University of Rochester undergraduates in Italy and on the River Campus will have the opportunity to see and to talk to each other at noon Wednesday, April 6, via a video conference arranged by the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures. Students more than 4,000 miles apart will pioneer the department’s first effort to share information and experiences from Italian Studies in Tuscany, the spring semester program in Arezzo, Italy.
The event will be held in the May Room of Wilson Commons, and the campus community is invited to attend. It is part of Modern Languages and Cultures Week from April 4 to 8 in the College of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering.
Italian Studies in Tuscany offers history, art history, and Italian language at all levels. A unique feature is the “mosaic” course, a group of sequential units that spotlight the many diverse aspects of Italian life and culture. This semester, for example, students are exploring Islam in Italy, the connections between Renaissance Spanish and Italian poetry, Machiavelli and English Renaissance drama, and the building of ancient Rome.
Field trips further enhance the coursework. Students take study visits to Rome, Venice, Pisa, Florence, Siena, San Gimignano, and other locations. They can complete a cluster in Italian studies, or apply the courses toward a minor or interdisciplinary concentration in Italian.
Beth E. Jörgensen, associate professor of Spanish in MLC, will moderate the hour-long discussion from the May Room. In Arezzo, the video conference will be hosted by local Italian faculty and the program director, Donna Logan. They will be joined by visiting Rochester faculty member Donatella Stocchi-Perucchio, who is associate professor of Italian, a native of Arezzo, and founder and executive director of the program.
The College has maintained a formal agreement and exchange with the University of Siena in Arezzo since 1995, and the faculty exchange opportunities enrich both teaching and research. For more information, contact the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures at (585) 275-4251, or go to www.rochester.edu/arezzo.