Course Offerings

Florence Summer Institute 2023 Courses

Course offerings are subject to change and may vary each summer.

The following Summer 2023 courses are open to all students, unless otherwise noted. Most courses have no prerequisites, but it is important that students check the catalog for course details. Be sure to meet with your academic advisor to discuss course options and review which courses may be the best fit to fulfill requirements for your degree.

June Session Courses

ANTH 48889/58889 FACES: Human Head Anatomy with a Forensic Art Focus

Course Name: ANTH 48889/58889 FACES: Human Head Anatomy with a Forensic Art Focus

Description: Our course begins with studying works by Renaissance artist/anatomists to gain an appreciation for how well they understood human anatomy. We also visit La Specola Anatomical Collection (exquisite wax models copied from real corpses during the 17th century). In the classroom students study human skulls and learn the form and function of the muscles of facial expression and mastication. We pay close attention to features of the skull that ultimately give each face its unique qualities and study the areas that indicate age and sex of the individual. Each student will sculpt the facial bones of a skull, using an exact replica cast as a model. Students learn the techniques of two-dimensional forensic facial reconstruction. Using knowledge of head anatomy, and tissue depth data from the literature, each student will prepare detailed sketches (one man, one woman) based on photographs of the skulls. We also learn how to age-progress images of young adults.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

ARTH 42045 Italian Art from Giotto to Bernini (June Session)

Course Name: ARTH 42045 Italian Art from Giotto to Bernini

Description: This course will explore the development of art and architecture in Italy from the late Middle Ages to the Roman Baroque period. Through an in- depth analysis of the art and history of these periods, we shall develop an understanding of Italy’s role in the overall development of Western civilization. Particular emphasis will be given to Florentine Art. Florence exhibits to this day a particularly well-integrated conception of painting, sculpture, and architecture. Taking advantage of this, we will use the city as our classroom in order to examine the development of Florentine art and architecture in context. In addition to “on-site” lectures, classroom lectures will focus on the art produced in other major Italian cities.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

BSCI 30789 Feasts and Plagues: the Science of Italian Food, Wine and Disease

Course Name: BSCI 30789 Feasts and Plagues: the Science of Italian Food, Wine and Disease

Course Description: This course explores the microbial mechanisms responsible for plagues such as the Black Death as well as for their positive roles in food and wine production. These costs and benefits are explored in Florence, Italy since each is ingrained in the city's history, culture, art, and biology. Course activities include food and wine tastings and field trips to historical sites and museums in Florence and Siena. This course is designed to appeal to students with a wide array of interests in human health and society. Students will analyze genomes of microbes responsible for human disease, discuss ecological and biological factors associated with disease transmission, construct cemetery life tables, discuss the impacts of disease on Italian art, architecture, and culture, master knowledge of the fermentation process, and compare and contrast the microbiomes and environments of vineyards in Tuscany vs. California.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

BSCI 40195 Beauty and the Brain: Exploring Florence Through the Senses

Course Name: BSCI 40195 Beauty and the Brain: Exploring Florence Through the Senses

Course Description: This is an introductory sensory neuroscience course for undergraduate students from varied academic backgrounds. By exploring the sensory richness of Florence, students will delve into the biology of their sensory systems. Through a combination of fieldtrips, laboratory exercises, and lectures students will learn how sensory systems function to change diverse environmental signals into information that can be interpreted by the brain. Fieldtrips will be used to highlight specific sensory systems and laboratories/lectures will provide the conceptual framework. Together these experiences will lay the foundation for students’ understanding of vision, taste, smell, touch, and hearing in the unique environment of Florence, Italy.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

BUS 30234 International Business

Course Name: BUS 30234 International Business

Description: This course provides an introduction to different environments, theories and practices of international business. This course is designed for all students interested in international business, regardless of their principal academic discipline. Topics covered include globalization; international companies; sustainability; the impact and importance of culture; economic, financial, social, political environments; global strategies and structures; international marketing and entry modes. In order to facilitate these goals, students are expected to prepare, present their views, and actively participate in classroom discussions. The course provides a broad survey of the theoretical and practical aspects of management practice in Europe, introducing you the major financial, economic and socio – economic, physical, socio – cultural political, labor, competitive and distributive forces that characterize business in Europe. The course will help you to develop an increased awareness of the differences between European and North American business practices, and a better grasp of the impact of differences in business practices on the conduct of business internationally. The emphasis in this course is both on understanding and applying one’s knowledge of different management practices, using national cultures as an aid to understanding the evolution of various management practices. We begin by analyzing the international business environment that connects the phenomenon of globalization with the national and cultural differences that characterize the countries in this economy. Next we will analyze, how to first define a strategy to enter foreign markets, select then a global company structure, and define a global marketing and pricing strategies. We will delve into some strategic and functional issues that characterize the management of organizations in the global marketplace.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: ECON 22060 or ECON 22061

Open to all students with prerequisites.

CCI 40095 From Ideas to Stories: Storytelling in Tuscany

Course Name: CCI 40095 From Ideas to Stories: Storytelling in Tuscany

Description: Ideas are the backbone to all types of content creation: video, still image, writing, advocacy, campaigns, or advertising. Where do ideas come from? How do you turn ideas into pitches, products for clients, or personal projects? Through exploration of the unique resources in and around Florence, Italy, this course will help students develop their ability to generate ideas for media and create action plans to turn those ideas into appealing content. The course uses the city of Florence and its vast large narrative potential for stimulating students’ creativity and storytelling capability pushing them to detect and develop worth-telling stories. Students will explore and learn from experts about different topics that are relevant for the city such as arts, history, food, fashion etc. At the same time, through different projections, they will be exposed to different forms of storytelling they will be able to apply to different media such as video, photography, journalism, advertising, and communication campaigns. Students will enrich their knowledge and competences as content creators and storytellers while experiencing and appreciating a foreign culture.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

CCI 40289 Italian Cinema

Course Name: CCI 40289 Italian Cinema

Description: The course introduces the student to the world of Italian Cinema. In the first part the class will be analyzing Neorealism, a cinematic phenomenon that deeply influenced the ideological and aesthetic rules of film art. In the second part we will concentrate on the films that mark the decline of Neorealism and the talent of ‘new’ auteurs such as Fellini and Antonioni. The last part of the course will be devoted to the cinema from 1970s to the present in order to pay attention to the latest developments of the Italian industry. 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 the screenings will include films of the Italian directors of the ‘cinema d’autore’ such as Life is Beautiful and the 2004 candidate for the Oscar for Best Foreign Film, I Am Not Scared. The class will also analyze the different aspects of filmmaking both in Italian and the U.S. industry where I had the pleasure to work for many years in the editing department on films such as Dead Poets Society and The Godfather: Part III. The films in DVD format are dubbed in English or sub-titled.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

Open to all students.

CIS 44007 Project Management and Team Dynamics

Course Name: CIS 44007 Project Management and Team Dynamics

Description: Overview and hands-on experience of the principles, tools, and techniques of project management with emphasis on practical aspects of initiating, planning, executing, costing and closing out information systems related projects. The course begins with the Myers-Briggs personality inventory which will help in later class team exercises and uses the PMBOK. Students will work in teams to perform exercises that will help them learn team dynamics and leadership.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: Min 2.25 GPA, CIS 24053 with min C+ grade

CLAS 21405 The Roman Achievement

Course Name: CLAS 21405 The Roman Achievement

Description: This course is an introduction to the history and culture of the Roman world, from the origins of Rome through its ascent to domination of the Mediterranean world, the troubled changes from Republic to Empire, and the flourishing of the city and its provinces during the Imperial period until its crisis and consequent fall during the 4th-5th centuries AD. Political and military organizations, religious beliefs towards life and death, social identity, entertainment, private life, familial relationships, sexuality and the changes of these assets and values throughout time are examined in this course by means of the most recent archaeological and historical approaches and debates. As we search together to unravel the historical, cultural and social significance of the Roman achievement, primary sources in translation will be used to provide a fresh look of how some political events were perceived, how Roman urban life and its agents were captured by the satirical descriptions of Juvenal and Martial, and how such a catastrophic event such as the eruption of the Vesuvius affected writers such as Pliny and Seneca.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

Kent Core Humanities & Global Diversity

Open to all students.

COMM 35852 Intercultural Communication

Course Name: COMM 35852 Intercultural Communication

Description: In the contemporary world characterized by globalization of goods, people and ideas, and by growing processes of internal diversification, intercultural competences are necessary requirements for every individual both for personal and professional life. Intercultural Communication deals with the relevance of difference (not only among cultures but also within a culture) that is approached both as a threat and as a resource. In our everyday experience the continuous reference to the ‘other’ (ethical, religious, political, gendered etc) is used to build up the very sense of our identities and in so doing dividing the world among ‘us’ and ‘them’, ‘bad’ and ‘good’, ‘friends’ and ‘enemies’. Diversity compels us to reflect upon our values, and the taken-for-grantedness of the social world in which we live. This course will move from the social constructivist approach trying to combine together sociology, cultural anthropology, and media studies investigating the role that diversity plays in our every-day life and the importance to acquire an intercultural communication approach in order to be more effective in our processes of communication, to solve conflicts and to better understand the interactions among individuals, institutions and cultures. Theories, concepts and problems will be presented through lectures and audiovisual materials. Interaction is strongly required and will be stimulated. Students will be invited to take part in the classes commenting on the topics presented, offering opinions, surveying and practicing ‘problem solving’.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

Open to all students.

CULT 39595 Community Based Environmental Education for Cultural Preservation, Poverty Reduction, Economic Inclusion

Course Name: CULT 39595 Community Based Environmental Education for Cultural Preservation, Poverty Reduction, Economic Inclusion

Description: This course explores how environmental education takes place within the scope of urban gardens as a source for cultural preservation, poverty reduction, and economic inclusion among resettled communities in Florence, Italy. Students will be introduced to issues facing resettled communities, especially related to social and economic integration. This course is paired with CULT 40093: Critical Social Research, where students will gain first-hand data collection experience among the community stakeholders in Florence.

Note: This course is offered through the Stark Campus. Students who enroll in this course will pay the Regional Campus tuition rate per credit hour.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

CULT 39595 Environmental Education for Economic Inclusion and Cultural Preservation

Course Name: CULT 39595 Environmental Education for Economic Inclusion and Cultural Preservation

Course Description: This course explores how environmental education takes place within the scope of urban gardens as a source for cultural preservation, poverty reduction, and economic inclusion among resettled communities in Florence, Italy. Students will be introduced to issues facing resettled communities, especially related to social and economic integration. This course is paired with CULT 40093: Critical Social Research, where students will gain first-hand data collection experience among the community stakeholders in Florence.

Note: This course is offered through the Stark Campus. Students who enroll in this course will pay the Regional Campus tuition rate per credit hour.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

CULT 40093 Critical Social Research in Practice

Course Name: CULT 40093 Critical Social Research in Practice

Description: This course will introduce students to the practice of Critical Social Research. Critical researchers work from sets of assumptions about power and inequity in the social world articulated by some form of critical theory. There are numerous critical theories adopted by researchers, all of which take positions on how knowledge—thus research—is produced in relations of power.
Paired with CULT 39595: Community Based Environmental Education for Cultural Preservation, Poverty Reduction, Economic Inclusion, students will gain hands on experience leading qualitative data collection and will be trained in research ethics and data analysis.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

ENG 34041 Fairy Tales

Course Name: ENG 34041 Fairy Tales

Description: For the foundation of this course, we will 1) discuss the definition of fairy tales as opposed to folk tales and other fictional genre; 2) explore various methods of literary, psychological, feminist, and other modes of interpretation; 3) study histories of fairy tales and their influence; read works from top scholars in the field such as Ruth Bottigheimer and Jack Zipes.

For discussion, we will read, in English translation, Italian, French, and German versions of the “same” fairy tales comparatively. Then we will read English, Irish, and Scottish tales that reveal a different outlook than the continental tales. From there we will study Disney interpretations of the tales in the context of each tale’s history. Finally, we will look at post-modern fantasy fiction in print and film as it brings the world of the tales to life in new contexts.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: ENG 21011

ENG 38895 ST: Traveling and Writing

Course Name: ENG 38895 ST: Traveling and Writing

Description: Inspired by the environment—the landscape, art, culture, history, etc.—and by writers who have come before us, you may choose to write poetry, fiction, and/or nonfiction. As we try to absorb some portion of all we see and hear, we will employ Virginia Woolf’s practice of street haunting and consider Rainier Maria Rilke’s notion of inseeing. We will share poems or short vignettes, along with brief responses to assigned readings, during classroom meetings, but half our time will be spent exploring. Readings will include work by a range of historical and contemporary poets and writers, from English-speaking travelers and expatriates like Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, Mina Loy, James Wright, Joseph Brodsky, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Rachel Cusk to Italian poets in translation like Cesar Pavese, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Patrizia Cavalli. Each week we will focus on a set of topics: art, myth, and religion; landscape and the environment; history and politics; social justice and health care. Related site visits will include places like the church of Santa Trinita and the Accademia Gallery; the Cascine Park along the River Arno and the Archaeological Area and Museum in the hillside town of Fiesole; Casa Guidi (home of poets Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning), Forte Belvedere, and the Palazzo Vecchio; the Hospital of the Innocents Museum and the English Cemetery. A longer work or a collection of polished poems or vignettes will be due at the end of the month.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

ENG 41292 TEFL Practicum

Course Name: ENG 41292 TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) Practicum

Description: Through the TEFL practicum, students will get hands-on experience teaching learners of English as a foreign language. Students will observe and assist local teachers in Florence as well as plan and teach their own classes. Students will gain experience teaching learners in a variety of contexts and age groups, from children to adults.

Prerequisites: ENG 31007

Credit Hours: 3-6

ETEC 39525 Educational Technology

Course Name: ETEC 39525 Educational Technology

Description: ETEC 39525 Educational Technology is designed to help you develop the necessary technological competencies to successfully support the teaching profession all around the globe. In this course, you will develop knowledge and skills in designing, implementing, and assessing learning experiences, using various digital tools and resources to support teaching, learning, and research. You will learn how to deploy these innovations and best practices in multicultural settings and diverse contexts. Moreover, you will tour Italian schools and collaborate with local teachers and instructors to develop technology-based solutions to educational challenges.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

FDM 45589 Field Experience European Fashion Study Tour for Florence Students (ELR)

Course Name: FDM 45589 Field Experience European Fashion Study Tour for Florence Students (ELR)

Description: (Repeatable for credit)Visit to European fashion markets including design and fabric houses or showrooms, retail stores, buying offices and other areas of the fashion industry.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: Fashion design or fashion merchandising major.

Only pre-approved Fashion students may register for this course

GEOG 41800 Global Environmental Issues

Course Name: GEOG 41800 Global Environmental Issues

Description: Explore some of the most difficult environmental and climate challenges the world faces from the vantage point of Florence this summer. From mitigating the causes of climate and environmental changes, to adapting to precarious water resources, increased natural disasters, and the effects of urban development we will seek to understand the crises at the forefront of current-day Europe. We’ll explore some of the local initiatives in Florence to deal with these challenges through field visits, guest lectures from local experts, and role playing exercises. Take an optional field trip one weekend to Venice to learn from a local scientist how Italy is dealing with the impacts of the rising sea in a sinking city and is working to preserve it for future generations.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

HDFS 44089 Families in Florence, Italy: Love, Parenting and Policy

Course Name: HDFS 44089 Families in Florence, Italy: Love, Parenting and Policy (ELR)

Course Description: The course explores the concepts of love, marriage, and family of Florence and Tuscany using the city as our classroom. In this course, we’ll explore how historical family honor, rituals, culture, and social context continue to influence the modern Florentine family. Students will engage in naturalistic observation of modern Florentine couples and families and explore historic family honor and power through art and fashion. We’ll work to identify family rituals and traditions passed down from the Roman empire at Roman ruins and explore how modern policies and culture influence love, relationships, and family. In short, we want to understand what makes the modern Florentine family and understand how those families function.

Note: This course is offered through the Stark Campus. Students who enroll in this course will pay the Stark Campus tuition rate per credit hour.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

HDFS 45089 Lifespan Development Practices and Outcomes: The Italian Experience

Course Name: HDFS 45089 Lifespan Development: Italian Experience

Course Description: The goal of the course is to explore Italian culture, customs, education and governmental influences on human development. Students will do this through lectures, assignments, and naturalistic observations of Florentines. We’ll spend most of our class time visiting historical sites, nonprofit organizations and guided exploration of the city along with lectures from local experts.

Note: This course is offered through the Stark Campus. Students who enroll in this course will pay the Stark Campus tuition rate per credit hour.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

HEM 43231 Food/Wine/Beverage Pairing

Course Name: HEM 43231 Food/Wine/Beverage Pairing

Description: This course provides students with knowledge of the sensory relationship of Food, Wine, Beer and other Spirits and the important role this process has on Hospitality Operations. Course topics will include developing an understanding of wine, beer and food pairing as a hierarchical process, gastronomic identity, Old and New World traditions, and traditional and non-traditional gastronomic pairings. Menu development and cooking play an important role in this class. The menu is developed first, and then paired with the appropriate beverage.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: Must be 21 years old.

$350 course fee.

HIST 31022 The Great Powers in War and Peace, 1732-1914

Course Name: HIST 31022 The Great Powers in War and Peace, 1732-1914

Description: This course focuses on the nineteenth-century origins of present-day international problems - from risks of unilateralism to the debt crisis of developing countries to the nationalist tendencies in the Balkans to the question of whether a united Germany is compatible with the European equilibrium. Second, this course looks at how nineteenth-century statecraft dealt with issues that still clutter the headlines today such as peacemaking and peacekeeping, the erosion of treaties, alliances among unequal partners, and crisis management. Third, the course will point to the importance of global linkages (i.e. how events in one area of the world were linked to developments in another and how the Balkans, the Middle East, Africa, and East Asia became flashpoints in the foreign relations of Great Powers. The course will take an Italo-centric approach.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

HIST 37001 Florence: The Myth of a City

Course Name: HIST 37001 Florence The Myth of a City

Description: Florence is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance and the cradle of modern Western Civilization because, among the many Italian city-states, it experienced a cultural development that had no precedent in European history. Florentine republicanism is a political paradigm through which we, still today, trace the origins of the values of democracy, freedom, rational thought, individualism, the scientific method and the capacity for critical reflection. This course covers and analyzes different historical eras of Florence from its founding, during the Roman era, up until today. Special attention is given to periods of intensive development in Florence: the re-birth of the Middle Ages, the splendor of the Renaissance, and the crucial role of the Risorgimento, when the city was the capital of the new Kingdom of Italy (1865-1871) and became a center of culture and modern civilization. This course will be offered only in Florence.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: Sophomore Standing

HIST 41085 Italy and the Sixties

Course Name: HIST 41085 Italy and the Sixties

Description: The era of the 1960s is one fraught with highs and lows, oftentimes with much disagreement as to which is which. The debate still rages in today’s political and social discourse because how we see these events often helps to define actions or reactions to contemporary situations. This course will examine many of the seminal events and ideas from this period in order to get a better understanding of why it continues to be so important and how it continues to influence our world.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

HRM 34180 Human Resource Management

Course Name: HRM 34180 Human Resource Management

Description: Focuses on the importance of the management of human resources for any organization, its employees, customers, shareholders, and the community where it is located. The topic helps students understand the important issues that derive from managing people at work and the changing environment organizations face. Students will learn the integral role human resources management plays to the success or failure of an organization. Both practical and theoretical perspectives are presented.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: MGMT 24163, Min 2.0 GPA

LTCA 4/54032 Long Term Care Administration I

Course Name: LTCA 4/54032 Long Term Care Administration I

Course Description: This course presents an overview and introduction to the principles of Long-Term Care (LTC) Administration and discusses a comparison of U.S. LTC with International LTC Administration.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites:

Undergraduates: Upper division undergraduate standing in long term care administration, nursing, gerontology, integrated health sciences, business, human development & family studies or by permission
Graduate students: Graduate standing in nursing, gerontology, integrated health sciences, human development & family studies, long-term care administration, nha post bac graduate certificate or by permission

$50 course fee to cover transportation to visit 5 area LTC facilities.

MATH 10041 Introductory Statistics

Course Name: MATH 10041 Introductory Statistics

Course Description: In this course we will emphasize statistical literacy and develop statistical thinking, use real data, stress conceptual understanding , foster active learning in the classroom, use technology extensively, and use assessments to improve and evaluate your learning.

Note: This course is offered through the Trumbull Campus. Students who enroll in this course will pay the Regional Campus tuition rate per credit hour.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: MATH 00022 or 22 ACT or ALEKS placement

MGMT 34165/HRM34189 Dynamics of Leadership

Course Name: MGMT 34165/HRM34189 Dynamics of Leadership

Course Description: Florence, in addition to being often described as a center for renaissance art and architecture, can also be described as the origin of the modern investigation of leadership. As the home of Nicolo Machiavelli and one of the first civilian leaders Lorenzo the Magnificent, who did not come from a military or religious background, and who could not claim divine right. Using concept and theories developed for the modern study of leadership, we will examine how these two created a new concept of a leader which has prevailed into the modern era. What better way to study this then in Florence where many of the trappings of the Medici family of leadership still exits and where we can study this live. We will also look at contemporary theories of leadership as they apply to the Medici’s and to modern leaders.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites:

MGMT 34165: Not indicated, but typically: MGMT 24163 or BMRT 11009
HRM 34189: HRM 34180 with a minimum C grade; and minimum 2.500 overall GPA; and sophomore standing; and special approval.

MGMT 44395 Data Visualization for Discovery and Storytelling

Course Name: MGMT 44395 Data Visualization for Discovery and Storytelling

Course Description: This course covers the fundamentals of visualizing data for information discovery and communication (storytelling) to various audiences. Students will learn how to detect and articulate the stories behind data and communicate the discoveries through static or interactive visualizations, oral presentations, and written reports. While a good amount of data is business related, this course utilizes a wide range of Florence- or Italy-specific data, including but not limited to history (e.g., Renaissance Florentine families such as Medici’s and Strozzi’s), food (e.g., quality of Italian wine), film and culture, and current affairs such as covid-19 and tourism. This course not only increases the skills and literacy in this increasingly data-driven world but also enables students to gain fascinating information and enrich your experience of study abroad through exploring interesting datasets. This course requires no background in mathematics nor any programming experience.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

MKTG 45060 International Marketing

Course Name: MKTG 45060 International Marketing

Description: The course provides a comprehensive overview of international marketing issues characterizing international companies in foreign markets. It will introduce students to the international markets and the principles underlying the development and implementation of marketing strategies across and within foreign countries. Topics include: political, cultural, and legal environmental changes as new competitive challenges for companies involved in international businesses, international marketing strategies (domestic market expansion, multi-domestic marketing, and global marketing), multicultural marketing researches, international segmentation and competitive positioning, and international marketing mix in terms of product, distribution, communication and price decisions. During lessons the students are expected to prepare, present their views, and actively participate in classroom. In order to facilitate their participation, lessons include discussions of cases and the viewing of videos on international marketing experiences. The course is designed to stimulate curiosity about international marketing practices of companies, which seek global market opportunities and to raise the student's consciousness about the importance of an international marketing perspective in the international business management.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: MKTG 25010 or BMRT 21050 or MKTG 35035

Open to all students with prerequisites.

MUS 22111 Understanding Music/MUS 40295 ST Music in Florence (June Session)

Course Name: MUS 22111 Understanding Music (KFA)/MUS 40295 ST Music in Florence

Description: The course will survey the history of Western music using Florence as the backdrop. It will connect music with the history of Florence allowing students to gain an understanding of music through live concerts, visits to museums and by studying the numerous links between Florence’s art, architecture and music. Students will have the opportunity to attend concerts from a variety of periods including a full-length opera. A class period will be spent at the Instrument Museum that displays Cristofori’s first piano (you will also see the David in the same museum!). The course will incorporate the free opera that all students attend into the curriculum. Other free listening opportunities include Gregorian chant at San Miniato, a full mass sung in Latin, with the participation of the Maggio musicale Fiorentino, in occasion of San Giovanni, saint protector of Florence. More options will be available as summer schedule materialize. An optional event will be attending a full length opera in the courtyard of Palazzo Pitti. It is about $24 if we go as a group. By the end of the course students will: 1) Become aware of how music has affected the lives of people throughout the centuries 2) Become aware of music in a variety of different styles 3) Understand the connections between Music Art and Architecture

Note: This course is offered through the Stark Campus. Students who enroll in this course will pay the Stark Campus tuition rate per credit hour.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

MUS 22121 Music as a World Phenomenon in Florence

Course Name: MUS 22121 Music as a World Phenomenon in Florence

Course Description: Immerse yourself in the life culture and excitement of Florence, Italy through music. Learn about ancient music sitting in a 2000-year-old amphitheater, medieval and renaissance music in the palaces and churches where they were first performed. See a full-length opera at one of the greatest opera houses in the world. Watch a rock band, such as Metallica, at the Florence Rocks Concert.

This course will explore music as a part of human life to reflect the experiences, desires, and histories of the world’s peoples. What does music mean to the people who produce it, practice it, and consume it? How are these meanings constructed and experienced and what does music mean to you!

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

MUS 26912 Italian and Spanish Guitar Literature - Music

Course Name: MUS 26912 Italian and Spanish Guitar Literature - Music

Course Description: This course is designed to immerse guitar students in the traditions and performance of Italian and Spanish guitar. It centers around guitar literature, design, and history. Students will perform repertoire learned in private and group lessons. Students will visit museums to explore the history of stringed instruments and will learn extensively about Italian and Spanish guitar composers and compositions from the region.

Site visits include : The Paganini Museum (Train fare and admission paid by student), A local luthier (schedule permitting), Florence Museums, Performances (schedule permitting)

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

POL 40995 Comparative Legal Systems

Course Name: POL 40995 Comparative Legal Systems

Course Description: Through the lens of Italian law, history and culture, this course introduces students to global legal systems and the specific courts that use their interpretative powers to shape and bind the political world order. In comparing the U.S. legal system with foreign courts that govern international or domestic legal disputes and policy issues, it uses on-site visits to historic legal venues, cultural sites and practicing lawyers or judges to explain whether the rule of law, and justice, is afforded to citizens that are entitled to basic due process or equal rights in criminal or civil cases that capture world attention. Why, for example, is WNBA star Britney Griner serving a nine-year jail sentence in Russia for illegal drug possession? Why, in Saudi Arabia, do women not enjoy the same legal rights as men?; or, in the Sudan, how can it be that female adulterers may be stoned to death for breaking the law? Why is it that Chinese and Russian leaders appear to escape responsibility for committing war crimes against Muslim Uyghurs and innocent Ukrainian civilians? Such cases are the baseline for analyzing the role of international courts, such as the Court of Justice of the European Union or the European Court of Human Rights, which are critical in establishing the rule of law in deciding European post-Brexit legal conflicts or, in other cases, administering justice to Americans like Amanda Knox who was awarded damages against Italian officials for not properly safeguarding her rights during a widely sensationalized murder prosecution. After generally surveying world legal systems, this course uses specific experiential learning exercises to address the reasons why justice is similar, or meted out differently, across world borders, legal systems and courts. By exploring foreign and domestic courts within an international law framework, it gives students the analytical tools to understand a comparative perspective about how the law is politically applied and functions within, and between, nations to produce equitable and just policy outcomes.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

RPTM 36085 Leisure and Culture

Course Name: RPTM 36085 Leisure and Culture

Course Description: The purpose of the course is to enhance students’ ability to experience cultural differences in more complex ways. The Florentine way of life provides a rich context to compare and contrast American and Italian cultures and the role of leisure in shaping cultural identities. Culture’s influence on leisure’s meaning, value, and expressions will also be examined. Students will use their observation and analysis skills to interpret the cultural significance of leisure time, activities, places and spaces as they work and play in Florence.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

RPTM 46095 Selected Topics in Recreation: Arts, Parks, and Events: Designing Inclusive Experiences for Persons with Disabilities

Course Name: RPTM 46095 Selected Topics in Recreation: Arts, Parks, and Events: Designing Inclusive Experiences for Persons with Disabilities

Course Description: This course will prepare students to understand conceptual, theoretical, and applied aspects of designing inclusive experiences for persons with disabilities in art, event, cultural, hospitality, park, and tourism attractions. Students will experience art, tourism, park, and cultural attractions in Florence and surrounding parks through an inclusion design lens with aim to better understand ways to make places and experiences accessibility and accommodating for persons with disabilities. They will learn the principles of inclusion, accessibility, and designing accommodations in built, natural, and event environments. Students will learn the particular needs of persons with various disabilities from an inclusive experience perspective in specific settings. They will examine accessible features of art, event, cultural, hospitality, park, and tourism attractions in and around Florence and recommend ways to improve accessible experiences for persons with disabilities. Their learning outcome will culminate in a case study involving the inclusion a person with a disability in an art, event, cultural, hospitality, park, or tourism experience in Florence, Italy.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

SOC 42015 Urban and Community Disasters Around the World

Course Name: SOC 42015 Urban and Community Disasters Around the World

Course Description: Disasters are serious disruptions to the functioning of a community that exceed its capacity to cope using its own resources. Example of these event can be seen in the ongoing pandemic, heatwaves, earthquakes, wildfires, flooding, terrorist attacks, armed conflict, and industrial accidents around the world. In fact, it is likely that as you read this summery, a community or urban disaster is affecting a large number of people somewhere in the world. This course is designed to acquaint you with how sociology and social psychology can contribute to our understanding of community and urban disasters (e.g., 2021-22 COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, flooding in Germany, wildfires in Australia, western US and Greece, the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, 1992 Rodney King Los Angeles Riots, the 1986 Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant expolsion, and 2005 Hurricane Katrina). Disasters can result from forces of nature, from technological accidents, or from terrorism and other willful acts of violence. What these events share is their potential to cause widespread urban and community disruption, displacement, economic loss, property damage, death and injury, and profound emotional suffering. They can alter the course of history as the Black Death did in Europe and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius did in ancient Rome. Further, disasters are not equalizing events that impact all people the same. A country’s system of stratification that impacts our everyday lives (gender, race/ethnicity, social class, etc.) also plays a role in our ability to define, respond to, and plan for hazards and disasters. Thus, the class examines issues of social justice and environmental racism. Finally, the class covers government agencies responsible for disaster preparedness, response, and recovery in the United State, Europe, and other countries.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

SPED 4/53062 Curriculum Methods Mild/Moderate

Course Name: SPED 4/53062 Curriculum Methods Mild/Moderate

Course Description: The focus of this course is on the delivery and adaptation of evidence-based practices for students with mild/moderate disabilities with an emphasis on achievement in general curriculum. Students in this course learn how to deliver a highly effective lesson to a diverse group of students with a range of academic abilities. Students will have the opportunity to practice evidence-based instructional and behavior management practices. The strategies and practices presented in this class are applicable across grade levels and content areas.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

July Session Courses

HIST 11051 Race and Identity in the Early Modern Mediterranean

Course Name: HIST 11051 Race and Identity in the Early Modern Mediterranean

Description: The purpose of this course is to introduce students to how the social construction of race was formed and understood in the early modern period. By combining critical race theory with the intellectual history of the early modern Mediterranean basin, students will trace the history of ideas, literature, religious thought, and art from the fourteenth- to the sixteenth-centuries in order to analyze how the early modern concept of race served as a precursor for modern concepts of racial identity formation. In terms of geography, the Mediterranean basin is an area of cross-cultural movement linking Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Therefore, understanding how diverse groups met and interacted in this space can demonstrate to students how race and identity are framed in multi-cultural environments. Since this course will focus on the Mediterranean, primary areas of study will include areas of cross-cultural exchange primarily: Spain, Portugal, Italy, Sicily, and parts of France and North Africa. Aside from a primary reader, students will be exposed to a variety of course materials including: written sources both primary and secondary, and art. Since this course will be taught on Kent State’s Florence campus, our class can take advantage of on-sight experiences through the study of visual culture in order to show how racial conceptions were captured in early modern art. Students may analyze both secular and non-secular works in order to observe social constructions of race in early modern Italy.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

HIST 37001 Florence The Myth of a City (July Session)

Course Name: HIST 37001 Florence The Myth of a City

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: Sophomore Standing

HIST 38595 Follow your Star: Astrology from the Renaissance to Today

Course Name: HIST 38595 Follow your Star: Astrology from the Renaissance to Today

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

MATH 11022 Trigonometry

Course Name: MATH 11022 Trigonometry

Description: The course is designed to develop an understanding of topics which are fundamental to the study of Trigonometry. Emphasis is placed on the analysis of trigonometric functions in multiple representations, right and oblique triangles, the unit circle, and circular functions. We will use appropriate models for finding solutions to trigonometry related problems with and without technology. The students will be introduced to the art of rudimentary mathematical proofs via trigonometric identities.

Graphing applications will play a dominant role in the course. The course will be built around Italian and Greek mathematicians who contributed to the study of trigonometry. We will do several applications of trigonometry in Italian architecture. In-class activities and explorations will be designed around various Italian and Greek mathematicians and related themes.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

MGMT 34165/HRM34189 Dynamics of Leadership (July Session)

Course Name: MGMT 34165/HRM34189 Dynamics of Leadership

Description: Florence, in addition to being often described as a center for renaissance art and architecture, can also be described as the origin of the modern investigation of leadership. As the home of Nicolo Machiavelli and one of the first civilian leaders Lorenzo the Magnificent, who did not come from a military or religious background, and who could not claim divine right. Using concept and theories developed for the modern study of leadership, we will examine how these two created a new concept of a leader which has prevailed into the modern era. What better way to study this then in Florence where many of the trappings of the Medici family of leadership still exits and where we can study this live. We will also look at contemporary theories of leadership as they apply to the Medici’s and to modern leaders.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites:

MGMT 34165: Not indicated, but typically: MGMT 24163 or BMRT 11009
HRM 34189: HRM 34180 with a minimum C grade; and minimum 2.500 overall GPA; and sophomore standing; and special approval.

MKTG 45060 International Marketing (July Session)

Course Name: MKTG 45060 International Marketing

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: MKTG 25010 or BMRT 21050 or MKTG 35035

Open to all students with prerequisites.

MUS 22111 Understanding Music/MUS 40295 ST Music in Florence (July Session)

Course Name: MUS 22111 Understanding Music (KFA)/MUS 40295 ST Music in Florence

Note: This course is offered through the Stark Campus. Students who enroll in this course will pay the Stark Campus tuition rate per credit hour.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

MUS 22121 Music as a World Phenomenon in Florence (July Session)

Course Name: MUS 22121 Music as a World Phenomenon in Florence

Description: Immerse yourself in the life culture and excitement of Florence, Italy through music. Learn about ancient music sitting in a 2000-year-old amphitheater, medieval and renaissance music in the palaces and churches where they were first performed. See a full-length opera at one of the greatest opera houses in the world. Watch a rock band, such as Metallica, at the Florence Rocks Concert.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

MUS 26912 Italian and Spanish Guitar Literature - Music (July Session)

Course Name: MUS 26912 Italian and Spanish Guitar Literature - Music

Description: This course is designed to immerse guitar students in the traditions and performance of Italian and Spanish guitar. It centers around guitar literature, design, and history. Students will perform repertoire learned in private and group lessons. Students will visit museums to explore the history of stringed instruments and will learn extensively about Italian and Spanish guitar composers and compositions from the region.

Site visits include : The Paganini Museum (Train fare and admission paid by student), A local luthier (schedule permitting), Florence Museums, Performances (schedule permitting)

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

POL 40995 Wicked Problems: Politics and Policy in Modern Italy

Course Name: POL 40995 Wicked Problems: Politics and Policy in Modern Italy

Description: Wicked problems such as political corruption, organized crime, poverty, mass migration, and climate change are hard to solve because they are enormous in scope, difficult to define, and interconnected. Climate change, for example, worsens poverty and hunger in developing countries, which leads to mass migration as people seek a better life. In response, criminal organizations engage in human smuggling, and corrupt public officials line their pockets through bribery and extortion. As a result, trying to tackle wicked problems can feel hopeless, and it is sometimes tempting to turn a blind eye. Yet, as the world becomes increasingly globalized and interwoven, these problems affect each and every one of us. Understanding how a country’s political system can either help or hinder its efforts to tackle wicked problems is an important first step in developing effective solutions.

This course introduces students to Italian politics, public policies, and the wicked problems that modern Italy confronts. Consideration will also be given to how these compare with politics and wicked problems in the United States. Students will learn that, although there are important differences, there are also many similarities from which we can draw helpful insights. Topics include immigration and the refugee crisis; the fight against political corruption and organized crime; the challenges of economic development; and efforts to promote environmental sustainability and adapt to climate change. Along the way, students will participate in a series of visits to local public and nongovernmental organizations at the forefront of addressing these problems.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

PSYC 41495 Emotions, Culture & Health

Course Name: PSYC 41495 Emotions, Culture & Health

Description: Emotions are central in all psychological and many physiological processes. Moreover, emotions are robustly evident in daily life in both culture and in health. In this class, we will investigate the science of emotions and health as well as the broader role that emotions play in society. In particular, we will participate in a century-old yet still pressing debate as to the underlying nature of emotion: biological vs. cultural. We will discuss evolutionary and socio-cultural models of emotion as well as observe emotions elicited and expressed in both art and society. Our primary goal: to attempt to resolve this debate based on evidence accumulated throughout the course.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

SPA 44089; EPSY 5/70093 Cognition of Conversation, Miscommunication, & Learning

Course Name: SPA 44089; EPSY 5/70093 Cognition of Conversation, Miscommunication, & Learning

Description: Communication is as much about successful communication as it is about miscommunication. One of the richest aspects of traveling is learning about ourselves and new cultures through interaction - which often happens from miscommunications and cultural differences. Therefore, this course will provide you with knowledge that drives our understanding of the theoretical foundations of cognition, communication, miscommunication, and learning. We will learn about the importance of ambiguity and reference to promote learning through communication and miscommunication. Content learned in this course will increase students interests in communication and cognition, but will also provide insight about how to be better communicate in personal and global communication settings.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

AERN 45250 Aviation Law

Course Name: AERN 45250 Aviation Law

Description: Involves a study of the origins of Western jurisprudence, common law and aviation law as an integral part of law in the U.S. Also introduces international aviation law bilateral agreement as well as U.S. Constitutional law and its amendments as they relate to the structure and process of aviation law. Criminal and civil law as they relate to civil aviation are also addressed. Case studies are included.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

AERN 45791 Aviation Security/Policy

Course Name: AERN 45791 Aviation Security/Policy

Description: Examines policies, practices, procedures and regulatory provisions developed to create and enhance security in civil aviation with a special emphasis on airlines, airports, airspace and agencies responsible for civil aviation security. As a writing intensive course, AERN is designed to address emerging paradigms in civil aviation security through a scholastic approach that emphasizes descriptive analyses in the study of aviation security policy and practice.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: AERN 45250

ARTH 42045 Italian Art from Giotto to Bernini (July Session)

Course Name: ARTH 42045 Italian Art from Giotto to Bernini

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

BSCI 30789 Feasts and Plagues: The Science of Italian Food, Wine and Disease (July Session)

Course Name: BSCI 30789 Feasts and Plagues: The Science of Italian Food, Wine and Disease

Description: This course explores the microbial mechanisms responsible for plagues such as the Black Death as well as for their positive roles in food and wine production. These costs and benefits are explored in Florence, Italy since each is ingrained in the city's history, culture, art, and biology. Course activities include food and wine tastings and field trips to historical sites and museums in Florence and Siena. This course is designed to appeal to students with a wide array of interests in human health and society. Students will analyze genomes of microbes responsible for human disease, discuss ecological and biological factors associated with disease transmission, construct cemetery life tables, discuss the impacts of disease on Italian art, architecture, and culture, master knowledge of the fermentation process, and compare and contrast the microbiomes and environments of vineyards in Tuscany vs. California.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

BSCI 40195 Eye, Brain & Canvas: Perceptions of the Natural World

Course Name: BSCI 40195 Eye, Brain & Canvas: Perceptions of the Natural World

Course Description: Why do we see what we see? Could there be more to see if one looks closely? The course will address different aspect of vision: color, spatial perception, acuity, and various common and uncommon effects. Human vision will be compared to animal vision, and mental images to paintings. Scientific images will be discussed as well. We will talk about the appreciation of nature throughout history, and we will take trips to outdoors and museums and do some experiments.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

BUS 30234 International Business (July Session)

Course Name: BUS 30234 International Business

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: ECON 22060 or ECON 22061

Open to all students with prerequisites.

CCI 40095 Italian Cinema (July Session)

Course Name: CCI 40095 Italian Cinema

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

Open to all students.

CLAS 21405 The Roman Achievement

Course Name: CLAS 21405 The Roman Achievement

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

Kent Core Humanities & Global Diversity

Open to all students.

COMM 35852 Intercultural Communication (July Session)

Course Name: COMM 35852 Intercultural Communication

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

Open to all students.

CRIM 36702 Comparative Issues in Law, Justice and Society

Course Name: CRIM 36702 Comparative Issues in Law, Justice and Society

Course Description: In this course, we will compare European and US legal systems and how they address diversity, human rights, social justice, and punishments in institutions and society covering the medieval era, Renaissance, and modern society. Special focus on the sources of power and justice, social constructions, and conflicts.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

ENG 30095 ST: British Writers in Italy: Poetry, Art, Transnationalism

Course Name: ENG 30095 ST: British Writers in Italy: Poetry, Art, Transnationalism

Description: Nineteenth-century British literature was profoundly shaped by the influence of Italian art, literature, politics, and life. Several authors who are now thought of as “British classics”—Lord Byron, Mary and Percy Shelley, Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning—share a common story. Spurred by political pressure and personal scandals, they all fled conservative England for Italy, where they formed an avant-garde literary circle and wrote many of their most famous works. This course will situate British Romantic and Victorian poetry in its Italian context. Students will gain new perspective on these poets’ canonical works while learning about the Italian literature, visual art, architecture, and political context that inspired and informed them. Students will also have the opportunity to retrace the steps of the authors we are studying, viewing the Italian art and architecture that inspired these authors and visiting the spots where select poems were written.

Throughout this course, students will consider the following questions: Why did these rebellious British poets view Italy as a space of freedom and innovation? How did they understand their own national identity in relation to Italy? And how does the centrality of Italian influence in British poetry complicate our understanding of “national literatures”? By the end of the course, student will have gained a rich understanding of British poetry in its Italian context as well as new perspective on the British literary canon.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

FIN 46064 International Finance

Course Name: FIN 46064 International Finance

Description: Management of the finance function of an international company, including foreign exchange exposure management, foreign investment, short term and long-term capital management and international accounting and taxation. Adapted for presentation in Florence Italy: This course provides an in-depth treatment of modern International Finance with a focus on the European Union. Florence, Italy is an ideal location for this as the late-medieval birthplace of international banking in Europe, and as the nexus for the current struggles of the European Monetary Union. The course’s European focus consists of three main elements: I) history of banking / commerce in Europe, II) the evolution and emergence of the European Monetary Union (EMU) and III) current status and challenges of Italy vs the EU. For the rest of the course, we will examine the various aspects of the parity laws concerning currency as well as their management. We will also examine the concepts of market efficiency, hedging strategies, trading strategies and an introduction to derivatives. Field trips could include visits to the world’s oldest bank, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena and the Borsa Italiana in Milan.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

GEOG 31070 Population and the Environment

Course Name: GEOG 31070 Population and the Environment

Description: Just a generation ago, people worried about a population “bomb” which would flood the world with more people than it could handle. While we are still experiencing tremendous population growth in some places today, we are also seeing population declines and migration influxes in countries where fewer and fewer babies are being born. This course examines the interrelations of population growth, migration, resource depletion and the environment from a geographic perspective. We begin with the major patterns and impacts of population. Then we focus attention on two major factors affecting the European continent, especially Italy. The first is the declining fertility rates, which has transformed Italy into a land of older people and not so many children. What are the reasons for declining fertility and what are the implications of the resulting population decline? The second factor involves changing migration patterns. Italy and many other European countries once exported people to countries like the United States but are now major destinations for peoples from Middle Eastern, African, and Latin American countries in search of better opportunities and relief from conflict. This course will appeal to Environmental Studies majors, Conservation majors, students in Public Health and in many of the social and biological sciences in general.

Credit Hours: 3

Prerequisites: None

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