Rome, Italy

Cheryl Forbes, Rhetoric; Spring 2001

The Italy program is offered every Spring. Rome students are housed only a couple of blocks away from the Roman Forum and in very close walking distance to many of the major monuments and sites of central Rome. Students are affiliated with the Scuola Leonardo da Vinci, one of the leading language and culture schools in Rome. Students will be offered the following instruction: an Italian language and culture course taught by local faculty at Scuola Leonard da Vinci, a course in art history taught by the resident director, a course in studio art taught by a local adjunct and one or two courses offered by Scuola Leonardo da Vinci in history or another social science.

APPROXIMATE PROGRAM DATES
 January 4 to April 15, 2002

ACCOMMODATIONS
 Students reside in the Hotel Pace-Helvetia in Rome, a centrally located hotel pensione in double rooms, with private bath. A half-pension (two meals a day) is provided--breakfast at the hotel and an additional meal at a local trattoria. Housing in Siena is still being arranged, students will be housed either in furnished apartments or private houses.

EXCURSIONS
Trips to Deruta, Florence, and Venice, as well as dayhikes in the Chianti valley and Southern Tuscany (Mantalcino, Pienza, the Crete region).

ELIGIBILITY
The program is open to all non-first year students from any field such as women's studies, religious studies, music, film, writing, and English. Students must be in good academic standing (2.8 or above GPA preferred) and submit an essay in which they outline their interest in Italian culture and their commitment to learning about another culture. Participants must enroll in an intensive Italian language class during the fall semester preceding the program. In addition, it is recommended to take WRRH 200, Grammar and Style.

APPROXIMATE COSTS
Students are charged the normal HWS tuition, $500 administrative fee, and room plus two-thirds board, $16,288. Additional expenses not covered include airfare, some meals, books and incidentals. While individual needs and tastes vary, we estimate those additional expenses at $2900. Further information about costs and other details will be available at the Off-Campus Programs Office and during the orientation meetings for the program.

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
Students will enroll in four courses: Two Core Courses:

Italian Language and Culture (local faculty at Scuola Leonardo da Vinci) The course for beginners in Italian will teach an introduction in how to get around in Rome by speaking Italian. For most students the course could combine visits of interest (trattorias, factories, the University of Rome, museums, churches, etc.) with the acquisition of Italian phrases and vocabulary conducive to making the use of the language pleasurable for students. There will be an Italian cooking lab that will explore the distinctive cuisines of the major regions of Italy, teach students to cook representative dishes from those regions, and consider significant historical and social issues concerning food. Students with more advanced Italian speaking skills will be placed in an advanced class.

The Subject is Italy (Cheryl Forbes) The purpose of this course is to understand and practice a significant genre of literary nonfiction, investigate the power of Italy as a subject for so many writers, to know Italy by writing about its people, places, culture and thus know one's own culture in a better or different way-to give rhetorical shape to each student's experience of and in this program abroad. Students explore Italy as subject for writers primarily in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as Italy as a subject for their own work-the genre of travel writing. Readings include: Italy in Mind-an anthology, ed. Powers, Desiring Italy-a second anthology, ed. Cahill, Seasons of Rome-Hoffman, On Persephone's Island-Simiti, Italian Days-Harrison, Etruscan Places-Lawrence. Students keep a weekly two-part journal. The first part focuses on the readings; the second part focuses on their own observations and experiences. The journal serves as a basis for their major projects. A travel essay is a narrowly focused piece of writing-one experience, place, theme. The literary journal covers several places, experiences, people and is modeled explicitly after one of the journals we read.

Two Electives:

  • Catherine of Siena and the Rhetoric of Devotion (Forbes) Catherine was an unusual woman, as a doctor of the church, as peace negotiator, as a spiritual adviser to popes and bishops and ordinary people. Catherine is also important from the perspective of women as writers, for devotional discourse was one of the first genres allowed to women-that gave women a public voice. We will investigate her life, understand the genre of devotional discourse, and to practice close, critical analysis of devotional discourse.
  • Italian Opera (Forbes and local faculty/adjunct) The course is an expansion of one already taught at the scoula. Students study the history of Italian opera, both in terms of musical structures but also in terms of libretti. They also attend four to six operas at the Rome Opera House. There is a lab in vocal production and interpretation, taught by one of the eminent instructors in the discipline. Students work on translation of selected arias, study operatic form, and read biographies of significant composers. Italian Cinema (local faculty) The course consists of 4 lessons in a standard language course plus 2 private tutorials on
  • Italian Cinema. The aim of this course is not only at providing knowledge of contemporary Italian cinema, but also at improving the student's general knowledge of the Italian language on the basis of the didactic principle that the things that interest us are much more easily assimilated.