Fall 2022

Students will gain understanding of basic messages in simple oral and written material containing standard phrases (questions, high-frequency commands, and courtesy formulae) and some sentence-length expressions, supported by proper context and presented in a clear and plain language. They will be able to acquire key information in the listening and reading of brief, simple, authentic material (i.e. directions, maps, timetable and advertisements), and have a fair understanding of messages of short standard Italian conversations in a limited number of content areas, presented in a clearly audible (and occasionally slowed) speech. Their understanding will include present events and very simple events in the past, presented clearly and in the context of familiar topics.

Students will be able to engage in basic conversation relying mainly on ready-made expressions and on short phrases and to respond to open-ended questions as well as to initiate communication on familiar topics, even without being able to continue the conversation in an autonomous way. Stronger emphasis will be given on communicative situations involving first and second person; writing activities will include simple autobiographical information, brief messages, simple forms and lists, where pertinent vocabulary and structure are provided.

Extensive Elementary Italian I - Sample Syllabus

Prerequisites: Successful completion of Extensive Elem I

Students will gain understanding of oral and written communication on a variety of topics, ranging from personal routine, taste and hobbies to include family, fashion and food. They will be able to acquire key information from listening and reading brief, simple, authentic material, and have a fair understanding of the meaning of standard Italian conversations on a variety of familiar topics, including present and past events, presented in a clearly audible speech.

Students will be able to engage in conversations on a variety of real-life situations regarding familiar subjects, to respond to open-ended questions and to initiate communication on these topics, despite not having the skills to continue the conversation in an autonomous way. They will be able to give and follow directions, instructions and commands. Stronger emphasis will be on communicative situations involving first and second person, while skills in mono-directional oral presentation will begin to emerge. Writing activities will include narration of present and past events, personal experiences, school and work situations, as well as brief messages to family and friends.

Extensive Elementary Italian II - Sample syllabus

This daily course immerses students in the Italian language. The basic structures and vocabulary of the Italian language are presented. Students are also provided with systematic practice of oral Italian through dialogues, pattern drills, and exercises. Special emphasis is given to correct pronunciation, sound placement, and intonation. Conducted in Italian.

Intensive Elementary Italian - Sample Syllabus

Prerequisites: Successful completion of Extensive Elem I & II or Intensive Elementary Italian

Students will gain understanding of oral and written communication on various topics, ranging from basic routine tasks to travel, shopping, cultural customs and events in the past, present and future. They will appreciate the increasingly elaborate expression of personal wishes, feelings and hopes. Students will recognize key information in the reading and listening of authentic material, provided it is clearly presented and structured, and will begin to understand advanced texts featuring narration and description of events.

Students will be able to handle a large range of conversation tasks and standard
social situations. They will be able to interact beyond their mere immediate needs, discussing in some depth topics such as leisure activities, professional goals and personal taste; skills in oral presentation will begin to solidify, as students will sustain a general conversation and be understood. Narrative skills are limited but begin to emerge. Students will be able to write short letter

Extensive Intermediate Italian I - Sample Syllabus

Prerequisites: Successful completion of Extensive Interm I

Students will gain understanding of oral and written material on various topics, ranging from general routine and leisure time activities, to more complex topics such as politics, environmental issues, and work environment. Students will be able to read and appreciate pertinent authentic texts with a clear structure, and will also be able to some extent to infer and extract from the material information which at first is only implicit. The understanding of material focusing on the expression of personal thoughts and feelings will progress to include increasingly sophisticated nuances.

Students will be able to handle most uncomplicated conversation tasks and standard social situations. Students will be able to: debate and argue for opposite viewpoints on a range of topics and make comparisons and hypotheses. Presentation skills will solidify; skills in narrating in paragraphs will emerge and develop in a creative direction. Students will be able to write letters and short stories and demonstrate limited command of sentence syntax.

Extensive Intermediate Italian II - Sample syllabus.

Prerequisites: ITAL-UA 1 & ITAL-UA 2, Elementary Italian I & II; or ITAL-UA 10, Intensive Elementary Italian

This course offers students who are at the intermediate level a daily immersion class. The acquisition and practice of more sophisticated structures of Italian are undertaken. Fundamental oral and written skills are developed, and vocabulary enrichment and conversational ability are emphasized. Conducted in Italian.

Intensive Intermediate Italian - Sample Syllabus

Prerequisites: ITAL-UA 11, ITAL-UA 12, Intermediate Italian I & II; or ITAL-UA 20, Intensive Intermediate Italian

The course is an intensive review of Italian grammar. Classes are three times a week. The aim of the course is to develop the knowledge of morphosyntactic structures of the Italian language, and to also reinforce intercultural competence. Class work consists of both written and spoken activities, conversations, and papers and readings related to a wide range of different genres (newspaper articles, magazines, extracts from contemporary Italian literature). All of the activities are primarily aimed to promote the usage of Italian language in real situations. Conducted in Italian.

Advanced Review of Modern Italian - ITAL-UA 9030 - Sample Syllabus

Prerequisites: ITAL-UA 30, Advanced Review of Modern Italian.

Conversations in Italian may be taken in conjunction with Italian Language through Cinema or Creative Writing.

Students entering the course should have mastered the fundamental structure of Italian. The course is designed to help students gain confidence and increase their effectiveness in speaking present-day Italian. Through discussions, oral reports, and readings, students develop vocabulary in a variety of topics, improve pronunciation, and learn an extensive range of idiomatic expressions. Conducted in Italian.

Conversations in Italian - Sample Syllabus

Prerequisites: ITAL-UA 30, Advanced Review of Modern Italian. 

Italian Language through Cinema may be taken in conjunction with Conversations in Italian.

Students will view and discuss Italian films to enrich their knowledge of language and culture, including: classic films; contemporary films, which we will compare with the classics; films in current release and available in the theaters of Florence. Through creative activities, students will work to improve their writing, reading and vocabulary, as well as their skills of observation, comprehension and interpretation. Students will discuss the themes presented by the various films and their place within both Italian history and the history of Italian cinema. Students will address the different elements that make up the text of each film: direction, screenplay, sound score, cinematography and editing.

Italian Language Through Cinema - Sample Syllabus

This course introduces contemporary Italy in all its complexity and fascination. Reviewing politics, economics, society, and culture over the past two centuries, the course has a primary goal -- to consider how developments since the 1800s have influenced the lives and formed the outlook of today's Italians. In other words, we are engaged in the historical search for something quite elusive: Italian “identity”. Topics will include the unification of the country, national identity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the First World War, and Italian fascism, World War Two and the resistance, the post-war Italian Republic, the economic "miracle", the South, the Mafia, terrorism, popular culture, and the most recent political and social developments, including Italy and the European Union. Lectures combine with readings and films (taking advantage of Italy’s magnificent post-war cinema).

Modern Italy - Sample Syllabus

We are constantly reminded by current events that the assumption about Man being endowed with the unalienable rights to “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” is far from self-evident for a large number of people. Humans still experience refugee crises, forced migration, war crimes, genocide, indiscriminate prison regimes, forms of contemporary slavery, torture, censorship, violation of privacy and free speech, discrimination based on individual attributes such as education, income, gender, race and disabilities in spite of two hundred and fifty years of Universal Rights discourse. Yet would we be able to identify these plights of Man in the absence of universal human rights principles? And to what extent the universalistic scope of these rights is the result of a common ground among different cultures or is a beacon of domination? This course focuses on Human Rights in principle and the current international Human Rights regime that is being criticised for its apparent ineffectiveness in handling humanitarian crisis.

The course aims to familiarize the students with the mechanisms by which Human Rights emerge, are advocated, implemented, enforced, and criticised highlighting open questions as to the future of the current international Human Rights regime. The underlying ambition of the course is to provide the students with a critical framework to address Human Rights from the perspective of the Social Sciences rather than the dominant legalist frame on this topic.

Topics in Law and Society:  International Human Rights - Sample Syllabus

This course will introduce students to the study of criminal organizations in Italy and abroad. Analysis of real-world data over the last decades, such as court proceedings and crime statistics, dismisses many of the accepted myths about Italian mafias. We will explore the organization of mafia groups, rules and codes, activities both in legitimate business and illegal markets, and their relationship to politics. This comparative approach will help students identify those factors facilitating the emergence, migration and persistence of organized crime across countries. The course will include a review of the legislative efforts and best-practices designed to prevent and control organized crime in Italy and in the United States.

The Politics of Organized Crime: Italian Mafias in a Comparative Perspective - Sample Syllabus

NOTE: Students should allow for 30 minutes commute time between this class and their prior or subsequent class.

This course explores urban experience in Italy from two distinct perspectives, the historical and the theoretical.

We will start with a historical overview of the evolution of the urban environment in Italy.  This overview will extends from ancient and roman times to the (re-)birth of towns by the year 1000, when various towns identified themselves around their piazzas, churches, streets, and within their walls, to the evolution of Italian towns in modern times, the changes in size and organization, the emergence of new spaces and new functions, and the emergence of new institutions such as Cafes, Museums, Train Station.  The focus of these first lectures will be on the city of Florence.

The second dimension of the course, which will be articulated at two levels, will reflect upon the way in which we conceptualize, represent and construct discourses about cities in modern times. Firstly, we will make an exploration of some texts, concepts that have contributed to shaping our way to understand modern cities. We will also explore the various possible positioning of the self towards the city, the “seer”, the “Flaneur” the Stroller”, and we will investigate how the bodies of these subjects is then constituted.  Secondly, we’ll go through some discourses and representations of the city: maps, views, panoramas points, travel literature, tourist guides and narrative literature (e.g. detective novel) will provide with quite different ways to tell of (and relate to) the experience of the Italian and specifically Florentine urban environment."

Culture of the City: Italian Urban Life - Sample Syllabus

NOTE: Students should allow for 30 minutes commute time between this class and their prior or subsequent class.

Intro to Drawing I is a process-oriented studio art class that takes place in and around Villa La Pietra. Perception and gaze are the fundamentals for the production and reception of drawings. Students will learn to differentiate between ‘customary perception’ (what one thinks he sees) and ‘aesthetic perception’ (what one actually sees).

Students will develop basic drawing skills including the use of line, proportion, contrast and perspective while exploring mark-making with different drawing mediums such as pencil, charcoal and ink. Along with the production of drawings, students will discuss their own work as well as the artworks of fellow students. Readings, slide shows and museum visits support the studio practice and enhance critical reception. Groundwork for the development of an individual drawing style will be set. Regular drawing exercises and attendance are crucial to succeeding in the class.

Drawing I for Non-Majors - Sample Syllabus

NOTE: This course meets in the center of Florence. Student should allow for 30 minutes commute time between this class and their prior or subsequent class.

NYU Students who have already taken ARTH-UA 2 will not receive major credit for ARTH-UA 5 [Renaissance Art survey] or ARTH-UA 6 [Modern Art survey].

This course is an introduction to Renaissance Art by exploring in depth the historical, political and cultural evolution of Italy and Europe between the 14th and the 15th centuries. This overview will be not confined to works of art but will include social and patronage issues - i.e. the role of the guilds, the differences in private, civic and church patronage - that affected the style, form and content of the Italian rich artistic output, which reached a peak often nostalgically referred to by later generations as the “golden age”. Themes such as patronage, humanism, interpretations of antiquity, and Italian civic ideals form a framework for understanding the works of art beyond style, iconography, technique and preservation. The course analyzes the historical and social background of the beginning of the Renaissance during the 14th century and the impact of patronage on art. It then focuses on the early 15th century art in Italy and Europe and deals with the Medici Family’s age. Lastly it analyzes the ‘golden Age’ of the Renaissance, specifically focusing on Verrocchio, Botticelli, Perugino and Ghirlandaio. By the end of this course, students gain a thorough knowledge of the Italian and European Renaissance Age, developing practical perception and a confident grasp of the material, understanding the relationship between both historical and artistic events and valuing the importance of patronage. As the Renaissance works are often still in their original physical settings, during field-studies to museums and churches in Florence students will have a unique opportunity to experience the works as their original viewers did and as their creators intended. 

Renaissance Art - Sample Syllabus

This course examines the Florentine villa, attempting to define this specific architectural typology and identify the unique contributions to its history made in and around Florence, primarily in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Emerging from the Middle Ages, the villas of the Florentine area are among the most powerful embodiments of the “rebirth” of classical antiquity that defines the spirit of the Renaissance. The villa is here defined in accordance with its meaning both in antiquity and throughout the early modern period as a domestic structure integrated with its surrounding agricultural estate. Phenomena to be explored include: the evolution of the forms of the patronal residence, from the early Renaissance castle-villas to the classicizing villas of the later fifteenth- and early sixteenth-centuries; the emergence of the formal garden and the identification of some of its most characteristic elements; the rapport between the villa and its urban cousin, the palace. Special emphasis is given to the villas and gardens of the Medici and to the study of Villa La Pietra itself.

Florentine Villas: An Interpretation Based on Historical and Social Factors - Sample Syllabus

Prerequisite: Must be a second semester First-Year student or have sophomore or above standing to enroll. If you are a second semester First-Year student, email global.academics@nyu.edu for a permission number.

An introduction to the area of financial accounting. Encompasses accounting concepts from the point of view of the corporate investor and business management. Accounting procedures are discussed to facilitate the comprehension of the recording, summarizing, and reporting of business transactions. The basic principles of asset valuation and revenue and cost recognition are presented. Various asset, liability, and capital accounts are studied in detail with emphasis on an analytical and interpretive approach. The area of financial accounting is further analyzed through a discussion of the concepts and underlying financial statement analysis and the exposition of funds flow. Conducted in English.

Principles of Financial Accounting - ACCT-UB 9001 - Sample Syllabus

Prerequisite: Requires sophomore and above standing

This course evaluates marketing as a system for the satisfaction of human wants and a catalyst of business activity. It presents a comprehensive framework that includes a) researching and analyzing customers, company, competition, and the marketing environment, b) identifying and targeting attractive segments with strategic positioning, and c) making product, pricing, communication, and distribution decisions. Cases and examples are utilized to develop problem-solving abilities.

Introduction to Marketing - Sample Syllabus

Prerequisites: STAT-UB 103 Statistics for Business Control and Regression/Forecasting Analysis (or BOTH STAT-UB 1 and STAT-UB 3) OR equivalent AND 4) sophomore and above standing

Designed to give students a better understanding of how firms can gain competitive advantage from their operations function. Typically this requires the firm to achieve, at a minimum, cost, quality and ecological parity; responsiveness and adaptability to customer needs and desires; rapid time to market; process technology leadership; and sufficient and responsive capacity. A problem-solving framework is developed that enables students to undertake managerial and technical analysis that should result in the desired competitive advantage. Both service and manufacturing case examples are utilized.

Operations Management - Sample Syllabus

Prerequisite: Requires sophomore and above standing

Investigates the nature, functions, and responsibilities of the management of organizations. Develops an analytical approach to the identification, structuring, analysis, and solution of organizational problems. Introduces the student to organizational policies and structures, functional areas, and production processes (including resource allocation, measurement and evaluation, and control), leadership style, and organizational adaptation and evolution. Teaching methodologies include lectures, case analysis, and class discussion.

Management and Organizations - Sample syllabus

This course is only open to Stern students.

Prerequisite: Requires sophomore and above standing

In this course, students learn how to increase their communication effectiveness for business and professional goals. During the semester, students focus on the strategic implications of communication for modern organizations. A variety of assignments are given to stress the following communication competencies: written, spoken and nonverbal communication basics for business; effective team communication strategies; informative, persuasive and collaborative presentations; communication techniques for required junior and senior year projects. Students regularly receive personal feedback about their writing and their oral presentations from instructors and staff.

Organizational Communication and its Social Context - Sample Syllabus

Co-requisite: Enrollment in a screening time.

The Italian Cinema is a good way to study the whole Italian history, society, ideology and behaviours. The students will have the opportunity to know such authors as Rossellini, De Sica, Fellini, Antonioni, Visconti, Pasolini, Bertolucci, who are well known in the US.

The course will also focus on the difference between auteur films and genre films (comedy, roman-mythological, western, melodrama); it will stress the gender point of view, the problem of a national identity, the role of the film industry. Strong attention will be paid to the relationship between Italian film and literature, art history, television and other disciplines. Conducted in English.

History of Italian Cinema (Lecture and Screening) - Sample Syllabus

The course explores various historical periods that are essential for understanding current debates about Italian national identity. Starting with the emergence of Florence as an independent commune in the Middle Ages, the course explores various “revivals” of antiquity, to identify the distinct ways in which ancient culture was made to serve social and political ends. Special attention is given to the exploitation of antiquity during the Risorgimento and the Unification of Italy and subsequently during the Fascist period, especially in relation to the transformation of Rome into the nation’s capital during the Risorgimento and subsequently by the Fascists.

Sample Syllabus

Romantic, Victorian, and Modernist writers in both Britain and the United States were fascinated by Italy. The "Italy and Italians" of the title refers not only to images and characters in the works of the British and American authors we will be reading but also to their affinities with Italian literature. Recurring themes in the course will be history and its uses in literature, gender and sexuality, democracy and aristocracy, language and power, and religion as an instrument of sexual repression.

Topics in 19th Century Literature: Italy and Italians in English Literature from the Romantics to Modernism - Sample Syllabus

This course is not open to NYU Stern students.

Prerequisites: Pre-calculus or equivalent level of mathematical training

This introductory course provides students with a basic understanding of fundamental (macro)economic theories. The course is concerned with the definition and the theory of determination of national income, employment, business fluctuations, and price level. It also introduces students to the functions
of money in a fractional-reserve banking system. The concepts of economic "circular flow”, national income accounting, unemployment, inflation, government taxation and spending and money will be defined, explained and discussed. Finally instruments, functioning and effectiveness of both monetary and fiscal policy aimed to stabilize prices and maintain high levels of output and employment are discussed in the current macroeconomic context of major world economies.

Introduction to Macroeconomics  - Sample Syllabus

This course is not open to NYU Stern students.

Prerequisites: Pre-calculus or equivalent level of mathematical training

This course provides a survey of microeconomic issues at introductory level. We will make use of theories and empirical examples to understand key aspects of the significant changes that take place in the world economies. We will explore a wide range of economic phenomena including poverty and income distribution, firms' market power and costs structure, firms' investments and business strategies, the role of antitrust law and regulation. Every piece of theory is related to applications so as to offer a continuing sense of the relevance of theory to reality. Conducted in English.

Introduction to Microeconomics - Sample syllabus.

Prerequisites: ECON-UA 1 Economic Principles or ECON-UA 5 Intro to Economic Analysis or equivalents

The financial crisis that hit the global economy since the summer of 2008 is without precedent in post-war economic history. Although its size and extent are exceptional. the crisis has many features in common with similar financial-stress driven recession episodes in the past. However, this time there’s something different, with the crisis being global akin to the events that triggered the Great Depression of the 1930s. This crisis spread quickly and rapidly moved from the US to European countries that show the weakest economic indicators (PIIGS: Portugal, Ireland and Italy, Greece and Spain). This course will focus on the long run causes, consequences and EU responses to the crisis, conditionally on the characteristics of the countries involved. We will focus on the long process of European Integration and discuss whether it may represent a possible solution to the recent crisis. We shall also examine the discussion on the EU- US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and EU development policies since EU is the main donor worldwide.

Economics of European Integration - Sample Syllabus

This course is not open to NYU Stern students.

Prerequisites: Introduction to Macroeconomics (ECON-UA 1) and Introduction to Microeconomics (ECON-UA 2), or Introduction to Economic Analysis (ECON-UA 5) or equivalents.

This course offer a perspective on the workings of the monetary and financial system within a country and at an international level. The role of money and the tools to conduct monetary policy will be analyzed in detail. The concept of the value of money now and in the future will help us understand the role of interest rates and of risk; various way to store wealth will take us into the structure of financial markets where financial instruments are created and traded to meet diverse needs. Some basic concepts on the role played by commercial banks will introduce the function of the Central Bank and of monetary policy in the overall goal of ensuring financial stability to the system. Current issues, such as the role of the European Central Bank and the instability created by the subprime mortgage crisis, will be discussed.

Money and Banking - Sample Syllabus

This course is not open to NYU Stern students except for students in the BPE Program.

Prerequisites: ECON-UA 1: Intro to Macroeconomics (or equivalent course or AP MACROECONOMICS WITH SCORE OF 4 OR 5) and ECON-UA 2: Intro to Microeconomics (or equivalent course or AP MICROECONOMICS WITH SCORE OF 4 OR 5)

The field of International Economics is traditionally divided into two parts. First,“International Trade,” the microeconomic part, attempts to answer questions arising from trade in goods and services. For example: how does trade arise among nations? Which nations will trade with each other, and which goods and services will they trade? How does trade impact different groups within a country, and how does government policy alter these impacts? Second, “International Finance,” the macroeconomic part, attempts to answer questions arising from global financial markets and their impact on macroeconomic activity. For example, how are currency exchange rates determined? How do changes in exchange rates affect economic aggregates, such as a country’s trade deficit? This course will cover both parts and give a broad picture of economic interdependences among nations.

International Economics - Sample syllabus

This course introduces contemporary Italy in all its complexity and fascination. Reviewing politics, economics, society, and culture over the past two centuries, the course has a primary goal -- to consider how developments since the 1800s have influenced the lives and formed the outlook of today's Italians. In other words, we are engaged in the historical search for something quite elusive: Italian “identity”. Topics will include the unification of the country, national identity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the First World War, and Italian fascism, World War Two and the resistance, the post-war Italian Republic, the economic "miracle", the South, the Mafia, terrorism, popular culture, and the most recent political and social developments, including Italy and the European Union. Lectures combine with readings and films (taking advantage of Italy’s magnificent post-war cinema).

Modern Italy - Sample Syllabus

Romantic, Victorian, and Modernist writers in both Britain and the United States were fascinated by Italy. The "Italy and Italians" of the title refers not only to images and characters in the works of the British and American authors we will be reading but also to their affinities with Italian literature. Recurring themes in the course will be history and its uses in literature, gender and sexuality, democracy and aristocracy, language and power, and religion as an instrument of sexual repression.

Topics in 19th Century Literature: Italy and Italians in English Literature from the Romantics to Modernism - Sample Syllabus

This four-credit course explores the interplay between migration history and the environment. By adopting a theme-based approach, the course will tackle some of the most compelling issues pertaining to the various ways in which migrants transform nature and, conversely, are influenced by the environment. Identity and belonging, gender and race, healthy and disposable bodies, landscapes and cultures: all these themes, examined in their interplay with nation-states’ and supernational entities’ politics and policies regulating human mobility are at the center of migration processes. By adopting a transdisciplinary approach, such as the one offered by the environmental humanities, the course will offer an overview of the latest research on modern and contemporary Environmental History of Migration (EHM).

The positioning of Italy in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, as well as the central import of both emigration and immigration in the history of the Bel Paese — especially from its unification in the 1860s onwards — constitute a privileged standpoint from where to globally scrutinize the role of migration and its interplay with environmental change and socio-cultural transformation up until the present-day. Through the lenses of EHM, the course will touch upon settler and colonial environments, ruderal natures, urban political ecology, scientific and medical discourses pertaining to labor and political migrants, processes of racialization, and gender discrimination. Furthermore, the course will discuss the complex links between climate change, environmental depletion and migration processes and the role of globalization in agricultural and ecological crises, as well as policies and political discourses regulating cultural heritage and memory in the context of the Anthropocene.

Sample syllabus

This course presents an overview of the political, social, and cultural history of Italy from roughly 1300 to 1600. Its aim is to provide students with a basic understanding of the forces and processes that shaped the states and the societies of the Italian peninsula in an era of extraordinary changes: from the developments of urban civilization and the rise of humanism in the fourteenth and early fifteenth century, to the political and religious crisis of the late Quattrocento and early Cinquecento, and finally to the establishment of a new balance of power and a new cultural climate in the course of the sixteenth century. Conducted in English.

Italy During the Renaissance - Sample Syllabus

Wielding nearly unlimited authority over the lives - and the after-life – of millions of Europeans, the Catholic Church was by far the most important political, as well as cultural, power of the Middle Ages. The only global institution of this era, the Church was at the same time able to nourish strong local roots: its cardinals and popes came from all over the continent and dealt with international politics at the highest level, while priests and friars brought home to the people a faith tied to the neighborhood church and confraternity, and personified by a saint’s shrine and relics.Through a combination of lectures, students’ presentations, films and site visits, this course will explore selected aspects of the Medieval Church’s history: its often rocky relations with the other supreme power of the time, the Holy Roman Empire; the rise of monasticism and its different versions; the spread of heretical movements and their repression by the Inquisition; sainthood, and how “heavenly” women and men could serve to articulate very earthly ideologies on state, society, gender roles. Conducted in English.

Medieval Church: A Religious History of Crisis and Creativity - Sample Syllabus

This course introduces contemporary Italy in all its complexity and fascination. Reviewing politics, economics, society, and culture over the past two centuries, the course has a primary goal -- to consider how developments since the 1800s have influenced the lives and formed the outlook of today's Italians. In other words, we are engaged in the historical search for something quite elusive: Italian “identity”. Topics will include the unification of the country, national identity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the First World War, and Italian fascism, World War Two and the resistance, the post-war Italian Republic, the economic "miracle", the South, the Mafia, terrorism, popular culture, and the most recent political and social developments, including Italy and the European Union. Lectures combine with readings and films (taking advantage of Italy’s magnificent post-war cinema).

Modern Italy - Sample Syllabus

The course is a voyage through the fascinating and complex history and culture of the Italian South, from the first half of the Nineteenth Century to the present day. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach we will explore the rich patrimony of southern history, as well as the violence of a society with neither rules nor justice. In Italy and in Italian Studies, the 'Southern Question' evokes the powerful image of two profoundly different Italies. We will investigate the disparities between the North and the South, devoting special consideration to the origins, causes and the consequences of this divide as well as to the economic and political interests of the elite who ruled the country.

The Italian South - Sample Syllabus

Italian instruction will be offered for Italian Immersion students.

Presents a study of post-World War II Italian politics and society in comparative and historical perspective. Seeks explanations of Italian political development in specific historical factors such as the 19th century patterns of state formation and the experience of fascism. Comparative analysis seeks to show how the social structure, political culture, and party systems have shaped Italy's distinct development. Current and recurrent political issues include the problem of integrating the south into the national economy and state response to social movements, particularly terrorism. Conducted in English.

Italian Politics - Sample syllabus

This course examines the Florentine villa, attempting to define this specific architectural typology and identify the unique contributions to its history made in and around Florence, primarily in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Emerging from the Middle Ages, the villas of the Florentine area are among the most powerful embodiments of the “rebirth” of classical antiquity that defines the spirit of the Renaissance. The villa is here defined in accordance with its meaning both in antiquity and throughout the early modern period as a domestic structure integrated with its surrounding agricultural estate. Phenomena to be explored include: the evolution of the forms of the patronal residence, from the early Renaissance castle-villas to the classicizing villas of the later fifteenth- and early sixteenth-centuries; the emergence of the formal garden and the identification of some of its most characteristic elements; the rapport between the villa and its urban cousin, the palace. Special emphasis is given to the villas and gardens of the Medici and to the study of Villa La Pietra itself.

Florentine Villas: An Interpretation Based on Historical and Social Factors - Sample Syllabus

This course introduces contemporary Italy in all its complexity and fascination. Reviewing politics, economics, society, and culture over the past two centuries, the course has a primary goal -- to consider how developments since the 1800s have influenced the lives and formed the outlook of today's Italians. In other words, we are engaged in the historical search for something quite elusive: Italian “identity”. Topics will include the unification of the country, national identity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the First World War, and Italian fascism, World War Two and the resistance, the post-war Italian Republic, the economic "miracle", the South, the Mafia, terrorism, popular culture, and the most recent political and social developments, including Italy and the European Union. Lectures combine with readings and films (taking advantage of Italy’s magnificent post-war cinema).

Modern Italy - Sample Syllabus

NOTE: Students should allow for 30 minutes commute time between this class and their prior or subsequent class.

This course explores urban experience in Italy from two distinct perspectives, the historical and the theoretical.

We will start with a historical overview of the evolution of the urban environment in Italy.  This overview will extends from ancient and roman times to the (re-)birth of towns by the year 1000, when various towns identified themselves around their piazzas, churches, streets, and within their walls, to the evolution of Italian towns in modern times, the changes in size and organization, the emergence of new spaces and new functions, and the emergence of new institutions such as Cafes, Museums, Train Station.  The focus of these first lectures will be on the city of Florence.

The second dimension of the course, which will be articulated at two levels, will reflect upon the way in which we conceptualize, represent and construct discourses about cities in modern times. Firstly, we will make an exploration of some texts, concepts that have contributed to shaping our way to understand modern cities. We will also explore the various possible positioning of the self towards the city, the “seer”, the “Flaneur” the Stroller”, and we will investigate how the bodies of these subjects is then constituted.  Secondly, we’ll go through some discourses and representations of the city: maps, views, panoramas points, travel literature, tourist guides and narrative literature (e.g. detective novel) will provide with quite different ways to tell of (and relate to) the experience of the Italian and specifically Florentine urban environment."

Culture of the City: Italian Urban Life - Sample Syllabus

This course presents an investigation on how civil society activism evolved in Italy and in Eastern and Western political regimes over the last 30 years, with a special emphasis on the use that civil society activists made of media outlets (i.e. television, radio, newspapers, and digital media). In the course, students will be introduced to the transformations introduced in current political regimes (both democratic and authoritarian) by media activism, and they will develop a closer understanding and a critical view of the Italian and international media-politics-civil society conundrums.

Global Media Seminar: Media Activism and Democracy - Sample Syllabus

The course covers the evolution of Italian opera from its beginnings in Florence to the early 20th century with special emphasis on Monteverdi, Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini. The approach is multidisciplinary and aims at a comprehensive survey of the music theatre in the context of the Italian cultural heritage. Literary sources, musico-dramatic features, vocal styles are studied in connection with major works that best represent trends and genres in the Italian operatic tradition. Students are expected to master the distinctive characteristics of such genres as favola in musica, intermezzo, opera seria, opera buffa, grand opera, dramma lirico, and the basic elements of Italian versification. Students listen to and watch recorded operas and attend performances in Florence or other Italian cities. Conducted in English

Syllabus forthcoming

We are constantly reminded by current events that the assumption about Man being endowed with the unalienable rights to “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” is far from self-evident for a large number of people. Humans still experience refugee crises, forced migration, war crimes, genocide, indiscriminate prison regimes, forms of contemporary slavery, torture, censorship, violation of privacy and free speech, discrimination based on individual attributes such as education, income, gender, race and disabilities in spite of two hundred and fifty years of Universal Rights discourse. Yet would we be able to identify these plights of Man in the absence of universal human rights principles? And to what extent the universalistic scope of these rights is the result of a common ground among different cultures or is a beacon of domination? This course focuses on Human Rights in principle and the current international Human Rights regime that is being criticised for its apparent ineffectiveness in handling humanitarian crisis.

The course aims to familiarize the students with the mechanisms by which Human Rights emerge, are advocated, implemented, enforced, and criticised highlighting open questions as to the future of the current international Human Rights regime. The underlying ambition of the course is to provide the students with a critical framework to address Human Rights from the perspective of the Social Sciences rather than the dominant legalist frame on this topic.

Topics in Law and Society:  International Human Rights - Sample Syllabus

This course presents an investigation on how civil society activism evolved in Italy and in Eastern and Western political regimes over the last 30 years, with a special emphasis on the use that civil society activists made of media outlets (i.e. television, radio, newspapers, and digital media). In the course, students will be introduced to the transformations introduced in current political regimes (both democratic and authoritarian) by media activism, and they will develop a closer understanding and a critical view of the Italian and international media-politics-civil society conundrums.

Global Media Seminar: Media Activism and Democracy - Sample Syllabus

This course presents an overview of the political, social, and cultural history of Italy from roughly 1300 to 1600. Its aim is to provide students with a basic understanding of the forces and processes that shaped the states and the societies of the Italian peninsula in an era of extraordinary changes: from the developments of urban civilization and the rise of humanism in the fourteenth and early fifteenth century, to the political and religious crisis of the late Quattrocento and early Cinquecento, and finally to the establishment of a new balance of power and a new cultural climate in the course of the sixteenth century. Conducted in English.

Italy During the Renaissance - Sample Syllabus

Wielding nearly unlimited authority over the lives - and the after-life – of millions of Europeans, the Catholic Church was by far the most important political, as well as cultural, power of the Middle Ages. The only global institution of this era, the Church was at the same time able to nourish strong local roots: its cardinals and popes came from all over the continent and dealt with international politics at the highest level, while priests and friars brought home to the people a faith tied to the neighborhood church and confraternity, and personified by a saint’s shrine and relics.Through a combination of lectures, students’ presentations, films and site visits, this course will explore selected aspects of the Medieval Church’s history: its often rocky relations with the other supreme power of the time, the Holy Roman Empire; the rise of monasticism and its different versions; the spread of heretical movements and their repression by the Inquisition; sainthood, and how “heavenly” women and men could serve to articulate very earthly ideologies on state, society, gender roles. Conducted in English.

Medieval Church: A Religious History of Crisis and Creativity - Sample Syllabus

NOTE: Students should allow for 30 minutes commute time between this class and their prior or subsequent class.

This course explores urban experience in Italy from two distinct perspectives, the historical and the theoretical.

We will start with a historical overview of the evolution of the urban environment in Italy.  This overview will extends from ancient and roman times to the (re-)birth of towns by the year 1000, when various towns identified themselves around their piazzas, churches, streets, and within their walls, to the evolution of Italian towns in modern times, the changes in size and organization, the emergence of new spaces and new functions, and the emergence of new institutions such as Cafes, Museums, Train Station.  The focus of these first lectures will be on the city of Florence.

The second dimension of the course, which will be articulated at two levels, will reflect upon the way in which we conceptualize, represent and construct discourses about cities in modern times. Firstly, we will make an exploration of some texts, concepts that have contributed to shaping our way to understand modern cities. We will also explore the various possible positioning of the self towards the city, the “seer”, the “Flaneur” the Stroller”, and we will investigate how the bodies of these subjects is then constituted.  Secondly, we’ll go through some discourses and representations of the city: maps, views, panoramas points, travel literature, tourist guides and narrative literature (e.g. detective novel) will provide with quite different ways to tell of (and relate to) the experience of the Italian and specifically Florentine urban environment."

Culture of the City: Italian Urban Life - Sample Syllabus

This course presents an overview of the political, social, and cultural history of Italy from roughly 1300 to 1600. Its aim is to provide students with a basic understanding of the forces and processes that shaped the states and the societies of the Italian peninsula in an era of extraordinary changes: from the developments of urban civilization and the rise of humanism in the fourteenth and early fifteenth century, to the political and religious crisis of the late Quattrocento and early Cinquecento, and finally to the establishment of a new balance of power and a new cultural climate in the course of the sixteenth century. Conducted in English.

Italy During the Renaissance - Sample Syllabus

The course covers the evolution of Italian opera from its beginnings in Florence to the early 20th century with special emphasis on Monteverdi, Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini. The approach is multidisciplinary and aims at a comprehensive survey of the music theatre in the context of the Italian cultural heritage. Literary sources, musico-dramatic features, vocal styles are studied in connection with major works that best represent trends and genres in the Italian operatic tradition. Students are expected to master the distinctive characteristics of such genres as favola in musica, intermezzo, opera seria, opera buffa, grand opera, dramma lirico, and the basic elements of Italian versification. Students listen to and watch recorded operas and attend performances in Florence or other Italian cities. Conducted in English

Syllabus forthcoming

The course Photojournalism: Exploring Italian Society focuses on the contemporary life of Florence, a city best known as a UNESCO World Heritage site, but that is also a European city attempting to rise to the challenges that currently confront other urban environments throughout Europe and the world. The course draws its strengths from the unique resources of the program and the city of Florence. From Italian labor protests, to commemoration of historic events, to immigrant populations, mass transit and tourism, Florence has many compelling contemporary visual stories to tell. Students have the unique opportunity to capture these issues in images.

A DSLR or mirrorless camera with manually adjustable aperture and speed is required for this course.

Photojournalism: Exploring Italian Society - Sample Syllabus

Prerequisite: Basic knowledge on digital photography and completion of PHTI-UT 1: Photography & Imaging: Digital or with special permission. 

City, territory and architecture have been, from the beginning of photography, privileged objects for its practice. Photography has become a tool to strengthen the understanding of architecture, to highlight aesthetic and design ideas and to critically interpret the space.

This class focuses on architectural photography and the photography of urban space, both in relation to their historical roots and contemporary practice. Florence offers a perfect environment to develop one's artistic talent while learning the art of photography and discovering the secrets of one of the most fascinating cities in the world.

Assignments are designed to help explore options for technical control as well as visual experimentation and individual style. Keeping in mind the inseparability of photographic technique and expression, students are expected to articulate their particular choices in relation to the overall conceptual approach of the projects. Critiques of assignments are important to the progress of each individual in the class, to help verbalize visual concepts, and to learn to see actively. The final exam consists of the presentation of a portfolio of photographs and an artist’s statement.

Students are expected to work on their projects to develop an aesthetic and coherent photographic language and a personal approach to the photographic medium in a different environment. An emphasis is also placed on refining craft in relation to ideas, and to research on an individual basis, since it is crucial in developing an artistic practice.

The course includes lectures, shooting sessions and field trips, discussions and critiques of the photographs.

A DSLR or mirrorless camera with manually adjustable aperture and speed is required for this course.

Photography of Architecture, City and Territory - Sample Syllabus

Prerequisites: ECON-UA 1 Economic Principles or ECON-UA 5 Intro to Economic Analysis or equivalents

The financial crisis that hit the global economy since the summer of 2008 is without precedent in post-war economic history. Although its size and extent are exceptional. the crisis has many features in common with similar financial-stress driven recession episodes in the past. However, this time there’s something different, with the crisis being global akin to the events that triggered the Great Depression of the 1930s. This crisis spread quickly and rapidly moved from the US to European countries that show the weakest economic indicators (PIIGS: Portugal, Ireland and Italy, Greece and Spain). This course will focus on the long run causes, consequences and EU responses to the crisis, conditionally on the characteristics of the countries involved. We will focus on the long process of European Integration and discuss whether it may represent a possible solution to the recent crisis. We shall also examine the discussion on the EU- US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and EU development policies since EU is the main donor worldwide.

Economics of European Integration - Sample Syllabus

Italian instruction will be offered for Italian Immersion students.

Presents a study of post-World War II Italian politics and society in comparative and historical perspective. Seeks explanations of Italian political development in specific historical factors such as the 19th century patterns of state formation and the experience of fascism. Comparative analysis seeks to show how the social structure, political culture, and party systems have shaped Italy's distinct development. Current and recurrent political issues include the problem of integrating the south into the national economy and state response to social movements, particularly terrorism. Conducted in English.

Italian Politics - Sample syllabus

We are constantly reminded by current events that the assumption about Man being endowed with the unalienable rights to “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” is far from self-evident for a large number of people. Humans still experience refugee crises, forced migration, war crimes, genocide, indiscriminate prison regimes, forms of contemporary slavery, torture, censorship, violation of privacy and free speech, discrimination based on individual attributes such as education, income, gender, race and disabilities in spite of two hundred and fifty years of Universal Rights discourse. Yet would we be able to identify these plights of Man in the absence of universal human rights principles? And to what extent the universalistic scope of these rights is the result of a common ground among different cultures or is a beacon of domination? This course focuses on Human Rights in principle and the current international Human Rights regime that is being criticised for its apparent ineffectiveness in handling humanitarian crisis.

The course aims to familiarize the students with the mechanisms by which Human Rights emerge, are advocated, implemented, enforced, and criticised highlighting open questions as to the future of the current international Human Rights regime. The underlying ambition of the course is to provide the students with a critical framework to address Human Rights from the perspective of the Social Sciences rather than the dominant legalist frame on this topic.

Topics in Law and Society:  International Human Rights - Sample Syllabus

This course explores the role of the US in Europe from the end of World War II to the present with a particular emphasis on understanding the sources of cooperation and conflict. The topics covered in the first part will include the US vision of the new international order, the end of the old European balance of power, the Cold War and the division of Europe, the building of the Western alliance, the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. The second part of the course will concentrate on contemporary issues ranging from the evolution of NATO to trade relations and the role of the dollar and the euro in the international monetary system. Particular attention will also be given to the challenges posed by the ‘war on terror’, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Conducted in English.

United States & European Union Relations since WWII - Sample Syllabus

Wielding nearly unlimited authority over the lives - and the after-life – of millions of Europeans, the Catholic Church was by far the most important political, as well as cultural, power of the Middle Ages. The only global institution of this era, the Church was at the same time able to nourish strong local roots: its cardinals and popes came from all over the continent and dealt with international politics at the highest level, while priests and friars brought home to the people a faith tied to the neighborhood church and confraternity, and personified by a saint’s shrine and relics.Through a combination of lectures, students’ presentations, films and site visits, this course will explore selected aspects of the Medieval Church’s history: its often rocky relations with the other supreme power of the time, the Holy Roman Empire; the rise of monasticism and its different versions; the spread of heretical movements and their repression by the Inquisition; sainthood, and how “heavenly” women and men could serve to articulate very earthly ideologies on state, society, gender roles. Conducted in English.

Medieval Church: A Religious History of Crisis and Creativity - Sample Syllabus

NOTE: Students should allow for 30 minutes commute time between this class and their prior or subsequent class.

This course explores urban experience in Italy from two distinct perspectives, the historical and the theoretical.

We will start with a historical overview of the evolution of the urban environment in Italy.  This overview will extends from ancient and roman times to the (re-)birth of towns by the year 1000, when various towns identified themselves around their piazzas, churches, streets, and within their walls, to the evolution of Italian towns in modern times, the changes in size and organization, the emergence of new spaces and new functions, and the emergence of new institutions such as Cafes, Museums, Train Station.  The focus of these first lectures will be on the city of Florence.

The second dimension of the course, which will be articulated at two levels, will reflect upon the way in which we conceptualize, represent and construct discourses about cities in modern times. Firstly, we will make an exploration of some texts, concepts that have contributed to shaping our way to understand modern cities. We will also explore the various possible positioning of the self towards the city, the “seer”, the “Flaneur” the Stroller”, and we will investigate how the bodies of these subjects is then constituted.  Secondly, we’ll go through some discourses and representations of the city: maps, views, panoramas points, travel literature, tourist guides and narrative literature (e.g. detective novel) will provide with quite different ways to tell of (and relate to) the experience of the Italian and specifically Florentine urban environment."

Culture of the City: Italian Urban Life - Sample Syllabus

This course presents an overview of the political, social, and cultural history of Italy from roughly 1300 to 1600. Its aim is to provide students with a basic understanding of the forces and processes that shaped the states and the societies of the Italian peninsula in an era of extraordinary changes: from the developments of urban civilization and the rise of humanism in the fourteenth and early fifteenth century, to the political and religious crisis of the late Quattrocento and early Cinquecento, and finally to the establishment of a new balance of power and a new cultural climate in the course of the sixteenth century. Conducted in English.

Italy During the Renaissance - Sample Syllabus

This course will introduce students to the study of criminal organizations in Italy and abroad. Analysis of real-world data over the last decades, such as court proceedings and crime statistics, dismisses many of the accepted myths about Italian mafias. We will explore the organization of mafia groups, rules and codes, activities both in legitimate business and illegal markets, and their relationship to politics. This comparative approach will help students identify those factors facilitating the emergence, migration and persistence of organized crime across countries. The course will include a review of the legislative efforts and best-practices designed to prevent and control organized crime in Italy and in the United States.

The Politics of Organized Crime: Italian Mafias in a Comparative Perspective - Sample Syllabus

This course is only open to students admitted to the Gallatin Fashion Program.

Italian fashion is famous internationally for its combination of quality and elegance. This course explores the development of fashion as an integral part of Italian identity. It looks at four historical moments or movements that played a significant role in developing that identity: Renaissance Florence under the de Medici, Mussolini’s mandate for Italian-based fashion, the post-war Italian film industry in the 1950s and 60s, and, today’s global fashion industry where the image of Italian style is one of quality, luxury and sexy elegance. Conducted in English.

History of Italian Fashion - Sample Syllabus

This course is only open to students admitted to the Gallatin Fashion Program.

Global Fashion Industry: Italy will provide students with a deep understanding of the contemporary fashion industry in Italy, as well as of Italy's position in the global fashion arena. The course will drive students through the entire lifecycle of the fashion business, from forecasting trends to retailing, through design, sourcing, product development and production. Particular attention will be dedicated to different marketing aspects of the process, such as: identity building, brand positioning, merchandising, buying, costing, communication. All levels of retail, from luxury to mass market will be covered. The course will end with an analysis of the new challenges, such as sourcing globalization, emerging markets, sustainability and growing significance of technology.
A strong effort will be put into organizing site visits to studios, showrooms and factories, as well as meeting with professional players.

Each session will be structured to give students an overview of a particular stage of the Industry, through a mix of lectures from the course leader and visiting professionals, studio and showroom visits, walking tours, reading assignments and practical projects.  Conducted in English.

Global Fashion Industry:  Italy - Sample syllabus