Italy Center http://kudzu.shc.edu/italycenter A Different Take on Study Abroad in Italy Wed, 11 Apr 2012 19:05:36 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 Summer of Service http://kudzu.shc.edu/italycenter/2012/02/03/summer-of-service/ http://kudzu.shc.edu/italycenter/2012/02/03/summer-of-service/#comments Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:29:10 +0000 ktrusgnich http://kudzu.shc.edu/italycenter/?p=522 Summer Session students will have a unique opportunity to explore first-hand the environmental challenges facing the Swiss and Italian Alps region. Ken Marquardt is President of the Canova Association which is located near the town of Domodossola. Ken reflects on his vision in this feature story.

The [...]]]> Environmental Field Work in the Italian Alps

Summer Session students will have a unique opportunity to explore first-hand the environmental challenges facing the Swiss and Italian Alps region. Ken Marquardt is President of the Canova Association which is located near the town of Domodossola. Ken reflects on his vision in this feature story.

The European Medieval Rural Stone House
Past Misery or Future Model?

Proceedings from the 2005 World Summit indicate that sustaining the planet requires the reconciliation of environmental, social and economic demands – the “three pillars” of sustainability. In recent years others have argued that these dimensions are not enough to reflect the complexity of contemporary society and that the protection of “cultures” must be incorporated.  The work of our Canova Association, an Italy Center Summer Service Learning site, reflects these pillars and is making strides to resuscitate medieval villages once thought to be lost.

Our own nomadic lives set the backdrop for how we’ve evolved to take on this extraordinary cultural revival project – a labor of love.

Kali my wife, and I are originally for Arkansas and have been married for the past 42 years. We began our European life in 1973 at the age of 22 (I imagine today one might call it study abroad) and never looked back.  Due more to a cheap flight from Montreal for $192 than the Irish origins of Kali, we set off for Ireland and soon thereafter set up home in an ancient stone country house called Slievethoul. The place was surrounded by cairns, dolmens, barrens and castle ruins and it was there I contracted two inflictions that have followed me to this day: chilblains (i.e. frozen toes and fingers) and a feverish passion for ancient stone structures.

One evening in the Spring of ‘74 an Irish priest placed a small book into my hands written by Lanza del Vasto recounting his walking journey from Italy to India to see Ghandi.  I paged through it and the next morning we set off walking from the western-most point in Europe.

How many times across Ireland and throughout Europe we camped amidst the stone ruins of castles and farmhouses. Lying there at night we tried to imagine how many celebrations of joy and how many moments of anguish, how many births and deaths had these stone walls witnessed?  This was having a profound effect on our formulation of the concepts of  “home” and “house”, especially considering that the average lifespan of a new American house was about 35 years.

In those moments we felt blessed to have made the difficult choice to leave behind the comforts and the consumption of our American upbringing.   That was before the word “sustainable” and on this journey we began to realize how culturally important durability and craftsmanship was in the construction of shelter.

Our nomadic lives became sedentary in 1985 as we made our final descent from Simplon Pass into Domodossola on our walking adventure.  I still remember vividly seeing for the first time our soon to be home with a granite stone roof lying along a pristine rushing stream and saying “I could spend 2 lifetimes here”.

After eight months of 12 hour days we moved into the upstairs and continued to coax out the bats and barn swallows and stop the cat fights down below.  Except for two 90 year old precious stalwarts, “la Gin” and Giacoma, the 10 houses of Canova were abandoned and in ruins.  For months I worked alone, learning by doing with the helpful advice of local masons and peasants but then I hired a Calabrese master mason with whom a deep friendship and collaboration was born and which lasted through the entire restoration of the borgo (small village) of Canova.

In 2001 after bringing back to life a few old stone homes it was now time to get serious.  Seven friends founded the International Non Profit Organization “Associazione Canova / Canova Association”.  It’s not been a Jack in the Beanstalk story for which we are thankful but ten years of intense activity has established Canova as a recognized force dedicated to revitalizing European medieval rural stone architecture and all it offers to modern day life and culture.

In only a few decades the powerful magnet of the newly arrived industries in the Ossola Valley had gleaned the young work force off the ancient terraces and into the factories with promises of fashionable condominiums and an end to the misery of cold bedrooms and any hint of chimney smoke. The old stone house where generations had been born and raised had become a relic and more importantly a symbol of “miseria”, poverty …. the past.

Twenty+ years have slipped by now and Canova has become a jewel that doesn’t sparkle, it glows like fine amber, full of real people who love it.  It has become a model. Why?  Because those that have taken these houses on see themselves more as custodians or honored guests than owners.

This May 24-28, we will welcome Spring Hill Italy Center students to join us in our work as caretakers of this small slice of the Alps.

]]> http://kudzu.shc.edu/italycenter/2012/02/03/summer-of-service/feed/ 0 Our Italian and American Living and Learning Community http://kudzu.shc.edu/italycenter/2011/12/21/our-italian-and-american-living-and-learning-community/ http://kudzu.shc.edu/italycenter/2011/12/21/our-italian-and-american-living-and-learning-community/#comments Wed, 21 Dec 2011 21:41:22 +0000 ktrusgnich http://kudzu.shc.edu/italycenter/?p=405 Senior Spring Hill College student Gabriela Diaz is a dual major studying International Relations and Spanish. She is from Miami, Florida.

I know I will return to Italy many times in my life, but never again will I set foot on Italian soil and live in the real world of Italian college life.  Bologna is [...]]]> Senior Spring Hill College student Gabriela Diaz is a dual major studying International Relations and Spanish. She is from Miami, Florida.

I know I will return to Italy many times in my life, but never again will I set foot on Italian soil and live in the real world of Italian college life.  Bologna is a natural place for meeting Italian students but living in the Camplus Alma Mater residence hall is like no other place I have been.  There are fourteen nations represented in our residence hall as well as all the regions of Italy. The Sicilians are the largest both in numbers and in pride.

We really have become a family, the Italians are stunned when we walk the halls in our flip flops “careful, you are going to catch a cold” and we fall even more in love with them when they make us pasta in their rooms. Had it not been for this residence hall, never would I have been exposed to these amazing people.  I can honestly these Italians are the hardest working, the most laid back, and probably the most affectionate friends I have ever had.  Here is what a few of my Italian neighbors have to say about us Southerners, New Jersey folks, and Californian’s landing in their dormitory.

“My fondest memories are when we do “Sunday Brunch” together.  I enjoy making traditional Sicilian cannolis and the Americans show us what they make for breakfast when at home” (Stefano Castiglione, Agrigento, Sicily).  Stefano forgot to mention that it is actually his mamma who makes the cannolis and sends them in the mail to Bologna.

“This experience of living with Americans has helped me to better understand their lifestyles and I now understand a culture that is very different from our ways of doing things” (Alberto Acuto, Alessandria, Piemonte region).  Alberto offers some advice for incoming Spring Hill students; “Don’t worry, we share the same problems as you in talking in a different language, this anxiety is normal.”

Perhaps Marcello Massitti, my engineering friend from the Marche region, who has a knack for playing late night ding-dong-ditch on his neighbors best captures life here at the Alma Mater; “E fantastico! Vorrei che stessero qui per sempre!” (Fantastic, I would like them to stay here forever, is it possible?”

As I think about returning to the United States, all I can say is that this whole experience has made me rethink my whole life plan.  Living with Italians, learning about the imperfections in one another’s cultures and political systems has reminded me that I need to refocus and recommit to Social Justice issues. I am happy to say I have no clue what the future has in store for me but I am looking forward to it. Had it not been for this community I would not have been able to grow, gain confidence and appreciate the world in ways I never imagined possible!

]]> http://kudzu.shc.edu/italycenter/2011/12/21/our-italian-and-american-living-and-learning-community/feed/ 0 Puglia: The Achilles Heel in the Boot of Italy http://kudzu.shc.edu/italycenter/2011/12/21/puglia-the-achilles-heel-in-the-boot-of-italy/ http://kudzu.shc.edu/italycenter/2011/12/21/puglia-the-achilles-heel-in-the-boot-of-italy/#comments Wed, 21 Dec 2011 20:47:29 +0000 ktrusgnich http://kudzu.shc.edu/italycenter/?p=393 Puglia: the Achilles heel in the heel of the boot of Italy

Our task in Italy is to engage students in meaningful ways in hopes that they will develop empathy skills and a sense of self-knowledge anchored in justice thinking. As faculty teaching a community based research course titled Issues in Social Justice: [...]]]> Puglia: the Achilles heel in the heel of the boot of Italy

Our task in Italy is to engage students in meaningful ways in hopes that they will develop empathy skills and a sense of self-knowledge anchored in justice thinking. As faculty teaching a community based research course titled Issues in Social Justice: Immigration and Globalization, we place students in the Bologna community working with immigrants. The Spring Semester includes a visit to the Salento region, the heel of Puglia so that students may deepen their understanding of how immigrants, many fleeing revolution, poverty and drought in Africa, describe their lives. This feature story offers a perspective on the issues challenging Puglia, Italy and the cultural and economic future of the region. Click here to see the SP 12 Puglia Trip Agenda.

By Vittorio Buffatti and Fulvia Antonelli

The Red Earth (Terra Rossa)

Today, the red earth of Puglia is a place where many new arrivals make their first euros. Refugees work to survive by harvesting produce often in fields which remain under mafia control. Puglia, the region representing Italy’s heel, has always been a target of tradesmen traveling by sea and of populations migrating from the southern Mediterranean coasts. The cross roads of peoples can still be heard in the Pugliese dialect. The griko (from the Greek language) was brought by ancient Greek or a byzantine population to the southernmost stretches of Puglia, called Grecìa, where they settled. The arbëreshë (from Albanian language) was introduced into western Puglia by Albanian migrants between the XV and XVIII centuries.   In recent decades Albanian migrants settled in large numbers after two major waves of migrants, the first, broadcast worldwide during the collapse of the Albanian system in 1991, the second in 1996 after a major financial and banking crisis. In 2011, Albanians represent the largest foreign community in the region with 22,000+ residents, followed by Romanians with almost 20,000.  The total population of foreign residents in Puglia is 85,000.  However, it is difficult to know the true numbers as asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants who never appear on the census books are arriving in unprecedented numbers fleeing wars (Tunisia, Libya, Egypt) and drought in Sub-Saharan African (i.e. Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia).

The Refugees

In recent months an estimated 40,000 have made the 24 hour journey across the Mediterranean landing on Italian shores fleeing the troubled conflict zones in North Africa. Few have documents to prove where they are really from, and even fewer have money after paying traffickers between $1,500 and $3,000 to make the trip. Those who qualify for refugee status are often transferred from the southern Italian Island of Lampedusa to Puglia collective centers to wait out asylum hearings. Eventually they’ll either be turned back to their countries of origin or will be granted papers allowing them to freely travel throughout the open-border countries of Europe.  However, a common outcome in the region is for refugees to flee under loose Italian supervisor into the fields of Puglia. In a recent New York Times report, in Manduria (Southern Puglia), officials appeared nonchalant about the escapes. Asked why the Italian authorities appeared to do so little to stop the immigrants’ fleeing from collective centers into the back roads of Puglia, Giuseppe Caruso, the special commissioner for the immigration emergency, asked rhetorically: “What should we do? Should we shoot them?”

According to the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, an NGO network, about 14,000 people had fled to Italy and Malta from Libya by mid-summer 2011. Another 1,200 were missing, suggesting that people who try to flee the hostilities by sea stand a chance of about one in 13 of dying in the attempt.

The Crisis

Puglia is the second poorest region in Italy with a per capita income of 16,932 euro (approximately $23,000) per year.  The current culture of organized crime, high levels of poverty and the exploitation of migrants particularly in the agriculture realm are a growing phenomenon. As a result marginalized and vulnerable refugees are being pushed further and further to the back pages of Italian newspapers given the current European Financial crisis. According to the Rome based office of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to find gainful employment, migrants have no choice other than to accept miserable pay, poor living conditions and exclusion from the surrounding community.  The use of low-cost labour, illegal recruitment, the denial of acceptable living conditions and the lack of access to medical care are all known and tolerated; national and local institutions turn a blind eye to the massive exploitation of foreigners in the agricultural sector in the south because their labor is required to sustain local economies. As the Italian financial crisis deepens the fate of these invisible workers grown even dimmer.

Fulvia Antonelli, who jointly teaches a Spring Hill course on Immigration, is an activist and academic who spent last summer supporting the Libera Puglia NGO in the region who works hand-in-glove with immigrants protesting for basic rights. According to  Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), sixty five percent live in abandoned buildings, 21% have to share their mattress with one or more people and 53% sleep on the ground. Dr. Antonelli’s eyewitness account confirms the severity of the situation: “These migrants who are employed as seasonal workers live in deplorable sanitary conditions, in a state of extreme poverty and social exclusion. These conditions confirm the almost total lack of measures aimed at ensuring basic human rights.”

In February, Professors Antonelli and Buffatti will lead a group of Spring Hill College Italy Center students to Puglia with the aim of analyzing the situation that the region is facing on immigration, organized crime and refugees settlement. Students will meet representatives of Libera Puglia, the civil society association founded by a Father Luigi Ciotti in 1995 to fight mafia in Italy, as well as a group of refugees who live in a small village and are supported by the local parish. The visit will also incorporate opportunities to engage in the local culture and traditions.  Spring Hill students will not only meet with activists but have plans to cook meals together with refugees.  The weekend will culminate in a pizzica night which is a musical tradition that blends the sounds and stories of African, Eastern European and Italian music traditions– much like the back roads of current day Puglia.

Vittorio Buffatti is the Assistant Director of the Spring Hill College Italy Center
Fulvia Antonelli holds a doctorate degree in Anthropology and Immigration Studies from the University of Bologna

Sources

  1. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)  “A Season in Hell” (2008 Report)
  2. African refugees feared drowned off Tunisian coast (June 2, 1011)
  3. Fleeing North Africa and Landing in an Italian Limbo (March 30, 2011)
]]> http://kudzu.shc.edu/italycenter/2011/12/21/puglia-the-achilles-heel-in-the-boot-of-italy/feed/ 0 Poland Human Rights Conference http://kudzu.shc.edu/italycenter/2011/10/22/poland-human-rights-conference/ http://kudzu.shc.edu/italycenter/2011/10/22/poland-human-rights-conference/#comments Sat, 22 Oct 2011 20:54:57 +0000 ktrusgnich http://kudzu.shc.edu/italycenter/?p=333 The Italy Center students just returned from the 6th Annual Symposium on Human Rights and A Just Society in Poland. The focus of the symposium this year was “Human Rights and the Arab Revolution of 2011.” See the attached documents for more about the conference itineraries.

Poland Human Rights Conference

Poland Agenda 2011

]]> The Italy Center students just returned from the 6th Annual Symposium on Human Rights and A Just Society in Poland. The focus of the symposium this year was “Human Rights and the Arab Revolution of 2011.” See the attached documents for more about the conference itineraries.

Poland Human Rights Conference

Poland Agenda 2011

]]> http://kudzu.shc.edu/italycenter/2011/10/22/poland-human-rights-conference/feed/ 0 Tunisia: A Leader’s Insight http://kudzu.shc.edu/italycenter/2011/09/23/tunisia-a-leaders-insight/ http://kudzu.shc.edu/italycenter/2011/09/23/tunisia-a-leaders-insight/#comments Fri, 23 Sep 2011 14:50:50 +0000 ktrusgnich http://kudzu.shc.edu/italycenter/?p=246 Recently, the New York Times Opinion pages featured a piece from Tunisian Professor Hamadi Redissi, a political and community activist and dear friend of the Italy Center. Professor Redissi, who meets with and speaks to our students during our visits to North Africa, provides an insider’s take on the current political situation in Tunisia. Even [...]]]> Recently, the New York Times Opinion pages featured a piece from Tunisian Professor Hamadi Redissi, a political and community activist and dear friend of the Italy Center. Professor Redissi, who meets with and speaks to our students during our visits to North Africa, provides an insider’s take on the current political situation in Tunisia. Even though the Arab Spring seems to be tailing off, Redissi claims that “The Revolution is Not Over.”

]]> http://kudzu.shc.edu/italycenter/2011/09/23/tunisia-a-leaders-insight/feed/ 0 “Genocide in My Lifetime” http://kudzu.shc.edu/italycenter/2011/09/21/genocide-in-my-lifetime/ http://kudzu.shc.edu/italycenter/2011/09/21/genocide-in-my-lifetime/#comments Wed, 21 Sep 2011 17:09:34 +0000 ktrusgnich http://kudzu.shc.edu/italycenter/?p=233 Many of our AJCU Centers (Santa Clara- El Salvador, Marquette-South Africa, The University of San Francisco-Philippines) are anchored in the Ignatian tradition of helping our students to encounter the “other.” As we plant seeds, we hope that our students’ interactions with those who have been marginalized will generate graduates who will commit to the messy [...]]]> Many of our AJCU Centers (Santa Clara- El Salvador, Marquette-South Africa, The University of San Francisco-Philippines) are anchored in the Ignatian tradition of helping our students to encounter the “other.” As we plant seeds, we hope that our students’ interactions with those who have been marginalized will generate graduates who will commit to the messy work of creating a more just world. Here in the Mediterranean, the Spring Hill College Italy Center works to expose students to the underbelly of Italy and to bring our students to sites of conflict where large populations in North Africa and South Eastern Europe have fled wars and revolutions. (Todd Waller, Director, Spring Hill College Italy Center)

Students enrolled in the summer Balkans course were required to keep journals as part of their course requirements. The following entry is a reflection piece from the journal of Italy Center student Matthew Zuppardo.

Genocide In My Lifetime – a visit to Srebrenica, Bosnia

A few days after my arrival for Spring Hill’s Italy summer classes, Serbian General Radko Mladic was taken to The Hague War Crimes Tribunal while I was heading 30 minutes south from Bologna hoping to catch a glimpse of MTV’s Jersey Shore crew who had taken over the streets of Florence.  Granted, the Jersey Shore cast are not exactly role models.  In fact the show’s star Deena when asked about her wildest night ever said; “The most guys I’ve hooked up with in one night is probably three.” Nonetheless, as victims of American mass media, we were ecstatic when our buddy Adam managed to get Deena’s phone number.  Fortunately, my images of Deena, Snookey and the others takes on little meaning as I reflect on this past summer and how I managed to encounter the real Italy and corners of the Mediterranean that few Americans ever stumble upon.

During the 1991-95 Bosnian war overwhelming atrocities were committed including rape warfare and ethnic cleansing. Over a hundred thousand people were lost throughout the conflict, and the counties of Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia were formed based upon forced agreements in Dayton, Ohio. Granted the Dayton agreement managed to stop the bullets but the tensions and hatreds remain. Just recently, in most regions on all three sides the nationalist parties won. This may seem like a defeat to the international community, however, even though the hard-line parties won, they did not win by very much. Slowly but surely the people of the Balkans are trying to piece their lives together and work towards putting the war behind them.

Srebrenica remains in many ways an open wound.   During the 1990’s in Serbia ancient hatreds against Muslims were revived by Serbian President Milosevic and broadcast to the people. The dirty work was then carried out by Serbian General Mladic and his paramilitary troops.  In July of 1995 they managed to massacre 8,300 Muslim men and boys who were allegedly under United Nations protection.  In the course of six brief days the hills surrounding Srebrenica became the killing fields and the collective mass graves representing the worst war crime since World War II.

As part of our summer peace and reconciliation course we visited the site where remains of the dead have been exhumed and reburied in a proper memorial at the former Potocari United Nations headquarters. Potocari is a stone’s throw from the town of Srebrenica. Our guides for the day were two survivors of the massacre, Hassan who at age 17 fled through the forests for six days and Mohamed who survived 37 days hiding in the nearby woods.

Of any place that affected my views of the world or me for that matter, the Genocide Memorial of the Muslim boys and men who were slaughtered was absolutely the most profound. Even as I type this I develop chills in my spine. I should not have to go into detail about everything we saw, but I will say I was moved. Never before had I been struck by so many thoughts and emotions at once.

The Memorial grounds were eerily peaceful, and considering what occurred at the site, I was surprised. This is why I asked Hassan how he was? He responded in the most peaceful manner saying; “the greatest form of revenge is to raise a family and to teach our children about peace not hatred.”  We were all speechless, I was so proud of him. To go through an ordeal like what happened, literally seeing his twin brother shot and then his father executed, and then to come out a man who seeks revenge through peace takes powerful will.

Revenge through peace is the answer. I never imagined a place like the Memorial. So much death and atrocity, yet the atmosphere was peaceful, especially around the gravestones. Maybe it is possible to bring peace to the dead? The people working to exhume and identify remains are those who should be celebrities in the world’s eye. Through their actions peace will eventually be within reach. Each set of bones exhumed and returned brings peace of mind to a mother. On the way back to Sarajevo, all I could do was sit and think. Interesting how it takes something of this magnitude to spark a thought in your brain.

]]> http://kudzu.shc.edu/italycenter/2011/09/21/genocide-in-my-lifetime/feed/ 0 IC Announces the Summer 2012 Program! http://kudzu.shc.edu/italycenter/2011/08/18/ic-announces-the-summer-2012-program/ http://kudzu.shc.edu/italycenter/2011/08/18/ic-announces-the-summer-2012-program/#comments Thu, 18 Aug 2011 18:19:24 +0000 ktrusgnich http://kudzu.shc.edu/italycenter/?p=144 The Italy Center has just recently announced their Summer 2012 program and all of the details are listed here.  Although the program was built off of the last year’s summer program, there have been a few changes made to the program. First of all, starting with Session I, the IC is offering a few more [...]]]> The Italy Center has just recently announced their Summer 2012 program and all of the details are listed here.  Although the program was built off of the last year’s summer program, there have been a few changes made to the program. First of all, starting with Session I, the IC is offering a few more course options this year.  Students will be able to take all 6 of their language credits during one summer sessions (albeit during 6 hour language classes/day). Along with the new options, the IC has integrated two different travels options into two of the available courses.

Italy Center – SU 12 Flyer

Students that take the Organizational Business course will be required to partake in a five-day Outdoors/Leadership component in the Swiss Alps. Participants will be engaged in a variety of outdoor activities including whitewater rafting, rock climbing, and canyoning. The other course that boasts a travel component is the Environmental Ethics course. Students taking this course will visit the water city of Venice and use it as a two-day case study. The Italy Center has teamed up with the Italian equivalent of the EPA to create a very unique program to explore the impact that tourism, pollution, and population issues that are threatening the environment near and around Venice. Any student interested in global issues such a these are strongly encouraged to enroll in this unique class.

The best part of these travel components, however, is that as a session I student, regardless of what course(s) you take, you will have the option to pay the associated travel fees and join the other students on these unique travel experiences.

Session II remains mainly the same in terms of the traveling course to the Balkans with one minor change–they have removed the audit option that they offered last year. Similar to last year however, the students taking the Social Science course will travel into the Balkan Region and continue to do work in the Peace and Conflict Resolution arena. The Italy Center homepage features a piece from former student Matthew Zuppardo reflecting on his time while visiting the Srebrenica massacre site in Bosnia.

We have also attached the Summer 2012 PDF to this email so that you may learn more details regarding the whole program including prices.

 

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