Location:

Rome, Italy

Program Type:

Study Abroad

Degree Level:

Undergraduate

Term:

Summer

Program Overview

Program Description:

Temple University Rome offers a 4-week Art and Culture Seminar. This six credit graduate seminar is designed to bring together the disciplines of aesthetics and cultural studies. In its interdisciplinary thrust, the seminar is intended to serve as a foundation for advanced study in the human sciences and to reflect the most current trends of thought in post-modern culture.

Graduate and post-doctoral students in fields such as literature, film studies, philosophy, art and social theory are welcome to apply. The seminar, taught in English, entails an intensive program of class work, field trips and guest lectures, and the city of Rome is used extensively as a resource. This seminar topic, Vision and Rationality, focuses on the troubled relation between perception and cognition in three historical moments of Western culture: the Renaissance and the birth of single point perspective; the Baroque and Counter-Reformation; and the postmodern critique of Enlightenment rationality. We speculate about how our culture has been shaped by collaboration and conflict among visual, visionary, ideological and rational ways of knowing the world. The scope of inquiry embraces literary, philosophical, painterly and cinematic texts.
 

Setting Description:

The Temple Rome campus is ideally located in the heart of Rome, in the Villa Caproni, a handsome building facing the Tiber river. Just north of Piazza del Popolo and within walking distance of the lively Spanish Steps and the beautiful Borghese Gardens, the Villa Caproni is convenient to living accommodations, shops, and restaurants. Its facilities include a 16,000-volume library, one of the largest English-language libraries in Rome, a computer center, academic classrooms, extensive art and architecture studios, an art gallery and student lounges.

Additional Program Information

Scholarships:

Yes