ITAL3647

Building on our study of urban living, neighborhood cultures and traditions, and the decentralized nature of Italian geopolitics in ITAL 1003 and 1004, this global seminar will further explore the history, politics, aesthetics, and current status of urban revitalization, Italian-style, providing a lens through which we can understand the diversity of Italian culture today. While concentrated largely on residential neighborhoods within the Capital, Rome, the seminar includes a three-day excursion to Matera and Alberobello, the former in the central-southern region of Basilicata and the latter in southeastern Puglia, enabling students to consider the implications of two Southern Italian local economies largely dependent on tourism for survival and ponder the sustainability of each area. The seminar culminates in an extended day-long excursions to Naples, which contains the only continually inhabited city center in Italy, and will present a counter-example to the processes of revitalization and neighborhood transition witnessed in Rome and elsewhere, as well as provide an opportunity to synthesize information gathered thus far and apply it in a different context.

Global Perspectives

Every Summer