AIFS Abroad

AIFS Study Abroad in Rome, Italy
Summer 2012
Course Descriptions

   

Italian Language Courses

These 45-hour courses are taught at the Rome Study Center by highly-qualified local instructors.

Italian Language Courses
Course Code and Credits: ITL 103 (3)
Course Title: Elementary Italian
Course Description:
Designed for students who have never taken any Italian language course before. Students build an essential vocabulary and assimilate basic grammar and sentence structures. Instruction is based on listening, grammar and comprehension exercises, repetition and easy conversation.
Course Code and Credits: ITL 203 (3)
Course Title: Intermediate Italian
Course Description:
Students will develop the ability to communicate in Italian correctly and with expanded vocabulary. Conversational practice, including improved listening and interpreting skills, will encourage students to better understand and respond to normal Italian speech. Exercises in reading and writing will improve skills in understanding prose and in writing letters and simple messages. Admission is based on a placement test in Italian. Prerequisite: 3 or 4 semesters of Italian.
Course Code and Credits: ITL 303 (3)
Course Title: Advanced Italian
Course Description:
With a focus on reviewing complex syntactic structures this course will provide exercises in use of synonyms and idiomatic expressions. Students will analyze readings from contemporary authors, including samples of fiction and articles from newspapers and magazines. Admission is based on a placement test in Italian. Prerequisite: 5 or 6 semesters of Italian.

Courses Taught in English

Art, Design, and Media
Course Code and Credits: ADM 341 (3)
Course Title: Photography for the Media
Course Description:
Recommended for Communications and Journalism majors as well as photographers, this course develops knowledge and experience in photojournalism and documentary photography by studying the work of major practitioners and designing and shooting projects using digital equipment. Students are required to produce a number of documentary style projects and need to provide a digital camera of at least 7 mega pixel and a laptop. There is a lab fee of 80 euros to cover printing.

Art History
Course Code and Credits: ARH 273 (3)
Course Title: Introduction to Italian Art
Course Description:
Designed to introduce students to the history of several periods, this course is taught primarily during the visits to Venice, Florence and Naples. Richmond professors lecture before and during the excursions on artistic and historical developments in Italy. Students are required to write an art history paper on a topic assigned by the professors, related to the visits.
Course Code and Credits: ARH 305 (3)
Course Title: Introduction to Rennaisance and Baroque Art in Rome
Course Description:
This introductory course surveys the development of painting, sculpture and architecture in Italy from the fourteenth through the mid-seventeenth centuries. These four centuries mark the passage from the Middle Ages to Modernity, through the rediscovery of the heritage of the Classics, the transformation of Christian Europe that followed Luther’s Reformation and the passage from feudalism to absolutism. The course focuses on Rome and offers the unique possibility of studying on site the masterpieces of great artists such as Michelangelo, Raphael, Caravaggio and Bernini. Much of the course is taught on site. Students should budget approximately 55 euros for admissions to museums and galleries.
Course Code and Credits: ARH 308 (3)
Course Title: Art and Culture of Rome: 800 BC - 2000 AD
Course Description:
This is an introduction to major art historical themes, methods and approaches. This course gives the students a knowledge of Rome’s history and society, an overview of its architectural and artistic expressions over a development span of 3000 years. Much of the course is taught on site with visits to churches, palaces and museums. Students should budget approximately 55 euros for admissions to museums and galleries.
Course Code and Credits: ARH 309 (3)
Course Title: History of Ancient Art: Greece and Rome
Course Description:
The course examines the main motives and themes related with study, analysis and appreciation of ancient art. Students study the Idea of Classic, so largely part of the western culture, and so widely object of misinterpretation. The analysis of Greek art, the relation between Greek and Roman art, our position before Classical art, continuity, discontinuity, inspiration from antiquity and misunderstanding of antiquity are the main subjects covered in class. The city of Rome offers the best instruments for this art itinerary. Much of the course is taught on site. Students should budget approximately 55 euros for admissions to museums and galleries.

Communications
Course Code and Credits: COM 315 (3)
Course Title: History of Italian Cinema and Society
Course Description:
The course introduces students to the history of Italian cinema as well as inviting a reflection on the evolution of Italian society as represented in film. Post-war Italian cinema offers a valuable range of films for such a study. By the end of this course students acquire some knowledge of Italian cinema within the context of world cinema, an understanding of realism as an aesthetic convention and gain a useful insight into Italian culture and ways of thinking.

History
Course Code and Credits: HST 311 (3)
Course Title: Rome Through the Ages
Course Description:
The history of Rome from its reputed founding by Romulus and Remus to the establishment of the Roman Republic and the creation of the Roman Empire and the conversion to Christianity with the appointment of the first Pope. Students should budget approximately 55 euros for admissions to museums and major archaeological sites.
Course Code and Credits: HST 326 (3)
Course Title: History of the Italian Mafia
Course Description:
The course analyses the Italian Mafia through an historical, social and cultural perspective, tracing its progression from the Borbonic Reign to the present day. Differences between the Italian and the American Mafia will also be taken into consideration. An analysis of the sociological aspects of the Mafia will be developed, including “the language of the mafioso”, “the code of silence”, the ways of violence, messages and messengers, structures of power, profits and losses, and the relationship between Mafia, politics, and religion.

Literature
Course Code and Credits: LIT 329 (3)
Course Title: Classical Mythology
Course Description:
Traditional stories of Greece and Rome in their cultural context. Readings from Greek and Latin literature investigate their sources, nature and applications to literature and art. Students examine key figures and events in mythology, including gods and major heroes, with on-site analysis of paintings, sculptures, poetry and mosaics. Students should budget approximately 55 euros for admissions to museums and galleries.