Castles, vampires, Mona Lisa
UD faculty-led semester in Tuscany includes scholarships for students
9:52 a.m., April 24, 2015--In spring 2016, the University of Delaware will launch a full-semester interdisciplinary study abroad program in Tuscany, Italy. During this historic first, UD faculty and undergraduates will live and learn in a modern campus in an historic hilltop town -- Volterra, Italy -- an hour from Florence, Pisa and Siena.
The semester program represents the combined efforts of the Institute for Global Studies (IGS), the College of Arts and Science (CAS) and the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics.
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Students can earn 15 credits in UD courses taught by UD faculty that meet requirements for students considering a minor in business, hotel, restaurant and institutional management (HRIM) majors, and students satisfying CAS breadth and/or University general education requirements.
Ten courses taught by five CAS faculty will be offered, along with three Lerner courses: “Introduction to Marketing” (BUAD 301); “Organizational Behavior” (BUAD 309); and “Cross-Cultural Etiquette and Protocol” (HRIM 316).
A complete list of courses with descriptions is on the IGS website.
Undergraduates can find out more at two upcoming information sessions on Tuesday, April 28, and Monday, May 4, both from 5-6 p.m. in 204 Kirkbride Hall.
Students are encouraged to apply by July 1. The first 50 students that apply and are accepted to the program will receive scholarship funding.
The idea of being a part of a program that involves faculty and students from a variety of disciplines was appealing to many.
“I think the most remarkable and exciting opportunity is the possibility of creating innovative, interactive experiences that involve as many of the diverse students and faculty in lively discussions, activities and discoveries,” said Leslie Reidel, professor of theatre. “I hope that we can uncover some new common ground where our learning can be fed and nurtured by the extraordinary environment of Volterra.”
Reidel will teach both Introduction to Performance (THEA 102) and Introduction to Theatre and Drama (THEA 104).
The setting for the program arose from Lerner College’s international agreement with the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, at the Scuola Internazionale di Alta Formazione (SIAF).
UD students will reside and study at SIAF’s American-style campus, constructed in 2006, which, according to Fred DeMicco, ARAMARK Chair in Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management, “blends seamlessly into a walled city and physical landscape rich with landmarks of Etruscan, Roman, and Medici Florentine history.”
In designing this interdisciplinary program, CAS faculty were invited to transform courses they teach regularly on the Newark campus to take advantage of the program’s enviable location.
April Kendra, assistant professor of English and women and gender studies, adapted her WOMS 205 course, Vampire Culture: What’s Really at Stake, which satisfies the Group A breadth requirement, to create Vampires in Volterra.
“Because Volterra is presented as the home of the sinister Volturi vampire family in Stephenie Meyer’s popular Twilight Saga, vampire tourism has become an important industry in Tuscany, which suggests an exciting new definition of ‘vampire culture’: the complex relationship between economic pragmatism, cultural identity, factual history, and fabricated folklore,” Kendra said.
In addition to reading and watching Meyer’s works, students in Kendra’s course will engage with Volterra representatives from the mayor’s office, tourism administration, and film commission.
Kendra will also teach Transfigured by Italy (ENGL 280), a course that will focus on how 19th, 20th and 21st century writers have represented women’s experiences of artistic, emotional, political and/or sexual liberation.
At the center of Volterra is a castle built in the Renaissance by the Medici family of Florence. It now serves as a prison that is known internationally for its innovative programming involving a restaurant and a professional theatre company.
Chrysanthi Leon, professor of sociology and criminal justice, women and gender studies and legal studies, will take advantage of this asset in her courses Introduction to Criminal Justice (CRJU 110) and Problems of Corrections (CRJU 203). According to Leon, “The last section of CRJU 203 focuses on innovations in corrections, for which the Volterra prison theatre provides a perfect case.”
Other faculty will focus not simply on the town of Volterra but the country of Italy. James Kendra, professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration, will teach The Leadership Challenge (LEAD 200) and Citizens, Community, and Change (UAPP 220), a course that meets breadth requirement B and is recommended by Lerner College.
Kendra said he believes that “Italy is a perfect setting for UAPP 220 because of the course’s existing emphasis on governance and citizenship activities.”
Richard Hanley, associate professor of philosophy, will base both of his courses -- Philosophy of Art (PHIL 244) and Philosophy of Science (PHIL 306) -- on the work of Leonardo Da Vinci. Students “will start with the mathematical work of Leonardo (Fibonacci) Pisano (from Pisa), which heavily influenced Da Vinci's art, and work up to Da Vinci, first in Florence, and then in Milan,” Hanley said.
He also shared that course textbooks will be supplemented with “a 2013 abridged edition of Leonardo's Notebooks and Leonardo's Universe by Atalay and Walmsley, and possibly Atalay's earlier Math and the Mona Lisa, both of which connect the scientific and artistic sides of Da Vinci.”
“Italy has a rich history of art, design, innovation, culture and cuisine,” said DeMicco, who helped to create the Volterra program about eight years ago and will be teaching there during the spring program. “Tuscany is a top global destination brand that attracts students, scholars and tourists from every corner of the globe and also has amazing landscapes and historic scenery.”
More information about the program is also available online.
Article by Amy Greenwald Foley
Photo of Castello Banfi by Lauren Fowler
Photo of Volterra street scene by Alison Hageman