aCademiC Catalog 2013-2014 - Lorenzo de Medici

School of Arts & Sciences ROME
will focus on a small selection of his “Italian plays”, including
“Romeo and Juliet” and “The Merchant of Venice”, in order to
see how Shakespeare combined historical evidence and fiction,
past and present, for dramatic effect and social commentary.
Students will work with primary sources; for the same purpose
they may also perform selected scenes. This course allows
students to learn more about Shakespeare’s works and
personality, and about relations between Elizabethan literary
and theatrical culture and Renaissance Italy.
Prerequisites: LIT 150 Survey of Western Literature, or
equivalent
Masters of Italian Cinema: Fellini
MCT 303 R
Cr: 3; Contact hrs: 45
Italian cinema has been extremely influential in the development
of international cinema. Completely reinvented after the Second
World War, the Italian “seventh art” has produced important
directors who have combined an interest in national, social and
political issues with a very strong personal style. The course,
which focuses on a single master for the entire semester,
engages students in close analysis of several films, pertinent
film studies criticism, and a range of interdisciplinary issues.
The master studied this term is one of the most acclaimed
Italian directors, Federico Fellini. Winner of multiple Oscars,
including one for lifetime achievement, Fellini is a true
iconoclast, for whom the adjective “Fellinesque” had to be
invented. The course explores his innovative and bizarre style
which magically blended reality and fantasy, broke common
filmmaking codes, changed cinema history, and continues to
influence cinema. Students will analyze his major themes that
address relationships, family, society, and religion, obtaining a
unique and ironic perspective on Italian culture and society.
Philosophy and Religious
Studies
Western Philosophy
PHR 130 R
Cr: 3; Contact hrs: 45
This course presents major questions and thinkers of western
philosophy. Key methods and terms of philosophical inquiry
are explored. Provides a broad overview of major historical
directions, systems and schools of philosophy in the western
tradition from the pre-Socratics to the present. Discussion
centers upon perennial themes such as the existence of God,
the nature of knowledge, proof and reasoning, and ethics.
Serves as the basis for further courses in philosophy.
Introduction to Italian Philosophy
PHR 185 R
Cr: 3; Contact hrs: 45
The course examines the evolution of the main schools of
Italian philosophical thought beginning with the Middle Ages,
covering the rich philosophical debate in Renaissance Italy, and
reaching the Counter Reformation and the 18th century Age of
Reason. However, since the problems discussed by these Italian
schools of thought emerged in ancient philosophy and are
directly drawn from it, it is initially necessary to review the ideas
of Greek and early Christian philosophies. Key thinkers include
Plato and Aristotle, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Dante,
Petrarch, Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, Machiavelli,
Giordano Bruno and Campanella. The course ends by looking
at the revolutionary philosophical thought that marks the
beginning of the Age of Science and Reason, embodied in Italy
by Galileo Galilei.
Lost Symbolisms: Secret Codes in Western Art
PHR 255 R; Dual listed: ART 255 R
Cr: 3; Contact hrs: 45
The course focuses on the links between artworks and
astrology, alchemy, geometry, numerology, and selected
philosophical themes in Western art between 1300 and 1800.
Art has served various functional and aesthetic purposes
in different cultures and periods. In some eras art has also
embodied a symbolic language, mysterious to the majority
but highly significant to the minority able to read or decode it.
For example, what we may call the secret messages of certain
paintings and sculptures of past centuries can be interpreted in
terms of astrology. A specific field of art history, iconography,
studies subject matter, symbolism, and signification in works
of art. Students use elements of this approach to examine the
fascinating and complex range of meanings that some artworks
were intended to transmit and which can still be recovered.
Religion and Culture in Italy
PHR 284 R
Cr: 3; Contact hrs: 45
This course examines the interaction between culture and
religion in Italy, above all modern Italy. The peninsula has been
the almost uninterrupted home of the Catholic church and the
Vatican State, a factor of great importance for centuries and
still today in the development of Italian culture and society. At
the same time Italy is a relatively young nation, democratic,
industrialized, and multicultural. In the lively Italian cultural
landscape religion can mean oceanic crowds at sanctuaries or
a papal appearance, fierce newspaper debates, small parishes,
and Muslims or Christians praying in rented spaces. Italy,
indeed, epitomizes key issues in religion and culture generally.
Students move between themes of diversity in religious
belief and practice, coexistence of communities, continuity of
tradition and local heritage, the political interface, secularism,
religion in the media and popular culture, national identity,
and educational, social and health policies and activities. The
course exploits the special opportunity to investigate various
religious communities in Rome.
Empowerment
PHR 310 R
Cr: 3; Contact hrs: 45
Empowerment is an internal strength that can be applied to
all parts of a person’s life. The class is a cross-platform format
that focuses on maximizing the individuality of each student
within an interdependent network, and is based on the study
of classical and modern philosophy. Students learn to deal
effectively and positively with those situations where they feel
most disempowered. The ultimate objective of the course is
to initiate the process of maximizing self-motivation, through
purpose, passion, prosperity and peace.
Political Science and
International Studies
Introduction to Political Science
POL 150 R
Cr: 3; Contact hrs: 45
This course will introduce you to the formal study of politics. You
will become familiar with the basic vocabulary of the discipline,
learn about the different ways that political issues are studied
and develop critical reading and thinking. Furthermore, this
course will define basic concepts such as politics, government,
nation, state, types of political systems and development of
political institutions.
Globalization and its Consequences
POL 250 R
Cr: 3; Contact hrs: 45
“Globalization” has been a very popular term in recent years.
Technological change, business strategies, cultural interactions
and other aspects of human activity are occurring more and
more on a planetary scale. The course aims at providing
students with a basic understanding of the complexity of the
phenomenon, by taking a historical approach covering the
entire 20th century, and then focusing on the most recent
political, social and economic processes of the late 20th and
early 21st centuries. The course starts by defining the concept
of globalization and then offers a brief but clear reconstruction
of the trends towards globalization in previous phases of human
history. It will then focus on specific questions: is economic
globalization an inevitable phenomenon or, rather, a reversible
one? Is economic globalization necessarily tied to western
capitalism? Has globalization taken in the past, and could it take
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LdM Academic Catalog 2013-2014