INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES &
MEDICAL HUMANITIES IN ITALY
organized by
ITALIAN STUDIES program
, in partnership with:
Center for Ethics /Emory School of Medicine/Center for the Study of Human Health
Summer Program in Italy
May 17 – June 29, 2016
The Italian Studies Program offers students a unique and very intensive authentic, evidence-based immersion into Italian culture, literature, art, history, religion, and current events. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for students of any accredited university or college, offering a very thorough overview of Italy as a country, and of Italy as the cradle of the Western civilization and of the Humanities. This program offers an interdisciplinary study of Italy through the ages with the special participation of faculty from the Center for Ethics, the Center for the Study of Human Health, the School of Medicine, and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Students of all academic disciplines investigate notions of compassion 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 artifacts, commentaries of their times, while exploring the reflections of these past eras in institutions and customs of today. They investigate the historical points of tension and transition throughout 3000 years of continuously developing cultural history and learn to effectively and eloquently articulate their developing thoughts in essays and oral presentations.
After a week in Rome, the group travels throughout all of Italy, not as tourists rather as informed scholars and curious pilgrims contextualizing daily visits within the historical framework of Italian culture. This is a transformative educational journey where the careful study of others allows for critical self-evaluation, both individually and as a society, and for constructive discussions on how
best to engage in the world to come. Through the study of evidence, students learn to become well-versed cultural mediators.
Students benefit by guided visits of over 50 sites and museums, and of over 47 towns and cities including visits to: Orvieto, Pisa, Assisi, Cinque Terre, Siena, Lucca, Montalcino, San Gimignano, Pienza, Florence, Bologna, Ravenna, Padova, Vicenza, Venice, Verona, Naples, Pompeii, Caserta, Sicily, Capri, Paestum, Sorrento, Matera, and many more.
All courses are in English intended for any regularly enrolled college student, pursuing ALL majors, especially for students who have never been to Italy and who wish to have a liberal arts overview of what this country represents today and in the past. For students of Italian, structured full-immersion practical language use occurs daily and will be applicable to future studies.
The for past two years students have enjoyed the unique opportunity of participation in an engaging academic SYMPOSIUM. Topics vary each year, in 2014 it was: The Liminal Space: Illness, Experience, and Place as Transformative.” Liminality, which means “threshold” refers to an in-between state that is neither here nor there. It is an important concept discussed extensively both in studies of religion as well as bioethics that is insightful when approaching the experience of the patient in illness and the transiency of death, for instance. It speaks to the transformative power of place and, as such, is a good descriptor of the experience of students as they are immersed in a different culture that draws them back several centuries. Liminality is a recurrent theme that runs through much of our program in Italy and it will come to a point when our students and guest faculty visit the Tomb of the Diver in Paestum. The Symposium is such a unique learning experience thanks to the participation of significant contributors to the field of business, law, healthcare, and academia, at Emory and around the country.
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COURSES OFFERED SUMMER 2016
ITAL 171W:
Introduction to Italian Culture and Civilization.
Required for all participating student. (Satisfies area HSCW GER).In English with no prerequisites. Visiting cities and towns from the northern Alps to the southern shores of Sicily, an on-site and in-depth exploration of Italian literature, art, architecture, history, cultural and political development throughout the ages, from the early Etruscans,
Phoenicians and Greeks to the Italy we experience today. Group discussion of readings, careful site visits, individual research, and lectures, will lead to a better understanding of how Italy has been geographically, politically and culturally defined and redefined over the centuries, both on a regional and national level. To begin to understand all that Italy has to offer, and to fully grasp the scope of all that Italy has contributed to Western society over the centuries, it is important to academically journey through the development of Italian culture, history, and identity across the whole peninsula and across the three millennia of recorded history. Though almost unanimously students describe this program as the most challenging academic, and often personal, journey they undertake at Emory, they also all conclude that it is an invaluable and transformative experience, developing personal and academic maturity, and amongst the best of their academic career. Students see this program as an experience that changes their perspectives on the meaning of traveling to foreign countries, a journey that taught them how to learn about other cultures, and ultimately, an experience that gave them a deeper understanding of self and of one’s own culture and country.
Reflecting on Italy’s cultural achievements, besides perfecting valuable critical thinking and expository writing skills, will help you reflect upon your own cultural heritage and begin to envision and articulate the type of cultured society of which you want to be a part.
Sound mind in sound body!!
Besides participating in 44 days of daily site and museum visits plus numerous opportunities for outdoor activities as hiking, biking, and swimming, all students will take another four-credit hr. course selected from the following two options:
HEALTH 385R / ITAL 375R: Medical Humanities: Medicine and Compassion
. [Dr. Ruth Parker, Emory School of Medicine](satisfies area HAP of GER). 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. During the month of April there will be a mandatory preliminary hospital shadowing experience.
REL 358/ITAL 376R/Ethics: Religion, Science, Ethics.
[Prof. Labrecque, Center for Ethics, Prof. Eisen, Biology and IDS] (satisfies HSC of GER) In English with no prerequisites.
Why do you believe what you do? Where do you get your evidence, and how do you decide what counts? What roles do science and religion play here? Much of modern Western science and medicine – as well as their relationship with religion – has deep roots in Italy. Over the course of our six weeks, we will explore how religious perspectives on human nature, suffering, compassion, and healing speak to a whole person experience of illness that goes beyond the limits (however
important) of material existence. Students will become adept in drawing out – and critically evaluating – relevant connections between what they will come to know about Italian history and culture (from ITAL 171W) and what they will take up in this class about the contributions of the religions to the art of healing and to science as we know it. Students will acquire the intellectual tools to actively participate in interdisciplinary discussions on the major themes that we will explore over the course of term, while being especially attentive to the complex interaction of religion, science, medicine, and ethics.
Ethicist Margaret Somerville argues that “the learning or methodologies of any one discipline are too confining to enable us to deal with the complexity of many of the most important and urgent societal issues, in particular, to do ethics properly in relation to these issues.” The venue of this course will impress upon students that integration and constructive analysis give way to a learning that is both engaged and engaging. Moving about the Italian landscape, we will gather threads of cultural knowledge to weave together the intricate narrative of a people and place where religion, compassion, healing, and ethics are at the foundation of lived experience.
Citing from an upcoming article in which he is co-author, Prof. Cory Labrecque, Emory Center for Ethics, states:
“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.”
Other themes developed carefully over a 44-day academic pilgrimage:
1) What is the language of art? What is the function and place of art in a culture? What is the life of a work of art and architecture? Should everyone be allowed access or is "art" for an "elite"? What is our responsibility with regards to our cultural heritage?
What lessons on life, beauty, and truth can we learn through the study of the Arts?
2) Eros & Zanatos: Life, Death and Love in Italian culture, history and daily expression. Parallel to this consider the meaning of "virtue", and living a "virtuous life", both in spiritual as well as civic terms. What does it mean to live virtuously at an individual and a societal level?
3) The historical problem of the meaning of Nation in Italy: Is Italy a Nation or a group of Regions - what is the meaning of City, State, People, Nation in Italy? Is Italian unity only a memory of a past Empire? What defines the diversity within Italy and what instead are the elements that create a sense of unity? How can you compare this with your own experience of a nation and of the responsibilities of governing bodies?
4) Water as a constant metaphor in the cultural development of Italy.
What role does water play in all expressions – past, present, and future - of our lives? (geography, agriculture, art, beauty, power, trade, religion, relaxation, healing, hygiene, waste, etc.).
What are our responsibilities to ensure a sustainable future for all humanity?
Emory Tuition
for 8 credit hours: $9,160
Program Fee
covering all expenses
except for
airfare, all lunches and some dinners: $3,350
Total
: $12,510
For videos of the program visit: http://www.italianvirtualclass.com/travel.php
