This seminar welcomes new students to Syracuse University. The course helps one develop closer relationships with peers and a professor, and eases the entrance into University life. Special topics will introduce and orient students to Florence and Italy, and discuss adjusting to a new culture.

In WRT 105 you will focus on critical analysis and argument, practices that are central to the academic work at university, as well as in professional careers. The course will involve you in a shared topic of inquiry—an urgent issue that requires multiple points of view and kinds of knowledge— that you will engage with through readings, a range of informal and formal writing assignments, a modest amount of database and web research, and a lot of conversation with your classmates. You will compose for different audiences and experiment with a range of rhetorical approaches. You will learn to revise and refine your ideas with the feedback and suggestions of peers and the instructor. You will deepen your reading practices as you read both popular and academic essays. The course is structured on a studio model so that each and every day in class you and your peers will collaborate on, discuss, and share texts and ideas, and you will invent, compose and revise in class as well as outside of class. This course satisfies a Liberals Arts Core requirement for writing, except for students who receive AP credit toward writing. Students eligible to receive AP credits toward writing will be offered an alternate course.

Explore centuries of Italian art and culture amidst the joyous living museum that is Florence. This course provides an introduction to the study of art history with some of the world’s most celebrated buildings, sculptures, and paintings as your real-life examples. You’ll also examine corresponding cultural contexts via topics that include Ancient Rome, the rise of Islam, Humanist Florence, Futurism, and more. May include a study tour in addition to site visits in Florence (with a course fee billed from Syracuse).  This course satisfies a Core Curriculum requirement for humanities.

What forces have shaped your personal perspectives on justice, equality, and authority? With the cradle of the Italian Renaissance as a fitting backdrop, you’ll engage the juggernauts of social theory including Florence’s own Machiavelli, plus More, Kant, Locke, Wollstonecraft, and other foundational thinkers. Through their eyes – and via your own interactive projects – you’ll explore the historical relationships between morality and politics, politics and religion, the foundations of legitimacy through democratic consensus, and the birth of feminism. This course satisfies a core curriculum requirement for Social Science.

Introductory proficiency-based course which prepares students to understand, speak, read, and write in culturally authentic contexts. Activities are conducted in Italian. This course meets daily, Monday through Thursday. Other Italian language courses are available for students who are prepared for a higher level of study, based on a placement exam.

This four day seminar prior to orientation will help you become familiar with Madrid and provide the foundation for living and thriving in another country.

This seminar welcomes new students to Syracuse University. The course helps you develop closer relationships with peers and an instructor and eases the entrance into University life. Special topics will introduce and orient you to Madrid and Spain and discuss adjusting to a new culture.

In WRT 105, you will focus on critical analysis and argument, practices that are central to the academic work in universities and in professional careers. The course will involve you in a shared topic of inquiry—an urgent issue that requires multiple points of view and kinds of knowledge— that you will engage with through readings, a range of informal and formal writing assignments, a modest amount of database and web research, and a lot of conversation with your classmates. You will compose for different audiences and experiment with a range of rhetorical approaches. You will learn to revise and refine your ideas with the feedback and suggestions of peers and the instructor. You will deepen your reading practices as you read both popular and academic essays. The course is structured on a studio model so that each and every day in class you and your peers will collaborate on, discuss, and share texts and ideas, and you will invent, compose, and revise in and outside of class. This course satisfies a Liberal Arts Core requirement for writing.

Introductory proficiency-based course that prepares you to understand, speak, read, and write in culturally authentic contexts. Activities are conducted in Spanish. Other levels of Spanish language instruction are available for students with some degree of proficiency. Your placement in a Spanish class will be determined upon arrival in Madrid.

Modern Spain is a complex mixture of traditions and cultures, many of them ancient. It is not an easy culture to understand and it is the aim of this course to introduce students to the field of physical and cultural anthropology by using Spain as a laboratory. The course has a chronological historic structure and is interested in the migratory movement of people and the material as well as non-material objects left behind by them. It starts by examining Palaeolithic and Neolithic settlements of the Iberian Peninsula and ends with some considerations of modern immigration into Spain. But, rather than a strictly historical approach, we are interested in syncretism, the complex layering of ancient belief systems inside a modern country.

Introduction to the art of Spain, through the analysis of the history of Spanish painting from the late Gothic (15th century) to Goya (19th century), and its relation to other European schools including the Flemish and Venetian Schools (Raphael, Titian, Rubens, etc). Concentration on El Greco painting in Toledo, the Spanish Baroque and the importance of Velazquez, and the modernity of Goya. Illustrated lectures given in class and at the Prado and other museums.

This course will introduce you to contemporary Spanish popular culture from a sociological perspective. You will study popular culture as it changed over time, and also explore different aspects of it such as traditions and customs. You will also learn about popular culture as it pertains to youth groups, rural and urban contexts or, for example, religion. Furthermore, the course will examine how popular culture is produced and consumed, and how it is transmitted through cinema, literature, music and the media.

The course begins with an overview of the history of Spain, focusing later on the 19th and 20th centuries. It also concentrates on how the country was transformed from an Absolute Monarchy to a modern Parliamentary Monarchy, covering the Civil War and the 40-year-long dictatorship of Franco. It also analyzes the historical and present role of Spain in the world, as a member of the EU, NATO and UN.

This seminar welcomes new students to Syracuse University. The course helps you develop closer relationships with peers and an instructor and eases the entrance into University life. Special topics will introduce and orient you to Strasbourg and France and discuss adjusting to a new culture.

Introductory proficiency-based course that prepares you to understand, speak, read, and write in culturally authentic contexts. Meets four days per week. Activities are conducted in French. Other levels of French language instruction are available for students with some degree of proficiency. Your placement in a French class will be determined upon arrival in Strasbourg.

This course will introduce you to the history of France since the French Revolution. The journey through France’s past will be both chronological and thematic, to give students an understanding of how major events and processes have shaped French society, culture, politics, and identities right up to the present day. Taking advantage of Strasbourg’s unique surroundings, coursework will be supplemented with visits to the city’s European institutions and to key historical and cultural sites in the Alsace region, as well as to Paris. You will thus have the opportunity to experience history first-hand, gaining a better understanding of France’s past through Strasbourg’s multiple identities as a French, European, and formerly German imperial city. We will also consider the importance of public memory and commemoration in France, as well as foreign perceptions of France. This course satisfies a Liberal Arts Core requirement for social sciences. Students may not take this course and HST 360 on the main campus.

In WRT 105, you will focus on critical analysis and argument, practices that are central to the academic work in universities and in professional careers. The course will involve you in a shared topic of inquiry—an urgent issue that requires multiple points of view and kinds of knowledge— that you will engage with through readings, a range of informal and formal writing assignments, a modest amount of database and web research, and a lot of conversation with your classmates. You will compose for different audiences and experiment with a range of rhetorical approaches. You will learn to revise and refine your ideas with the feedback and suggestions of peers and the instructor. You will deepen your reading practices as you read both popular and academic essays. The course is structured on a studio model so that each and every day in class you and your peers will collaborate on, discuss, and share texts and ideas, and you will invent, compose, and revise in and outside of class. This course satisfies a Liberal Arts Core requirement for writing.

With the collapse of Communism, many people believed that conflict in Europe between differing worldviews was a thing of the past. Unfortunately, intolerance, discrimination, and renewed conflicts based on religion have shown this judgment to be premature. In this course we will examine the continent’s long history of religious conflict, and especially the ways in which local and global religious tensions have developed in recent years. We will also look at the ways in which contemporary religious leaders and communities of all faiths are profoundly involved in attempts to find solutions to these problems, together with such institutions as the European Union, the Council of Europe, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and will include discussions with representatives of various religious groups in Strasbourg. This course satisfies a Liberal Arts Core requirement for humanities (REL 356) or social sciences (PSC 456).

The French often speak of l’Exception Culturelle – their tradition of cultural difference and autonomy – and this term is most often invoked in discussions about French cinema. What makes French cinema distinctive? Why does this industry often insist on its uniqueness and its difference from Hollywood? To what extent do movies reveal different cultural values and different ways of seeing the world? Are there forms of censorship that apply in one country but not in the other? The course compares the ways in which France and Hollywood treat common themes or genres through lectures, discussions, readings, and film screenings. French films shown with English subtitles. This course satisfies a Liberal Arts Core requirement for humanities.

The importance of Europe’s eastern borderlands is linked to the current expansion of the European Union eastward, resulting in a new status for a host of countries situated between the Baltic and the Black Sea. In this new configuration, Russia will play an important, though different, role than hitherto, especially when it comes to forging a new relationship with the EU. The first part of the course focuses on the historical question of borders and territorial change, the construction of nations, and the emergence and collapse of empires. The second part examines general problems common to all of these post-communist countries and specific questions of geopolitical character. This course satisfies a Liberal Arts Core requirement for social sciences.