Italy

Classics in Italy
May Term 2013

Hampden-Sydney College & Sweet Briar College
Rome to the Renaissance: The City in Italy
Summer Study Trip 2013
Prof. James Arieti (Classics, HSC)
Prof. Lynn Marie Laufenberg (History, SBC)

Description: When Aristotle called man a "political animal," he asserted that a polis, or "city-state," is the natural human habitat. This course explores the nature of the city historically and philosophically as well as demographically, topologically, and architecturally. We shall give special attention to the city in Italy, the hub of western urbanism for much of European history, as we see how intellect attempted to carry into practice the ideas of human social life. We shall take up the concept of the city in classical thought with focused readings from Herodotus, Thucydides, Aristotle, and Vitruvius and, for his insights into the ancient city, selections from Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges' insightful The Ancient City. In Italy, we shall visit and discuss Etruscan settlements, the remains of ancient Rome and follow the urban progress in the medieval communes, and in city planning of the Renaissance. In addition to the authors mentioned above, primary sources will include Plato, Livy, Augustine of Hippo, Leon Battista Alberti, and Machiavelli, Pompeian graffiti, and anonymous medieval chronicles. Travel fees and tuition apply. V.1

No pre-requisites.

Summer travel course; approximately two-weeks; intensive course (May/June, 2013)

Work to be Completed: Students will be expected to attend several preparatory seminar sessions prior to departure (to be held at both HSC and SBC). Advance readings in the secondary sources will also be required. While in Italy, students will attend site-lectures and walking tours given by course instructors. They will also participate in discussions of primary sources (contained in a course reader). In addition, students will prepare (prior to departure) and a site-talk of about fifteen minutes for delivery on a location of their choosing (they will sign up for a site from a list of possibilities). Finally, upon return to the U.S., students will complete either a short scholarly paper that develops the research they presented for their site talk or an analytical paper on a topic of philosophical import that arose in the readings or in class discussion.

Price: TBA soon

Students: taken for 3-credits in History (or Classics at HSC); may count toward MARS minor at SBC or Foreign Study at HSC. Level of course: 200; no prerequisites, though a course in ancient, medieval, Renaissance history, Roman history, Western Culture.

Open to alums (and other associates of SBC/HSC), who will be charged and activity fee, but will be exempt from homework. All participants are expected to be intellectually engaged in the material covered on the study-tour.

Application & deposit information from Sweet Briar College is forthcoming

For more information
Contact the Office of Global Education & Study Abroad
Bagby Hall 315 or 313 (434) 223-6311