THE “OUTWARD BOUND” OF SUMMER PROGRAMS!
NO PRIOR KNOWLEDGE OF ITALIAN REQUIRED, NO PREREQS.
For those who do speak some Italian there is ample opportunity for immersion practice.
This program is excellent for students of ALL disciplines and majors and from ANY accredited college.
Program welcomes graduate students as well.
To learn more and ask questions about Summer study abroad opportunities please contact the program director or program T.A. and attend Info Session on November 17, 8:00pm.
Academic Focus: Italian Language & Cultural Studies, BioEthics, Medical Humanities, with special participation of the School of Medicine and Center for Ethics. This program is open to ALL majors, but may be particularly suitable to students with academic interests in the healthcare fields, in Law or Business, or service related fields suited to those with a humanities background.
Eligibility Requirements: Minimum 2.5 GPA; good academic standing; at least 18 years of age; completion of a full year of college; and currently enrolled in a college/university. GRADUATE students welcome.
Application Deadlines: Applications will be accepted starting December 1st, 2016.
The application deadline is March 1, 2017. Program fills quickly, apply early!!
Program Information: The Italian Studies Summer Program offers ALL COLLEGE students a unique and very intensive authentic immersion into Italian language & culture, literature, art, history, religion, healing traditions, cultural mores and current events. Created and taught by natives, this program teaches students to explore the multiple paths of communication with “others” through guided authentic immersion, ultimately giving them an enhanced global vision and a better sense of personal role within that vision. This is a once in a lifetime, transformative opportunity for students of any accredited university or college.
Program offers a very thorough overview of Italy as a country, and of Italy as the cradle of the Western civilization and of the Humanities, while deriving from this important lessons for those interested in pursuing the Health Sciences or other professional or service tracks. Our academic travel through all of Italy offers an interdisciplinary study of Italy through the ages, incorporating the perspectives of Italian cultural interdisciplinary studies and medical humanities with the special participation of faculty from the Center for Ethics and from Schools of Medicine & Public Health.
Students of all academic disciplines investigate notions of compassion, mercy, and charity as civic and religious virtues illustrated through Italian history, art, literature, social institutions, current events, and daily life. They learn to critically analyze works of art and of literature as cultural commentaries of their times and to explore the reflections of these past eras in the public institutions and civic practices of today. Students investigate the historical points of tension and transition throughout 3000 years of continuously developing cultural history and develop the critical tools to effectively and eloquently articulate their maturing thoughts in essays and oral presentations.
After a week of immersion in Rome learning the historical/cultural context for all that we see and study, the group travels meaningfully throughout all of Italy, constantly contextualizing daily visits within the historical framework of Italian culture. Students benefit by native-guided visits of over 50 sites and museums, and of over 47 towns and cities including visits to: Orvieto, Pisa, Assisi, Cinque Terre, Siena, Montalcino, San Gimignano, Pienza, Lucca, Florence, Ravenna, Padova, Vicenza, Venice, Verona, Naples, Pompeii, Sicily, Capri, Paestum, Sorrento, Matera, and many more.
All courses are in English and intended for ALL regularly enrolled college student, pursuing ANY major, especially appropriate for students who have never been to Italy and who wish to have an academic overview of what this country represents today and in the past. For students of Italian, structured full-immersion practical language use occurs daily. Program welcomes graduate students.
In 2017 students will enjoy the unique opportunity to engage in an academic SYMPOSIUM around the topics of, Communicating Through the Arts: Lessons for Medicine and Public Health. They will benefit by the participation of prominent contributors to the field of healthcare, at Emory and at other major medical institutions in the US.
Click here to view a video clips of moments of fun and beauty on a typical summer program: http://www.italianvirtualclass.com/travel.php
Courses:
All students take the two 4-credit courses offered. Courses count towards the Italian Studies major or minor and as elective credit for many other departments/programs. Ask program director for further information.
1) BIOETHICS 505. Intro to Italian Culture: HEALING THROUGH THE LENS OF ITALIAN CULTURE
Required for all participating students. In English with no prerequisites.
Rome, a city whose global significance has remain pre-eminent for the formation of Western civilization for well over 2,000 years, originated at a bend of the Tiber river that at its center has an island. Popular lore, early historical narratives, and archeological evidence identify primitive settlement of the Tiber island as a place of isolation, a place to separate those afflicted with infectious diseases. The characteristics of the island: isolated, ventilated, close to fresh flowing water, and in contact with the ancient Greek healing site of Epidaurus, from where came the god of Medicine, Aesculapius, speak to us of a very early identification of ideal climatic/geographical and environmental qualities conducive to healing. Further down the banks of the Tiber river there is the ancient Hospital of the Holy Spirit, which speaks of a long tradition of societal focus on healing as a commonly defined value, rooted in civic and religious engagement. Much of Western world’s cultural heritage was produced in Italy, and much of modern Western science and medicine, and their relation to religion, are deeply rooted in this “crossroads of the Mediterranean”. Healing will be an important metaphor through which we think about our daily journeys. Through pedagogy of place, also known as experiential learning, learners – or pilgrims as we are all called – immerse themselves in the beauty and challenges of Italian geography, heritage, history, art and architectures, urban planning, cityscapes and landscapes, religion, and literature. As we travel across the whole country we examine evidence in order to delve deeper into understanding why we believe what we do? What does the society we wish to live in look like? What values sustain a balanced world? Culture may be examined through many lens and we will examine practices and culture of peoples challenged to coexist despite diversity and adversity over the span of ca. 3000 years. During this pilgrimage, you will learn to read visual and textual cultural renditions of common themes such as: charity, compassion, joy, sorrow, suffering, life, death, strength, defeat, valor and virtue, analyzing and contextualizing them within time and place, while evaluating them as temporal or eternal virtues by which we wish to be guided.
Besides participating in 44 days of daily site and museum visits plus numerous opportunities for outdoor activities as hiking, biking and swimming.
A truly sound mind in sound body transformative experience!
2) BIOETHICS 505. Medical Humanities: MEDICINE, COMPASSION, & THE ARTS
Required for all participating students. In English with no prerequisites.
What does it mean to practice medicine with compassion? How does this differ from the practice of medicine without compassion? How does a society balance social and moral responsibilities with regards to the less fortunate when such people are arriving and existing in Italy beyond the administrative structures of the country? What are the parameters of responsibilities with regards to exercise of compassion within one’s immediate society and one’s nation? This course is especially designed for students with an interest in medicine or public health, and will focus on compassion as it relates to the practice of medicine. Students will examine historical and recent writings from the medical humanities as we work to understand the meaning of compassion and how it affects the care and health of people. We will also look at renditions of compassion in Italian art, attempting to understand what various artists sought to communicate about compassion, suffering, and healing. Furthermore, we will investigate the ramifications of the recent phenomenon of illegal immigration into Italy and how Italians reconcile moral responsibilities with civic expectations. The course will include readings, writing, and seminar presentations by participants, as we work to understand how each student’s compassion relates to their interest in medicine and health.
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Citing from an article of which he is co-author, Prof. Cory Labrecque (formerly of Emory Center for Ethics) states about this program: “As participants have learned in their on-site study of Italian history and culture, the arts and the humanities can help demystify the experiences of death, dying, and suffering by providing both countless examples of lives that have preceded us, an endless array of exemplars as well as a forum for discussion. The need to carve out a niche for constructive engagement with these themes reminds us that our contemporary world is not only uncomfortable with conversations that speak about human fragility and finality, but is increasingly ill-at-ease about investing the self wholly in dialogue altogether; there is neither the time nor the place to talk about such deep and abiding existential questions in the whirlwind pace of the environment in which we live. So it is that we find ourselves by the bedside of those who are suffering and dying where patient, health care professional, and visiting relatives struggle with how to be present to one another in their vulnerability. Bereft of a forum for death-talk, we are – in the end – speechless in the face of so universal an experience.”
For students who have completed 101+102 in Italian and would like the opportunity to put their language skills into practice we offer the Italian language immersion pledge opportunity. This consists of about 2 hours of intense language practice per day and some follow-up work. Though credit is not assigned, there is the chance for advance placement for those who take the pledge seriously.
Living Arrangements: Hotel accommodations in double rooms with private bathrooms are included in cost of room and board. Furthermore, all breakfasts and most dinners are also included.
Financial Aid/Scholarships: Please contact the Office of Financial Aid for information about assistance on an Emory program abroad during the summer. Be sure to specify that you are taking Masters classes that will count towards your undergraduate credit total. Emory Scholars are informed separately about the procedures for Scholars Summer Study Abroad awards. Emory University Employee Courtesy Scholarships may be applied to the academic fee portion of the summer study abroad program’s cost.
Students on this program may be eligible to apply for the following scholarships:
1) Aquinas Center of Theology Summer Study Abroad Scholarship, for Catholic students.
2) Davidson Medicine and Compassion Scholar Award, for students going into healthcare.
3) I.V.C. Italian Virtual Class Award, for any student who has taken Italian language classes with us.
Program Resources:
Orientation: This summer study abroad program will have 4 mandatory pre-departure orientation sessions and/or other pre-departure activities for accepted program participants. Students from other institutions are accommodated during those sessions through Skype. The Program Director will contact program participants with details.
Contacts:
Judy Raggi-Moore, Program Director, langjrm@emory.edu
Ruth Parker, School of Medicine Faculty, rpark01@emory.edu
Ali Capriles, T.A. alessandra.capriles@emory.edu
PreHealth Mentoring Office 