Immerse yourself in the ancient beauty of Rome! SAI students studying at JCU select 4 or 5 courses from the wide range of disciplines offered for a total of 12 - 17 credits. Courses available include Art History, Business, Political Science, and Communication, among many others. Semester students have the option of enrolling in the SAI Global Leadership Certificate, or completing a part-time internship, to further their academic and community involvement.
Application open until: October 1 , 2024
Application Requirements
Complete online application
Personal statement (300-500 words)
Transcript
Digital photo (passport style)
Passport copy (photo & signature page)
Italian privacy consent form
Supplemental JCU privacy consent form
Highlights
- Earn a Global Leadership Certificate or Certificate in Entrepreneurship
- Attend a US-accredited University in the Eternal City of Rome
- Explore courses in Race and Gender, Art History, Engineering, and more
Program Dates
January 15, 2025 – May 10, 2025
Eligibility Requirements
Age: 18+
Academic Year: High school graduate or above
* contact SAI if you don’t meet requirements
Cumulative GPA:* 2.5 (on a 4.0 scale)
English Language:* Non-native English language speakers must submit TOEFL: 85+ (internet based) or IELTS: 6.5+.
Art & Design | Studio Art
Art History and Archaeology | Archeology
Art History and Archaeology | Art History
Arts and Humanities | Theater and Film Studies
Business, Law, Management, and Marketing | Business
Business, Law, Management, and Marketing | Law
Business, Law, Management, and Marketing | Management
Business, Law, Management, and Marketing | Marketing
Classical Studies | Classical Studies
Communications, Media Studies, and Journalism | Communications
Communications, Media Studies, and Journalism | Journalism
Communications, Media Studies, and Journalism | Media Studies
Computer Science, Mathematics, and Natural Science | Computer Science
Computer Science, Mathematics, and Natural Science | Mathematics
Computer Science, Mathematics, and Natural Science | Natural Science
Creative Writing, English Composition, Literature, and Language | Creative Writing
Creative Writing, English Composition, Literature, and Language | English Composition
Creative Writing, English Composition, Literature, and Language | English Language
Creative Writing, English Composition, Literature, and Language | English Literature
Economics and Finance | Economics
Economics and Finance | Finance
Foreign Languages | French Language
Foreign Languages | Italian Language
Foreign Languages | Latin Language
Foreign Languages | Spanish Language
History and Humanities | History
History and Humanities | Humanistic Studies
Philosophy and Religious Studies | Philosophy
Philosophy and Religious Studies | Religious Studies
Political Science | Political Science
Social Sciences: Sociology and Psychology | Psychology
Social Sciences: Sociology and Psychology | Sociology
The course focuses both on the practical and the theoretical aspects of Poster Design. It will address how to develop graphical concepts in order to bring a coherent message across for didactic purposes, campaigns, exhibitions, or events, and it will examine poster design from an historical and aesthetic point-of view. Technical practice includes an in-depth study of typography, composition, color, photography, and illustration. A basic competence in visual communication, including the major Graphic Design programs, is expected from students who wish to take this course.
Students with prior painting experience follow their personal lines of research; instruction is through group critiques and individual tutoring. Visits to museums and art exhibitions help students discover their own relationships with artistic traditions.
The aim of this course is to provide the theoretical knowledge and practical skills necessary to conceive, plan and produce a creative photographic project. Each student will work on a photography research project that may concern: nature photography, architecture, portraiture, fashion and beauty, photojournalism, landscape, etc. Students should already have a basic competence in black and white photography including developing and printing techniques and will experience advanced creative darkroom techniques. Further instruction will involve the use of Photo Shop software for the digital manipulation of images. Assignments will help students to begin to acquire specific skills and knowledge sought in the professional workplace.
Coming Soon
The main objective of the course is to prepare students to learn the use of the NEW CAMERAS, their settings, and the new perspectives in photography given by the use of specific SOFTWARE. The students will be able to create their own Portfolio, including eight/ten photos, and a one written page explanation of their work. In this part of the course the teacher and the fellow classmates following two criteria will critique the works: Techniques and Creativity. The best pictures of all students will be presented with a multimedia slide show during the final exhibition of classes.Pre-requisite for the course: each participant must have his/her own digital camera with a wide lens or an optical zoom 3x or more and/or 35mm TTL camera with 28/80mm lens zoom or equivalents.
This course makes use of the unparalleled resource that is the city of Rome itself; each class meets at a different site around the city. Students work in sketchbook form, creating over the course of the term a diary of visual encounters. Instruction, apart from brief discussions of the sites themselves, focuses on efficient visual note-taking: the quick description of form, awareness of light, and the development of volume in space.
The course offers an opportunity for idea development, visual perception, and the organization of experience into compositions. Primary emphasis is on developing visual expression, skill in using various materials, and growth of critical evaluative abilities through group discussions and critiques. The course offers a critical investigation of concepts such as abstraction, mark-making, mapping, spatial disruption, time, pace, coding and organising visual information. The class will be structured around a series of projects and workshops, both within the studio and onsite, and visits to exhibitions in order to both examine the role of drawing within Contemporary Art and to support an evolving personal approach to drawing amongst students.
Figure drawing is the traditional basis for training the artists eye and hand. Through specific exercises, students learn to control line and gesture, to model form in light and dark, and to depict accurately the forms and proportions of the human body.
Coming Soon
This course is meant for students who wish to deepen their knowledge in the field of corporate identity and branding. It will address how to respond to technical and communication requirements of a design brief, develop visual concepts, create a system of graphical elements that form the basis of an identity, and define a strategy for a brand. The course will also consider the professional standards of preparing artwork for print. The course requires good competence in visual communication and expertise in the major Graphic Design programs.
The aim of this course is to give students a comprehensive introduction to visual communication and to demonstrate how Graphic Design can be an effective and powerful tool for business. It covers a broad spectrum of different design disciplines, ranging from corporate identity, branding, brochure design, poster design, to packaging and illustration, and provides precious insight into the world of Graphic Design. The course is open to all students, particularly those who do not have a background in design, and complements other courses including Business, Management, Marketing and Communication.
This introductory studio course engages students in historical and contemporary techniques of printmaking and its theory. The course positions drawing and mark-making as fundamental ways to investigate visual culture. Exploring the basic intaglio and relief processes of mono-printing, linocut and collagraph, students will heighten their sensitivity to line, color, tone, texture, transparency, layout and overall composition. This will provide students with an introduction to the creative thinking and visual exploration involved in making a multiple edition print and understanding its relevance to art, design and today’s image-based culture.
Textiles and fiber are crucial to today’s conceptual and technical creative practices. This studio-based course introduces students to a diverse range of textile materials, processes, histories, traditions and applications of fiber and to their relationships to contemporary art and design. Projects engage with the historical relevance of fibers, its relationship to issues such as labor, identity, decoration, and functionality. These are taken to be vehicles to explore the use of textiles and fiber within the expanded field of contemporary art and design. Emphasis is placed on researching and developing creative ideas through material sampling and exploration of surface and structure. Students investigate dyeing, printing, weaving and manipulation of fabric to investigate imagery, color and form
This course offers an exploration of the expressive possibilities of ink, watercolor, and acrylic. Painting is done mostly on paper, directly from life, both in the studio and outdoors. Emphasis is on control of color, the creation of a coherent pictorial space, and the discovery of technical effects which suggest light, form, and movement.
Inthis course, photography will be examined in relation to other art disciplines to highlight the pivotal role that this art form holds in contemporary art. By examining the work of contemporary artists and photographers who utilize interdisciplinary art-making strategies, the course bridges the gap between traditional photography and the diverse range of experimental and hybrid forms found in contemporary art.
The course is designed to introduce students to the history of museums and to curating practices. Classes will discuss the cultural position of the museum, the evolution of its function, the different forms of display, the historical developments of the act of collecting, the position of the visitor and the role of the curator. The primary purpose of the course is to provide students with a critical vocabulary for understanding how museums produce knowledge and structure the ways in which history, geography, cultural difference, and social hierarchies are mapped. Through a series of richly detailed case studies related to ancient and contemporary Rome museums, collections and institutions, classes will investigate the differences between the roles, the missions, the objectives, and the policies of conservation and exhibition-making in spaces, relating to modalities of thought. The course also intends to introduce the figure of the curator and its development from conservator and classifier to creative, critical protagonist of contemporary art culture. The course concludes with an overview of current debates around the contemporary need for museums, and large scale exhibition (such as Biennials and Triennials) and their perceived social functions
The course is an introduction to Environmental Archaeology and Paleoclimatology, the studies of the interactions between humans and environment. Human history (like settlement-patterns, migration, and economies) depended on environmental factors, and, in turn, humans had an impact on the landscapes they were living in. The course will examine the composite archaeological approaches to this: The studies of Earth, Fauna, and Flora collectively known as Environmental Archaeology, as well as Palaeoclimatological analyses of long-term patterns and variations in temperature and humidity; all factors that strongly conditioned the environment. The course is a critical engagement with the primary data, as well as with the scientific and archaeological approaches and the research of the fields.
This course is an introduction to archaeological research, focusing predominantly–but not exclusively–on Classical Antiquity, i.e. on Italy and the Mediterranean. Various methods of recovery of ancient monuments will be explored, like radar survey, aerial reconnaissance and underwater archaeology. There will also be a focus on the changing interests of the discipline by an overview of the history of archaeology, from the first scientific excavations in the 18th century to new approaches in the last years. Finally, the presentation to the public (restauration, museums) and problems as illegal digging and trading will be discussed.
Partially on-site; activity fee: 25 Euro or 33 USD
The course is an upper-level survey of technology in the ancient world, with particular emphasis on Greece and Rome. The course provides an in-depth familiarity and appreciation of the multifaceted nature of ancient technology through which students will gain a firm understanding of the links between technological innovation (history of engineering) and the development of human civilization (social history). It examines the architecture, waterworks, war machinery, and entertainment industry that framed and generated technological innovations, as well as production techniques related to the working of metal, wood and ceramics. The course will draw on both archaeological and text-based sources, and students will gain an awareness of field-specific methods and research theories: historical, philological and archaeological.
This is a survey of Greek art and archaeology from the Bronze Age through the late Hellenistic period. The course begins with an introduction to the Minoans and Mycenaeans; cultural and artistic developments are traced through the 2nd century BC when the Hellenistic kingdoms began to fall into the hands of Rome. Analysis of architecture and art are merged with an understanding of historical trends and Greek mythology.
Portraiture in Greece and Rome was a vital currency of social interaction and public engagement – across gender, class, location and context. As new archaeological data and research methodologies are transforming our understanding of its form and impact, the field is one of the most vibrant of ancient art. The course will discuss all aspects of what made a portrait: facial characteristics, hairstyles, body types, and clothing, as well as the inscribed base and placement. It will do so with a keen awareness of the developments and experimentations of the medium over time. The course will investigate themes like the uses of male and female portraits in public, the use of type-associations and role models, and the choices of statue types and status indicators. It will ask questions about who commissioned works, about workshop practices and distribution, and about the visual impact of techniques and form for the viewer, as well as why some portraits were destroyed or reworked.
Rome City Series – This on-site course considers the art and architecture of ancient Rome through visits to museums and archaeological sites. The course covers the visual culture and architecture of Rome beginning with the late Bronze Age and ending with the time of Constantine. A broad variety of issues are raised, including patronage, style and iconography, artistic and architectural techniques, Roman religion, business and entertainment. On site activity fee may apply. On Site Activity Fee may apply.
One previous course in Art History. This course carries 4 semester hours of credits. A minimum CUM GPA of 3.5 is required.
The course examines the complex subject of art and cultural heritage crime, with a particular emphasis on Italy. While examining the international and national normative frameworks determining what constitutes an art/cultural heritage crime, special attention will be paid to the question of what constitutes ownership of art and cultural heritage. The course will consider the development over time of ideas of the value of art (both real and symbolic), as well as the ways that ideas of ownership have changed since the late 20th century. In addition to examining issues related to the definition, prevention, and punishment of art/cultural heritage crimes, the course will also examine the role of the Italian state in protecting its national cultural artifacts.
This course is about the art of writing about art, and surveys notable examples. As in any historical study, our understanding of art history is filtered through specific writings. These writings can to be appreciated in themselves for their sensitivity, originality, and craft, and also evaluated critically. In this course we search out authors who achieve sensitive description of works of art of many diverse styles and periods, who vividly communicate the intellectual and emotional responses triggered by visual experience, and who skillfully delineate art’s historical and cultural context. This course is appropriate for beginners in art history.
On-site activity fee 40 euros or $52
Rome, Ostia and Pompeii are three of the best- preserved archaeological sites in the world. Through their study, we are able to comprehend the physical and social nature of Roman cities and how they transformed over the course of centuries. We explore the subjects of urban development, public and private buildings, economic and social history, and art incorporated into urban features (houses, triumphal monuments, etc.). In Rome, we focus primarily upon public buildings commissioned by Senators and Emperors: temples, law courts, theaters, triumphal monuments, baths. In Ostia, the port-city of Rome, we are able to experience many aspects of daily life: commerce, housing, religion, entertainment. Pompeii represents a well-to-do Republican and early Imperial period city that was influenced by the Greeks and Romans and preserves some of the most magnificent frescoes in the world.
The course addresses the skills, methods and issues essential to building the future Art Historians tool kit. To this end, it develops simultaneously on three levels: immersing students in progressively complex assignments and exams; getting students to practice art history as an issue-based analysis of objects; providing students with the historical and methodological frameworks specific to the field. The course lays the foundation for looking at, understanding and working in the visual arts. The material corpus that the course draws on is primarily Early Modern Europe and the Americas, across a period roughly between AD 1400-1750.
The course addresses the skills, methods and issues essential to building the future Art Historian’s tool kit. To this end, it develops simultaneously on three levels: immersing students in progressively complex assignments and exams; getting students to practice art history as an issue-based analysis of objects; providing students with the historical and methodological frameworks specific to the field. The course lays the foundation for looking at, understanding and working in the visual arts. The material corpus that the course draws on is primarily the Medieval Mediterranean and Western Asia, across a period roughly between AD 400-1400.
A survey course covering the innovations of the Early Renaissance to the High Renaissance (14th into the 16th Century). The works of Brunelleschi, Alberti, Donatello, Ghiberti, Masaccio, Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Pollaiuolo, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Bramante and Raphael and others will be studied.
This course surveys the art and architecture of the Islamic world from the 7th to the 13th centuries. The phenomenal rise and establishment of Islamic civilization in three continents- Asia, Africa and Europe- in this period is studied through monumental religious and secular architecture and its applied decoration from mosaics to stucco and wall paintings and through painted ceramics, carved wood and ivories, metalwork, illuminated manuscripts, and embroidered and woven textiles. The form and function of buildings and artifacts, their changing patterns of use and their evolving meanings are examined in their original social, political, religious, and cultural contexts. One of the primary aims is to become familiar with the regional diversity of medieval Islamic visual culture and so also to consider what issues are involved in studying a tradition that flourished in several geographical areas, encompassing a variety of cultures and national and ethnic identities. Two special areas of focus are the urban design and architecture of Islamic medieval centers such as Cairo and Islamic court culture which, often centered around royal palaces such as Madinat al-Zahra in Spain, produced some of the most outstanding luxury arts of the Middle Ages.
Coming Soon
Rome City Series – This on-site course will study the monuments of Renaissance Rome: painting, sculpture and architecture produced by such masters as Bramante, Raphael, and Michelangelo, all attracted to the lucrative service of popes, cardinals and nobles of the Roman court. On-site classes will investigate examples of palace and villa architecture, chapel decoration that encompasses altarpieces and funerary sculpture, as well as urbanistic projects where the city itself was considered as a work of art. In-class lectures will introduce historical context and theory allowing the student to understand artworks studied conceptually and place commissions of painting and sculpture within a socio-historic framework.
This upper level seminar/practicum provides rigorous, practical preparation for the writing of professional art-historical research papers, including the Senior Thesis, through four discrete units: an individual portfolio review; a research tools and methods seminar; intensive, directed bibliographic research; and the formulation of a presentation to the class on the thesis topic, together with a new ‘foundation’ portfolio demonstrating mastery of the research skills, competencies, and bibliography necessary for advanced art-historical research writing. The course is intended for JCU Degree Seeking students, but advanced visiting students studying Art History are welcome.
Specialized courses offered periodically on specific aspects of the art of the ancient world. Courses are normally research-led topics on an area of current academic concern.
Specialized courses offered periodically on specific aspects of the art of the modern and contemporary world. Courses are normally research-led topics on an area of current academic concern. May be taken more than once for credit with different topics.
The course focuses on the social agency of women in artistic professions and patronage in the early modern period (c. 1500-1750), taking advantage of an abundance of new scholarship of the Italian context. Through case studies of individual artists and patrons, the course will examine how women negotiated their professional presence, especially in the homosocial spaces of academies that were increasingly important for instruction and theorization. Some of the artists and patrons under study include Isabella dEste, Sofinisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, Artemisia Gentileschi, Elisabetta Sirani, and Queen Christina of Sweden.In the first weeks, the course establishes a framework for understanding how women produced and commissioned art in early modern Europe, considering the spaces and methods of art production, while also examining questions of privilege as a consequence of economic status. Individual case studies will then be explored in depth, focusing upon artists for whom there is a considerable amount of biographical information and body of works, while also introducing several artists who have been the subjects of very recent research. The activities and collections of prominent women as patrons will also be examined. Students will have the opportunity to conduct research on works by women artists displayed in Rome and other Italian collections.
Specialized courses offered periodically on specific aspects of the art of the medieval world. Courses are normally research-led topics on an area of current academic concern. May be taken more than once for credit with different topics.
One previous course in Art History or permission of the instructor
The visual arts have served to foster, construct and promote national identity from the very inception of the modern nation. This course aims to broach methodological and historical issues at the intersection of art of politics. Understanding how the visual arts have been instrumentalized, brandished, weaponized and subverted, or have actively chosen to promote a national(ist) agenda is the focus of this course. Each class takes a specific work as a case study to examine the political role(s) it was made to play, to what ends, and how this informs our understanding of the much larger historical debates around nationhood, citizenship, ethnicity, class, etc from the late 18th to the late 20th centuries. Official manifestations, such as Worlds Fairs, biennales and public commissions equally contribute to the comparative history of art and nation-building.
The course investigates the visual construction of gendered identities in the art produced in Europe in late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The course will discuss how this diverse visual repertoire operates as in an on-going re-definition or re-negotiation of gender as a category. To that end, it addresses both traditional gendered constructs and representations that challenge hetero-normativity as an ideal. The cultural centrality of Christianity in these periods means that representations of gender are inextricably linked to contemporary discourses regarding political, social, economic and ethnic identities, as well as religion. Methodological approaches to the analysis of gender, and to agency of the viewer in the reception and construction of gendered identities, are integral to the course.
This survey course begins with the very birth of visual representation in the middle and late Stone Age (ca. 32,000 – 11,000 BC) and ends with Late Antiquity (ca. AD 250-400), when the transition from ancient to medieval art began to take shape. The focus of this course is on the art and architecture of the Mediterranean, Near East and Europe, including the first flowering of art on the islands of Greece and the spread of Roman art throughout the entire Mediterranean area. The different media, aesthetics, functions, and subjects chosen for representation in each culture will be studied in terms of the particular social, religious, political and geographical contexts of which they are a product. Students will also be introduced to the contemporary developments in other areas of the world: Asia, Africa, Americas. The course will also assist students in cultivating basic art-historical skills, in particular description, stylistic analysis, and iconographic and iconological analysis.
During this course students will learn to: collaborate creatively; employ basic acting techniques such as sensory work, the principles of action, objectives, status, etc.; develop an expressive speaking voice; engage with a variety of stage props; analyze the process of placing a dramatic text on stage; critique and enact a variety of theatrical techniques; define specific terms relating to the study of drama and theater; develop an appreciation for theater as an art form and a reflection of society; understand the responsibility of an actor s work ethic, especially to one’s fellow actors; initiate and upkeep a gradable class-by-class journal (either blog or v-log) of their personal growth throughout the course.
This course considers management problems of founders, owners, managers, and investors in small business. Acquisitions, location, organization control, labor relations, finances, taxation, and other topics of interest to entrepreneurial business management will be analyzed.
This course considers some of the most important ethical issues in business today. Students will examine such issues as businesses responsibilities to shareholders, workers and consumers, the pros and cons of a “free market,” the challenges raised by globalization and environmental destruction, the idea of “ethical” consumption, and the particular dilemmas faced by Western businesses working in foreign countries. Issues will be studied through a selection of contemporary cases, arguments, and broader theories, along with much class discussion, with the aim of helping students develop a familiarity with the issues and the ability to discuss and defend their own opinions.
coming soon
This course examines the entrepreneurial process, from recognizing opportunity to planning, organizing and growing a new venture. We will highlight innovation and its methods and applications on business opportunity analysis. Topics covered also include significance, status, problems, and requirements of entrepreneurial businesses. Students will have the opportunity to identify a business opportunity and develop the idea to the point of being start-up ready.This course will serve as a foundation for students who might want to own a business, and it is meant to be accessible also for non-business majors.
The course aims at investigating how the creation and exploitation of intellectual property in various product and service markets is the basis for the creation of wealth and employment in the creative industries, which are those industries that have their roots in individual creativity, skill, and talent. The course analyses the main forces behind the creation of new marketing and business models in these industries, considering also the introduction of new technologies as well as creative consumption patterns. As a result, the course will focus on one of the most dynamic battlegrounds which is the development of business models for the creative industries, which include, among the others, publishing, software, design, and the performing and visual arts. The creation and effective application of an innovative business model for these sectors may turn it into a respectable example of commercialization and a workable channel for the distribution of content. As a result, the objective of this course is to give the students a thorough analysis of the creative industries from a management perspective, as well as of the actors and activities that directly support the creation of creative content (origination, production, distribution, and consumption).
The course aims at exploring strategies of social media management for business organizations. The focus of the course regards not only the aspects of communication with prospects and customers, but also the internal processes necessary in order to enact strategic decisions. Hence, this course analyzes every stage required to use social networks for business from a global perspective that includes, among others, IT, customer service and sales, in the light of the social, economic, and technological implications surrounding the ever-changing e-business environment.
The objective of this course is to expose students to the essential elements of international business with particular emphasis on how it differs from domestic business. An extensive use of case studies provides a basis for class discussion, allowing students to develop their analytical skills and apply their theoretical knowledge.
Junior Standing, EC 202. Recommended: MKT 301.
This course aims to provide students with a theoretical and practical background to develop their personal skills to manage negotiations in multicultural environment. The course will explore leadership and communication approaches to effective negotiation management, and will highlight the role of innovation in achieving integrative, successful results. Students will have an opportunity to explore the meaning and practice of managing negotiations. During the course, they will review theory, analyze strategies, engage in practical exercises and acquaint themselves with the language, thought, and praxis of negotiations in the multicultural setting in which we live, learn and work. By studying the impact of the relations between their and others cultural narratives, the student will discover innovative paths, techniques, and strategies to lead negotiation processes in multicultural environments.
This course presents a general summary of all functions of a business enterprise, including management, finance, accounting, marketing, human resources, and production. The course gives emphasis to the structure of business organizations and the decision-making process that occurs at different levels of corporate management. Students will be exposed to basic business terminology and will establish an applicable business vocabulary. The course also touches upon current business practices (such as managing organizational relationships, managing human resources or planning and controlling resources) that are employed in different national markets to adjust their strategies to diverse consumers worldwide. The course will use reading materials, projects and assignments that will relate the subject to the real world and the possible professional avenues students of business can pursue; the course will also foster critical and analytical thinking, and develop decision-making skills. Successful completion of the course will equip students with a broad understanding of how the business environment works, as well as a lens through which to interpret the world they live in.
This course aims at studying in depth the model of Resonant Leadership and its positive effects on the increase of efficacy, creativity, motivation, conflict resolution, decision-making, and stress reduction within the workplace.Using the latest studies in the fields of Psychology, Neuroscience, Behavior, and Organization participants will learn the theory, research and experience of employing Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence within the work environment.The course will be divided in two parts:a) a theoretical part in which the participants will be introduced to the model of Resonant Leadership informed by Mindfulness, Emotional Intelligence, Neuroscience, and the most recent cognitive research; b) a practical-experiential part in which Mindfulness techniques and the development of Emotional and Social Intelligence will be learned in order to promote resonance in leadership.
The course analyzes the Italian Business environment, the characteristics of its culture and its inner workings. Students will be able to understand the different types of Italian corporate cultures and the role of family businesses in Italy. The course allows students to assess some of the most popular Italian brands and learn why “made in Italy” is a leading brand in the world, despite recent influences and threats from foreign investors. Company cases and special guests will be an important part of this course and will allow students to relate theory to practice.
This course surveys the theory and practice of public relations, examining a model for public relations programming, the principles of public relations writing, and stakeholder/issues management techniques, together with their ethical implications. It distinguishes PR and publicity communication concepts within the framework of the firms overall marketing communication strategy and organizational mission. Special topics, such as Marketing Public Relations, Investor Relations, Government Relations, etc., will also be addressed. Students are expected to be able to use primary and secondary research and the information tools of communications professionals.
Nowadays, significant social problems dramatically affect both the most developed and developing countries in many fields like education, health care, the environment. Most people think that these serious issues should be solved by either the governments or the third sector, which includes voluntary and community organizations like charities and NGOs. Conversely, the mission of a corporate organization is not to solve social problems but to maximize both its profits and the shareholder value. Social entrepreneurship allows to solve social issues using the instruments and the techniques of classic corporate organizations, however, its main goal is its social mission rather than profit maximization.The course explains how to become a social entrepreneur, the different options to organize a social business and to find the requested financial support, and how to use the lean start-up methodology to find both the right business model and market fit in order to solve a significant social problem.
In this transdisciplinary course, students develop a first-hand project that is commissioned from a real non-profit organization and they learn how to mainstream the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – including social, economic and environmental sustainability – into it. The students will act as a consultancy unit for the non-profit organization and, under a strict supervision, will submit a proposal for the resolution of the problems that the project implies. The non-profit organization will be significantly involved in the class, the first-hand project will be agreed beforehand, and selected members of the non-profit will provide a detailed feedback on the submitted proposal. The non-profit may propose diverse managerial challenges that help the organization achieve its own objectives, including, for example, the devising of contingency and operational plans, the generation of funds and social communication campaigns.This course will offer students the capability of managing and solving real-life challenges and directly interact with external organizations and professionals. Students will learn how to discuss a project internally and communicate externally and to combine the priorities of the whole organization with the specific project. In the end, students will gain a first understanding of the financial analysis for program management and performance review. Moreover, this learn-by-doing approach will be accompanied by a sound theoretical framework in which the role non-profit organizations play in the fragmented system of global governance will be analysed, the ways in which they can contribute to achieving the SDGs enshrined in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development will be examined and the complexities of evaluating interventions are assessed
This course considers management problems of founders, owners, managers, and investors in startups. Acquisitions, location, organization control, labor relations, finances, taxation, and other topics of interest to entrepreneurial business management will be analyzed.
This course explores the fast-growing field of green criminology, which examines the causes, consequences, and legal responses to a wide range of environmentally destructive activities. These include catastrophes such as oil spills, systematically polluting extraction and production processes, illegal trades in hazardous materials such as toxic waste and natural resources like wildlife and timber, among others. It investigates the impacts that these activities have on human and ecosystem health and security, and identifies how vulnerability to these harms intersects with class, race, gender and geographical discrimination, disproportionately burdening underprivileged groups in advanced and less developed economies. The course unpacks how these activities are managed in international and domestic law and highlights gaps, loopholes, and contradictions among regulations, as well as tracing the political processes by which legal frameworks are developed and enforced. Finally, it explores the intensifying role of civil society activism in pushing for more effective prevention policies and reparatory justice mechanisms.
This course deals with legal aspects of international business transactions. The course introduces students to issues in international commerce, including requirements of a contract, international shipping terms, and liability of air and ocean carriers. The course will examine international and U.S. trade law, including GATT 1994, and the regulation of imports and exports. Finally, the course will familiarize students with various areas of regulation of international business, such as competition law, employment discrimination law, and environmental law.
This course provides the student with an overview of the law in general, beginning with the foundations of the legal and regulatory environment, the law making processes, and the implementation of the legal rules. Students examine some areas of substantive law, including bodies of law that are regulatory in nature. Particular attention is given to aspects of business transactions in an international context.
This course examines the basic concepts of public international law, to enable students to critically evaluate the interplay between legal claims and power relations. Starting with a theoretical overview of the character, development and sources of international law, the course examines such law-generating and law-implementing institutions as the United Nations, international arbitration and adjudication, international criminal tribunals, national systems and regional organizations. Such substantive areas as the law of war (the use of force and humanitarian law), international criminal law, human rights, and environmental law will be given special attention.
This course considers some of the most important issues concerning contemporary challenges in the field of entrepreneurship. Students will be confronted with interdisciplinary perspectives to the study of entrepreneurship that stem from economics, psychology, geography, history, cultural studies, and policy making, to better understand the emergence and the determinants of entrepreneurial ecosystems.
This is an introductory course in Comparative Business Cultures in a context of International Business and Management, covering the work of Clyde Kluckholm and Fred Strodtbeck, Gary Ferraro, Bjorn Bjerke, Fons Trompenaars, Geert Hofstede as well as the G.L.O.B.E. project. The emphasis in this course is on understanding and applying one’s knowledge of different national cultures as an aid to improved management of human resources, enhanced cross border trade, relocation of business activities to different countries, as well as on the melding of different cultures in multinationals as well as companies which are involved in joint ventures, mergers, or take-overs.
Disruptive innovation, as well as technological, social and economic changes are key characteristics of the New Economy,” drastically impacting all aspects of businesses and social life. Information Technology (IT) is at the center of the Digital Transformation of companies for the optimization, redesign or reinvention of their business in response or in anticipation to the disruptive impact of emerging technologies and new business models.All managers are directly or indirectly concerned with IT, either because they work in the IT department or because they are involved in the definition, purchase, deployment, and usage of IT infrastructures, software, and applications. This course will provide students with a basic understanding of IT as an introduction to the changing managerial role in organisation.
Management issues related to the procurement and allocation of resources in the production of goods and services in order to meet organizational goals. Topics covered include product and process design, facility size, location and layout, quality management, production planning and control.
The course examines human personality, behavior and relationships as applied to business, industrial and organizational settings. Topics include: social systems at work; human needs, attitudes, human relations; leadership patterns, group dynamics, teamwork, communication, motivation, participation and reward system; technology and people, managing change, models of organizational behavior and management. Teamwork and group participation are emphasized.
A major component of this course will be exposing students to proofs, with the aim of having them learn how to read, write, and understand a proof.
This course explores the significance of social networks in business and social life. The focus of the course is to critically appreciate social media platforms across a variety of contexts. The course investigates issues related to the management of social media in terms of the strategies and tactics related to successful deployment and cultivation of business/social initiatives and the redefinition of the customer/user as a central element in value creation. Issues related to participatory culture, communication power, collaborative work and production, privacy and surveillance, and political economy of social media are explored in depth through the use of contemporary cases.
This course is intended to introduce students to the field of management consulting from the perspective of both the individual consultant and the consulting firms. It is important to those who are especially interested in consulting careers, those whose current or planned jobs involve staff consulting or line management using consultants, as well as those who are planning to launch their own business activity and need to be familiar with the consultancy attitude and mindset
This capstone course focuses on the roles and skills of the General Manager and on diagnosing and finding realistic solutions to complex strategic and organizational problems. Business situations will be analyzed from the point of view of the General Manager to identify the particular tasks related to his/her unique role, which calls for leadership, integration across the functional areas, organizational development, strategy formulation and implementation. Prerequisites: Completion of all Core Business Courses. In particular, case discussion will require a good understanding of Finance (performance evaluation, forecasting, budgeting), Marketing principles, Organizational structure and Management.The course builds on previous course work by providing an opportunity to integrate various functional areas and by providing a total business perspective.
The course is designed to expand student’s knowledge in the area of supply chain management by applying analytical methodologies and information technology. Supply chains are concerned with the efficient integration of suppliers, factories, warehouses and stores so that products are supplied to customers in the right quantity and at the right time, while satisfying customer service level requirements at minimum cost. Deficiencies in the SC result in a downgrade of competitiveness. Only over the last few years firms have started to focus on supply chain management (SCM) as a source of competitive advantage. SCM is an area of knowledge which offers tremendous opportunity for most firms.
Advertising as applied in industrialized countries. Its impact on the social and economic status of the consuming public.
During the course students will undertake studies on brand assessment, goal setting; defining brand equity and target; Crafting a Communication Strategy; Establishing the Marketing, Communications, Public Relations and Media Strategies; Building the Marketing Plan; and Measurement and Strategic Brand Audit. Students will complete a group project where they choose a brand or create their own and take on the role as brand manage to build, manager and market a brand using successful public relations, communications, and media strategies.
The objective of this course is to expose students to the environment of business-to-business (B2B) marketing from a global perspective, with emphasis on how it differs from the consumer (B2C) marketing context. Concepts, models and analytical tools are studied in the areas of business-to business marketing analysis and strategy; managing business-to-business marketing processes; and putting business-to-business marketing into practice.
This course focuses on the study of consumer decision processes, consumer behavior models and their impact on the development of marketing strategies. The emphasis is on researching and in-depth understanding of the consumer decision process. Teaching methodology includes case studies and an emphasis on experiential research.
This course approaches Internet marketing from a marketing management perspective. The course looks at the Internet both as a tool to be used in the marketing planning process and as an element of a company’s marketing mix. The course explores how traditional marketing concepts such as market segmentation, research, the 4Ps and relationship marketing are applied using the Internet and other electronic marketing techniques. Website design is not covered.
A dramatically new form of marketing has emerged. Recent years have witnessed the use of such terms as subversive marketing, disruptive marketing, radical marketing, guerrilla marketing, viral marketing, and expeditionary marketing. This course represents an attempt to bring together these perspectives by providing an integrative framework called entrepreneurial marketing (EM). With EM, marketing is approached not as a set of tools (a technology) for facilitating transactions or responding to change, but as a vehicle for fundamentally redefining products, services, and markets in ways that produce a sustainable competitive advantage. EM represents a strategic type of marketing built around six core elements: innovation, calculated risk-taking, resource leveraging, strategic flexibility, customer intensity, and the creation of industry change. Conditions in the marketplace environment drive the need for entrepreneurial marketing (turbulence, discontinuities, rapid changes in technology, economics, competition, etc.), while organizational culture can hinder or facilitate the firm’s ability to demonstrate high levels of EM.
This course first examines the basic principles underlying consumer information processing and how marketing can influence this process. It then addresses the design, coordination, and management of marketing communications, focusing on the role of integrated marketing communications in the marketing process, particularly as it relates to branding. The second part of the course may take the form of an extended case study/IMC plan or may address special topics: for example, the relationship between public relations (PR) and marketing, the history and development of advertising and public relations, public opinion and its role in IMC planning, media relations, research for campaign design, global communication, and crisis management.
An investigation of the marketing concept in a global environment. Factors in assessing world marketing opportunities; international marketing of products, pricing, distribution and promotion program development in dynamic world markets. Marketing practices which various businesses adapt to the international environment are studied. Attention is also given to comparative marketing systems, and planning and organizing for export-import operations.
This course covers the basic methods and techniques of marketing research. Discusses the tools and techniques for gathering, analyzing, and using information to aid marketing decision- making. Covers topics such as problem definition, research design formulation, measurement, research instrument development, sampling techniques, data collection, data interpretation and analysis, and presentation of research findings. Students choose a marketing research project, formulate research hypotheses, collect primary and secondary data, develop a database, analyze data, write a report, and present results and recommendations.
This course investigates the process of new product management, starting from idea and concept generation through to project evaluation and development. The course is designed to be a workshop for new product development, allowing students to explore market opportunities and propose new concepts to the market.
This course will give students a solid understanding of the fundamentals of the strategic marketing planning process including: methods and tools of market assessment, customer segmentation analysis, development of the value proposition, positioning and planning of marketing tactics designed to deliver value to targeted stakeholders. Emphasis is placed on the need to align marketing principles and theories with the management skills needed for the preparation of a marketing plan. Students will be able to analyze opportunities and threats in both the macro and micro-environments. Students will also conduct a marketing research gathering data for effective decision-making and will develop their ability to evaluate gaps.In this course, students will begin to learn how to conduct a competitive analysis, analyze environmental trend, forecast changing market demand and develop competitive marketing strategies.
This course focuses on issues related to Retail Management in the Fashion industry and requires both an understanding of marketing principles as well as channel management concepts. The course reviews basic concepts related to retail business such as operations, logistics, retail channels management, retail controlling and strategic location development, which develop the students ability to understand performance indicators and measure store performance. Students are encouraged to focus on retail buying and stock planning, in order to fully understand how to manage in-store product life cycles. Teaching methodology is project based and team work is emphasized. Teams will be required to apply fashion retailing concepts to companies decision making through a proposed retail project, which will require a written strategic retail plan that is adapted to the Italian fashion market.
This course offers key insights into the rapidly growing service sector industry. The course is challenging and requires students to apply their knowledge and skills for the effective management of service design and delivery. Central issues addressed in the course include identifying differences between service and product marketing; understanding how customers assess service quality/ satisfaction; applying the GAPS model to assess service failure; and understanding of the theory of relationship marketing and using related tools and techniques for keeping customers and encouraging loyalty.
This course introduces students to the conceptual frameworks, ethics, and practice associated with social marketing. This course explores how classic marketing techniques can be effectively applied beyond traditional corporate settings, in not-for-profit organizations. Students will gain an understanding of the basic principles of social marketing, and then will address fundraising and resource development as well as social communication campaigns. Fundraising is the application of marketing principles to generate funds that enables not-for-profit organizations to achieve their objectives and cover their expenses. Social communication campaigns deal with creating awareness of the not-for-profit organizations mission and services and influencing specific target audiences to behave differently for a social purpose. At the end of the course, students will gain an understanding of the financial analysis needed for program management and performance review. The course offers students a valuable opportunity to implement the marketing concepts in an original and growing sector, where the objectives are broader than simple profit maximization, and social, ethical and political factors play a major role.
This course involves the analytical integration of material covered in previous marketing courses. It develops skills in diagnosing marketing problems, formulating and selecting strategic alternatives, and recognizing problems inherent in strategy implementation. The development of a comprehensive marketing plan is a major requirement of the course.
This course introduces students to the civilization of the ancient Greeks through an in-depth study of ancient Greek literature and society from the eighth century BCE through the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE. Topics studied include the role of religion and myth in ancient Greece, politics and warfare, the status of women, the importance of athletics and other subjects pertaining to the everyday life of the ancient Greeks. Readings in translation include selected works of Hesiod, Homer, Pindar, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato and Plutarch.
The course examines the principal myths of Classical Greece and Rome, with some reference to their evolution from earlier local and Mediterranean legends, deities, and religions. The importance of these myths in the literature and art of the Western World will be discussed.
Prerequisite: GRK 102 or permission of the instructor
This course is designed to offer students with a basic level of Greek language preparation the opportunity to read texts in the original. The level of readings may range from intermediate to advanced. Language levels will be determined at the beginning of the course and students will be arranged in suitable reading groups. Texts appropriate to each groups level will be chosen by the professor and the individual students. Texts will vary. All groups will work independently and in weekly reading groups with the professor where issues of language, grammar, and literary technique wil be discussed.
This course examines the history of Ancient Greece from the Archaic Age to the Age of Alexander, the seventh through fourth centuries B.C.E. Focus will be on the rise of Athens and Sparta as the most influential city states in Greece; the development of their respective political, military and social systems; and the causes of the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War that paved the way for the rise of Macedon and domination of the Greek world, first under Philip II, and then his son, Alexander the Great, until his death in 323 B.C.E. Readings in translation will include Herodotus, Aristophanes, Plato, Thucydides, Xenophon, and Plutarch.
This course surveys the history of ancient Rome and Italy, focusing on the origins and metamorphoses of Rome from its archaic foundations as an Italic-Latinate kingship to an imperial city. The course examines the establishment, expansion, and conflicts of the Republican period; the political and cultural revolution of the Augustan Principate; the innovations of the High Empire; and the transition into Late Antiquity. Course materials include the writings of ancient authors in translation (these may include Polybius, Sallust, Cicero, Livy, Augustus, Suetonius, and/or Tacitus) as well as modern historians and archaeologists, along with considerations of Roman art, architecture, and archaeology.
This course focuses on the literature of Ancient Rome and its role in shaping modern notions about the customs, social practices, and ideas of its citizens. Emphasis will be placed on using Roman literature as a means of studying Roman civilization, while simultaneously examining stylistics and literary techniques particular to the genres of comedy, rhetoric, epic and lyric poetry, satire and history. Texts, which vary, are chosen from Terence, Plautus, Cicero, Catullus, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Tacitus, and Juvenal. All texts are studied in translation.
Coming Soon
This course is designed to be the capstone experience in analysis of media and media texts through specific theoretical constructs. Theories covered include semiotic theories of Saussure, Bakhtin, and Barthes; deconstruction theories and critical theories; and theories of spectatorship using psychoanalytic models. Further, the course provides students with experience in performing sustained and in-depth analysis of complex signifying operations and their relationship to ideological functions.
This course provides students with a number of theoretical approaches to critically assess how digital media function and their expanding and expansive role in contemporary culture. The course further investigates digital media convergence in order to develop a critical lexicon that can both chart its development and engage in intellectual interventions in its use within the transformations occuring in more traditional cultural forms such as television, film, popular music, print, and radio. Special emphasis will be placed on the specific cultural, political, economic, and social issues raised by digital media forms.
This course introduces students to the technical, conceptual, and aesthetic skills involved in video production through the single camera mode of production. Still the most dominant mode of film and video production, the single camera mode places an emphasis on using the camera to fullest capacity of artistic expression. In addition to the multiple skills and concepts involved with the camera, the course also introduces students to the principles and technologies of lighting, audio recording and mixing, and non-linear digital video editing. Special focus is given to producing content for successful web distribution.
An exploration of some of the historical and political conditions that make intercultural communication possible, the barriers that exist to effective intercultural communication, and possible solutions to the problem of intercultural misunderstanding. The course examines examples of differences in communication styles not only between cultures but also within. As a result, issues of race, nation, class, gender, religion, immigration, and sexual orientation will be of significant concern. The course stresses the notion that knowledge of human beings is always knowledge produced from a particular location and for a particular purpose. As a result it encourages students to think carefully about the discipline of Intercultural Communication, its conditions of possibility, its assumptions, and its blind spots, as well the need to be mindful of the limitations and interests of our positioning as investigating subjects.
This course is designed as an introduction to the art, history, and business of film. It presents an introduction to film aesthetics and the formal properties of film, locating specific styles and narrative forms within specific classical and alternative film movements. Film theories and critical strategies for the analysis of film will be investigated. The course will be divided into weekly screenings and lectures.
From photojournalism to Instagram, 21st century communication is primarily image-based. Whether its mass media, individual expression, social media or alternative media, images are used for promoting ideas, products, information and political discourses. In this course students investigate the role of visual culture in daily life, exploring fine art, popular culture, film, television, advertising, business communications, propaganda, viral social media and information graphics. As a critical introduction to visual communication, this course mixes theory, analysis and practical activities for an applied understanding of key issues, including the relationship between images, power and politics; the historical practice of looking; visual media analysis; spectatorship; historic evolution of visual codes; impact of visual technologies; media literacy; information graphics literacy; and global visual culture.
This course carries 4 semester hours of credits. A minimum CUM GPA of 3.5 is required.
From Andre Bazin’s analysis of de Sica’s Bicycle Thieves to Roland Barthes’ interpretation of a photo of a black soldier on the cover of Paris Match magazine, close readings of media texts have long been a valued aspect of the field of communications. This course offers students the unique opportunity to critically analyze a single, notable media text be it an album, a TV series, a graphic novel, etc.’and explore in detail the expressive significance, the artistic merit, the social impact and influence, the cultural embeddedness, and associated historical, technological and aesthetic considerations. The course will focus on some of the dominant critical perspectives that have contributed to our understanding of these media texts and their role in society, and investigate this media through a variety of theories and methods.
This course examines the mass media as complex social institutions that exercise multiple roles in societynone more crucial than the circulation and validation of social discourses. Introducing students to a variety of theoretical approaches, the course focuses on media operations and textual analysis.
This course provides students with an introduction to the fundamentals of rhetoric and how they are applied in oral communication, and how these principles and concepts lead to effective public speaking. Students will learn how to prepare and organize persuasive speeches by learning the fundamental structures of the persuasive speech. In addition, students will begin to acquire basic skills in critical reasoning, including how to structure a thesis statement and support it through a specific line of reasoning using idea subordination, coordination, and parallel structure.
This senior capstone course culminates the coursework performed in the Communications and Media Studies program. With a major research assignment in the form of a written paper, video essay, or creative project, the course is intended to assess the students development and understanding of the Departments learning outcomes. Capstone projects combine evidence-based research on a major media topic, critical analysis, literature review, ethical considerations, and express technical competency. Students are expected to demonstrate awareness and understanding of major schools of thought in media and cultural studies, and to perform critical media analysis.
The course introduces students to the various kinds of writing they will encounter in the media professions and in digital multimedia production, and prepares them for more advanced media courses in the Communications and Media Studies program. Students will also be introduced to basic legal and ethical issues, such as libel, copyright, privacy. Activities include writing for online media, press releases, strategic campaigns, and short scripts for visual and audio media as well as exercises to pitch their ideas. They will also explore issues concerning style, communicability, and effective storytelling.
This course is an introduction to the current debate around the relationship between globalization and the media. By linking theoretical conceptions with hands-on empirical research and analysis, students will develop a richer and multi-layered perspective around the increasingly relevant yet contested notion of globalization, and specifically on the role that the media have in advancing, challenging and representing social, political and cultural change across multiple regions of the world.
This is a course in basic photojournalism on location. There will be both classroom sessions and classes off campus, held on location in Rome and the surrounding area, as well as visits to photographic exhibitions. Students will gain an understanding of the basic concepts of photography and photojournalism; how cameras and lenses work; image composition; lighting conditions and techniques; shooting on location; techniques for working as a photographer; editing and producing photographs; and building a portfolio of images. Class sessions will cover learning use of a camera, lights, composition, color, documentary and candid photographic techniques, photographic software such as Adobe Photoshop, and critiques. Classes on location include practical fieldwork.
This course focuses more in-depth on the fundamentals of news reporting and writing, with an emphasis on the print, online, and broadcast media. Key skills to master include criteria for judging news, information gathering, and crafting different styles of news stories for print, broadcast and online media. The course also covers proper line-editing techniques, plus Web layout and publishing.
This course explores the latest developments in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) through critical artistic practices. By looking at different modes of cutting-edge research-based work from artists, scholars, and activists from across the planet, the course reflects upon the implications of AI in transforming traditional notions of creativity, authorship, and labor in general. Such critical works will be used to shed light on the materialities of this technological innovation, its impact on the environment, and the processes of extraction and exploitation that are embedded within the very practice of compiling a dataset and training Large Language Models (LLMs) upon which generative AI works. The course takes on a decolonial approach, considering how technology has been historically used as a tool of colonialism, and how contemporary advancements in the field of AI continue to perpetuate the colonial power dynamics of extraction and exploitation. It also considers how a de-colonial standpoint can offer alternative perspectives for understanding and critiquing the impact of AI on society, culture, and politics.
This course analyzes the ways in which diverse cultural practices have been used or understood as political weapons, as attempts to intervene in the historical world. The course will introduce students to a number of approaches both theoretical and practical, through readings of source texts and analysis of specific case studies which have investigated the possibility of cultural practice being used as a tool of conflict, dissent, affirmation of identity and resistance. One of the areas of inquiry will be an investigation of how, in advanced capitalist societies, social and political struggle necessarily happens through an engagement with dominant culture and media forms rather than in spite of them; the course will therefore concentrate on those cultural practices that, although not apparently political in content and aim, can nonetheless be used in politically productive ways. Emphasis will be placed on popular and mass culture artifacts and on the ways in which style is used by sub-cultures and other social identities in both national and global contexts.
This course examines a growing subfield of cinema studies, ecocinema, which is devoted to exploring the intersection between film and environmental issues. Ecocinema encompasses a range of movie genres, including documentary, Hollywood blockbusters, eco-horror, indigenous films, and animation. This course investigates how themes like environmental catastrophe, wilderness, animal rights, climate change, the construction of human-nature relations, ecojustice, and environmental politics are communicated through the particular medium properties of film. This course also examines the material impact of film on the environment. During the semester students will study films by combining traditional methods of film criticism with ecocriticism to explore production, aesthetics, narrative, reception, and culture in relationship to environmental themes.
Though often overlooked, the act of projection is at the heart of cinema (the act or process of causing a picture to appear on a surface). This studio course focuses on the creation of moving image-based work, exploring how time and space are used as materials to create form and inspire content within the contemporary film genre known as expanded cinema. The technical, historical and psychological aspects of the projected image will be studied in order to re-think cinema as a group and investigate how the projected image can find meaning outside the black box of theaters or the white cube of galleries. Two personal experimental video projects will lead to a final group video installation that will use the environment within the vicinity of the JCU campus (Trastevere neighborhood) to inspire site-specific works while also becoming the location of the final outdoor projection event.
This course will introduce students to feminist media studies as a critical approach to examine enduring and emerging trends in media production and consumption, and to envisioning action for change. In this course we will privilege an intersectional and transnational feminist perspective by considering how media forms, industries, and practices are shaped by interconnected inequalities of gender, race, class and sexuality in a global context. Students will become familiar with key concepts and debates in feminist media studies. They will learn how to use them in the analysis of a variety of media texts and technologies as well as in their own experience as media users and makers.
This course surveys films, directors, and film movements and styles in Italy from 1945 to the present. The films are examined as complex aesthetic and signifying systems with wider social and cultural relationships to post-war Italy. The role of Italian cinema as participating in the reconstitution and maintenance of post-War Italian culture and as a tool of historiographic inquiry is also investigated. Realism, modernism and post-modernism are discussed in relation to Italian cinema in particular and Italian society in general. Films are shown in the original Italian version with English subtitles.
This course will introduce students to contemporary Italian media and popular cultures. The course has a thematic approach and applies the analytical theories of critical cultural studies. Students will be exposed to development of various media forms as they have been shaped by and their impact on Italian culture and society. The press, film, radio, television, popular music, comics and graphic arts, sports and digital networks will be investigated from a variety of angles with particular attention on the medias role in the construction of collective identities, the role of power and capital in shaping national identity, media use by social movements, the question of representation, popular protest and subcultural and subaltern expressions within the national space. Italys role within the global media economy will also be investigated.
Coming Soon
From the cylinders to MP3s, from Tin Pan Alley to death metal, this is a general survey course exploring and analyzing the history and meaning of popular recorded music within mass culture and society. It focuses on the historical, aesthetic, social, political-economic and technological developments that have shaped the very definition of the popular in the musical field. The course covers various aspects of recorded music from the history of the recording industry to the concept of the recorded, from rock and other nationally specific styles to the rise of MTV and beyond.
Coming Soon
EN 110 with a grade of C or above; Recommended: COM 210 and/or one previous course in Literature
This course will provide students with an introduction to postcolonial studies. The first part of the course will offer an overview of the most important topics constituting the field of postcolonial studies. These will subsequently be analysed through the theoretical debates that have grown around them. Furthermore, the course will look at how such issues have been expressed in literary and filmic texts. Topics include colonial discourse analysis; the issue of language; physical and mental colonisation and oppositional discourses; the concepts of ‘nation’ and nationalism in relation to culture and media; questions of gender in relation to empire and nation; diaspora, cosmopolitanism and identity; the problems of decolonization and the post-colonial state. Emphasis will be placed on colonial and postcolonial texts in the Anglophone and Francophone world.
What is televisions fate in the global digital cultures of convergence? The course examines new programming and advertising strategies in the medium of television, the reconfiguration of traditional and the emergence of new roles within the industry, the development of new global production and distribution strategies and models as well as how these transformations shape actual program content.
Since its emergence in the late 1970s, the music video has become the dominant means of advertising popular music and musicians, as well as one of the most influential hybrid media genres in history. In sampling and reworking a centurys worth of films and other pop culture artefacts (as well as art objects and concepts), music videos have affected aesthetic style in a wide range of film and television genres, introducing experimental and avant-garde techniques to a mass audience while influencing artistic and aesthetic movements in their own right. This course will investigate the ways in which popular (recorded) music and visual cultures have reciprocally influenced one another. Music videos will be examined alongside various other media forms including videogames, live concert films, film and television music placement and curation, television title sequences and end credits, user generated content on YouTube, remixes, and mashups. The course will take a particular look at experimental, avant-garde film and video traditions and how they inform music video. Ultimately, the course will specifically treat music videos as a distinct multimedia artistic genre, different from film, television and the popular recorded music they illuminate and help sell.
This course will focus on advanced programming techniques and introduce concepts of algorithm design and analysis, using Python, a modern programming language that is popular in the industry. Topics of the course include the implementation and evaluation of advanced algorithms, the design and deployment of Web applications, and the fundamentals of programming for data management and analysis.
This course covers the main principles of algorithm design, introducing fundamental data structures and basic algorithmic techniques. It also discusses how to perform an analysis of algorithms, to establish their correctness and evaluate their efficiency. The emphasis is on choosing appropriate data structures and designing correct and efficient algorithms to operate on them, following standard algorithmic techniques. Principles of complexity theory and challenges arising in modern application domains are also investigated.
This course is designed for the general student to provide an overview of artificial intelligence (no computer programming skills are necessary). This course will discuss intelligent agents and the building blocks of artificial intelligence: knowledge bases, reasoning systems, problem solving, heuristic search, machine learning, and planning.
This course helps students develop the advanced skills that are necessary in personal productivity office applications, such as word processing, data management and analysis, and presentation/slide design. The course follows best practices and reviews available internet tools for data storage.
This course offers an overview and an introduction to the capabilities and limitations of computing and digital multimedia; the theoretical foundations of computing that drive future computing and technological advancements; computer software including operating system and application software; fundamentals of computer networks and the Internet; networks types and standard protocols; cloud computing; next generation Internet or “Internet of the things”; additive manufacturing and 3D printers for business; business intelligence, data analysis, digital contact with customers; privacy and personal data protection on the Internet; Cyber war, computer risk, and security concerns.
This introductory course provides an overview for visual representation of data. It is designed to cover the differences between infographics and visualization. Through both theory and applied practice the course covers specifics related to basic graphic design, online publishing, and corporate communication as it relates to large amounts of data and visually representing data in creative and meaningful ways.
The structure, management, and development of business information systems. The nature of business information, computer hardware and computer software, systems analysis, and the development and introduction of business information systems will be covered, as well as the impact of technological innovations.
This course introduces fundamental computer programming concepts using a high-level language and a modern development environment. Programming skills include sequential, selection, and repetition control structures, functions, input and output, primitive data types, basic data structures including arrays and pointers, objects, and classes. Software engineering skills include problem solving, program design, and debugging practices. The goal of this course is to advance students computational thinking, educate them to use programs as tools in their own field of study, and to provide them with fundamental knowledge of programming strategies.
The premise of this course is that a web site differs from a traditional media publication because its contents can be updated at any moment, many possibilities exist for making it interactive, and reader attention span is short. The course provides students with technical knowledge and skills required to build a web site, while covering design, communication, and computer-human interaction issues. Topics include web history, HTML, style sheets, and effective information searching. As a final project, students create a web site on a liberal arts topic, which will be judged by the instructor and a reader specialized in the chosen topic.
The course provides students with the technical knowledge required to deal with the professional process of designing, developing, installing and maintaining a business web site.
This course explores the fundamental topics of traditional Calculus such as limits, continuity, differentiation and anti-differentiation, with emphasis on the business and economics applications of maximization, minimization, optimization, and decision making.
This course builds on the fundamentals of the calculus of one variable, and includes infinite series, power series, differential equations of first and second order, numerical integration, and an analysis of improper integrals. It also covers the calculus of several variables: limits, partial derivatives, and multiple integrals.
This course provides an introduction to ordinary differential equations. These equations contain a function of one independent variable and its derivatives. The term “ordinary” is used in contrast with the term partial differential equation which may be with respect to more than one independent variable. Ordinary differential equations and applications, with integrated use of computing, student projects; first-order equations; higher order linear equations; systems of linear equations, Laplace transforms; introduction to nonlinear equations and systems, phase plane, stability.
This course develops the quantitative skills which a liberal-arts educated student should acquire. It is intended to give the student an appreciation for the use of mathematics as a tool in business and science, as well as developing problem solving and critical thinking abilities. The course introduces the student to important topics of applied linear mathematics and probability. Topics include sets, counting, probability, the mathematics of finance, linear equations and applications, linear inequalities, an introduction to matrices and basic linear programming.The course introduces the student to important topics of applied linear mathematics and probability. Topics include sets, counting, probability, the mathematics of finance, linear equations and applications, linear inequalities, an introduction to matrices and basic linear programming.
This course provides a review of elementary algebra for students who need further preparation for pre-calculus. Students enroll in this course on the basis of a placement examination. The course covers the basic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division involving algebraic expressions; factoring of polynomial expressions; exponents and radicals; solving linear equations, quadratic equations and systems of linear equations; and applications involving these concepts. This course does not satisfy the General Distribution Requirement in Mathematics and Science.This course is a review of intermediate algebra and has few prerequisites other than elementary familiarity with numbers and simple geometric concepts such as: finding the least common multiple of two or more numbers, manipulating fractions, calculating the area of a triangle, square, rectangle, circle, etc. Its objective is to prepare students for Pre-calculus.
This course introduces students to the techniques of linear algebra and to the concepts upon which the techniques are based. Topics include: vectors, matrix algebra, systems of linear equations, and related geometry in Euclidean spaces. Fundamentals of vector spaces, linear transformations, eigenvalues and associated eigenvectors.
This is a calculus-based introduction to mathematical statistics. While the material covered is similar to that which might be found in an undergraduate course of statistics, the technical level is much more advanced, the quantity of material much larger, and the pace of delivery correspondingly faster. The course covers basic probability, random variables (continuous and discrete), the central limit theorem and statistical inference, including parameter estimation and hypothesis testing. It also provides a basic introduction to stochastic processes.
An introduction to Calculus that focuses on the study of elementary functions, polynomial, rational, exponential and logarithmic, mainly oriented towards practical applications in business and economics. Particular emphasis will be placed on functions as the first step to analyzing real-world problems in mathematical terms.
An introduction to descriptive statistics, elementary probability theory and inferential statistics. Included are: mean, median, mode and standard deviation; probability distributions, binomial probabilities and the normal distribution; problems of estimation; hypothesis testing, and an introduction to simple linear regression.
A continuation of Statistics I. Topics include more advanced hypothesis testing, regression analysis, analysis of variance, non-parametric tests, time series analysis and decision- making techniques.
This is a survey course of agriculture, emphasizing the important food plants of the 21st century. The aim is to learn key processes which lead to the wide array of foods, which are available in developed countries. We start from the events of domestication, pass through the Green Revolution, and end with major plant crop commodities (such as bananas and coffee) being cultivated by agribusiness or also by sustainable farming methods. We also look at major issues related to agriculture today: for example, the development of biofuels which may use food stocks, and diseases and pests which threaten important monocultures. We look at the major achievements in agriculture of the 20th century, and try to anticipate the important uses and vulnerabilities of plant crops in the 21st century.
The class will examine the chemical, biological, physical, and geological processes involved in that climate change, already evident in the 20th century, and predicted for the 21st century. The human impact upon the greenhouse effect is explained, the merits of the scientific theory are examined in light of available evidence to date. Climate changes apparent at the century time-scale, and longer, are introduced; the physical forcings responsible for these changes are presented. The international treaties (the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol) that address anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are introduced, along with local to regional initiatives developed by the private and public sectors.
The course aims to develop the creative, editorial, and reading habits needed for the production of literary fiction; to develop self-editing skills; and to foster an aesthetic sensibility for use in writing literary fiction. Students will read both contemporary literary fiction and materials related to analyzing and editing literary fiction and participate in a traditional creative writing workshop through in-class writing exercises, reading classmates’ fiction, and producing and workshopping their own fiction. Students will compile a portfolio of the work they produce during the term. Students completing this workshop course will be familiar with the skills needed to produce literary fiction, to self-edit work in progress, and to discern the characteristics that make quality literary fiction.
To develop the creative, editorial, and reading habits needed for the production of poems; to develop self-editing skills; to foster an aesthetic sensibility for use in writing poems.
This interdisciplinary writing workshop employs the city of Rome as its muse and offers instruction in several genres of creative writing. By examining a variety of works inspired by the Eternal City, students will learn how to evaluate literature in light of an aesthetic and historic precedent, as well as participate in the long tradition of international writers who have recreated Rome on the page. The course will also problematize Rome, exploring the ancient city’s contemporary contradictions and complexities and the way writers both perpetuate and dismantle certain myths, such as the illusory La Dolce Vita. Writing workshops will acquaint students with the techniques and tools used to critique and incorporate critical feedback into their own revision process. Through studied writing practice and the examination of the Roman setting as a vital literary component, students will generate a final portfolio of textual interpretations in response to the Eternal City.
This course provides an introduction to the creative practice of writing fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and stage/screen writing, while probing major issues of literary aesthetics. This course does not satisfy the General Distribution requirement in English Literature.
Coming soon
EN 110 with a grade of C or above.
Writers’ Room is an immersive workshop-style course that places students in the shoes of a television writer working to break a season’s worth of story and write a screenplay that advances the program’s plot and develops its themes while maintaining characterization and tone consistent with the vision of the showrunner. Students will learn how to pitch ideas, collaborate with others writers (giving and taking notes) and express themselves in the voice of the show. The course covers the economic, historical, and aesthetic foundations of contemporary television writing and production and will prepare students to evaluate, develop, and pitch series ideas for episodic television, evaluate and develop episode ideas in a collaborative working environment in line with the tone of the show and produce effective written material (pitches, summaries, show bibles, screenplays) that adhere to professional standards.
This course reinforces the skills needed to write well-organized essays, focusing specifically on argumentative essays. Elements covered include thesis development, critical reading, organizing and outlining, paraphrasing and summarizing, and citation and documentation standards. Techniques of academic research and the use of the library and other research facilities are discussed. In addition to regular in- and out-of-class reading and writing assignments, students are required to write a fully documented research paper. Students must receive a grade of C or above in this course to fulfill the University English Composition requirement and to be eligible to take courses in English literature. Individual students in EN 110 may be required to complete additional hours in the English Writing Center as part of their course requirements.
This course concentrates on the development of effective paragraph writing in essays while introducing students to the various rhetorical modes. Elements covered include outlining, the introduction-body-conclusion structure, thesis statements, topic sentences, supporting arguments, and transition signals. Students will also become familiar with the fundamentals of MLA style, research and sourcing, as well as information literacy. To develop these skills, students will write in- and out-of-class essays. Critical reading is also integral to the course, and students will analyze peer writing as well as good expository models. Students must receive a grade of C or above in this course to be eligible to take EN 110. Individual students in EN 105 may be required to complete additional hours in the English Writing Center as part of their course requirements.
This intensive course has two components. One concentrates on developing the ability to write grammatically and idiomatically correct English prose, and includes an in-depth grammar review and examination of academic register. The other focuses on the elements of academic writing, from sentence structure through effective paragraph writing in essays, and introduces students to the various rhetorical modes. Elements covered include outlining, the introduction-body-conclusion structure, thesis statements, topic sentences, supporting arguments, and transition signals. Students will also become familiar with the fundamentals of MLA style, research and sourcing, as well as information literacy. To develop these skills, students will write in- and out-of-class essays. Critical reading is also integral to the course, and students will analyze peer writing as well as good expository models. Individual students in EN 103 may be required to complete additional hours in the English Writing Center as part of their course requirements. Students must receive a grade of C or above in this course to be eligible to take EN110. Students who receive a grade ranging from C- to D- can take EN105 or repeat EN103. Students who receive an F must repeat EN103.
The course is an introduction to a critical reading of Dante’s Divine Comedy in its historical, philosophical, religious, and poetic contexts. Readings of Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise seek to identify Dante’s stylistic and thematic contributions to the literary world as well as to understand their relationship with medieval politics, philosophy, and culture. This course is taught in English.
The course deals with the development of American Literature from the mid-17th century to modern times, with an emphasis on the creation of a distinctive American “voice.” Attention will be given to writers in the Puritan period and the early Republic, as well as to those who contributed to the pre-Civil War “American Renaissance,” the rise of Realism and Naturalism, and the “Lost Generation.” EN 110 or EN 112 with a grade of C- or higher.
The course deals with works by major writers in the English language over a period of nearly one thousand years. Beginning with Anglo-Saxon poetry, this survey continues through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and concludes with Milton. In the context of the course, students should develop both their general background knowledge of literary history as well as their ability to appreciate and criticize particular texts. This is a reading and writing intensive course. Students in 200-level literature classes are required to produce 4-5,000 words of critical writing.
Considering major British and Irish writers since 1832, this course deals with, among other concerns, the various ways in which the Victorians and selected writers of the first half of the 20th century responded to the inheritance of Romanticism. This is a reading and writing intensive course. Students in 200-level literature classes are required to produce 4-5,000 words of critical writing.
Gender plays a role in every literary text produced and read. This course examines gender studies from a formal and historical perspective within literature and asks what gender means and how it operates within the field of textual studies. Students will examine gender, from an intersectional point of view, in the creation, reception, and meaning-making of texts. Students will gain familiarity with critical texts within feminism, queer theory, and affect theory and use these tools to approach a variety of literary texts.
To supplement the traditional university study of composition and literary analysis, this course provides students with the opportunity to develop skills at reading literature as a source of help in improving their own creative writing. Designed primary for students interested in creative writing, the course focuses on the reading of literature from the point of view of the practice, or craft, of fiction writing.
Designed as an introduction to the theoretical approaches to literature, the course will stimulate students to think and write critically through the study of the principal topics of literary theory. The course will adopt both a historical approach, covering each theory in the chronological order of its appearance on the scene, and a critical approach – putting the theories to the test by applying them to a literary text. The course will also help students to move on to an advanced study of literature by introducing them to the research methods and tools for the identification, retrieval, and documentation of secondary sources.This is a reading and writing intensive course. Students in 200-level literature classes are required to produce 4-5,000 words of critical writing.
Presupposing no previous knowledge of literature, this course deals in an intensive manner with a very limited selection of works in four genres, poetry, short story, drama and novel. Students learn the basic literary terms that they need to know to approach literary texts. They are required to do close readings of the assigned text, use various critical approaches and write critical essays on the specified readings.
The course traces various developments in the genre of the novel from the 17th to the 20th centuries through a reading of selected representative texts. In addition, students are required to consider these works alongside of the development of theories about the novel. This is a reading and writing intensive course. Students in 200-level literature classes are required to produce 4-5,000 words of critical writing.
The course considers the importance of Italy for non-Italian writers, particularly European, British and American writers from the eighteenth century onward. Topics considered include: a critique of the perception and construction of Italy and Italians, the development of genres like the gothic or novels of national identity, the gendering of nationality, imperialism, the use of art and history in literature. Consideration is given to the ways in which these works are in dialogue with each other in terms of cultural assumptions and influence. This course is an alternate course to EN 278. If taken in addition to EN 278, it may count as a major elective. This is a reading and writing intensive course. Students in 200-level literature classes are required to produce 4-5,000 words of critical writing.
This study of European drama begins with major realists and naturalists such as Chekhov and Ibsen alongside the experimental innovations of Strindberg and Brecht. The modern theater of, among others, Beckett, Ionesco, Pinter, Osborne, Churchill, Kane and Butterworth are analyzed with special emphasis on plot, theme, character, structure and technique. This is a reading and writing intensive course. Students in 300-level literature classes are required to produce 5-6,000 words of critical writing.
This course explores in some depth a particular period, theme(s), or genre in American Literature. Students study the major historical and cultural contexts out of which the works grew. An important aim of the course is to deepen students’ knowledge of a certain topic through a choice of representative writers and works. May be taken more than once for credit with different topics. This is a reading and writing intensive course. Students in 300-level literature classes are required to produce 5-6,000 words of critical writing.
This course is a general introduction to Shakespeares plays and an in-depth study of a selection of representative plays including a comedy, a history, a tragedy, and a romance. Through the close reading of the plays selected for the course, students will learn how to analyze a theatrical text, will study the Elizabethan stage in its day, and consider Shakespeares cultural inheritance. This is a reading and writing intensive course. Students in 200-level literature classes are required to produce 4-5,000 words of critical writing.
This course entails the study of five of Shakespeares plays in order to assess how he located and historicized his Italian-based drama. Thanks to the Rome location, students will be able to directly compare the archaeology of Shakespeares creativity with the splendors of ancient and Renaissance Italy that are integral to the works covered by the course. Visits to the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, The Capitoline Museum and Romes Jewish Ghetto will vivify the perceptions of these plays. Throughout, the course will track the intersections of Shakespeares dramatic narrative with the notion of Italian cultural difference in Shakespeares time, allowing students to learn how he dramatizes the Italian Other. In doing so, they will read his primary sources and evaluate how Shakespeares creative brilliance responded to the writings of historians such as Plutarch and Macchiavelli and story tellers such as Ovid, Matteo Bandello and Giovanni Fiorentino. The course will also attempt to gauge whether, within Shakespeare’s Italian plays, there exists a veiled critique of the Elizabethan and Jacobean courts in which his work was widely circulated. Moreover, the course will explore how filmmakers have documented Shakespeares obsession with Italy, and how their work both subverts and confirms Shakespeares imaginative settings and Italianate compulsions.
Introduces major Slavic literary works of different genres (stories, novels, poetry, essays) focusing on this literatures profound contributions to global literature and culture, providing historical background and analyzing foundational examples. This is a reading and writing intensive course. Students in 300-level literature classes are required to produce 5-6,000 words of critical writing.
Coming Soon
This course will examine current trends in data science, including those in big data analytics, and how it can be used to improve decision-making across different fields, such as business, economics, social and political sciences. We will investigate real-world examples and cases to place data science techniques in context and to develop data-analytic thinking. Students will be provided with a practical toolkit that will enable them to design and realize a data science project using statistical software.
The course focuses on the economics of development, with specific reference to underdeveloped Third World nations. While drawing extensively on the tools of standard economic theory, it deals with development issues for which economic theories at best provide only partial answers. It offers a problem-oriented approach, with a historical and institutional perspective, to issues such as poverty, population, income distribution, international trade, investment, aid, and the debt problem.
coming soon
This course covers the structure and role of financial markets and institutions such as commercial banking, investment banking, and major equity, debt, and derivative markets and includes discussion of management, performance, and regulatory aspects. The course also examines the functions of central banks and monetary policy for these financial markets and institutions. Case studies and real life examples are also disseminated throughout the course to allow students the additional exploration of national and international implications of financial markets, including those concerning credit crisis, their causes, and the likely reverberations and regulatory reforms.
Situations in which the outcome of your own decisions depends also upon what others do are pervasive in everyday life. Game Theory focuses on the study of strategic interactions, which occur if the payoff (e.g., utility or profit) to an agent depends not only on her own decisions but also on the decisions made by others. In the presence of strategic interactions, choosing an optimal course of action requires taking other agents behavior and beliefs into account. This is an introductory course in Game Theory which develops the basic tools and concepts necessary to analyze such interactions and understand how rational agents should behave in strategic situations. In recent years, game theoretic methods have become central to the study of networks (e.g, financial networks) and social interactions. In this course they are used to analyze such economic and political issues as oligopoly, the problem of the commons, auctions, bank runs, collusion and cartels, the conduct of monetary policy, bargaining, global warming, competition among political parties, arms races, negotiations and conflict resolution (e.g., contested resources and territorial disputes). Emphasis is placed on applications, practical understanding and a tools-oriented approach. The topics will be presented through a combination of abstract theory and many applied examples.
The subject matter of this course is the nature and determination of a country’s most important measures of economic well being: aggregate output and unemployment, and of a series of related variables such as inflation, interest rates, and exchange rates. The course presents a few economic models that can be used as tools to understand the behavior of these aggregates, as well as to evaluate alternative economic policies.
This course delves deeper into the foundations of microeconomic theory, and analyzes the subject from a theoretical rather than practical point of view. Students will become familiar with the tools used by microeconomists in the analysis of consumer and producer behavior. The first part of the course reviews consumer theory and discusses budget constraints, preferences, choice, demand, consumers surplus, equilibrium, externalities, and public goods. The second part of the course reviews producer theory: technology, profit maximization, cost minimization, cost curves, firm and industry supply, and monopoly.
An introduction to international trade and finance. Analysis of the causes and consequences of international trade and investment. Major topics include international trade theory, international trade policy, exchange rates, open-economy macroeconomics, and international macroeconomic policy.
This course introduces the students to the basic principles of microeconomics and the study of the behavior of individual agents, such as consumers and producers. The first part of the course reviews the determinants of supply and demand, the characteristics of market equilibrium, the concept of social welfare, and the consequences of price controls, taxation, and externalities on social welfare. The second part of the course deals with market theory, with a review of cost concepts and market structures: competition, monopoly, oligopoly, and imperfect competition.
This course aims at enhancing economic reasoning skills along with developing theability to communicate complex arguments and quantitive information effectively in written, visual, and oral formats. Basic tools and methods of economics and statistics are used to understand and analyze a variety of contemporary economic problems and policy issues chosen by the instructor. Students are expected to participate in class discussions, prepare and present their own research.
This course examines both the theoretical and applied foundations required to make decisions in financial management. The main areas covered include an overview of the financial system and the efficiency of capital markets, evaluation of financial performance, time value of money, analysis of risk and return, basic portfolio theory, valuation of stocks and bonds, capital budgeting, international financial management, capital structure management, and the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct.
This course is an introduction to the basic financial accounting concepts and standards. Relevant concepts will be analyzed in detail, including: preparation of principal financial statements, application of accounting principles to the main asset, liability, and owners equity accounts. The course emphasizes the construction of the basic financial accounting statements – the income statement, balance sheet – as well as their interpretation.
Topics include financial analysis and planning, capital structure, capital budgeting, dividend policy, leasing, mergers and acquisitions. The course will cover extended case studies to apply theory of financial management.
This course is designed to prepare students to interpret and analyze financial statements in order to be able to assess the performance of the company, take investment decisions, financing decisions and other decisions that rely on financial data. The course focuses on how to interpret numbers of the financial statements included in the annual report. The course focuses on the evaluation of the performance of the company, investigating its profitability, liquidity and solidity analysis, to check the economic and financial conditions of the company. The course also investigates the intrinsic equity value of the firm, comparing it to its book value. The aim of this course is to provide the students with a framework for analyzing the companys performance, estimating also its future possible outcome, and valuing its equity. The course combines topics that vary from accounting, finance, and business strategy and applies them to financial decision making.
The course emphasizes the structure and analysis of international capital and financial markets, Euro-currency financing, and the financing of international transactions.
Focusing on both theory and application, the course will cover forward, futures, swaps and options markets. Students will learn how derivatives markets operate, and how derivatives are priced and used, in order to understand the importance of derivative instruments in business and the economy. Special attention will be paid to the mechanics of derivative instruments and the markets in which they trade, using the Law of One Price and arbitrage forces to develop derivatives pricing models, applying derivatives pricing models using real world data, communicating derivative hedging strategies and applying speculative strategies using derivatives.
This course concentrates on the operation and function of securities markets. It emphasizes basic techniques for investing in stocks and bonds. Technical analysis is introduced and portfolio theory discussed.
This course focuses on the role of accounting in the management process and where accounting can provide critical support to management decision making. Cost-volume relations are introduced, along with identification of costs relevant to management decisions. Process costing and job costing systems are covered. The development of a master plan, preparation of flexible budgets, and responsibility accounting are covered, and the influences of quantitative techniques on managerial accounting are introduced.
Despite the frequency and magnitude of Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) activity, M&As have a poor track record of success. Building on the premise that what happens after the deal is signed is as critical as the deal-making itself, in this course the student will research general literature, case studies, and practitioner experiences to build the knowledge necessary to address the financial, strategic and organizational challenges of acquisitions, with a view to realizing the promise of value creation. Specifically, the course explores the role of M&As in corporate strategy, domestically, overseas and across borders. It also reviews the fundamental building blocks: identification, valuation, negotiation, due diligence, deal structuring, financing, and integration.
The course is designed to study in-depth the following grammar points: verb tenses in the indicative and subjunctive moods, sequence of tenses, relative pronouns, and the use of prepositions and conjunctions. It concentrates on consolidating specific communicative tasks, including stating opinions and constructing hypotheses, in both speaking and writing. Specialized vocabulary is expanded and appropriate variables in register are introduced in expository writing and conversation.
A continuation of French 201. While continuing the review of grammar, the course emphasizes the development of reading and composition skills in the context of the French and francophone culture. Literary readings, newspaper articles, and films, are an essential component of this course.
This course is designed to give students basic communicative ability in French. Students work on all four language skills: speaking, listening comprehension, reading and writing. Nnote: This course carries 4 semester hours of credit during the Fall and Spring terms, 3 hours in Summer.
A continuation of FR 101. This course aims at developing and reinforcing the language skills acquired in Introductory French I, while placing special emphasis on oral communication. This course carries 4 semester hours of credit during the Fall and Spring terms, 3 hours in Summer.
This course is designed to develop the student’s ability to write correctly in Italian while reinforcing oral communication skills. Contemporary texts provide the basis for class discussions geared toward expanding vocabulary and reviewing grammar. Students write weekly compositions, do oral presentations and keep a journal.
In this course students will be guided through a variety of types of writing and styles (e.g. journalistic, business and professional, essay.) Although mainly designed for advanced non-native speakers, the course may also be taken by native speakers who wish to improve their writing skills. Students will reinforce their knowledge of grammar and syntax as well as develop vocabulary. In addition, students will learn fundamental writing techniques such as organizing ideas, selecting examples, drawing conclusions and using the appropriate style for the given genre or mode of discourse.
This course, which is conducted in Italian, aims at improving students ability to write texts of different types and levels of specialization, focusing on academic and professional purposes. The course has both theoretical and practical components aimed at familiarizing students with the cultural and formal elements that make texts effective, convincing and articulate.
Coming Soon
Placement, IT 302 or permission of the instructor
This course, which is a continuation of IT320, analyzes the major writers of Italy from the 18th century to the present, including such authors as Alfieri, Foscolo, Manzoni, Leopardi, Verga, Carducci, D’Annunzio, Pascoli, Pirandello, Montale, Pavese, and Moravia.
After a brief review of key grammar and morphology from Greek 101, the course will complete the process of providing students with a sufficient grasp of Greek vocabulary, morphology and syntax to enable them to read unadapted passages from ancient Greek authors (with the aid of a lexicon) by the end of the course. There will be short readings of selections from Aesop, Lucian and Greek epigrams.
This course is designed to give students basic communicative ability in Italian. By presenting the language in a variety of authentic contexts, the course also seeks to provide an introduction to Italian culture and society. Students work on all four language skills: speaking, listening comprehension, reading and writing.This six-credit course meets four times per week and covers the equivalent of a full year of language study (Introductory Italian I and Introductory Italian II). The course is designed for highly motivated students who wish to develop communicative ability in Italian in a relatively short time.Italian 103 is conducted mainly in Italian. Students must actively participate in class activities and participation is necessary to determine the final grade.
This six-credit course meets four times per week and covers the equivalent of a full year of intermediate language study (Intermediate Italian I and Intermediate Italian II). The course is designed for highly motivated students who wish to consolidate their communicative ability in Italian while developing reading and composition skills.
A continuation of IT 102, this course focuses on consolidating the student’s ability to use Italian effectively. Emphasis is given to grammar review and vocabulary expansion. Selected readings acquaint students with contemporary Italy.
A continuation of IT 201, this course emphasizes the development of reading and composition skills. Readings include short stories and newspaper articles.
This course is a first introduction to the study of the Ancient Greek language. It is designed to equip the student with the basics (grammar, vocabulary, syntax) of the Ancient Greek in its most widely known form, that of the dialect of classical Athens.The aim of this course is to give a thorough introduction and preparation for reading original texts written by Aesop, Menander, Xenophon and others. Being an introductory course, no knowledge of Ancient Greek is assumed.
This course is designed to give students basic communicative ability in Italian. By presenting the language in a variety of authentic contexts, the course also seeks to provide an introduction to Italian culture and society. Students work on all four language skills: speaking, listening comprehension, reading and writing.
A continuation of IT 101, this course aims at developing and reinforcing the language skills acquired in Introductory Italian I, while placing special emphasis on oral communication.
The topics studied, based primarily on literary texts but also taking into consideration other areas such as contemporary history, social studies, and art history, include some of the major themes of Italian culture as well as examples of the various identities that Italy offers today: the role played by Italian intellectuals in the construction of Italy as a Nation, the Mafia and the long-lasting institution of family-based structures, the ideal of beauty, modern design, contemporary literary production. Some of the key authors of Italian literature such as Dante, Petrarca, Machiavelli, Calvino and Pasolini will guide us to the complex process of Italian culture configuration through different ages. Italian political cinema (Petri, Moretti, Sorrentino) will be also part of our study of the mulilayered identity of Italian culture tradition.
This course is designed to offer the opportunity to read texts in the original to students with a basic level of Latin language preparation. The level of readings may range from intermediate to advanced. Language levels will be determined at the beginning of the course, and students will be arranged in suitable reading groups. Texts appropriate to each group’s level will be chosen by the professor and the individual students. Texts will vary, but advanced students may choose from among annotated editions of Cicero, Caesar, Catullus, Virgil, Ovid, and Livy. All groups will work independently and in weekly reading groups with the professor, when issues of language, grammar, and literary technique will be discussed.
Introduction to Latin syntax, vocabulary, and simple sentence structures. This first-semester course will complete all the first three declensions of nouns, present, imperfect, future and perfect verb tenses, subject, object and possessive pronouns. Study of cognate words in Latin/English will be a frequent subject of study. The course will also examine the Roman cultural context such as history, daily life, religion mythology and politics. Students will translate sentences for practice from English to Latin and vice versa on a daily basis. There will be an introduction to continuous prose passages from the original authors or adapted for study to be translated throughout the course.
This course provides continued study of accidences and syntax, treating all tenses of the verb in the subjunctive, indirect discourse, paraphrastic constructions and deponents. Vocabulary development is continued through intensive reading of selections of Latin prose. Students are also introduced to verse forms and the study of inscriptions. Assignments focus on translation from English to Latin and Latin to English.
A continuation of SPAN 102. This course focuses on consolidating the student’s ability to use Spanish effectively. Emphasis is given to grammar review and vocabulary expansion. Selected readings and films acquaint students with Spanish and Hispanic culture.
A continuation of SPAN 201. While continuing the review of grammar, the course emphasizes the development of reading and composition skills in the context of Spanish and Hispanic cultures. Literary readings, newspaper articles, and films, are an essential component of the course.
This course is designed to give students basic communicative ability in Spanish. By presenting the language in a variety of authentic contexts, the course also seeks to provide an introduction to Italian culture and society. Students work on all four language skills: speaking, listening comprehension, reading and writing. Note: This course carries 4 semester hours of credit.
A continuation of SPAN101. This course aims at developing and reinforcing the language skills acquired in Introductory Spanish I, while placing special emphasis on oral communication.
This course provides students with knowledge of the basic events and developments in Europe as they took shape after the Napoleonic Wars and before the “Age of Imperialism.” It is mainly an introductory political history, but attention will also be given to cultural, social and scientific developments.
This course will continue analyzing main political events, changes and cultural achievements of the High Middle Ages until the discovery of the New World. Topics covered include Seljuk Turks in Asia Minor, Pope Gregory VII and the idea of a Crusade, the Crusades and Latin states of the Levant, the Spanish reconquista, Italian city states and their culture, Slavic kingdoms and states in the Balkans, the rise of Mongols and its consequences for Europe, the Plague, Medieval Russia, and the Ottoman Turks and the fall of Constantinople.
Native American resistance has occurred throughout the centuries and continues at present. This seminar aims at analyzing historic and contemporary Native American strategies of survival and the various forms of interaction and relations they have had with the U.S Government. Starting with an examination of different processes of territorial colonization of Indigenous territories and resources, the seminar will then investigate the legal, political, social, and cultural significance of resistance and self-determination.Satisfies “Modern History” core course requirement for History majors.
This course examines the history of immigration to the United States since the beginning of the nineteenth century. In it, students will use historical and anthropological sources to study the causes of immigration and the social, cultural and economic adaptation of immigrants to the American way of life. Significant attention will be given to immigrants experiences in the United States and the various processes through which immigration has shaped American identities, politics and society.
Prerequisites: One previous history course. Co-requisites: EN 110; Recommended: Junior Standing
One of the most dramatic events of the 20th century, the First World War shaped both European and global history. This seminar course allows students to explore the conflict in an international comparative context, away from narrow national concerns. Students will study the war from multiple facets and approaches, including not only the Western Front but also Italy, Austria-Hungary and Russia, while beyond Europe we will consider the war in Africa, the Middle East and the Atlantic. Reflecting the latest international scholarship and engaging with important historiographical debates, the course will cover the causes and origins of the war, and its ongoing political dimensions, as well as military matters such as the impact and development of new tactics and technologies. Beyond the battlefield, we will also study the societies which went to war in 1914,the economic dimensions of the conflict, its cultural aspects and finally the legacies of the war, in the political, social and cultural arenas.
A survey of the history and major cultural achievements of the ancient Egyptians, early Near-Eastern civilizations, Ancient Greece and Rome, with an emphasis on those achievements which have formed the basis of Western Civilizations.
This course surveys European history from the Reformation to the present, concentrating on the intellectual, political, and economic transformations that marked the advent of Western modernity and on what these changes meant for the people living through them. An additional focus of the course is the evolving relationship between Europe and the rest of the world over the time period covered. Like HS 120, this course also provides an introduction to the practice of history, i.e., how historians go about reconstructing and interpreting the past.
Contemporary discussions of globalization often suffer from a certain short-sightedness. The phenomenon is all-too-frequently treated as a recent creation of twentieth and twenty-first century world economies and information networks. Both advocates and critics of globalism too often assume that the history of globalization has been the history of the westernization of economic and cultural practices. This course will provide you with the opportunity to develop a broader perspective on these contemporary issues in the setting of one of the world’s truly historical global cities.In it, we will seek a deeper and longer-term understanding of the complex forces and cross-cultural interactions that have been globalizing our planet since the 14th century A.D. We will begin with a brief survey of the construction and operation of earlier world-systems in the Eastern Hemisphere (including long-distance exchanges between Rome and China, the rise of the world of Islamdom, and the Mongol world system of the 12th-14th centuries). The remainder of the class will focus on the slow and uneven development of a truly global system from 1400 forward. We will proceed both thematically and chronologically looking at a series of short case studies illustrating various aspects of this process, such as the development of market conventions, ecological exchanges, transport technologies and networks, migration, the varied roles violence has played, and industrialization and deindustrialization.
This course will examine the European cultural and intellectual experience from the 1870s. Positivism, Liberalism, Idealism, Socialism, Marxism, Fascism, and Existentialism will be discussed, focusing on the relation between ideas and arts, politics, and economics. We will pursue a number of themes, including the emergence of distinct class identities, religion, and morality, new forms of nationalism, and the changing nature of selfhood. Special attention will be given to the “crisis of the end of the century,” the transformation of political and social thought, and the rise of authoritarian and totalitarian idelogies.
This course explores the history of Europe and its relations with the larger world from the French Revolution to the outbreak of World War I. In it, students investigate the cultural, diplomatic, economic, political, and social developments that shaped the lives of nineteenth-century Europeans. Significant attention will be given to the relationship between Europeans and peoples in other parts of the world, the development of new political ideologies and systems, and the ways in which everyday life and culture changed during this period.Satisfies “Modern History” core course requirement for History majors.
This course will examine the transformation of the United States from a peripheral country to a world power. The course will analyze the causes of that transformation, focusing on industrialization, the First World War, the Great Depression, changes in American social thought and literature, the Second World War, the Cold War, Vietnam, and the search for a new world order. Special attention will be devoted to democracy and freedom, the role of race, the impact of immigration, as well as the post-war student and protest movements.Satisfies “Modern History” core course requirement for History majors.
Prerequisites: One previous history course. Co- requisites: EN 110; Recommended: Junior Standing
This course explores the history of the revolutions that shook the Atlantic World from 1776 to 1830. As the first modern revolutions, the American, French, Haitian, and Latin American Revolutions not only brought an end to the first era of European colonialism, they also ushered in the modern age of politics. Democracy, dictatorship, human rights, nationalism, political terrorism, and the first abolitions of slavery are all products of this era. This course examines the connections between these revolutions and compares them with one another in terms of their origins, dynamics, and outcomes. A central focus is on what these revolutions meant to the diverse groups of people who lived through them.
This course explores the history and culture of the Italian Renaissance (c.1300-c.1600 CE) through the critical examination of primary sources ranging from formal treatises to iconography and art as well as current scholarly debates. Among other things, the course will examine the development and significance of Renaissance humanism, including the roles that its revival and transformation of Greek and Roman ideals played in distinguishing Renaissance culture from what came before. Other dimensions may include civic humanism and the Florentine Republic, the rise of princely courts and associated cultural movements, the ideal of the universal man and its embodiment in figures like Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissances social and economic contexts (including the experiences, activities, and perceptions of marginalized groups, like women, minorities, and people of lower social standing), as well as other key religious, artistic, literary, and intellectual developments of the period.
This course explores the history of Europe and its relations with the larger world from World War I through the aftermath of the Cold War. In it, students investigate the cultural, diplomatic, economic, political, and social developments that shaped the lives of twentieth-century Europeans. Significant attention will be given to the relationship between Europeans and peoples in other parts of the world, the experience and significance of the World Wars and the Cold War, the development of democratic, authoritarian, and ‘totalitarian’ political systems, and the ways in which everyday life and culture changed during this period.Satisfies “Modern History” core course requirements for History majors.
This course provides practical preparation for designing and carrying out a significant thesis-length research project and a brief, but sophisticated introduction to key methodologies and theoretical approaches used in humanities disciplines. Students will be guided through the processes of setting up a problem to investigate, determining what kind, how many, and what sources are appropriate to use, evaluating and analyzing those sources, reviewing academic literature in the Humanities on their topics, developing a clear and well-researched thesis proposal, formulating and writing up convincing arguments. In addition, regular guest teachers from various Humanities disciplines will guide students through workshops on key modes of analysis and approaches to research and writing used in their fields. Students will also prepare detailed proposals for their senior thesis and choose their first and second readers.
What is right and wrong, good and bad? How do we know? How can we argue over ethical issues? This course introduces students to ethical thinking by studying both concrete ethical issues and more abstract ethical ideas and theories. Students will examine philosophical debates over issues such as free speech, genetic engineering, and friendship, explore the meaning of ideas like duty, virtue, and happiness, and analyze the arguments of philosophers like Aristotle, Kant, and Singer.
The course provides a historical introduction to philosophical reflection through reading and discussion of major works in the Western philosophical tradition. The course requires attentive outside reading to enable the individual student to engage him- or herself in active classroom discussions and argumentation and thus to progress in the learning and practicing of philosophical analysis and thoughtful discourse.
How are moral standards established? How do we differentiate right from wrong? Why should we be ethical? This course will seek to provide both religious and philosophical answers to these questions. We will begin studying the ethical code of Christianity, which provides us with a divine command to act ethically, and a divine example to imitate, that of Christ’s sacrifice. We then compare this code to that of Buddhism, which uses the concepts of reincarnation and interdependency to instill morality in its adherents and stresses that human suffering can be overcome only through ethical action. We then turn to philosophical theories, studying the ethical theories of ancient Greek philosophers Aristotle and Plato, the duty ethics of modern philosopher Kant and postmodern philosopher Lvinas, the utilitarian ethics of Bentham and the ethics of desire of Spinoza, as well as Nietzsche’s plea to rid ethics of morality. Finally, we will assess the relevance of these theories in a discussion of cultural relativism, and apply these views to current debates (euthanasia, abortion, ecology, bio-technology, suicide, the death penalty)
This course exposes students to a wide range of philosophical currents in a variety of contemporary areas of study such as: cognitive science, social science, philosophy of history, aesthetics and epistemology. Each field will be examined by tracking back to its latest historical source (as, for instance, Nietzsche or Marx concerning philosophy of history). As the lessons emphasize research in its prospective development, the teaching method is therefore open-ended and partially experimental, fostering free discussions. Therefore a previous course in philosophy is strictly required.
This course explores the complex interplay of ethics, cultural criticism, and philosophy in the history of opera. Opera was invented at the end of the sixteenth century by musicians, thinkers, and music theoreticians of the Camerata Fiorentina who regarded the polyphonous music of their contemporaries as morally corrupting. They turned to ancient Greek tragedies and philosophies for inspiration, seeing these as providing useful techniques for cultivating audiences virtues. Richard Wagner subsequently developed his innovative reform of opera and his concept of a total work of art (Gesamtkunstwerk) by engaging with similar concerns and sources. On this course, you will examines these developments and cultivate a familiarity with the issues and ideas that they raise.
This course is a survey of classical and modern theories on the appreciation of art and beauty. Attention will be given to the phenomenological analysis of perception and of the aesthetic experience in particular. Special consideration will be given to architectural and figurative works within the Roman area. One previous course in Philosophy is required for this course.
Coming Soon
Through a close study of both primary and secondary materials in theology, spirituality, aesthetics, and social history, this course will introduce students to the major forms and institutions of religious thought and practice in medieval, Christian Europe (from Saint Augustine to the rise of humanism). The course will begin by studying the theological foundations of self and world in the work of Augustine and Pseudo-Dionysius, before turning to an elucidation of central religious institutions such as the papacy (and its relationship to imperial Rome), the monastery (we will study the rule of Saint Benedict and visit a Benedictine monastery), the cathedral (we will visit San Giovanni in Laterano and Saint Peters), and the university (and the scholastic philosophy to which it gave rise). We will then turn to alternative expressions of medieval religious faith in the work of several mystics, notably Meister Eckhart and Angela of Foligno. Finally we will study the reactions of the Church to the rise of science in the fifteenth century (we will look at the trial of Giordano Bruno) and will end with an appraisal of the continuity and renewal of Renaissance Humanism and its influence on the humanities as studied in a Liberal Arts Curriculum today.
The history of the Catholic church is essentially intertwined with the history of Western Civilization over the past 2,000 years. The aspirations and struggles of Christendom constitute the fabric of the Christian tradition as it unfolds throughout time. This course represents an historical survey of the Church from its primitive beginnings in Jerusalem (c. 33 A.D.) to the Pontificate of John Paul II (1920-2005). The development of the course will trace the major events, ideas and people that went into the shaping of the Western Church, without ignoring the fundamental importance and influence of the doctrine of Jesus Christ regarding the institution he founded.
This course examines the main principles of American government democracy, federalism and the separation of powers and the legislative, executive and judicial institutions that simultaneously embody and challenge them. Special attention will be paid to such topics as state and local governments, political parties and elections, the role of the people, civil rights, the role of the media, American political culture and foreign policy.
As both a subject and a method of study, comparative politics examines the nature, development, structure and functioning of the political systems of a selection of countries with very different cultures, social and economic profiles, political histories and geographic characteristics. Through case studies, students will learn to use the comparativists methods to collect and organize the information and develop general explanations.
Computational social science is an interdisciplinary field that combines computer science and information technology methods with theories and concepts from the social sciences to analyze and understand social phenomena. It uses computational methods like spatial and text analysis to collect, process, and analyze datasets from various sources, such as social media, surveys, and government databases. The tools that students learn in this course have wide applicability to geography, sociology, public policy, economics, and political science. Computational social science aims to use these methods to understand social behavior and social systems better and predict future social phenomena. This course helps students develop foundational skills in spatial and text analysis and an awareness of advanced methodologies in social sciences.
This course will examine the transformation of NATO since the collapse of the Soviet Union gave rise to a new set of challenges. It will also examine the NATO-EU relationship and the foreign policies of the major European powers, the post-9/11 framework for security and the challenges posed by immigration and xenophobia.
Junior Standing or permission of the instructor
A Eurosceptic refers to someone who opposes the powers of the European Union (EU). The change in 1992 from European Community to European Union, and the commitment towards ‘ever-closer union among the peoples of Europe’, included in the Preamble of the Treaty of Rome, politicized European integration and led to increased levels of contestation across the Member States. Thirty years later, following the UK’s departure from the EU, Euroscepticism has become a key ingredient of the ‘populist toolkit’, as right-wing populist leaders reassert national sovereignty and left-wing populists rally against the perceived neo-liberal direction of European integration. With a focus on political parties, public opinion, civil society actors, the role of the media and transnational developments, the course explores opposition towards European integration from geo-political, economic and cultural perspectives.
The course examines such violent forms of identity politics as ethnic cleansing and genocide in an international and historical perspective. The program covers the genocides in Europe against the Jews and Roma, in Armenia, the Balkans, the Ukraine, Cambodia, Rwanda, and the Darfur region.
Globalization is perhaps the keyword of our time. It signifies a multifaceted development that also has major implications for world politics and democratic nation-states. From a theoretical, normative and empirical perspective, the course examines the complex relationship between globalization and democracy. Does globalization help generate democracy, and if so, under what conditions? What are the causal mechanisms shaping the relationship between globalization and democracy? How can democratic institutions, claims, rules and rights be preserved or renewed in a partially globalized world (Robert Keohane)? The course will explore these questions and related controversies by turning to leading contemporary scholars of international relations and international relations theory. Special attention will be paid to institutions and agents of political globalization as well as factors engendering or undermining democratization on the national and global level.
Global Leaders Certificate (GLC) Program approved course.
This course focuses on understanding what human rights are and what are the challenges to their realization. Students will examine what specific protections ought to be granted to vulnerable groups, like women, children, stateless persons, refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced persons. The special challenges related to the protection of human rights in an age of globalization, and the challenges to human rights protection posed by terrorism and its consequences are also analyzed. An interdisciplinary approach will be used to examine different cases and understand the main human rights issues at stake.
After a brief, comparative overview of past slavery and slavery-like practices this course will focus in particular on chattel slavery, servitude/debt bondage, forced prostitution and sexual slavery, early and forced marriages and forced labor, and on the international instruments aimed at fighting against them.The course will subsequently deal with trafficking in human beings, examining international action to fight against it and to protect victims’ human rights, comparing the measures contained in the United Nations Protocol with those of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings.* Global Leaders Certificate Program approved course *
This course is designed to introduce students to the functions of international organizations by examining attempts at international cooperation in various institutional forms. The course includes a historical outline and analyzes efforts of twentieth century internationalism from the League of Nations up to the structuring of the United Nations (UN), including selected membership issues and the role of the Security Council during and after the Cold War period. UN failures and successes in various domains are assessed and discussed, as well as the US unilateralism-versus-multilateralism debate after 9-11, particularly in connection with global security, the environment and the International Criminal Court. Main regional organizations are also reviewed, such as NATO, African Union, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, World Trade Organization and Organization of American States.
An introduction to the major political theorists, from the classical to the modern era, who devoted themselves to the task of analyzing the social order. Their theories also provide the foundation for the formation of the modern nation state. Among the theorists examined will be Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Mill, Hegel, and Marx.
This hands-on course introduces students to the practice of designing and carrying out their own research projects in the social sciences. Using real-life exercises and examples, it addresses how to develop sound and manageable research questions, write literature reviews, define concepts, make appropriate methodological choices, and apply them in practice. Students learn to read, present and analyze social science data and write up original research findings according to the conventions of the field. They practice how to critically review existing scholarship and apply the same rigor to their own writing. The importance of carrying out ethical and reflexive research is emphasized throughout the course.
PL 223 recommended for students majoring in Political Science and International Affairs
This course examines the evolution of Italian political culture from 1945 to the present. Highlighting the problems of developing a national identity and the legacies of Fascism and the Resistance in influencing the 1948 Constitution, the course will look at Italys position during the Cold War, the economic miracle of the 1950s, the political conflicts of the 1960s and 1970s, the end of the First Republic and the political scene since 1992, as well as the political influence of such actors as the Vatican and the Mafia. This course examines the major features of the political and social systems of the Italian Republic. Topics of analysis include the Constitution, the Italian economy, the role of the State, unions, the relationship between North and South, NATO, the U.S.-Italian partnership, and the European Union. Special attention will be given to the political developments leading to the establishment of the Second Republic.
After an examination of the historical evolution of the region from the decline of the Ottoman Empire to the establishment of modern nations, the course will examine the place of Middle Eastern states in the world system, the legacy of nationalism, pan-Arabism, the birth of Israel, the Iranian Revolution, authoritarianism and democracy. The role of Islam in both international and domestic politics will be considered, with special attention given to the historical tradition of Islam as a political movement and an identity expression.
PL 210 recommended, and Junior Standing
This course explores the major questions posed by religious freedom rights. Students will enter into the debate over what is religious freedom in general and what is the proper place of religion in democratic societies, and then focus on conflicts over the formal relationship between religious and state authorities, the allocation of public wealth to religious communities, the place of religious symbols in the public sphere, religious education in public and private schools, exemptions from general legal requirements for religious claims, tensions between religious communities identity and expressive rights and liberal views of sexual morality and gender equality.
This course analyzes the processes leading to the formation of a Soviet sphere of influence in Europe after 1945 and to its dissolution in 1989. Special emphasis will be placed on each country’s pre-communist history and how it resurfaced after communism; the nature and ideology of “real existing socialism”; ethnic strife, patterns of disintegration -reintegration, and other basic domestic, regional and international issues of post-communism.
Coming Soon
Coming Soon
Coming Soon
Coming Soon
Coming Soon
This is an applied course on statistical methods commonly used in social science research (including political science and sociology) and provides the necessary foundation to conduct your own analysis in a research context, what data to use for different research topics, to adopt research designs that are relevant for the research question, use statistical tests and draw conclusions based on statistical tests. Students will also learn how to carry out statistical tests using statistical packages, and to interpret results based on their own analyses.
This course will provide the student with an understanding and basic foundation to explain and compare the varying definitions of terrorism; distinguish the different types of terrorist motivations including left-wing, right-wing, ethno-nationalist, separatists, and religious; to differentiate terrorism from other forms of violence including political violence, guerilla warfare, insurgency, civil war, unconventional warfare, and crime; understand and describe the historical foundations of terrorism and apply them to modern terrorist events and methods being used to combat them.
Understanding the case of Northern Ireland is essential for any student of political science and history because it not only provides an object lesson in partition, conflict, management, and peacebuilding that is applicable to other contexts, but it also underlines, through Brexit, how much care the local and international community must take in maintaining a fragile peace. This course situates Northern Ireland in the frames of Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Europe, providing students with a study of how formal politics, street politics, and paramilitarism have combined to write the history of a disputed territory characterized by ethno-sectarian conflict. The course will interrogate the prevailing anti-imperialist and religious war narrative by adding other lenses through which to view the conflict such as class, gender, culture, and the international influence of rights-based movements, reconciliation efforts, and Brexit. Students will also examine the political evolution of Northern Ireland from a comparative point of view to provide a broader context to the understanding of politics in other disputed territories throughout the word.
The course introduces students to International Political Economy (IPE), the branch of international relations studying the interdependencies between politics, economics, and society on the world stage. The course critically examines the major theoretical perspectives (i.e. Mercantilism, Liberalism, and Marxism), and the major subject areas of IPE: global trade, international monetary relations, debt and financial crises, and three largest international financial institutions (the WTO, the IMF, and the World Bank). The course will also address such topics as: the increasing relevance of India and China, the changing trends of global investment flows, and the role of the Middle East for oil production and democratization movements, and global criminal activity.
This course provides a critical examination of the principles and institutions of International Criminal Law (ICL), which aims to hold individuals accountable for the crime of aggression, genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. To critically assess ICLs effectiveness and contribution to international peace and justice, we study its development in the 20th century, and look closely at the workings of the International Criminal Court, other special courts and alternative approaches to transitional justice today.
Prompted by the visual turn in the discipline of International Relations, this course explores how the realm of world politics is visually constructed and how pictures, films, graffiti, sculptures, monuments, and digital images all shape public perception (and the views of decision-makers). It offers a supplement to traditional disciplinary accounts of the theory and practice of international affairs, which principally focus on the main schools of world politics as well as the dominant actors, structures and institutions of international relations. The course uses a multidisciplinary approach to elaborate the key theoretical perspectives that focus on the uniquely visual element of world politics, which are set into a conversation with the more dominant (non-visual) approaches to the discipline.
This course is an introduction to the study of War, Peace and Conflict Resolution Studies. The course will draw on classical and contemporary global political theory and introduce students to the methods, cases, data, and major theoretical debates that structure the study of war and peace in global politics.
The course examines the political systems in Western Europe and major political developments affecting Western Europe since 1945 through a comparative lens. Looking at historical legacies, political cultures, types of government, and party systems shaping the major Western European powers, students will gain an understanding of the constitutive features, and transnational developments, challenges and changes in Western European states.
This course is an introduction to the theory and practice of International Affairs. The course discusses the main schools of international politics, the determinants and actors of foreign policy, the main conflicts which have characterized the post-World War II era, the problems of war and peace, and the recent trends in globalization.
Issues related to psychopathology will be explored, with an emphasis on methodological problems and the causes of psychopathological conditions. The classification system of DSM-IV, which has become standard in North America and in many other parts of the world, will be examined critically, and other more theoretically coherent nosologies will be studied. Diagnostic categories will be examined from the point of view of three major theoretical approaches: psychodynamic, biological, and cognitive. Through required readings and a research paper, the student will become familiar with contemporary work in the field and will learn to read professional articles in a critical way. Emphasis in the course will be on the understanding and not simply the description of psychopathological states and their multiple complex determinants. Every psychological disorder has its specific content for the person suffering from it.
This course examines how individual differences and environmental circumstances influence psychological and life outcomes in adolescence. Focusing on the biological, cognitive, and social changes experienced as individuals move from early to late adolescence, the course explores how the social contexts of family, peers, and schools affect the developmental processes. Students will also analyze other factors which influence adolescent psychology, such as culture, biology, cognitive development and sexuality, and discuss individual and environmental factors causing development to go awry in cases of substance abuse, conduct disorders/delinquency, and eating disorders.
The course enables students to acquire an in-depth knowledge of emotion, emotion regulation and emotion expression. Through engagement with contemporary scientific literature, students will deepen their understanding of the role emotions play in their life, and how emotions are processed in the healthy brain as well as in the brain after a lesion. During the course, students will be prompted to consider the different neuroscientific techniques used to investigate emotions, to reflect on the universal aspects and cultural differences of emotions, and to engage in critical evaluation, discussion, and oral presentation of scientific literature.
Follows the development of the child through adolescence, with emphasis on the complexity and continuity of psychological development. The course will emphasize the interaction and interdependence of the various systems: biological, genetic, and environmental, as well as the interaction and the interdependence of cognitive and social factors in the various stages of development, from the prenatal period through adolescence. Particular attention will be placed on attachment theory, the development of the self, and possible pathological outcomes of faulty development.
This course aims to provide an overview of the area of Clinical Psychology and will cover both a brief history of clinical psychology and current standards and evidence-based practices. Students will learn about the main theoretical approaches and common assessment and treatment methods of clinical psychologists and explore the current issues in this area.Satisfies “Applied Psychology” core course requirement for Psychological Science majors.
This course will examine the structure and function of mental processes, which account for human behavior. Topics include attention, perception, memory, problem solving, decision making, cognitive development, language, and human intelligence. Individual, situational, gender, and cultural differences in cognition will also be explored. An individual research project or research paper is required.
The course provides a general introduction to the science of developmental psychology and its applications. A number of questions will be addressed, including: What develops and when; The contribution of nature and nurture to developmental change; Mechanisms of change; The role of the child and the larger sociocultural context in shaping development; Continuity and discontinuity in development; Methods used to address the above topics; Application of developmental research to everyday issues.
Introduces the study of psychology, the study of the human mind, in some of its many facets: epistemological issues, the brain, perception, learning, language, intelligence, motivation, development, personality, emotion, social influences, pathology and therapy, and prevention. These will be seen from the scientific and scholarly point of view, but with emphasis on their relevance to everyday life. An important focus of the course will be the significance of theories and how they influence the gathering of data, as well as the difficulty of objectivity when the object of study is also its primary tool: the human mind. One of the goals of the course will also be to prepare the student to read psychological literature with a critical eye, keeping in mind the difficulties involved in attempting to study human subjectivity in an objective way.
The course is designed to improve students skills both as consumers and producers of science. Thus, a major goal of the course is to enhance students ability to read, interpret, and evaluate scientific evidence presented in academic journals, as well as evidence communicated through popular press and other media outlets. Another major goal is to develop students ability to produce original research. The course includes a laboratory component where students will learn to search for and locate relevant literature, formulate testable hypothesis, identify and implement the appropriate research design, and effectively communicate research findings.Sample topics include: the role of scientific inquiry in psychology, ethics in research with human participants, reliability and validity, essential elements of research designs, writing a research report
The course introduces students to the statistical methods commonly used in psychological research and provides the necessary foundation in statistical reasoning to think critically about psychological findings reported in research articles and in the media. Students will learn how to use statistics in the context of research, what statistical test is appropriate given the research design and the type of data collected, and why statistical tests are used to draw conclusions in research. They will also learn how to write up their own statistical analyses in APA style. The course includes a laboratory component where students will familiarize themselves with statistical software and will learn how to use it for managing and analyzing data. Sample topics include scales of measurements, measures of central tendency and variability, the logic of hypothesis testing (including limitations and modern approaches), parametric and nonparametric tests, effect size, confidence intervals, power, and sample size.Minimum passing grade for students enrolled for the BA in Psychological Science: C-
coming soon
This course aims to provide a general introduction to the area of Positive Psychology, the scientific study of what makes life most worth living, and to scientific findings related to happiness, well-being, and the positive aspects of the human experience. We will review the history of Positive Psychology, and its contribution to more traditional areas of psychology. The course also incorporates experiential learning and exercises aimed at increasing personal well-being and at facilitating students understanding of the fundamental questions in the field.
The course provides an overview of the field of psychobiology. Drawing both from the biological and psychological sciences, the course introduces students to the structures and functions of the central and peripheral nervous systems, with a focus on how they influence mental processes and behavior.Students will gain the foundational knowledge to understand how biological processes inform the human experience. They will learn how the activity of neurons can yield simple motor actions as well as complex behavioral states and functions (e.g., motivation).Sample topics include: the basic anatomy of the nervous system, neural communication, brain development, as well as the neural basis of sensation, perception, learning, memory, motivation, emotion, sleep and consciousness.
Prerequisite: PS 101 or permission of the instructor
The course focuses on applications of concepts and theories from cognitive, social, developmental and clinical psychology, to the administration of justice. Topics include the psychological processes involved in jury selection, jury deliberation and decision making, police interrogation, false confessions, eyewitness testimony, memory for traumatic events, child witnesses, juvenile offenders, and the role of psychologists as trial consultant and expert witnesses.
The course is organized around the theme of objectification, that is, the perception of human bodies, especially female bodies, as objects. It explores the ways in which bodies (both ones own and that of others) are objectified, and how being objectified can impact individuals social functioning, well-being, and their perception in human terms (dehumanization). The course will familiarize students with different theoretical perspectives on objectification as well as empirical findings, allowing them to develop a critical appreciation of this complex phenomenon, its psychological, social, and cultural consequences, and its impact on the perpetration of gender-based crimes.
The course, aimed at first-year students, provides an overview of contemporary and classic research in psychology relevant to the college experience. Through a combination of theory, research, and practical applications drawn from different domains of psychological inquiry (e.g., cognitive, social), the course will illustrate how psychological science may help students better understand academic and personal challenges, allowing them to develop the knowledge, skills, and mindset to thrive and make the most out of their college experience.
In this course, students will explore human creativity through different scientific perspectives (i.e., psychological, cognitive, artistic, and neurobiological). They will be introduced to research in creativity studies, and learn how to critically examine the current theories, evidence, and applications. The main topics include the definition of creativity; psychological and cognitive profiles of creative individuals; basic cognitive functioning of creative thinking and its neural correlates; and cognitive strategies for optimizing creative output.
The course provides students with an opportunity to integrate and consolidate the skills and knowledge acquired through the major curriculum while reflecting on overarching themes and issues that characterize psychology as a science and as a profession. Discussion will focus on questions of diversity within the discipline, multiculturalism, ethics, and social responsibility in the marketing of psychology among others. Attention will also be given to what it means to be a psychologist and to current developments in the field. Students will be expected to present material and lead class discussions, as well as write a final research proposal about a topic of their choosing.
The course focuses on the relationship between the individual and society, by examining how people form and sustain their attitudes, beliefs, and values. Students are introduced to current research findings in areas such as leadership and group dynamics, cults, prejudice and racism, aggression, altruism, and love and attraction. A group research project is required.
Prerequisites: Junior Standing; PS 101
This course offers a comprehensive exploration of psychodynamic psychology, emphasizing its historical roots, contemporary applications, and critiques. Students will examine key concepts such as the unconscious mind, defence mechanisms, and transference, and explore how these ideas have evolved in modern psychological practices including therapy, education, and organizational behaviour. Students will also critically examine the empirical studies supporting psychodynamic principles, and address critiques of psychodynamic approaches, including challenges to their scientific validity and cultural relevance.
This course is designed to familiarize students with basic psychological theory and research on intergroup relations, prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination, so that they can: (1) evaluate and analyze the scientific merit of this research, and (2) apply this research to real world. The goals of this course are to expose students to the core issues, phenomena, and concepts that researchers in this field are attempting to understand and to promote critical thinking about research in this area.
Prerequisites: PS 101 or permission of the instructor
The course examines the psychology behind why certain people commit crimes, while others do not. Using detailed studies of specific crimes, the course reviews how psychological theories can be used in an applied way in forensic investigation contexts, crime prevention and intervention, and evolving criminal justice systems. Considering the practical applications of psychological research alongside the lived experience informs each module of study.
The course explores the psychological processes behind the proliferation and spread of misinformation and irrational belief (e.g., fake news, conspiracy theories) as well as their impact on individuals and society. Through a review of psychological theories and research, as well as the analyses of real-world cases, students will gain a deeper understanding of how cognitive and social factors contribute to susceptibility and acceptance of false information and pseudoscientific claims, as well as the tools to critically engage with and assess such claims, cultivating scientific skepticism.
This course introduces students to debates on how crime and deviance are portrayed in contemporary media. On one hand, media provide us with insights into often-hidden worlds, revealing some of the ways in which crime operates and deviance is experienced. On the other hand, media deeply influence how we label some people and activities as criminal and deviant and how we then perceive and respond to these individually, socially, and politically. It is both a mirror to society and a powerful force in molding social relations. Throughout the course, students engage with theoretical frameworks from sociology and communication studies in order to analyze the construction of crime and deviance in films, television shows, newspapers, televised news and social media. The topics explored include prisons, organized crime, serial killers, as well as the enduring and recurring depictions of certain actors in society, such as women, children and police(men).
What is crime? Why are we so fascinated by it? Why do people commit crimes and what are the best deterrents? How do we assess the success or failure of policing, incarceration and rehabilitation strategies? This course examines the politics underlying how crimes are defined and measured and what patterns of criminal behavior have thus emerged over time. It explores both classical and contemporary theories that seek to explain why certain people engage in crimes while others do not. It also explores how theories of crime affect policy, it evaluates existing strategies of crime control, and introduces a critical discussion of how contemporary criminal justice systems operate.
Gender Studies is an interdisciplinary field that examines gender and sexuality. This course offers an introduction to historical and current debates taking place within gender studies. Students will explore historical and contemporary feminist, masculinity and queer theories, paying close attention to both local and global issues, and learning the tools for critically engaging issues related to gender.
This course will introduce students to the basic concepts and practices of the study of society. Students will learn central ideas such as socialization, culture, stratification, institutions, work organization, gender, ethnicity, race and globalization. They will also learn about how sociologists practice their craft reading about studies of current social issues – inequality, changes in family life, social movements and others – and by carrying out small scale out-of-class research assignments.
Italy’s deep-rooted network of local food knowledge is an excellent example for students to understand what food culture is, how food scenarios changed with industrialization, and how they are evolving further today. This course presents students with the basic tools necessary for better understanding Italian food culture. Its broad perspective encompasses traditional farming and processing techniques, the industrial and global food economy and changing consumption habits. Its anthropological approach draws from classical and modern writing. Italy is world-famous for its produce diversity and vibrant peasant traditions. By exploring the complex set of influences forming the Italian food culture, students will acquire an analytical approach enabling them to read through the other “foodscapes” that they encounter in their home country or abroad, and eventually choose, value and embrace career paths into the food sector. Even apparently simple, everyday food staples contain layers of significance connecting to the following topics: the peculiar man-nature relationship needed for their production; preserving and cooking techniques; the influences from foreign cooking philosophies and/or crops; the pressure of the global market; and the type of socialization involved during the meal.
This on-site course, which will be conducted in English, aims to introduce students to a sociological analysis of contemporary Rome. It focuses on the changes which are occurring in the citys populations, its neighborhoods and patterns of daily life and commerce, and challenges conventional images of what it is to be a Roman today. On-site classes will be held in a variety of neighborhoods in the city in order to analyze the areas role as a social entity and its relationship with the wider urban context. We will examine the issues and problems facing Rome today, such as housing, degradation and renewal, environmental questions, transportation, multiculturalism, wealth and poverty, social conflict and political identities. These issues will be contextualized within theories of urban sociology and also within an explanation of Romes urban development over the centuries and, in particular, since it became the national capital in 1870. Through readings, film clips, interviews and guest speakers, students will also analyze the way the city is narrated by some of its residents.
Internships
Semester students with junior or senior class standing can apply for a part time credit or non-credit internship to be completed as part of their elective program. JCU’s selective internship program offers a wonderful opportunity for motivated students to pursue a major or minor field of study under the guidance of an internship supervisor. For more information on internships see JCU Internships.
Global Leadership Certificate
Students can supplement a regular semester of studies with the SAI Global Leadership Certificate (GLC), designed to enrich students’ experiences and to acknowledge their academic and service work by providing an additional credential beyond a university transcript. Students enrolled in the Global Leadership Certificate program broaden their awareness of global issues and deepen their knowledge of the host community’s role in an increasingly interconnected world through exploration of research, engagement in community service and interaction with experts and leaders. Students interested in applying for the GLC should select the program at application. GLC applicants should have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher (on a 4.0 scale).
International Service Certificate
The SAI International Service Certificate is awarded to SAI semester students who are motivated to engage with and give back to their host community. Supported by SAI on-site staff, students who earn the certificate gain valuable skills collaborating with local community groups, and obtain a unique perspective of their host city. Volunteers are able to explore a field of their interest, and build skills that can transfer into their future careers. For more information see SAI International Service Certificate.
Certificate in Entrepreneurship
JCU offers a Certificate in Entrepreneurship, which provides students with a taste of the entrepreneurial world early on in their careers. Students that successfully complete the program will acquire a good understanding of how to identify, evaluate and execute business ideas; meet entrepreneurs, investors and scholars in the discipline; apply their new knowledge to a real project or situation; and gain a tangible way to signal their interest in entrepreneurship on their resume. To apply, students must register for at least one pre-approved entrepreneurial course (see below) and fill out an application once in Rome. To earn the certificate, students attend 3 entrepreneurship events throughout the term and write summaries of each, and produce a final reflection paper. Students receive an official JCU certificate, which can be added to a resume.
Pre-approved entrepreneurial courses:
- Introduction to Entrepreneurship
- International Entrepreneurship
- Strategic Decisions in Entrepreneurship
- Social Entrepreneurship
- Entrepreneurial Finance
Courses & Schedule
JCU courses run Monday – Thursday, and SAI students are free to enroll in any combination of elective courses.
Course Registration
SAI students complete their course registration directly with JCU through their JCU student account. Students receive their student account login about 1 week before registration opens. JCU courses are competitive, and students should complete their course registration on the registration date. JCU course registration begins on the following date:
Spring Semester: November 5, 2024
Honors Program
Students with a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.5 have the option of taking specially designated Honors Courses for 4 academic credits. Students who register for such courses as Honors Courses must complete additional assignments (e.g., research papers or portfolios) in which they delve more deeply into the subject matter in question. Students taking a course as an Honors Course also enjoy additional mentoring time with the instructor. For more information on the Honors Program see JCU Honors.
| Pre-Departure Calendar | |
|---|---|
| October 1 2024 |
Application Closes Applications accepted after closing as space permits. |
| Within 1 week of acceptance |
SAI Deposits Due $500 Enrollment Deposit (applied toward program fee) $300 Security Deposit (refundable) |
| October 1 2024 |
50% of Total Program Fee Due Students who are accepted and submit SAI deposits after this date will have an amended pay schedule. 50% of the Program Fee will be due within 5 business days, based on the deposit payment date. |
| October 1 2024 |
Financial Aid Agreement & Financial Aid Program Deposit Deadline Students wishing to utilize SAI financial aid payment deferment must complete the Financial Aid Agreement form and submit the Financial Aid Program Deposit by this date. Students whose deposit payment date is on or after this date will have a deadline of 5 days after the deposit. |
| October 15 2024 |
SAI Scholarship Application Deadline Students wishing to apply for a SAI scholarship must have all application items submitted by 11:59pm Pacific Time on this date. |
| October 15 2024 |
Enrollment Closes Students must complete their enrollment, including paying deposits, by this date. |
| November 5 2024 |
JCU Course Registration Opens Registration opens at 3:30PM Pacific Time. |
| November 15 2024 |
SAI Financial Aid Verification Deadline Students wishing to defer payment until financial aid disbursement must submit the financial aid verification forms to SAI by this date. |
| December 1 2024 |
Balance of Total Program Fee Due (For students utilizing SAI financial aid payment deferment, any balance not covered by aid is due) |
| On-Site Calendar | |
|---|---|
| January 15 2025 |
Arrival & Housing Check-in Students fly into Rome Fiumicino Airport (FCO). SAI airport pickup is provided between 9:00am and 2:00pm, and students are transferred to SAI housing. |
| January 16 2025 |
SAI Orientation Mandatory SAI orientation is held at JCU and introduces students to their city while covering safety, policies, housing, and culture. |
| January 17 – 19 2025 |
JCU Academic Orientation JCU holds several-day orientation activities. In addition to the mandatory orientation, students have opportunities to take city tours, join clubs, and meet professors. |
| January 20 2025 |
JCU Classes Begin |
| January 24 2025 |
JCU Drop/Add Deadline |
| March 10 – 14 2025 |
Spring Break (no class) |
| March 24 2025 |
Last Day to Withdraw from a Class |
| April 30 2025 |
JCU Classes End |
| May 2 – 4 2025 |
Study Days |
| May 5 – 9 2025 |
Final Exams |
| May 10 2025 |
Program End & Housing Check-out Students must move out of SAI housing by 10:00am to return home or pursue independent travel. |
| SAI Program Fees* | USD |
|---|---|
| Application Fee | $120 |
| Security Deposit Refundable at the end of the term. |
$300 |
| Program Fee Includes tuition, standard housing and SAI 360° Services (see What’s Included). |
$19,950 |
| Optional / Additional Fees: | |
| Optional Private Room Housing Supplement Private room in a shared apartment, with a shared bathroom. |
$1,500 |
| Extra Credit Fee Additional fee for each credit over 17 credits. |
$1,350 |
| International Mailing Supplement When applicable, students are charged an international mailing supplement to ensure visa paperwork arrives in a timely manner. |
$90 |
*prices are subject to change
Note: certain SAI-affiliated US universities require specific payment arrangements. These may require that some fees are paid by the student directly to SAI, and other fees are paid to SAI by the affiliated university on behalf of the student. If you attend a SAI-affiliated university please contact your study abroad office or speak with your SAI Admissions Counselor for details.
In addition to SAI scholarships, eligible students are encouraged to apply for the JCU Columbus Guarini Scholarship (external link), available to Italian descendants with financial need.
| Budget | Low Est. | High Est. |
|---|---|---|
| Airfare to/from Rome |
$900 | $1,800 |
| Visa Visa and Permit to Stay fees. |
$250 | $275 |
| Books, Supplies & Course Fees |
$100 / course | $300 / course |
| Meals Includes JCU meal plan, groceries and eating out. |
$650/ month | $800 / month |
| Personal Expenses | $300 / month | $350 / month |
| Transportation within Rome Public transportation with some taxi rides. |
$125 / month | $150 / month |
| Weekend Travel Cost varies greatly by student. |
$300 / month | $1,000 / month |
This is a SAI 360° Services Program; it includes our full services!
- Program tuition and U.S. academic credit
- Accommodation in carefully selected student housing
- Airport pickup on arrival day
- Welcome reception and events
- Orientation to the host city and school
- On-site staff who foster a welcoming community and provide assistance when needed
- SAI Viva Experience: cultural engagement, excursions & wellness activities
- Student health insurance providing full coverage and medical emergency evacuation
- 20 meals at Tiber Café
- 24-hour on-site emergency support
- Farewell event
Pre-departure and Re-entry services
- Knowledgeable Admissions Counselor dedicated to you, providing friendly assistance
- Helpful pre-departure tools and resources
- Parent & family resources
- Online student groups to acquaint you with other SAI students
- Student visa advising
- Assistance with financial aid processing
- Need-based SAI scholarships
- Alumni Ambassador Program, with paid internship opportunities
- SAI alumni network
SAI offers all students the Viva Experience: frequent cultural activities, at no extra cost, for participants to get to know their community, city and country. Following is a sample of the activities included in this program. Please note that actual activities may differ.
Welcome to Rome and the Roman Hills
SAI welcomes students with a day trip to Frascati in the beautiful Roman hills. Students tour the town and discuss its history, enjoy the views from a family-run vineyard, and share a meal featuring local specialties.
Olive Oil Harvest & Tasting
Students will visit an olive grove farm in the countryside of Rome where they will learn how Italy’s prestigious extra-virgin olive oil is produced. They will see firsthand how olives are harvested from groves and visit a traditional frantoio (olive oil mill) to see the olives being freshly pressed into oil. Finally they will taste the oil and enjoy a light lunch featuring the freshly pressed olive oil.
Discover Monti
Once the slum of ancient Rome, Monti is now one of the city’s coolest and most charming neighborhoods home to vintage stores, art studios, chic cafés, and quaint squares. Students will visit Domus Aurea (“Golden House”), an impressive palace built by Emperor Nero, and go on a virtual reality tour. They will then explore the neighborhood’s shops and conclude with lunch at a famous local trattoria.
Ancient Rome Tour
Visit the Centro Storico, Rome’s historic center, and step back in time on a guided tour of some of the most iconic monuments of the eternal city: the Spanish steps, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, and Piazza Navona.
Hike to Janiculum Hill
Walk up to the Janiculum Hill for a bird’s eye view of Roma! As the sun sets over the city, enjoy a refreshing “grattachecca” – Italian ice – and take in the amazing views of your new home!
A Taste of Rome Food Tour
Students get to know their new home by exploring the Trastevere neighborhood and tasting some of Rome’s most celebrated culinary traditions.
Treasures of Tivoli
Just a short train ride outside of Rome, Tivoli is a pristine mountain town with cascading waterfalls, exquisite gardens and world-renowned historical sites. Students tour one of Tivoli’s most enchanting gardens, Villa d’Este, which is a jaw dropping gem and a UNESCO world heritage site. The afternoon ends with lunch at a nearby farm featuring all locally produced specialties.
Italian Cooking Lessons
Students join Italian cooking lessons taught by local Roman Chef Andrea Consoli. Each lesson covers how to make a traditional Roman three-course meal that is easy to recreate independently. At the end of the lesson, students enjoy their own homemade Italian meal.
Farewell Evening
Students celebrate the end of a successful term abroad and say their goodbyes over a delicious Italian meal.
Standard Housing: Student apartment
SAI student apartments are convenient and well equipped, with shared occupancy bedrooms (option to upgrade to private bedroom). Typical residences house 2 – 8 students and contain a combination of private and shared bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom and living areas. Furnishings, a washing machine, basic kitchen supplies, bed linens and towels are provided. All apartments are equipped with wireless Internet. Housing configurations are designated as female, male, and in some locations, gender-inclusive. SAI on-site staff is available to respond to any maintenance needs that may arise.
Passports
Passports should be valid for 3 months after planned departure from Italy.
Student Visas
In accordance with Italian law, students studying in Italy for 91 days or more are required to obtain a student visa. Those with Italian/EU citizenship are exempted. Non-US nationals should consult their local Consulate for information on student visa requirements.
Depending on the consulate, students will either mail in their student visa application or appear in person to present their application to the consulate. Our Student Visa Office is available to assist students in preparing for the appointment; SAI Student Visa Consulting is part of the SAI 360° Services included in the program fee. SAI Student Visa Processing Service is available for select consulates only, for an additional fee.
Social Sciences: Sociology and Psychology | Psychology