About the Program

Florence University of the Arts

Apicius: The Culinary Institute of Florence

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Course Requirements (for students enrolled in credit-bearing courses only)

Graduate Courses Offered:

CED 595 Project Seminar
CEH 595/ITL 501 Contemporary Italy
ITL 510 Advanced Conversation and Composition
ITL 581 Independent Study

Under the direction of Dr. Andrea Fedi, students will work individually or in small groups to observe and analyze specific aspects of Italian society, of its culture and language, during the daily activities, the cultural experiences and field trips planned for this program. Students will be directed to use their personal findings and their final projects to create material which will be posted on a University website for future use by language teachers. Digital pictures, encounters with professionals in the food and wine industry, visits to museums and historic sites, will be used to explore and document cultural and linguistic trends in contemporary Italy.

Students will be taking the program for three graduate credits. Final assessment for grading will be based upon completion of the following:

• Class, museum and field trip attendance is mandatory
• A daily journal summarizing visits to museums, monuments and historic sites, as well as workshops, presentations and learning experiences from field trips. Special emphasis should be placed on those ideas and personal discoveries that helped the student define his/her view of Italy and Italian culture.
• A 20-25 page research paper (5000-6000 words). The paper must have the appropriate number of sources and references. Due date for research paper and journal is September 30, 2009. Grade will be communicated within a few weeks from the submission deadline. The following is a list of possible topics:
  
  
  1. "Every painter paints himself" is a Tuscan proverb from the late 1400s, quoted, among others, by famous preacher Savonarola. This statement can be interpreted literally, with reference to self-portraits realized by artists of the Italian Renaissance, often hidden among the characters populating the scenes of their frescoes and paintings. It has also been used by scholars and intellectuals as diverse as Giorgio Vasari and Sigmund Freud, to support a psychological analysis of the lives and works of Italian artists from the 15th- and 16th-century. Discuss the connections between Italian artists and their art, with reference to their works and to modern or older biographies.
  2. Imitation and emulation of the arts and cultural principles of classical antiquity is central to the art and architecture of the Italian Renaissance. However, scholars have often defined the evolution of Renaissance art, as seen in the style of Mannerism and early Baroque, as anti-classical. Discuss the contents and stylistic features of classicism and anti-classicism inside Italian art and architecture of the 16th century.
  3. Modern Italian culture, in its various social and intellectual expressions (the arts, with the inclusion of photography and cinema, literature, Italian cuisine, etc.), often shows an appreciation of traditions and an attachment to the past that is unique in the European context. Discuss the importance of traditions in today's Italy, with reference to specific examples, such as local customs, cultural initiatives revisiting the past, intellectual products, arts and crafts.
  4. Anybody who spends any time in Italy can appreciate how the label "Italian culture" encompasses an astonishing variety of regional and local identities, which become tangible in the streets of Italian cities, inside the diverse offering of museums and exhibitions, and through the different behaviors and languages practiced by Italians of different areas. With reference to the different aspects of Italian culture encountered during this program, discuss the elements that differentiate modern-day Italians from one another, and ideas or customs that show the existence or the ongoing creation of a common national identity.
  5. Upon submission of an abstract or an outline, students can obtain permission to write their paper on a different topic.