE, students develop their own small research projects over the duration of the course. They are guided in seeing every-day phenomena sociologically and apply sociological theories and research methods to a concrete case. COMMUNICATION SKILLS: Students learn to present a research topic using sociological concepts, appropriate terminology and logical argument. They interact with peers and instructors and improve their ability to deliver academic presentations

During the first two years of the BA Program, students engage with a designated societal challenge ("GRAND CHALLENGE") to enhance their civic involvement. Module 1 of the GRAND CHALLENGE is combined with the course SOCIOLOGY. Guided by the academic mentors in the SOCIOLOGY course, students undertake a project work that is either research-oriented or policy-oriented. Assigned topics prompt students to develop research questions, plan and execute fieldwork, and present their findings. This experiential learning involves ethnographic fieldwork in various locations throughout Rome, exposing students to diverse realities. Projects incorporate a civic engagement dimension, collaborating with NGOs focused on social services, environmental protection, social justice, and inclusion. Students are encouraged to leverage this exposure for potential internship opportunities. The GRAND CHALLENGE comprises a total of 24 hours: 8 hours are managed autonomously by the students throughout the semester for their field-work: 16 hours are in-class learning and preparation (obligatory presence of all students) throughout the semester.

Module 1 of the GRAND CHALLENGE follows the reading list of the course SOCIOLOGY.

In WEEK 1, students are asked to form teams of 4-6 persons. As a group they are assigned a topic and conduct a small research project together over the course of the semester. The GRAND CHALLENGE consists of the practical (fieldwork) and presentation part of a research project that they develop in the context of the SOCIOLOGY course.

The GRAND CHALLENGE is ungraded, but it is obligatory for students to complete one written homework during the first half of the course, to fulfil the research tasks and to present their results in class in the form of a 15-min presentation per group during the exam session (“appello”). For students who (in exceptional circumstances) do not attend the SOCIOLOGY course in parallel and do not join a team for the GRAND CHALLENGE, the assessment method will consist in one oral exam on an assigned reading. Students in this situation are required to contact the course teacher well ahead of the assessment period to agree on the assigned reading.

For theses in sociology, contact: kstoeckl@luiss.it