CAPA Florence Program - Fall 2008 / Spring 2009
Course List and Descriptions

Italian Language 1 (FLOR 1001)

Italian Language 2 (FLOR 1002)

Italian Language 3 (FLOR 1003)

Italian Language 4 (FLOR 1004)

Art History -  “The City of Florence and the History of Italian Art from Antiquity to Baroque” (FLOR 3213)

Art History - “The City of Florence and the History of Italian Art from Early Renaissance to Early 20th century” (FLOR 3214)

Renaissance Art History (FLOR 3210)

Cross Cultural Psychology (FLOR 3335)

International Business (FLOR 3040)

Italian Life and Culture (FLOR 3332)

Political and Economic History of Europe in the 20th Century (FLOR 3333)

The Real and the Fantastic: The 20th Century Italian Novel (FLOR 3211)

Medieval and Renaissance Italian Literature (FLOR 3212)

Beginning Composition Drawing (FLOR 1101)

Beginning Figurative Sculpture (FLOR 1301)

Beginning Watercolor (FLOR 1102)

Beginning Life Drawing (FLOR 1303)

Beginning Oil Painting (FLOR 1302)

LANGUAGE COURSES

FLOR 1001: Italian Language 1
This language class is designed for students with no prior experience of Italian language. Each unit, which consists of approximately 6-8 hours, will concentrate on the rudiments of the Italian language (pronunciation, basic grammar and communicative functions) thus to provide the students with some basic language abilities to be able to navigate Florence and live in an Italian environment while studying abroad.

The lessons will be held in Italian in order to enable the students to understand the basic principles of Italian pronunciation, intonation and rhythm, and to speak Italian in every-day situations. Role-plays, listening and reading-comprehension, games and short written productions will be the activities aimed at reinforcing the new structures presented in each unit.

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FLOR 1002: Italian Language 2
This is a course specifically designed for students who have already taken Italian level 1 and are already in possession of some basic notions of the Italian language. Each unit, which consists of approximately 6-8 hours, will help to develop the students’ skills in understanding and speaking everyday Italian in different common situations. To read and write with accuracy using elementary grammatical structures; to learn about Italy and some peculiar aspects of its culture; to participate in simple discussions regarding various topics such as family, holidays, social gatherings.

The lessons will be held in Italian in order to enable the students to understand the basic principles of Italian pronunciation, intonation and rhythm, and to speak Italian in a clearer and more natural way. Role-plays, listening and reading-comprehension, games and short written productions will be the activities aimed at reinforcing the new structures presented in each unit.

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FLOR 1003: Italian Language 3
This is an intermediate proficiency based course designed for students who have already taken Italian 1 and 2 (1 year of Italian). It is divided into units, which consist of approximately 6-8 hours, aimed at refining previously acquired linguistic skills and at the analyses of the usage of new grammar structures.

The lessons will be held in Italian and students will be required to participate actively expressing their ideas and opinions during in-class activities such as readings and discussions of selected materials (mainly authentic: newspapers, magazines and videos), in-class reports, presentations and role-plays related to increasingly complex situations. Writing assignments will lead students to develop their skills in narrating, describing, summarizing and expressing abstract ideas.

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FLOR 1004: Italian Language 4
This is an intermediate proficiency based course designed for students who have already taken Italian 1, 2 and 3 (1 ½ years of Italian). It is divided into units, which consist of approximately 6-8 hours, aimed at enabling students to express themselves confidently both orally and in writing through the expansion of the vocabulary and the analyses of complex phrasal constructions.

A diagnostic test will take place on the first meeting based on grammar structures which the students should already have covered in Italian 1, 2 and 3. It will help the instructor to ascertain the general proficiency level of students.

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CONTEXTUAL COURSES

The course, which will have a cultural, historical and art-oriented approach, focuses on the following topics:

• The territory of Florence, Etruscan civilization and art
• The origins of Florence and the Roman culture
• Late Medieval Florence: religious and mercantile society’s artistic production
• Florence the cradle of Renaissance Art
• Florence and High Renaissance
• Florence and Mannerism
• Florence and Baroque

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FLOR 3214: Art History - “The City of Florence and the History of Italian Art from Early Renaissance to Early 20th Century” (FALL only)
This course introduces students to a broad range of painting, sculpture, and architecture in Florence. It views Florence as an ideal setting for formal discussions which deal with the fine arts and architecture produced in Italy from the dawn of Renaissance to the Modern period. Discussion will center on how works of art were made, their style, and how they communicate intellectual meaning. The student will analyze the interrelationship between people’s creative achievements and their society. In other words, students must understand a work of art in the social, historical, and artistic context of Florence and Italy.

The course, which will have a cultural, historical and art-oriented approach, focuses on the following topics:

• Late Medieval Florence: The Dawn of the Renaissance
• Florence and High Renaissance
• Florence and Mannerism
• Florence and the Baroque
• Romanticism and Neoclassicism
• The Macchia Movement and Divisionism
• Futurism

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FLOR 3210: Renaissance Art History (SPRING only)
This intensive course introduces students to a broad range of painting, sculpture, and architecture in Florence focused around the pivotal period of the Renaissance. Beginning with the great projects of the Middle Ages that defined the religious and political centers of the city, attention focuses on major monuments of the Renaissance. To take full advantage of the opportunities available for the study of art in Florence, most classes are held in museums, churches, and piazzas. Florence is our classroom.

Topics for discussion include the cross-cultural fertilization of artistic ideas; how women, the poor, and children were depicted in Renaissance art; conflicting ideas regarding patronage; and how works of art construct religious, political, gender, and class identities. This course analyzes the interrelationship between people’s creative achievements and their society. In other words, students must understand a work of art in the social, artistic, and historical context of medieval and renaissance Florence.

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FLOR 3335: Cross Cultural Psychology
This course will help students gain a better understanding of the ways in which culture and human psyche interact, and to enhance the ability to recognize and evaluate variations in human behavior across cultures and ethnic groups.

In order to achieve these goals, we will start out by reviewing briefly the history of psychology and the main themes of general and social psychology, moving towards the theoretical and methodological foundation of cross-cultural psychology.

We will discuss several basic questions of cross-cultural psychology, such as:

• What is culture?
• What is ethnicity?
• How to apply cultural psychology to understand and deal with real life cultural conflicts or ethnical tensions?

We will also focus on questions regarding the effects of culture-specific phenomena on human cognition, motivation, emotion and social interaction.

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FLOR 3040: International Business
The objective of this course is to introduce the student to the analysis of the global economy. The course has four main topics. First capitalism as the prevalent economic system nowadays; first and second globalization; Second the international trade in the global era; the importance of the Bretton Woods system; the international economic institutions; free trade and protectionism. Third the international finance and the information technology revolution; Fourth the end of Fordism and the new industrial processes; Fifth The European Union and Italy as a case study.

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FLOR 3332: Italian Life and Culture
This course will provide an introduction to the cultures and civilization of Italy from a chronological and thematic perspective. The course is designed to increase students' knowledge of Italian life, customs, and society from an intercultural perspective. Therefore, the first part of the semester will cover the main cultural and historical developments in Italy, from its formation to the present time. The second part of the semester will review current cultural, historical and political concerns, such as religion, immigration, or the new economy under the euro. Activities and out of class visits will be integrated into class lectures, allowing students to participate in debate about contemporary topics in the media.

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FLOR 3333: Political and Economic History of Europe in the 20th Century
This course offers a general survey of the 20th Century History of Europe, with a focus on the major political and economic processes and events. It also pays attention to other two correlated issues – the national and the international factors. It particularly seeks to shed light on the way in which European development influenced the national and international contexts and, inversely, to document how national and international factors conditioned European dynamics.

The analysis, thus, highlights the regressive dynamics of Europe from a world-scale perspective. The beginning of the 20th century marked the crisis of Empires and colonial powers. A second significant shift occurred after the Second World War with the emergence of a bipolar world order, with the division of power between the USA and USSR. A third one was registered in 1989, when the way to a global world was opened.

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FLOR 3211: The Real and the Fantastic: The 20th Century Italian Novel (SPRING only)
The course is a survey of Italian prose fiction from the end of the 19th Century to the early 1990s. Authors such as Giovanni Verga, Italo Svevo, Luigi Pirandello and Dacia Maraini have been chosen in order to provide significant examples of the main trends in Italian novel writing, from realism to modernism to neo-realism and beyond. The course will also introduce students to the socio-historical context in which the different trends rise and develop. The formal solutions and the themes of the novels will therefore be discussed with special emphasis on the peculiarity of Italian cultural history. Particular attention will be paid to the geography of the Italian literary imagination, which may prove particularly interesting for students who are planning to travel around Italy during their semester in Florence.

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FLOR 3212: Medieval and Renaissance Italian Literature (FALL only)
The course will introduce students to the history of Italian Literature, focusing on great masterpieces (in English translation) from the 14th to the 16th century. A multidisciplinary approach, dealing with social, political, historical and philosophical implications will provide further understanding by placing literary works in a comprehensive cultural context. Special emphasis will be placed on the impact of Italian literature in European culture in pre-modern age, stressing the broad influence of Dante's Divine Comedy, Boccaccio's Decameron and Ariosto's Orlando Enraged. The course aims at providing students with the elementary background knowledge needed to appreciate the relevance of few, selected authors, and it means to provide an adequate knowledge of their works in terms of form, structure, style, imagery and themes. Students will also learn to distinguish among different poetic and prose kinds.

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FINE ARTS COURSES

FLOR 1101: Beginning Composition Drawing
The course will take the students from a beginning or intermediate level through the various steps of approaching drawing: tools, composition, art subjects and different media. Individual guidance will be given to more advanced students, helping them to develop their personal style. Students are encouraged to take advantage of studio hours to complete all their assignments and to develop their personal method of working. All students will be required to keep a neat and updated notebook with information which was given during the demo-lectures. In addition, students should keep a sketchbook as testimony of their preparatory and observational work done while they have been in Florence. Sketchbooks, as well as homework, will be checked weekly and discussed in class since they are the on-going proof of students’ effort, progress, application of techniques and their ability to filter visual information.

During the second half of the course, students- in accord with the teacher- will work on various drawing projects which will lead to their final grade along with drawings and homework assignments.
The syllabus may be modified to meet the students’ artistic needs.

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FLOR 1301: Beginning Figurative Sculpture
Figurative sculpture is a basic, studio course designed for beginners and intermediate students which explores the skills and techniques necessary to approach clay modelling. Although it is an introductory course, in case there are more advanced students they will be given the opportunity of individual guidance. Students are invited to exploit class activity, since it is through a constant commitment and exercise only that they will achieve the technical mastery of the matter. At the same time it is necessary for them to acquire a certain theoretical awareness, that they will achieve thanks to the stimuli provided by the projections and the visits to the most important sculptures in Florence. Students will visit these works during the week. Student will have a sketchbook in order to document at least one work per visit.

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FLOR 1102: Beginning Watercolor
The course will take the students from a beginning or intermediate level through the various steps of approaching watercolor: tools, composition and art subjects. Class work will intensely focus on learning to mix color to be able to explore the potential of the medium. Students will be coached to learn to identify subject matter which is suitable to watercolor. Individual guidance will be given to more advanced students, helping them to develop their personal style. Students are encouraged to take advantage of studio hours to complete all their assignments and to develop their personal method of working. All students will be required to keep a neat and updated notebook with information which was given during the demo-lectures. In addition, students should keep a sketchbook as testimony of their preparatory and observational work done while they have been in Florence. Sketchbooks, as well as homework, will be checked weekly and discussed in class since they are the ongoing proof of students’ effort, progress, application of techniques and their ability to filter visual information.

During the second half of the course, students- in accord with the teacher- will work on various drawing projects which will lead to their final grade along with drawings and homework assignments.

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FLOR 1303: Beginning Life Drawing
The course is structured to introduce drawing starting from the basic techniques to reach more sensible approaches and ideas. The goal of this course is to give you the ability to reproduce “reality” (objects, human figures etc.)The aim of the course is to become familiar with the main bones structure of the figure and certain objects. It is particularly important that you learn, to observe and in order to do so, you will be taught how to develop your concentration when you look at nature.

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FLOR 1302: Beginning Oil Painting
This course is structured to introduce oil painting starting from the basic techniques and introducing new approaches and ideas. The course takes students to the various steps of approaching drawing: materials, perspective, negative and positive space, pictorial subjects, and different media in colour, with a strong emphasis on oil painting methods (as well as water colour).

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