Romance Language & Literature (LLRO)

This course is designed to open the door into the world of Romance Languages and Literatures at Notre Dame. Over the four-week session, students will be able to explore new cultures, learn new languages, and engage in an international community. Each week, students will view ab authentic, culturally relevant movie followed by two 60-minute meetings on Zoom-a discussion about the movie in English and an hour of interactive and fun elementary language activities. Each week focuses on one of the four main languages offered in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures: French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. No prior language is necessary

The principal aims of this beginning-level Quechua Language course are to encourage the development of competency and proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, writing, and to generate cultural understanding. LLRO 10101 is followed by LLRO 10102.

The principal aims of this beginning-level Quechua Language course are to encourage the development of competency and proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, writing, and to generate cultural understanding. LLRO 10102 is followed by 20201.

This course introduces students to the vivid, sonorous language of Kreyòl, or Creole, and to the fascinating culture of its speakers. This intensive, beginning-level course is intended for students with no knowledge of Creole. In small-group teaching sessions, students will be prepared for conversational fluency with basic reading and writing skills, emphasizing communicative competence as well as grammatical and phonetic techniques. Our study of Kreyòl is closely linked to our anthropological exploration of how the language is tied to Caribbean society and culture. The course takes a holistic, anthropological approach to the history, political economy, and religion of Haiti. In addition to class work, audio recordings, music and video enhance the study of the Haitian language and culture.

Creole is spoken by an estimated seventeen million people. Creole is spoken on the islands of the Caribbean and the western Indian Ocean that were former or current French colonial possessions and in the countries where many of these former island residents have emigrated, including the United States, Canada, France, Dominican Republic, Bahamas and other parts of Latin America and the Caribbean. Haitians are the largest Creole speech community of approximately eleven and a half million speakers. Creole language courses provide a valuable foundation for Notre Dame faculty, staff and students working to understand and address critical issues related to Haiti and the Francophone world, from language and culture to history and education, from engineering to public health. Creole language and literature are of increasing interest in the dynamic field of Francophone studies. Creole has also become a major area in the field of linguistics, especially in areas of language evolution, sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology. This is a three-credit introductory language course. The instructor will balance both spoken and written Creole as well as exercise reading and listening.

LTBC is an interdisciplinary and experiential-learning 1 credit course on refugee issues and basic principles of foreign language pedagogy (how to teach a foreign language). Its purpose is to teach you about refugee crises in the world, and provide you with the knowledge and professional development needed to work as coaches/teaching assistants in language courses for refugees. Open to students who will have at least a 102 level by the end of the Spring 2023 semester. Co-taught by Tiziana Serafini and Suzanne Shanahan, Director of the Center of Social Concerns. A selected number of students from the LTBC course will be given the possibility to work as teaching assistants with Professor Serafini in a Basic Italian course that will be offered in the Summer of 2023 to African refugees planning to study in Italian universities.

This course is for learners who have not taken Quechua before and are starting as complete beginners. Each year, a native Quechua speaker on the Fulbright program come to ND to be the instructor for the Quechua sections. Students will practice the four main linguistic skill areas: reading, writing, listening, and speaking in the context of learning about the Quechua people, culture in the Andes mountains, and more.

Building on Quechua I foundations, students will continue to practice the four main linguistic skill areas: reading, writing, listening, and speaking by building vocabulary, engaging in role plays and simulated conversations, writing for the purpose of achieving tasks, and gist listening. Each year, a native Quechua speaker on the Fulbright program come to ND to be the instructor for the Quechua sections. Students can expect authentic learning from a cultural ambassador to round out their foundations of learning the Quechua language.

This course is for learners who have completed Beginning Quechua I and II. As a traditionally spoken indigenous language, learners of Quechua often focus most on speaking and listening skills. This class will build on the foundations covered in the first year of Quechua courses and continue to incorporate grammar structures with limited activities related to reading or writing in Quechua. Primary attention will be placed on listening comprehension and speaking/pronunciation. Repeatable for advanced learners.

This course is for learners who have completed Beginning Quechua I and II. Although Quechua is a traditionally spoken indigenous language, reading and writing can be empowering and important for documenting endangered languages. This class will build on the foundations covered in the first year of Quechua courses and incorporate literature authored by Quechua people. Repeatable for advanced learners.

This is a topics course that covers a variety of cultural learning lectures and discussions related to the Quechua indigenous people. Led by our visiting Fulbright instructor, participants will have the opportunity to gain authentic insights, perspectives, and experiences from a Quechua person. Conducted in English, no Quechua language proficiency required.

An introduction to the seminar method of instruction, emphasizing the analysis of literary texts.

This course is intended for students who have completed Beginning level Creole or who have attained equivalent competence in the language. In small-group teaching sessions, students will be prepared for conversational fluency with basic reading and writing skills, emphasizing communicative competence as well as grammatical and phonetic techniques. Our study of Kreyòl is closely linked to our exploration of how the language is tied to Caribbean society and culture. Evaluation of student achievement and proficiency will be conducted both informally and formally during and at the conclusion of the course. Those looking to develop or improve their language skills are welcome to the class. The program is designed to meet the needs of those who plan to conduct research in Haiti or in the Haitian diaspora, or who intend to work in a volunteer or professional capacity either in Haiti or with Haitians abroad.

This course is intended for students who have taken one semester of Intermediate Creole Language and Culture. In small-group teaching sessions, students will be prepared for conversational fluency with enhanced reading and writing skills, emphasizing communicative competence as well as grammatical variety and phonetic acumen. Our study of Kreyòl is integrated with an exploration of how the language is tied to Haitian society, culture, economy and politics and history. Evaluation of student achievement and proficiency will be conducted both informally and formally during and at the conclusion of the course. Those looking to develop or improve their language skills are welcome to the class. The program is designed to meet the needs of those who plan to conduct research in Haiti or in the Haitian diaspora, or who intend to work in a volunteer or professional capacity either in Haiti or with Haitians abroad.

What are cities, and how do they work? How do present (and how will future) societies respond to the challenges of pollution, sustainable development, exploitation of natural resources, equal access to infrastructure, education and welfare, human rights, food production and distribution, and energy consumption? This course welcomes students to reflect on these questions and respond to these challenges through the emerging field of urban ethics. Through lectures and readings, we will ask: 1.) Can we define an “ancient urban ethics?" 2.) Which disciplines are involved in urban ethics, and what strategies—from environmental to social ethics—should inform it? 3.) What policies, planning documents, and environmental and information technologies from the past and present can we avail from around the world to understand urban ethics? To ground our discussions, we will read excerpts from classical literature, philosophy, and cross-disciplinary works. We will also engage resources including maps, drawings, art, photographs, and videos. As we will discover through discussion and participation, urban ethics is a field in which everyone is involved.

At the turn of the twentieth century the US experienced one of the largest immigration waves in its history. Millions of Italian immigrants who made their way through Ellis Island at the time would leave a permanent imprint on the American landscape and social texture, just as the American experience would shape their identity. This course explores in an interdisciplinary way the many cultural aspects that define Italian-Americans, including religion, language, family structure and gender roles, traditions and celebrations, cuisine, political and social worldview, and artistic representations. The aim of this course is for students to analyze how these cultural facets created the Italian-American identity.

In the intricate and interconnected society of the Late Middle Ages in the Mediterranean Basin (12th-15th Centuries), the short story emerged as a dominant literary genre, transcending cultural and geographic boundaries. The Mediterranean’s bustling commercial networks served as a conduit for stories, knowledge, and people, bridging distant shores. During this era, Italians held sway as the Mediterranean’s foremost commercial and naval power, a dominance reflected in the multitude of short story collections written from the 12th to the 14th Centuries. Figures like Giovanni Boccaccio, Franco Sacchetti, and Giovanni Sercambi skillfully portrayed the sociological, geographical, historical, and psychological intricacies of this cultural crossroads. The short story explored diverse themes, including courtly love, the Crusades, the interplay of the three Monotheistic Religions, class struggles, varied perspectives on women’s roles from Spain to the Arabic domains, and encounters between different cultures. This genre provided a window into the era’s multifaceted facets. This course aims to delve into the historical tapestry of the multiethnic and multicultural Italian peninsula during the Late Middle Ages. Through Italian short stories, we will explore its cultures, geography, and traditions, gaining insights into this captivating period.

The course is offered as a S/U grade course. This course facilitates and promotes meaningful civic engagement with the city of Rome; as such, it has been designated as a Community-engaged learning Course. Community-engaged learning (CEL) is a form of experiential education that integrates community engagement with instruction and reflection, deepening and enhancing the learning that takes place both in and outside the classroom. Themes for this course will vary by semester. Examples include: Migration and Refugee crisis in Italy; the Italian Education system from a comparative perspective. Through guided readings, visits to local organizations, and interactions with experts in the field, students will have the opportunity to engage with timely topics from multiple perspectives. This one-credit course does not count towards the Italian Major or Minor.

This class is dedicated to the contemplation and analysis of American (in the hemispheric sense) narratives that trace the trajectory of outbreaks of widespread illness to their subsequent mitigation. A major source of reflection and analysis will be the instructors experience nursing in an ICU during the first and second COVID-19 surges in New York City. Drawing upon literature, film, philosophy, history, and medical science, the focus will be on medicine and healing as a hinge point between politics and life. The class will analyze medicine as power; specifically, in what Michel Foucault described as biopower or ?making live and letting die.? In short, we will study theories, practices and stories of healing. However, instead of focusing on European texts such as Bocaccios The Decameron (1353), Shelley's The Last Man (1826), or Albert Camus's The Plague (1947), this class draws on the tensions between the Eurocentric canon and its deconstruction in the Americas (Machado de Assis, Bellatin, Cuarón, Poe, Cazals, Porter). These tensions manifest at the points where bare life and political life converge, where class, race, geography, and the economics of healing complicate an intervention so simple as quarantine. Nevertheless, and as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us, some whose daily circulation provide essential goods and services to society cannot afford to quarantine, and it is their stories that fall outside the scope of Europe's literary grasp.

EURO 30219: "Societal Challenges in Europe: Global Responses to a Changing World" (3 credits) Prof. Maro Grazzi Economic policy affects us all. That is why the best approach to solving the challenges that arise from it is an interdisciplinary one. From political science to economics to global affairs, each discipline offers something to this conversation that transcends national borders. Traditionally, they have operated in silos, but this course seeks to bring them together to address six multidisciplinary challenges facing contemporary society, including: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 (𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐝) 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞-𝐨𝐟𝐟 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲/𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲— How do societies balance the need for efficiency with a view to preventing or reducing inequality? Is this perceived trade-off actually a trade-off? 𝐊𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐥𝐞𝐝𝐠𝐞, 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡: 𝐚 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧-𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡 — What is the root of innovation? How do external motivators and intrinsic motivations interact to stimulate growth? What is the role of government in these questions, and how has the European Union approached them? 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 — How can we protect the environment and ensure a thriving ecosystem for generations to come while meeting our socio-economic needs? What is the relationship between sustainability and innovation in today’s rapidly evolving green tech market? 𝐑𝐨𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐬, 𝐀𝐈, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 — To what extent will the rapid iteration of AI technology affect the world of work? How is the deployment of generative AI unique compared to previous automation movements? 𝐆𝐥𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐥 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬, 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐝𝐲𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐜𝐬 — How do nations and businesses fit a value chain that occurs across borders? 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐦 𝐡𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐢𝐭𝐲, 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐲, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐩 — How does the growing wage gap, even across firms in the same sector, relate to questions of inequality? Students will learn about how the European Union is addressing each challenge, as well as offering space for reflection on global responses. Students will come away from the course with a strong understanding of how Europe and the world see each topic and the implications for future policy decisions, ethics, and diplomacy.

In this class you will learn how to interpret a variety of genres and media in different styles and modes of analysis. Not only will you gain proficiency in the traditional French explication de texte, but we will explore various modes of critique, including feminist, post-colonial, and eco-critical frameworks. Through a series of short composition and presentation assignments, you will strengthen your skills in debate and argument in spoken and written French. While one of the aims will be your apprenticeship in close reading, the primary objective will be exploring the rhetorical tools that will empower you to effectively share your perspective with others.

Creole is the quintessential language of migration. This elective explores the multidirectional interplay of Creole narrative expression and transnational migration. How do Creole texts imagine and influence the experiences of migration, long-distance belonging and immigrant settlement? How, in turn, does the changing experience of diaspora affect the evolution of the vernacular at home (lakay)? In what ways do Creole writers and performers express struggles with xenophobia and racism abroad and oppression and poverty in Haiti? We engage these questions through study of Creole fiction, poetry, theatre, story telling and music. Among the Creole works we explore are the novels and poetry of Maude Heurtelou, Felix Morriseau-Leroi, Baudelaire Pierre, Patrick Sylvain and Denizé Lauture, stories by Jean-Claude Martineau and Kiki Wainwright, musical lyrics of Emeline Michele, Beethova Obas, Ti Corn and Wyclef Jean and Rap Kreyòl groups like Barikad Crew. The class is intended for students who have completed Intermediate Creole II or have reached the equivalent level of competence in speaking, reading and writing the language.

Italian literature and cinema have sought throughout the modern era to give testimony and bear witness to the crises of Italian history and society. This course aims to explore the role of the witness and the function of testimony in the representation of the crises of modern Italian society, including Fascism, the Mafia, and Terrorism. Analyzing literature and cinema that bear witness to the anti-Fascist Resistance, the Holocaust, the victims of Mafia violence, and Terrorist attacks, in this course, you will consider questions such as: Who is the witness of the event? Can a fictional character bear witness? What kind of testimony can the witness provide? Can testimony objectively define the event even as it reflects the subjective position of the witness? What are the meanings and the implications of the witness's narration? What role do we, as readers and viewers, have in the testimonial narrative? Together, we will reflect on the political, social, and ethical implications of testimony in the modern age. Among the texts and films we will consider in this course are works by Marco Bellocchio, Italo Calvino, Giacomo Debenedetti, Marco Tullio Giordana, Ada Gobetti, Liana Millu, Carlo Levi, Primo Levi, Leonardo Sciascia, and Michele Soavi

Cinema and hospitality in a broad sense: how do films embody the art of welcoming, of hosting, of including and caring? Three months after his election in 2013, Pope Francis visited the Island of Lampedusa (Italy), one of the world’s deadliest forefronts of the humanitarian catastrophe often referred to as the global “refugee crisis.” He denounced the “globalization of indifference” in which no one wants to take responsibility for “our brothers and sisters” migrants who suffer and die. Ten years later, while the Pope is again addressing the “crisis” in Marseilles, in the month of August 2023 alone, 2,095 “migrants” have lost their lives in their attempts to cross the Mediterranean Ocean. Through a general concept of “hospitality,” our class will offer a holistic, cinematic approach to a world scene in which an unprecedented number of individuals are forced to flee their homes. We will focus on the (extremely) old notion of hospitality (a decisively matrixial one) and analyze films that put this concept at their core both formally and narratively. One critical goal will be to explore the various cultural understandings and practices that forge the highly cultural, both idiosyncratic and universal art of inviting, including, unconditionally hosting, and caring for the guest, the stranger, the child, the unknown. An ideal of protection, empathy, and compassion without which there is no responsibility, no ethics, all concepts that are the cornerstone of a feminist ethics that will nourish our research. This class will, in most parts, consist of seminar discussions and lectures. Two written assignments, group work, oral presentations as well as active participation in our class will constitute the basic requirements.

This is a three-credit foundational course for students interested in studying about Rome. The course is designed to satisfy the University of Notre Dame's literature, history, and fine arts requirement (old and new core). Students in this course build a foundation for understanding Rome's twenty-eight centuries of history through its cultural production (architectural, artistic, cinematic, and literary) by studying the complexity of its urban network; by examining the ruins of antiquity and the splendors of Renaissance, Baroque and Neoclassical art and architecture; by tracing the epic adventure that reunited Italy and led to the establishment of Rome as its capital, so that today it is at the heart of both the Italian Republic and the Vatican; by revisiting the tragedies of modern times, including fascism and the civil war; and by learning about the Rome of postwar and contemporary Italy. A writing intensive course, at the end of the semester students submit a research paper on a topic of his or her choosing. Taught in English.

"Civilizations, Nations and Identities in Modern Europe aims to examine European modern history of civilizations, nationalism, religions, identities and ideologies through symbols and facts, in the field of social and cultural studies, with particular attention to many elements related to the social and cultural life of people, in their own environment. The cultural international history approach devotes particular attention to the period between 15th and 20th centuries, putting emphasis on the "delay of modernity" in Eastern Europe compared to West as well as to modernization factors (urbanization, centralization, cultural standardization, women empowerment)." Taught In English.

The course outlines cultural, historical and social factors have contributed to the development of fashion in Italy. After a short introduction about the birth of modern fashion in Europe, the focus is on the development of Italian fashion from 1950 up to the 2000 in comparison with other western fashion styles in France, the United Kingdom, and in the U.S.A. The historical and analytical framework will enable students to acquire a sophisticated understanding of the diachronic and synchronic developments of fashion and the key reasons why fashion is now recognized as an integral part of cultural history all over the world.

From country pastor to cathedral villain, from merciful bishop to weaselly lecher, the image of the Roman Catholic priest in French culture is nothing if not versatile. But what purpose does that versatility serve? Is the image of the priest simply all things to all people as a matter of utility, an easy target - for good or for ill - that provides to authors, artists, or directors a shortcut to a good laugh or to a character that their audience will love to hate? This course will explore the image of the priest in France from the Middle Ages to the present day in its varied manifestations in literature, film, and art. We will examine what the broad spectrum of representations reveals about the state of the French Church at any given moment in history, about the theology of the priesthood, or about clericalism and anticlericalism in a political or social context. In a moment when the meaning of the priesthood in the Catholic Church and beyond continues to be contested, a study of the French context will yield a deeper understanding of the priest and his role as an embodiment of the Church and its authority. Taught in English, with course materials available both in English and the original French.

The class will explore the representation of Islam and Muslims in Italian culture from the Middle Ages to the present, and will investigate how the perception of Islam has influenced and shaped the Italian identity. The course will start with an examination of the representation of the Islamic "other" in medieval Italian literature, especially in Dante's Divine Comedy and Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron. Besides literature, we will also explore the impact of medieval Islamic architecture in Southern Italy, especially in Sicily. We will then deal with the Italian Renaissance and analyze both the relationship between Christian and Muslim characters in epic poems by authors such as Ludovico Ariosto and Torquato Tasso, and the representation of the mori ("Moors") in some of the most relevant Italian paintings of the 15th and 16th centuries. We will then investigate nineteenth-century Italian culture, through the analysis of some influential lyric operas of the time. Finally, we will deal with the representation of the relationship between Italians and Muslims in 20th- and 21st-century Italian films and narratives by directors and writers such as Mohsen Melliti, Igiaba Scego, and Amara Lakhous. Students will appreciate how Islam has deeply influenced Italian culture and how Italy, a center of Mediterranean culture, has been meaningfully linked with Islam throughout the centuries. Students will develop an understanding of Italy in a global context thereby increasing their intercultural competency. Taught in English.

By reading works that range from St. Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of the Creatures to the existential meditations of Giacomo Leopardi, this course explores how nature—and by extension, the natural order—was conceived and imagined within the Italian peninsula, from the Middle Ages to the Romantic period. We will trace the continuities and evolution of nature as a literary, philosophical, and theological idea and ask how past perspectives can inform our thinking about nature and its associated problems today. Questions to be pursued include: what is nature to begin with, and what parts of reality does it encompass? To what extent does it ground human ethics and craft? What trials and perils do humans face in their efforts to know, to master, and to care for, all things that move and grow? Do natural disasters and other forms of cosmic disarray threaten our belief in the order and goodness of the natural realm? And how do our representations of nature and its inhabitants shape our understanding of them and ultimately, of ourselves?

This course explores the rich traditions of travel writing about Italy, covering the Renaissance through contemporary times. Through readings of major authors—including Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), Lord Byron (1788-1824), Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851), Stendhal (1783-1842), Mark Twain (1835-1910), Henry James (1843-1916), Edith Wharton (1862-1937), D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930), Mary McCarthy (1912-1989), and contemporary travel writers—students will explore how Italy has been imagined, experienced, and portrayed. Topics include cultural encounters in Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples, and Milan, the artistic inspirations drawn from Italy's immense architectural and artistic heritage, the Grand Tour, the evolution of travel to Italy as a literary genre, and cinematic interpretations of the journey to Italy theme ("Journey to Italy" [1954], directed by Roberto Rossellini; "Roman Holiday" [1953], directed by William Wyler, etc.). The course combines historical perspectives with close textual analysis, investigating how the journey to Italy has influenced European and global literary and cultural traditions.

In this special course designed for inquisitive international economics / romance language majors, students will attend a number of lectures, panels, and seminars on campus during the semester, with a follow-up discussion for each led by either a visitor or a member of the economics or romance languages faculty. Before each session, students will be expected to complete a short reading assignment. At each follow-up session, the students will submit a 1-2 page summary and analysis of the talk, with a critical question for discussion. The goal is to encourage students to enrich their major experience by participating in the intellectual discussions that occur amongst ND and visiting scholars across the campus, distinguished alumni, and professionals in the field.

This course is a cultural and critical history of the East India Company: its evolution, its transformations, and its cultural impact, from the city of London to the consolidation of the modern world economy. The East India Company is a curious institutional formation. The result of private merchant consolidation, it actively engaged in the work of the overseas expansion of state power. Conceived as an organ of political economy (namely, trade), it was at the same time a war machine, with private security that morphed into militias and ultimately a colonial force that can only be described as a conquering army. The Company’s power was so massive in scale that the commodity chains that it articulated would transform the human shape of the globe, and so intimate that they would transform everyday London life in ways that ranged from culinary taste to fashion. When we hear the cliché about the sun never setting on the British Empire, what we are really sensing is the echo of the material reach of the Company. The largest prize in the tragic history of violence that we call colonization—India—was both captured and administered by the Company. But the East India Company’s operations moved in all directions, south to Africa, out to East Asia, and west to the Americas, which it also approached from the east, across the Pacific. Working to expand the reach of the crown through its chartered monopolies, at times it stood as the crown’s chief rival for political, economic, and military power.

Is it possible to understand the immense phenomenon of Rome in a semester of site visits, historical studies, literary readings, film viewings and lectures? Of course not. Nevertheless, students in this course will start to understand Rome by experiencing the complexity of its urban network; by studying the ruins of antiquity and the splendors of Renaissance, Baroque and 18th Century Rome; by tracing the epic adventure that reunited Italy and led to the establishment of Rome as its capital after twenty centuries (so that today, Rome is at the heart of two states: the Italian Republic and of Vatican); by revisiting the tragedies of modern times, including fascism and the civil war; and by learning about the Rome of postwar and contemporary Italy.

This course is a 1-credit addition to the 3-credit All Roads Lead to Rome course and can be taken only in connection with All Roads. It is a focus on the cities of Florence, which was the crucible of the Renaissance at the court of the Medici family, and Naples, where the Renaissance flourished at the court of the Aragonese kings. Learning goals: Students will be exposed to a variety of intellectual inquiries and methodological approaches: They will learn to recognize the main theoretical approaches to the two fundamental categories of Humanism and Renaissance, and their reception in different historical and cultural contexts. They will be introduced to the historical context of early modern Italy and its main political, social, economic, and cultural features. They will refine the tools and methods of the formal and critical analysis of urban sites, as well as works of architecture, works of art (including painting, mosaics, sculpture), and literary texts. They will engage in a creative approach to the themes and works studied and discussed, through two group assignments aimed at experimenting and becoming more intimately familiar with various literary genres and forms and reflecting from within on the creative process and the technical aspects of different genres and styles. They will be introduced to access, navigate and utilize the resources of archives and research libraries in the fields of history, the fine arts and literature, through a visit to a historical archive/ research library, and to reflect on the nature and methods of research. Requirements: Attendance and participation: 25% Given the immersive, intensive and on-site nature of this course, perfect attendance is required and no unexcused absences will be accepted. The course consists of two field trips (Friday-Sunday) to, respectively, Florence and Naples. Classes will be on-site and divided between lecture and seminar discussion: proactive contribution to class discussions is required. Reading exercises (both written and oral): 25% Students will engage in exercises of analysis and interpretation of buildings, works of art and literary texts, both in writing and through two group presentations. Creative assignment 25% Students engage in a creative group assignment aimed at exploring from within both the creative process and the formal features and rhetorical tools and techniques involved with the production of a specific literary genre among those that we will be studying and discussing (sonnet, canzone, ottava rima, novella, treatises on art/ language, epistolography, historiography). Final exam: 25% The final exam is take-home and it consists of three mini essays: the first on different theories on the main categories and ideas explored during the course and their definitions; the second on the historical context of early modern Italy; the third will be the formal and critical analysis of a site/work of art/literary text.

It could have been the first scene of a naturalistic novel a la Emile Zola: "Paris in the Spring. It is around 8:00am on the Boulevard du Temple near Place de la Republique. A sunny day. A man is having his shoes polished at the corner of this well known Boulevard often referred to as 'Boulevard du crime' throughout the nineteenth Century. This anonymous human being is about to make history... while remaining anonymous. If the event has nothing to do with a crime, it is related to what we, today, call a 'shooting'." On that day in 1838, Louis Daguerre, a former painter, a renown theatre set designer who is fascinated with light effects, takes what is known to be the very first photograph featuring a human being. First photo-shooting ever. And our unknown man is the first photographic "star" in the history of the world. In the footsteps of his friend Nicefore Niepce who took the very first photograph in 1826 (or 27), Daguerre invents the "daguerreotype" whose history coincides with the beginning of a true visual revolution. This revolution known as photography is still shaping today's consciousness to a point that our memory is now inseparable from pictures. By necessity or by accident Daguerre's invention carries another one with it: Paris. Paris becomes a photographic "subject." If we take a close look at Daguerre's 1838 picture, it is the landscape that we still have in front of our eyes when we visit Paris today and beyond that, when we evoke or invoke the name "Paris." In many ways, this is the time when Paris becomes Paris, when the "reality" of a city cannot be distinguished from its representations. If the first photographed human-subject is a Parisian, Paris becomes photography's allegory. Paris is now a persona. It is a theatre set, it is also a stage for Daguerre's protagonists. It will soon become a film set. During the year after his 1838 photograph of the Boulevard du Temple, Daguerre takes dozens of pictures of Paris, his new "subject." This includes the earliest known photo of the Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Paris in 1838 or 39. It is also in those years that Hugo (re)invents this old crumbling place of worship and writes his famous novel Notre-Dame de Paris (1831) that was later subjected to many cinematic adaptations. There is no accident in the fact that Paris makes a decisive entrance in the history of the visual field in what still counts today as the most photographed city in the world. In other words, Paris as we know it cannot be dissociated from its visual existence. And this visual presence is a region of our minds. "Cinema" plays a critical role in this context. The 19th century is coming to an end when on December 28, 1895 in a Salon set on the Boulevard des Capucines, the city of Enlightenments also known as a "City of Lights," becomes the capital of cinema when the Lumière brothers organize the very first film screening in history. And so on... Taught in English.

Students participate in virtual engaged learning activities with organizations in the city of Rome in a variety of educational and institutional settings in keeping with their academic and disciplinary areas of interest. One initial, mid-term and final meeting with the instructor aim at providing context for guided reflection on the students' experiences as interns with organizations in Rome.

Images of Hispañiola conjure up extreme contrasts. Romantic, sun-drenched beaches, heroic exploration and discovery, quaint relics, tourists, and happy-go-lucky natives merge in pleasing portraits of one side of the island. Rebellion and revolution, chaos and neglect coalesce menacingly at the other end. This course interrogates the taken-for-granted narrative of the antimony between the Dominican Republic versus Haiti and opens possibilities of recognizing the shared histories, politics, economies, and traditions of the two societies. In the first part of the semester, we examine how Spain’s neglected, undeveloped colony became a rising economic power, while the wealthiest “Pearl of the Antilles,” once freed of slavery and French colonial rule, confronted relentless depletion of its human and material resources. In the second part of the semester, we study the causes of the massive exodus from both countries over the past century. We focus on unanticipated consequences of diaspora, including the inspiration for those “outside” to transcend the borders dividing the “inside” of the island. We learn about innovative formations of transnational communities that span multiple sites linked by constant circulation of digital messages, videos and money, and the comings and goings of people, politicians, and spirits. We appreciate examples of the dynamic, expressive cultures of diasporan Haitians and Dominicans in prose, poetry, film, music, visual arts, and, last but never least, cuisine.

Dante I and Dante II are an in-depth study, over two semesters, of the entire Comedy, in its historical, philosophical and literary context, with selected readings from the minor works (e.g., Vita Nuova, Convivio, De vulgari eloquentia). Dante I focuses on the Inferno and the minor works; Dante II focuses on the Purgatorio and Paradiso. Lectures and discussion in English; the text will be read in the original with facing-page translation. Students may take one semester or both, in either order.

Dante I and Dante II are an in-depth study, over two semesters, of the entire Comedy, in its historical, philosophical and literary context, with selected readings from the minor works (e.g., Vita Nuova, Convivio, De vulgari eloquentia). Dante I focuses on the <i>Inferno</i> and the minor works; Dante II focuses on the <i>Purgatorio</i> and <i>Paradiso</i>. Lectures and discussion in English; the text will be read in the original with facing-page translation. Students may take one semester or both, in either order.

This course will explore how the reign of Henry VIII has been viewed in the imaginary landscapes of early modern literature (16th-17th centuries) originally written in English, French, and Italian. We will examine poems, plays, short stories, and other narrations as literary constructs that recreate the geographically and/or temporally distant space of England in the Henrician era. All foreign texts discussed as a class will be read in English translation, but will be made available in the original language for students wishing to sharpen their foreign language skills. Students with proficiency in Italian, French or Spanish will also have an opportunity to develop their expertise through personalized assignments and the final project. In addition to our key primary sources, we will read a number of critical analyses of these works. Special attention will be given to writing and research skills. We will also consider one modern film, A Man for All Seasons, to provide some contrast to these early modern written texts. Furthermore, we will also consider material culture, print culture, art (paintings, sculpture, and tapestries), architecture, music, and religion as a complement to the study of literary texts. The College of Arts and Letters and the Nanovic Institute are highly subsidizing an optional fall break trip for students enrolled in this course (more information provided later). The trip would include visits to the National Gallery, Hampton Court Palace, the Tower of London, Hever Castle (Anne Boleyn's childhood home), Westminster Abbey, Windsor Castle, and relevant walking tours of London, to provide greater context to the class and to enrich the final project. IMPORTANT: Students enrolled under ROFR for the French major will be required to write one paper and do some readings in French.

What does it mean to paint oneself in prose? This was the great project of Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533-1592), a selection of whose famous essays will constitute the object of study in this course. The first essayist and arguably the first real Modern, his texts on subjects as wide-ranging as friendship and fear, as cannibals and coaches, have made him a subject of praise and controversy in equal measure. In this course, we will explore the essays themselves, but also the phenomenon that is Montaigne in French culture and beyond. Taught in English, with texts available both in French and English.

Students will be able to improve their argumentative and analytical skills through the study of key issues and concepts in film studies. Film form and narrative, gender, class, stereotypes, the film auteur, cultural industry, violence and social denunciation will be some of the topics explored with relevant Brazilian case studies. Special emphasis will be given to the retomada -the rebirth of Brazilian cinema from the mid 1990s on - with in-depth analyses of feature films such as Carlota Joaquina (Carla Camurati, 1995), Central do Brasil (Walter Salles, 1998), CIdade de Deus (Fernando Meirelles, 2002) and Tropa de Elite (José Padilha, 2007); documentary movies such as Edifício Master (Eduardo Coutinho, 2002) and Santiago (João Moreira Salles, 2007) , as well as short movies such as Recife Frio (Kleber Mendonça Filho, 2009) and Eu não Quero Voltar Sozinho (Daniel Ribeiro, 2010). Taught in English.

Shortly after Agnès Varda had passed away on March 29, 2019, the subject made the headlines during the Cannes film festival. In the footsteps of Varda, of Akerman, of Wertmüller and Denis, there is a "New Wave" of women filmmakers in Europe (for example, Maren Ade, Frederikke Aspöck, Ester Gould, Barbara Eder, Agnieszka Smoczyńska, Ines Tanovic, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Céline Sciamma, Mati Diop, Alice Winocour...). This "wave" is not only reshaping a whole cinematic tradition and language, it is also profoundly transforming a highly masculine and macho film industry, not to mention... European societies as a whole. We will analyze works, working conditions and modes of production while discussing the lasting impact of the recent feminist movements on the industry. This will offer a window to a European culture and society in which until recently, the word "feminist" had tended to be outmoded...This course is taught in English

This course aims to evaluate how major cultural, social and historical events are portrayed in cinematographic productions of Portugal, Angola, Mozambique and Cape Verde. We will explore issues such as gender, racial and social disparities, the legacies of dictatorship and the colonial wars, the Luso-African struggles for independence, the role of the language in building a nation, and the influence of the Portuguese culture in its former colonies. Our goal is to investigate how film productions from and about those countries contest hegemonic accounts, and to examine the interconnections between history, memory and cultural identity and praxis. Films such as All is Well, by Pocas Pascoal (Angola), Dribbling Fate, by Fernando Vendrell (Cape Verde), Sleepwalking Land by Teresa Prata (Mozambique), Cats Don't Have Vertigo, by Antonio Pedro Vasconcelos, April Captains, by Maria de Medeiros (Portugal), as well as the documentaries Lusitanian Illusion, by Joao Canijo, and Hope the Pitanga Cherries Grow, by Kiluanje Liberdade and Ondjaki will serve as a vehicle for a deeper and broader understanding of how social, racial and cultural issues play a role in the past and present time in Portugal, Angola, Mozambique and Cape Verde. Conducted in English.

This course primarily examines cinema, music and literature of Brazil, Portugal, and Luso-African countries such as Cape Verde, Angola and Mozambique. Despite historical differences and geographical distance, these Portuguese-speaking countries share a common legacy in regards to cultural and artistic manifestations. Throughout the course, we will discuss issues related to the contrasts between stereotype and reality, rural and urban lives, as well as race and gender struggles, and how ideological and political changes affect culture and the arts in those countries. Special attention will be given to the artistic exchanges between Portugal and its former colonies. Andrucha Waddington, Eduardo Coutinho, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Vinicius de Morais, João Canijo, José Fonseca e Costa, Mia Couto, José Eduardo Agualusa, Ondjaki, José Saramago, and Fernando Pessoa are among the authors and film directors we will study. Conducted in English.

This course aims to understand some of the aspects that deeply affected the relations between Portugal and Lusophone Africa in the 20th and 21st century through fiction, cinema, essay and primary sources. We will explore issues such as the link between race and migration, the development of cultural identity, the struggle to belong, and the complex connection between Portugal and Africa. Despite the geographical distance, Portugal, Angola, Mozambique and Cape Verde share a common legacy of colonialism, racism, gender gap, language and war. We will take an interdisciplinary approach to examine the ways in which these struggles are corroborated and/or contradicted by official narratives, and analyze the contemporary context of Portugal-African relations. Conducted in English.

What are the new challenges for the Brazilian democracy and human development post-impeachment? What are the current issues in race, religion, class, gender and politics that are shaping the present and the future of the Giant of the South? (offered in English).

Images of Brazil often evoke stereotypical images of soccer and carnaval. In this course, we will study these staples of Brazilian culture beyond the shallow confines of stereotypes. History, Sociology, and Cultural Studies will all contribute for an interdisciplinary approach to understand the complexities of Contemporary Brazilian society. (offered in English)

This course considers the meaning of the word: made flesh, made text, and made literary and theological tradition. In conversation with Augustine, Aquinas, Dante, Shakespeare, and Toni Morrison, we will ask questions such as: "How does genre inform our notions of truth?"; "What is the relationship between tragedy and comedy in theological reflection?"; "How does human suffering and evil shape how we speak of God?" Such questions will be addressed, in particular, by reflecting on how the texts studied invite us to think about human finitude, failure, and forgiveness. To enrich our discussions, throughout the semester we will also actively engage beyond the classroom in the local area and region, typically this includes attending a play at the Shakespeare Globe Theatre, and a day trip to the University of Cambridge.

This course explores the relationship between justice and mercy at the intersection of theology, literature, and mass incarceration. This interdisciplinary encounter aims to be mutually illuminating. Whereas theological reflection is often employed as an interpretive lens for diagnosing the injustice of mass incarceration, this course also asks: in what ways might mass incarceration equip us in turn to critique and re-imagine the historical limits and failures of theological reflection? One text that is central to this encounter is Dante Alighieri’s Comedy. Strikingly, it is the same poet who defines hell explicitly in carceral terms as a ‘blind prison’ (Inferno, 10. 58–59; Purgatorio, 22. 103) who garners praise, not least by Pope Francis himself, as a ‘prophet of hope’ uniquely situated to narrate how the infinite mercy of God meets fallen humanity. Together, we will investigate this charged ambiguity between carceral despair and prophetic hope as present in, and via paired readings of, the Comedy and key texts addressing mass incarceration (Michelle Alexander, Dwayne Betts, Angela Davis, Mariame Kaba, Vincent Lloyd, Reuben Jonathan Miller, Andrew Skotnicki, et al.), with the goal ultimately of understanding the evolution(s) of justice as variously punitive, restorative, transformative, and authorial.

After pollution, frogs, stinging gnats, mosquitoes, anthrax, boils, hail, locusts and thick darkness, there descends the infamous tenth plague, the massacre of the first-born. All are marked for death: the heir of the Pharaoh, the maidservant, the captive, even the cattle in the fields. Only the Lord’s chosen nation shall be excepted. The agent of this ten-plague trajectory of mayhem is not easy to discern—sometimes translated as a “destroyer”, sometimes an “exterminating angel”—but its point is unmistakable: the patient demonstration of the sovereignty of the God of the Israelites. Plagues, as soon as they are invoked in ancient times, are lashed to culture and politics. Why? That is the question at stake in this course. This course focuses on the relation between the historical fact of periodic widespread illness (broadly conceived) and its aesthetic representation in Europe and the Americas. If the fourteenth-century “Black Plague” is remembered in the popular and historical imagination as the mother of all plagues, a highly storied and ritualized pandemic that transformed the politics, culture and identity of the West, then it would be the other half of the globe, America, whose very existence as a geopolitical formation would be founded on an even more vicious plague: the toxic cocktail of fever, nausea and sores that, like a slow-moving apocalypse creeping along over centuries, decimated America’s indigenous inhabitants, hobbling entire civilizations, reducing some regional communities by over 90 per cent. It comes as no surprise that history’s victims of European expansion—marginal communities at home and abroad exploited through projects of resource extraction, swept up into economies of slavery—would come to imagine their fate, again and again, in the terms of plagues. How have artists told and shown this story? What are the dominant discourses that animate stories of plagues? What contradictions does this art confront, and what kind of challenges does it offer, or shrink from? This course will examine a range of materials in search for answers, including narrative literature, film, cultural history and critical theory, and the infinite possibilities afforded by urban London and its long history of pandemic, epidemic and endemic disease.

Specialized reading related to the student's area of study.