Throughout the centuries, due to its central position, Bologna has always been a place where foreigners stopped during their travels contributing to the spread of new ideas. The University itself, with its importance and antiquity, encouraged the cultural development of the town. In particular the Sack of Rome in 1527, the coronation of Charles V in 1530, the 1547 spring session of the Council of Trent held in Bologna, are all important events which modified the artistic and cultural climate of the town. This course analyzes the lively atmosphere present in Bologna and Northern Italy in that period. Many lessons will be held in churches, palaces or museums in order to better understand the context of the various works of art (approximate costs of entrance fees will be $70).

This program combines classroom instruction and video production work with work in the Bologna community. Students, with faculty members serving as supervisors, are placed at a local immigrant association and are asked to produce a short web documentary based on the needs of the community. Students will work in teams to find, shape, and tell stories about the lives of recent immigrants. In addition, students will be required to attend film screenings and to meet with international filmmakers at the Bologna Human Rights Nights International Film Festival.

An overview of business in an international environment, incorporating economic, management, marketing, and financial implications of international transactions. Topics include exchange rates, trade policy, international institutions, global theory, and cultural aspects of business. This course will place a particular emphasis on the role of Italy and Europe in the global marketplace.

This course will focus on literary texts that deal with travel/displacement and issues of conflict, difference and alienation while engaging in a new place, culture, and language. The novellas, poems, novels and short stories, written between the high middle ages and the end of the last century, from primarily Italy, but also England and the United States, will mirror and help students to make sense of some of the things that they are experiencing this semester as they travel throughout Italy, the Balkans and Western Europe.

The Spring Hill College Italy Center Director will work with a student and his home campus adviser in order to assist in the design of an academic research project. The project goals and objectives are to be agreed upon by the student with his/her home campus professor. The Italy Center will assist in aligning the student with community resources to include a faculty advisor. Examples of undergraduate research projects include a study of sibling relationships in a Bologna Rom (gypsy) camp and Italian language acquisition among immigrant North African children in comparison to their parent’s language abilities. Independent studies will be approved solely for students who exhibit a prior track record of academic excellence and an ability to work independently.

Travel provides a learning opportunity that brings one into a world of the unknown, an unfamiliar territory in ways that traditional classroom learning is unable to do. This new journey offers the prospect to bring to the surface of one’s psyche richness and treasures. Simultaneously, at times our living abroad can be painful as we struggle with how to move forward in our lives, integrating all that we have witnessed while in Europe. Travel itself does not offer answers to life’s difficult questions, but helps one to know whether we agree or disagree. This one-credit course includes interdisciplinary readings from contemporary philosophers, anthropologists and theologians.

Professional experience through a semester of directed part-time internship at a local cultural, business, or not for profit Bologna agency. Enrollment is restricted and will require a two month advance correspondence with the Spring Hill College Italy Center Internship Coordinator. Students are expected to work a minimum of ten hours per week in a community agency. Placements are available in both the English and Italian languages.

Students are able to complete either three or six credits of core language requirements during their one semester abroad. Italian 101 to be covered in the first half of the semester and Italian 102 during the remaining half of each semester. Out of classroom expectations include weekly cultural events on-site and required meetings with a University of Bologna speaking partner. It is assumed that students will speak primarily in English with their Italian neighbors while living in the Spring Hill-Alma Mater residence hall. The courses offers an introduction to Italian grammar, suitable reading exercises, and elementary composition (approximate costs of cultural event entrance fees will be $40).

Students who are arriving at the Italy Center having already completed Italian 101 and 102 at their home universities can complete their intermediate and advanced Italian courses at the Cultura Italiana Institute. The Center provides advanced levels of Italian language for college students arriving from across the world. The intensive classes meet five mornings per week and are organized by the Spring Hill College Italy Center staff in collaboration with the Cultura Italiana instructors. Students will be placed in the appropriate advanced class level having completed a placement exam at the institute.

The course will examine the philosophical issues of environmental ethics and the following questions: The competing paradigms of environmental science; historical roots of the environmental predicament, animal rights, and the idea of a sustainable society. The semester begins with studying the “myths” of origin of humanity in ancient Greece (Prometheus) and in the biblical tradition (Genesis). Chronologically the material will proceed arriving at a late semester review of contemporary authors. The closing sessions will address recent developments with regards to its implications on the future of human nature.

Building on the lessons learned from the opening tour of Croatia and Bosnia, students will study the major theories in international relations and how these concepts apply to the past, present and future of the European Union.

Community Based Research and Service –A survey course on international human rights and an analysis of how the Italian government is working (or not working) to protect them. The course attracts community leaders, immigrants and activists to lecture on human rights and their place within the Italian and global systems. Students working in teams will be placed in local community associations and will be introduced to the methods and principles of community based research. Students are expected to spend a minimum of 24 hours serving in a community agency.

Experiential Learning for Justice– There are three components to this course: One, this course examines how people of faith—Jewish, Christian, and Muslim—understand their faith and live out their spiritual commitments. In particular, it explores some of the biblical and theological resources that the Christian tradition, seen through the lens of vocation, brings to the search for meaning. Two, the course explores the theology and practice of Ignatian Spiritual in the Spiritual Exercises and will compare Ignatian methods of meditation with other Christian and non Christian traditions. Finally, the courses includes an experiential component requiring students to attend community meetings, visits sites of religious conflict (i.e. Bosnia) and participate in local initiatives with immigrants representing many religious traditions.

A survey of the major visual art forms of Western civilization from the Renaissance to the twentieth century. The course will include fees for Museums entrances which will be a required component of the class (approximate costs of entrance fees will be $70).

An overview of business in an international environment, incorporating economic, management, marketing, and financial implications of international transactions. Topics include exchange rates, trade policy, international institutions, global theory, and cultural aspects of business. This course will place a particular emphasis on the role of Italy and Europe in the global marketplace.

This program combines classroom instruction and video production work with work in the Bologna community. Students, with faculty members serving as supervisors, are placed at a local immigrant association and are asked to produce a short web documentary based on the needs of the community. Students will work in teams to find, shape, and tell stories about the lives of recent immigrants. In addition, students will be required to attend film screenings and to meet with international filmmakers at the Bologna Human Rights Nights International Film Festival.

An introduction to Dante’s major literary works, La Vita Nuova (The New Life) and the Divine Comedy. Close readings of the text will seek to give students an appreciation of Dante’s place in world literature. Dante’s masterpieces will also be discussed in a historical and philosophical perspective, and supplementary readings will acquaint the reader with the medieval view of life and literature.

Emphasis is on the postwar period, the Cold War, politics, the process of decolonization, the European Union, the changes in Eastern Europe, and contemporary developments.

The Spring Hill College Italy Center Director will work with a student and his home campus adviser in order to assist in the design of an academic research project. The project goals and objectives are to be agreed upon by the student with his/her home campus professor. The Italy Center will assist in aligning the student with community resources to include a faculty advisor. Examples of undergraduate research projects include a study of sibling relationships in a Bologna Rom (gypsy) camp and Italian language acquisition among immigrant North African children in comparison to their parent’s language abilities. Independent studies will be approved solely for students who exhibit a prior track record of academic excellence and an ability to work independently.

Travel provides a learning opportunity that brings one into a world of the unknown, an unfamiliar territory in ways that traditional classroom learning is unable to do. This new journey offers the prospect to bring to the surface of one’s psyche richness and treasures. Simultaneously, at times our living abroad can be painful as we struggle with how to move forward in our lives, integrating all that we have witnessed while in Europe. Travel itself does not offer answers to life’s difficult questions, but helps one to know whether we agree or disagree. This one-credit course includes interdisciplinary readings from contemporary philosophers, anthropologists and theologians.

Professional experience through a semester of directed part-time internship at a local cultural, business, or not for profit Bologna agency. Enrollment is restricted and will require a two month advance correspondence with the Spring Hill College Italy Center Internship Coordinator. Students are expected to work a minimum of ten hours per week in a community agency. Placements are available in both the English and Italian languages.

Students are able to complete either three or six credits of core language requirements during their one semester abroad. Italian 101 to be covered in the first half of the semester and Italian 102 during the remaining half of each semester. Out of classroom expectations include weekly cultural events on-site and required meetings with a University of Bologna speaking partner. It is assumed that students will speak primarily in English with their Italian neighbors while living in the Spring Hill-Alma Mater residence hall. The courses offers an introduction to Italian grammar, suitable reading exercises, and elementary composition (approximate costs of cultural event entrance fees will be $40).

Students who are arriving at the Italy Center having already completed Italian 101 and 102 at their home universities can complete their intermediate and advanced Italian courses at the Cultura Italiana Institute. The Center provides advanced levels of Italian language for college students arriving from across the world. The intensive classes meet five mornings per week and are organized by the Spring Hill College Italy Center staff in collaboration with the Cultura Italiana instructors. Students will be placed in the appropriate advanced class level having completed a placement exam at the institute.

A central theme in this course is to try to figure out the extent to which wars are the purposeful, rational pursuit of policy or the result of seemingly inexorably forces over which there is little control. The course will culminated with a tour to North Africa and will provide students with a firsthand account of the Tunisian Jasmine Revolution that took place in the Spring of 2011.

Community Based Research and Service–Designed to acquaint students with the main human rights issues confronting Italy and Europe, the course focuses on the changing face of the Mediterranean as new immigrants groups are arriving at unprecedented numbers while fleeing dictatorships in the Arab world. The class will concentrate on how Italians, the media, the Italian government and the European Union are protecting (or failing to protect) immigrants and political asylum seekers fleeing from nations at war or on the verge of collapse. This course will bring students in direct contact with immigrants themselves. Students are required to conduct a minimum of 24 hours of community based research and service work in the community.

A study of religious faith as a central fact of history and world culture through a reflective interpretation of major historical and theological documents. The survey course is anchored in the literature of Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

A survey of the major visual art forms of Western civilization from the Renaissance to the twentieth century. The course will include fees for Museums entrances which will be a required component of the class (approximate costs of entrance fees will be $70).

This course will focus on literary texts that deal with travel/displacement and the three issues that such texts usually present within a thematic of difference, as a conflict, or in the form of a character’s personal alienation: place, culture, and language. An objective of this class is that the novellas, poems, novels, and short stories, written between the high middle ages and the end of the last century, from primarily Italy, but also Egypt, France, and the United States, will in some ways mirror and help students to make sense of some of the things that they are experiencing as they sojourn abroad and travel throughout Italy and Europe. Extensive amounts of out of classroom reading and writing are required in this course.

The Spring Hill College Italy Center Director will work with a student and his home campus adviser in order to assist in the design of an academic research project. The project goals and objectives are to be agreed upon by the student with his/her home campus professor. The Italy Center will assist in aligning the student with community resources to include a faculty advisor. Examples of undergraduate research projects include a study of sibling relationships in a Bologna Rom (gypsy) camp and Italian language acquisition among immigrant North African children in comparison to their parent’s language abilities. Independent studies will be approved solely for students who exhibit a prior track record of academic excellence and an ability to work independently.

The Summer of Service & Justice program allows students to engage full time in the community while living at the Spring Hill-University of Bologna Alma Mater residence hall. This program is specifically designed to meet the ends of Bonner Scholars and Leaders seeking to fulfill their summer service goals. Students will be interviewed prior to arriving in Bologna and will be placed at a local not-for-profit agency. In addition, all are required to participate in a hands-on service project in the Italian Alps to include the rebuilding of a medieval stone home. The one credit course will help students to better understand the environmental, political and human rights issues that students will be confronting while in the community. Students will be required to pay approximately $300 for the four day excursion to the Italian and Swiss Alps).

Cultura Italiana and the Spring Hill College Italy Center have partnered to deliver language instruction to our students.  Entry level Italian courses (Italian 101 and 102) are taught on-site at the Spring Hill campus (Alma Mater Residence Hall).  Intermediate and upper level courses are taught in the historic center at the Cultura Italiana site. Students participating in an intermediate level or upper level language course will be sharing a classroom with students from across the globe. All levels of Italian, language from entry to advanced, are offered during the summer session. All Italian language classes during the summer session require four hours of class room work (Monday- Friday) and a minimum of 2 hours per day home-work preparation. Summer language classes are labor intensive.

There exists three goals to this experiential course; one, students will develop an understanding of intercultural communication by combining classroom study while residing in a University of Bologna living and learning community. Two, the course involves the study of individual and group behavior within organizations, including motivation, leadership and communication theory. The third aspect of this course requires students to participate in a service project which will require the partial reconstruction of a medieval stone home in the Italian Alps. While learning about the history of the region and hiking between Italy and Switzerland the team will then relate back the lessons learned from their group activities to the course learning objectives. The experiential service learning component will be co facilitated by Spring Hill faculty and the Canova Association staff. Students will be required to pay approximately $300 for the four day excursion to the Italian and Swiss Alps.

The course will examine the philosophical issues of environmental ethics and the following questions: The competing paradigms of environmental science; historical roots of the environmental predicament, animal rights, and the idea of a sustainable society. This multidisciplinary course includes a 2-day trip to Venice as a case study. Its population has declined by 75% in recent decades. The city is physically sinking partially due to climate concerns but largely due to destructive fishing practices and tourism. The course includes an environmental studies excursion to visit the lagoons of Venice, led by academics and environmental activists from the region. (The Venice trip will be approximately 175 euro).

An investigation into the essence of the Catholic world: its fundamental theological perspectives, its reading of scriptures, its manner of worship, its communal setup, its history and traditions, and many features that make it Christian and at the same time set it apart from other Christian denominations.

This course will be a review and a critical discussion of the concept of peace and the capacity for reconciliation. The course will include travel and study in Italy, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Conflict resolution is a growing field of academic study dedicated to exploring how and why religious, ethnic and cultural identities underlie most conflicts across the globe. There is an increasing demand for international relief workers, lawyers, social workers and diplomats to be trained in the field of conflict resolution. This course presents a unique opportunity to observe problems in real world situations firsthand by meeting with local activists.