The Univerisity of Verona identified learning mobility for individuals (both staff and students) as one the key points of its internationalization strategy and fostered several iniatiatives that led to very positive outcomes and performances, such as:- increase of the total number of inbound and outbound mobilities (both staff and students);- increase of the numer of cooperation and exchange agreements with international partners;- enhancement of the internationalisation rate of the teaching staff and teaching activities.Along with the already consolidated mobility activities in the framework of KA103, the University of Verona took the chance offered by International Credit Mobility to strenghten the relationships with some of its international partners, submitting small projects, but focused and very attentive to the specific needs of teaching activities.The mobility project between the Universities of Verona and Kragujevac, financed within the KA107 2017 call, is part of the context just described. The partner institution, along with the city of Kragujevac, were a promising match towards a fruitful cooperation: previous academic engagement, comparable dimensions, established cultural and economic connections with Italy. The opportunity to submit the proposal came from the teachers of Linguistics of the Department of Cultures and Civililitazions (Univer. of Verona): they were already in contact with some Linguistics teachers of the University of Kragujevac (Faculty of Philology and Arts) and they shared common interests in research and teaching topics. Hence, the mobility project focused on the study of Linguistics and Foreign Languages (especially Italian, Serbian and English) and included student mobilities for studies and staff mobilities for teaching. The objectives, according to the internationalization strategies of both institutions, were the increase of international mobility, the growth of the capacity of international cooperation and the enhancement of the internationalization level of both Department/Faculty involved.All the expected activies were carried out successfully as follows:- 1 student mobility for study from Italia to Serbia (2nd cycle, 5 months, extended for five additional months financed with funds of the University of Verona);- 2 student mobility for study from Serbia to Italy (1st and 2nd cycles, 5 months each);- 1 staff mobility for teaching from Italy to Serbia (5 days, 8 teaching hours);- 1 staff mobility for teaching from Serbia to Italy (5 days, 8 teaching hours).The student mobilities for study focused on the courses offered ny both institutions in the field of Linguistics and Humanities/Foreign Languages, attending classes in Italian and English (for incoming mobilities) and English and Serbian (for the outgoing mobility). All the mobilities had positives outcomes and led to the academic recognition - in one case total and in two partial - of the learning outcomes. As for the staff mobilities, the teaching activities focused on the fields of Semantics and Lexical Morphology for Bachelor students (outgoing mobility), and on Lexical Pragmatics and Morphology for Master and PhD students (incoming mobility).The expected objectives were fulfilled and, limited to its small proportions, the project had a positive impact on different levels: in the relationships between the two HEIs involved, in the integration and participation of the University of Kragujevac in the Erasmus+ programme, in the reciprocal understanding and knowledge of the two territores involved and - hopefully - also it might encourage the adhesion process of Serbia towards the European Union. Now the Universities of Verona and Kragujevac are stable partners and are open to develop new forms of cooperation, thanks to the entry of Serbia in the group of the Programme Countries. We hope that this important step will play a decisive role in the entry of this young republic in the European Union and that it will contribute to develop a peaceful and prosperous future for Europe and the whole Balkans region.

In the 2016-2017 academic year, a total of 575 participants took part in the outbound Erasmus+ programme, of which 527 were students and 48 were academic and administrative staff. Of the 527 students, there were 311 Bachelor’s degree students, 211 Master’s degree students and 5 PhD students. The University of Verona itself welcomed 240 incoming students and 59 academic and administrative staff.Survey results showed a high level of overall satisfaction from the inbound and outbound participants (see section 7.2, “Feedback on general issues”). In 2016-2017, various initiatives were put in place to improve the quality of the mobility schemes and also to encourage participation in the programme.Outbound mobility initiatives:1. Continued the process of implementing the “International Mobility” module in Esse3, which now also includes the ability for students to upload documents (Learning Agreement and Transcript of Records) when they return from their mobility.2. Renewed contracts for staff providing administrative support for outbound mobilities. This was made possible thanks to funding guaranteed to the university for Organisational Support (OS).3. Updated the University Regulations for international student mobilities to reflect the increase in the minimum number of CFU to be gained abroad per semester of mobility (9 CFU), based on ministerial instructions.4. Organised an extra assessment session at the University Language Centre (CLA) for Erasmus+ for Study applicants who did not have the language certification required by their chosen destination.5. Temporarily suspended outgoing student mobilities to Turkey in light of the difficult political situation. The University decided to safeguard not only student safety but also the quality of the academic experience.6. Stipulated a new double award agreement with the Universidade da Coruña for a Master’s degree in Comparative European and Non-European Languages and Literatures taught entirely in English. The University will allocate special supplementary grants to students enrolled in double award courses, who will spend an Erasmus period at the other university of the consortium.7. Outbound traineeships: a significant increase in the number of outbound mobilities thanks to more publicity regarding the opportunities offered by the Erasmus+ for Traineeship programme, which is run in close cooperation with the Internships and Work Experience Office and co-financed by ministerial funding.8. Offered staff and lecturer mobility grants with a rolling application window. Resources are now distributed during the course of the year. As a matter of fact, in past editions, some candidates who applied for funding many months before their planned departure had then to withdraw from the mobility.9. Launched a new University rolling application call for the funding of short-term mobilities (3-30 days).Inbound mobility initiatives:1. Offered more courses taught in English, implementing six new Master’s courses in the 2016-2017 academic year taught entirely in English – Economics, Mathematics, Linguistics, International Economics and Business Management, Molecular and Medical Biotechnology, and Medical Bioinformatics – as well as six PhD programmes. This was made possible in part thanks to university funds to encourage incoming mobilities for international students and foreign researchers and lecturers.2. Offered free daytime and evening Italian language courses for international guests.3. Interviewed international students at the university and published these on the internet, Facebook and YouTube to promote the University of Verona abroad.4. Participated in international fairs to promote the University of Verona in Europe and Russia.In February 2017, an online electronic “service desk” was set up to replace the often overloaded institutional email. This innovation allows requests to the office to now be managed in a more orderly and structured way, with the possibility of monitoring and quantifying the messages.In June 2017, the University reorganised its administrative offices and the International Mobility Office moved under umbrella of the Teaching and Student Services Head Office. This should facilitate greater communication and synergy between all the offices involved in student services, including international mobilities.

Authoritarian political forces are a growing global phenomenon. In critical theory, this is explained either through material factors, running the risk of economic reductionism, or through psychological traits, individualizing the matter in a problematic way. To date, no theoretical framework integrates the two dimensions in a consistent way, leading to deep rifts in political analysis. The proposed research programme introduces the term phantom possession in order to bridge between the material and the psychological level. The notion of phantom possession allows the reconstruction of authoritarianism as driven by property logic. Conceptualised as a domain requiring control and defence, the phantasmatic entitlement becomes a reference point for authoritarian mobilization. Consequently, the subject of authoritarianism can be characterized as a phantom owner. The full theory of the authoritarian personality as phantom owner consists of three components. The first is an account of the politics of phantom owners. As Hannah Arendt mentioned in her analysis of modern mass-politics, authoritarianism is destructive in a way prefigured by early modern property discourse. I analyse destructiveness as the core characteristic of authoritarian politics. The second component investigates the psychology of phantom owners. To understand the psychological basis of authoritarianism, I link the Frankfurt School approach of authoritarian character formation with newer trends in feminist object-relations theory. On this basis, prejudices can be understood as defensive mechanisms, and defensiveness as the defining feature of authoritarian psyches. The third component implements my account. I show how the dual license to violence implied by property – the right to destroy and the right to aggressively defend one’s property – structures current authoritarian mobilization around such disparate domains as abortion, immigration, gender, and environmental politics.

Life on earth feeds on photons. Photosynthesis in green algae and land plants has been the world’s most successful biological process and has conquered the most diverse environments. Photosynthetic reaction centres are extremely well conserved, an unlikely basis for the ability to adapt. Antenna systems are widely diversified and yet only the Light-Harvesting Complexes (LHCs) have been selected for growth in the land environment. The distinctive property of GreenCut organisms lies in their light-harvesting mechanisms, which ensure efficient photon harvesting and photoprotection. Despite being the most abundant membrane proteins on earth, binding most of chlorophyll that makes the planet green, the secrets of LHCs are still concealed because we lack experimental systems that make possible the reverse and forward genetic analysis of LHCII proteins. Indeed, the clustered-genes encoding LHCII has resisted targeting by classic genetics. I propose an in-depth analysis of LHCII proteins in algae and plants by deploying a new technology that we have developed with our experience in studying LHCs. Firstly, we deleted all genes-encoding LHCII in model species of both land plants and green algae by genome editing and complemented plant ΔLHCII lines with site-directed, mutated sequences, demonstrating that reverse genetics can reveal the domains involved in the regulation of photon harvesting, photoprotection and growth. Secondly, forward genetics, on the other hand, will enable the identification of protein determinants by selecting specific phenotypes on complementing mixotrophic algal ΔLHCII lines with randomly mutagenized sequences. This will lead to a map of structures and functions that identifies the specific biological role of each component of the antenna system in vivo and in vitro. The project’s outcome will be the ability to design in a rational way the light-harvesting systems of plants and algae in the context of sustainable agriculture and bio-industry.