Education Abroad

Courses in Florence, Italy

All Florence faculty members are from Europe's extraordinarily rich community of academics, scholars, and artists. All Florence faculty members have been approved by their home academic departments and colleges at Kent State University.

All courses listed below are open to all Florence Semester students who meet the individual course prerequisites.

Classes will be scheduled Monday to Thursday. Weekends provide an opportunity for students to undertake independent travel to visit historic and cultural venues, when no field trips are scheduled. Students are required to enroll in, and maintain enrollment in, a minimum of 12 semester credit hours. Registration for classes will take place prior to departure with the assistance of the Kent State University Office of Global Education. It is important to consult with your academic advisor regarding course selection. Please select at least five to six courses, because, as at any campus, a course may be canceled if registration falls below a required level.

What Classes Can You Take?

Business
Courses are part of the George Washington University & Kent State University European Business Program. Students from all schools and cohorts are welcome to take part in these classes. Registration will occur at Kent State University using the Kent State University course names and numbers. George Washington University course names and numbers are included so that cohort members can accurately plan their semester.

BUS 3019 Business and Government Relations at KSU or BADM 3102 at GWU - 3 credit hours

This course discusses the business organization as it relates to the change in social, political, economic, and legal environments. Students will gain a deeper understanding of the interconnected nature of international business and governments.
Prerequisites: Micro or Macro Economics
Taught by: Tamara Evans

MKTG 45060 International Marketing - 3 credit hours

This course is designed to provide students with a solid understanding of the challenges businesses fact when entering foreign markets. In the first part of the course students explore the external international environmental factors such as economic, cultural, political, legal, and other influences that make international marketing more complex than domestic marketing. The second part of the course expands on the main principles of marketing by identifying and analyzing world wide marketing opportunities and the strategic adjustments that must be made in marketing functions to be successful in marketing internationally.
Prerequisites: Principles of Marketing or Fundamentals of Marketing Technology or Consumer Behavior (MKTG 25010 or BMRT 21050 or MKTG 35035 at KSU)
Taught by: Tamara Evans

BUS 30234 International Business at KSU or IBUS 3001 at GWU – 3 credit hours

This course provides an introduction to the different environments, theories and practices of international business. This course is designed for any student interested in international business, regardless of his principal academic discipline. Topics covered include globalization; the impact and importance of culture; economic, political and law environments; trade theories and the world financial environment; global strategies, structure and management. In order to facilitate these goals, students are expected to prepare, present their views, and actively participate in the classroom discussions.
Prerequisites: Micro or Macro Economics
Taught by: Marco Tortora

FIN 36053 Business Finance at KSU or BADM 3501 at GWU – 3 credit hours

Analysis of financial decisions in business enterprise and interface of firm with capital markets.
Prerequisites: Micro and Macro Economics, Basic accounting or finance class (ACCT 23020 or ACCT 11000 at KSU)
Taught by: Alessandro Giannozzi

Program Advisor

   Sarah Hull
     shull14@kent.edu
     330-672-7981

Communications - CCI Cohort

COMM 35852 Intercultural Communication - 3 credit hours

This course examines how culture influences communication, how to identify barriers to intercultural communication, how to improve communication skills in intercultural situations, and how to apply theories and concepts of intercultural communication to the real world
Prerequisites: None
Taught by: Fabio Corsini

COMM 45091 The Genius of Florence - 1 credit hour

This course is designed to give students a brief introduction to the genius and uniqueness of Florence and an understanding of what defines the city and its people. Course meetings will take place mostly at relevant locations, such as churches, streets, and museums, rather than in the classroom, as the purpose of the course is to begin to familiarize the students with the city and to train their eyes to notice and comprehend what is around them.
Prerequisite: None
Taught by: Fabrizio Ricciardelli

COMM 45091 The Genius of Florence - 3 credit hours

Students spend a semester in Florence, but they spend so much time traveling it is not unusual for students to finish the semester with little understanding of Florence itself or what defines the city and its people. This course is designed to give students and introduction to the genius and uniqueness of Florence. Course meetings will take place mostly at relevant locations such as churches, streets, and museums as the purpose of the course is to begin to familiarize the students with the city and to train their eyes to notice and comprehend what is around them. The course consists of an overview focusing on the genius of Florence as manifested in specific areas. Each lesson will focus on a single theme (artist, event, building, painting, etc.) with an emphasis on examining how the theme fits into a larger context and how the theme drew from or shaped the past and future. Students will visit Roman and Medieval Florence, the Bargello, Palazzo Davanzati, the Church of Santa Croce, Santa Maria Novella, the Museum of the Opera del Duomo, Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, Palazzo Vecchio, San Lorenzo and the Medici Chapels, the Hospital of the Innocents, Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli Gardens, and the Institute and Museum of the History of Science (Museo Galileo).
Prerequisites: None
Taught by: Fabrizio Ricciardelli

JMC 40009 or COMM 45091 Comparative Media Systems – 3 credit hours

Study of the forms, organization, scope and modes of operation of media systems in foreign lands. Also examines agents channels and contents of international communication
Prerequisites: None
Taught by: Francesca Passeri

JMC 40095 or COMM 45091 or COMM 46092 - Practicum in European Media - 3 credits

The course intends to be an introduction to some aspects of video making and reporting on art subjects through the lenses of journalistic approach. As a special topic course, the lessons will focus on a peculiar aspect of journalism, that of cultural and/or scientific publication. The choice of visual art for this course is a must in Florence where the rich artistic heritage gives us thousands of opportunities to explore interesting and fascinating stories. At the same time, the choice of video reporting will give the students an insight view of a most creative and updated way of communicating.
Prerequisites: Priority registration is given to students in the Communications Cohort.
Taught by: Tommaso Bernabei

Education - Teacher Education Cohort

CI 47095 Italian History and Culture - 2 credit hours

This course provides students an interactive introduction to Italian history and culture. It is a sort of bridge strictly connected to the field experience students are conducting during their semester in Florence. A survey on the main topics of Italian history and culture is offered through multiple approaches and a variety of issues and learning devices.
Students will experience various expressions of Italian culture and history, including science, art, architecture, music and opera, theater, literature and poetry, sculpture, cinema, philosophy, and politics. The aim of the course is to enhance the Florence experience providing an immersion in the main historical and cultural issues linked to Italian civilization. Students will be employing a range of active modes of engagement and research such as keeping a journal, in-class discussions, oral presentations, papers and written reports, movie and documentaries, music, etc.
Prerequisites: Enrollment in the Teacher Education Cohort
Taught by: Nicoletta Peluffo

EPSY 29525 Educational Psychology – 3 credit hours

Examines major theories of human development and learning, motivation, instructional strategies, assessment; similarities and differences in learners. The role of factors in the students' learning and development is considered.
Prerequisites: None
Taught by: Silia Passeri

PSYC 11762 General Psychology - 3 credit hours

Introduction to the scientific approach to understanding human behavior and mental processes such as emotions, perceptions and cognition. Topics may include personality, social and environmental factors, biological aspects of behavior and the experience of emotion and psychological disorders.
Prerequisites: None
Taught by: Tessa Marzi and Andrea Peru

Humanities

ART 42095 Italian Art from Giotto to Bernini 1300-1600 - 3 credit hours

This course investigates the rich artistic output of Italy from Giotto to Bernini - from the early Tuscan Renaissance to the Roman Baroque. Emphasis is placed on understanding painting, sculpture, architecture, and urban design within broad cultural and historical contexts and on seeing and closely analyzing them in their original, intended locations. Attention will also be placed on the ways that Italy’s regional diversities and rivalries during this period created a range of sharply distinct styles and "schools." Illustrated lectures in class will be complemented by guided trips to see many artworks and monuments in Florence, Venice and Rome.

Prerequisites: None
Taught by: Rocky Ruggiero

CCI 40095 - Italian Cinema - 3 credit hours

This course introduces the student to the world of Italian Cinema. The first part of the class analyzes Neorealism, a cinematic phenomenon that deeply influenced the ideological and aesthetic rules of film art. During the second part of the class students will concentrate on the films that mark the decline of Neorealism and the talent of new 'auteurs' such as Fellini and Antonioni. Students will pay attention to the latest developments in the Italian industry during the last part of the class that will be devoted to the cinema from the 1970's to the present. The course is a general analysis of post-war cinema and a parallel social history of this period using films as 'decoded historical evidence'. Together with masterpieces such as Open City and The Bicycle Thief the screenings will include films of the Italian directors of the 'cinema d'autore' such as The Conformist, Life is Beautiful, and the 2004 candidate for the Oscar for Best Foreign Film, I am not scares. The class will also analyze different aspects of film making both in the Italian and U.S. industry. Professor Tina Fallani Benaim has had the pleasure of working for many years in the Editing Department on films such as The Dead Poet's Society and The Godfather Part III. Films in DVD format will be dubbed in English or sub-titled.

Prerequisites: None
Taught by: Tina Fallani Benaim

CLAS 21405 The Roman Achievement - 3 credit hours

A survey of the cultural achievements of the ancient Romans as manifested in their literature and art from the Etruscans through the Christians.

Prerequisites: None
Taught by: Erika Bianchi

HIST 38095 Europe in the Renaissance - 3 credit hours

This course covers a period of important social, political, and religious changes and developments in European history from fourteenth to seventeenth centuries. It starts with an overview on early Renaissance city-states and traces their evolution on Republics or Principalities. Through the study of political thinkers such as Machiavelli and More, this course deals with the creation of the modern world, considering the Renaissance as one of the crucial ingredients of Western identity. The study of the Protestant Reformation as a Christian movement in Europe is another crucial part of class discussions. The consequences of Martin Luther's preaching on the Christian Church of Rome is the following chapter of this course, which goes on investigating the Council of Trent from its beginning in 1545 to its end in 1563. The scientific revolution, with all its consequences, is the last and crucial event of the course. The analysis is always concentrated on examining both the old and the new, both the origin of the modern world and the 'world we have lost'. More in general, the course analyzes major European intellectual, literary, religious, and political developments in order to evaluate their contribution to Western culture. The course uses of primary readings, visits to nearby monuments, class discussions.

Prerequisite: None
Taught by: Fabrizio Ricciardelli

POL 40995 European Issues - 3 credit hours

During a study abroad program, students usually make numerous implicit and explicit comparisons between their home country and their host country. Indeed, Europe and the US share many aspects, but are, at the same time, also characterized by interesting differences. Historical and structural reasons lead to different political and societal realities, further differentiated between the more than forty independent European countries. Following this logic, contemporary European issues will be presented in this course, with a focus on politics, but also on economics, various aspects of the society, (contemporary and modern) history, and culture. Whereas we concentrate on individual countries in the first part of the course, the second (shorter) part will be dedicated to the supra-national structure of the European Union (EU). A further goal of the course is to render the students familiar with the environment in which they live and travel.

Prerequisites: None
Taught by: Matteo Dian

Italian Culture - COMING SOON - 3 credit hours

COMING SOON - Not available for Fall 2013 registration

This course provides students with an interactive introduction to Italian culture. The goal of this course is to develop a better understanding of Italy and its culture with an emphasis on the history and culture of Florence. Readings for each class are gathered from a variety of historical and contemporary sources. A survey on the main topics of Italian culture is offered through multiple approaches and a variety of issues and learning devices. Students will experience various expressions of Italian culture including science, art, architecture, history, music and opera, theater, literature and poetry, sculpture, cinema, philosophy, and politics. The aim of the course is to enhance the Florence experience providing an immersion in the main historical and cultural issues linked to Italian civilization. Students will be employing a range of active modes of engagement and research such as keeping a journal, in-class discussions, oral presentations, papers, and written reports. Movies, documentaries, and videos will be part of the class material. All selected materials will illustrate different aspects of the social, political, cultural, and economic evolution of contemporary Italy.

Prerequisites: None
Taught by: Nicoletta Peluffo

ARCH 46995 - ST: Architecture and Media - 3 credit hours

This course investigates the increasingly intertwined issues that link contemporary architectural research to the world of communication, to such an extent that the media are today very much part of the design activity itself. Class lectures will interpret architectural activity in the 20th century by exploring the relationships between the project and the press, cinema, television, and the Internet. particular attention will be given to the investigation of the experiences related to the use of video and to the new media.

Prerequisites: None
Taught by: Marco Brizzi

Italian Language - Taught by Nicoletta Peluffo or Gloria Venturini depending on the semester