ITL 312K:
Second-Year Italian Language and Culture I.
3 credit hours, taught by Antonella Olson.
(Enrollment: 19 students)

The focus of this course is on a partial review of first-year grammar and on culture. The city of Rome is a living laboratory in which students can improve their language skills and vocabulary and immerse themselves completely into the Italian culture and environment. At the end of the session, the 312K students performed in their own adaptation of “I quattro veli di Kulala” by Stefano Benni.

ITC 349: 
Rome, Eternal City: Myths and Realities.
3 credit hours, taught by Douglas Biow.
(Enrollment: 22 students)

This is an interdisciplinary course taught in English with focus on the powerful myths of Rome--political, religious, cultural--from antiquity to the present. Its curriculum was revised and students greatly appreciated the new structure. The analysis of historical, literary, and cinematic works was added to the artistic and architectural resources of the city itself. The study was enriched by on-site lessons where students were active participants and learned how to discover and recognize the many treasures of Rome.

ITC 365: 
Contemporary Italian Culture.
3 credit hours, taught by Douglas Biow and Antonella Olson.
(Enrollment: 10 students)

This is an upper-division course taught in Italian with emphasis on listening, reading and comprehension skills. The class was divided into three sections: Progetto A: Each student chose a topic on Italian culture, did research prior to departure, conducted interviews in Italy, wrote a summary and presented it in class. Progetto B: Students read/analyzed/discussed a novel by Niccolò Ammaniti, Io non ho paura, and watched the movie based on it; they wrote a paper in which they compared novel and film and commented on them. Progetto C: Students read and memorized one short play by Dario Fo and performed in it remarkably well at the end of the semester. They also gave a reading of a short story by Stefano Benni. Students also kept a journal during the program.

The Palazzo Antici-Mattei has been used as classroom space since summer 1999. The Centro Studi Americani (CSA) is one of the major Italian libraries of American Studies and is situated in the majestic Palazzo Antici-Mattei, a seventeenth-century palace. Its rooms feature frescoes by Tuscan and Flemish painters of the early 1600s. The CSA provided and will provide again next year a spacious, elegant and distinct environment for our students.