DES300.1 Kitchens and Cultures: Domestic Interiors in Italian Societies (Spring)

Registration priority to Design Program students. Explore the importance attributed by various communities in Italy and Europe, from Antiquity to today, to the architecture, decoration, furnishings, and livability of kitchens. The ever-changing attention given to such spaces and objects, including their size and materials, reveals the approach that each culture has to the preparation, conservation, consumption, enjoyment, and disposal of food. ‘Living rooms’ and ‘dine-in kitchens’ were unknown in the ancient world, but today most Airbnb advertisements focus primarily on these spaces. This transformation shows how kitchens and their accoutrements reflect the structure of the family in different social and geographic environments. The course incorporates interior design, architecture, art history, food history, and anthropology. It takes advantage of the rich presence in Florence and surroundings of kitchens, crockery and cutlery from the past and present.

This course has an associated course fee. See the Course Fees webpage for more information.

ECN380.1 History of Economic Thought (Spring)

Limited enrollment. Taught in English by the University of Florence on the Syracuse Florence campus; open to both Syracuse University program and University of Florence students.

Trace the influence of the great economic ideas in the making of Europe as a supranational community, from its origins to the present day. Analyze the nature of the fundamental problems that Europe has faced over time and the significance of some crucial economic policy choices.

Prereq: ECN 203 or equivalent introduction to economics principles course.

This course follows the Syracuse Florence Center calendar and is taught on our campus.

Now offered in Fall 2024!

HOA300.2 Renaissance Now: Modern Art Responses to the Past (Fall, Spring)

Georg Baselitz, one of the leading contemporary artists, who spent a formative year in Florence, observed that “when an artist does art history, he doesn’t do it objectively. He asks himself: ‘What can I take from this?’ ‘What interests me?’ ‘What do I need?’.” This class explores what modern and contemporary artists have taken from Italian Renaissance art, how have they addressed this heritage in their works, and how can the latter help us see “old masters” in a new light. These questions guide our course though an investigation of six broad topics; each week, one meeting is a classroom discussion, the other is a direct encounter with Renaissance and Modern or Contemporary art. For each topic, we consider first how a theme or principle was addressed by a few major painters and sculptors –from Giotto to Michelangelo to Artemisia Gentileschi– then how their works led artists, from the 19^th century until today –from Cezanne to Kehinde Wiley- to explore, transform, or subvert related subjects. As a final project, students create a virtual exhibition following the same format, but with different themes and/or artists.

This course has an associated course fee. See the Course Fees webpage for more information.

ANT300.1 Before Rome: Etruscans, Greeks and Others (Fall)

Explore the life and culture, customs and habits, art and archaeology of the different peoples who dwelled in the Italian peninsula from the end of the Bronze Age until Rome’s conquest of it, with particular attention to the Etruscans and the Greeks. Analyze the contribution of each ethnic group to the eventual formation of Roman identity, which was always already and, from the beginning, multicultural. Examine the cultural residue—art, artefacts, texts, material culture, religious worldviews, etc. —of these different groups. Meets with HST 400.1.

This course has an associated course fee. See the Course Fees webpage for more information.

PSC405 Politics of the European Union (Fall, Spring)

Politics of European integration from a variety of perspectives: theoretical, historical, institutional, and policy-making. Fundamental post- war political process in modern-day Europe.

Syracuse Students note: You cannot get credit for both PSC 396 and PSC 405.

HST353 History of Ancient Rome (Spring)

Ancient Roman political, economic, social, and cultural history based on interpretation of primary sources, both literary and archaeological, from the foundation of the city to the dissolution of the Empire in the west.

This course has an associated course fee. See the Course Fees webpage for more information.

CRS325 Presentational Speaking (Fall, Spring) NOT OFFERED FALL 2026

Conceptual and practical dimensions of formal presentations in organizational settings. Analysis, adaptation, strategic arrangement and development of ideas, verbal and nonverbal presentational skills.

Speaking and presenting comfortably and effectively in public is a life skill. In both personal and professional situations, these abilities can make the difference between success and failure. This course teaches the value of public speaking and trains students in the practical skills of speech writing for different types of speeches and the presentational skills needed to be an effective communicator and participant in public discourse, as well as in the professional world. Public speaking skills are key to professional development, but practice is often intimidating and infrequent and for students it mostly takes place in a non-professional context. This class is specifically designed to strengthen your public speaking and presentation skills and to build your confidence. You will learn how to research and write speeches, how to deliver them with confidence and you’ll learn to establish rapport with an audience, all while practicing and delivering different types of presentations in a safe environment with personalized professional feedback.

INB342 Cross-Cultural Management: Communicating in the Global Workplace (Fall, Spring)

Observe and analyze how to cope and adjust in a new culture with the goal of developing a set of competencies to use in future working environments characterized by multicultural teams.

How do we learn to work in a world where colleagues often operate in different countries and time zones and come from very diverse cultural backgrounds? What is cultural appropriation or cultural diffusion? How is the culture of a global company created and disseminated around the world? How does a company market a product in a country where cultural norms and habits are different from those of the country where the company is based? The class will address the above questions by creating an intellectual platform on which to discuss case studies, anecdotes, observational assignments, and site visit reflections.

Cross-listed with CRS 342.

This course has an associated course fee. See the Course Fees webpage for more information.

ARC439 Architecture and Fascism in Italy (Fall, Spring)

Open only to students in the Florence Architecture Program. This course delves into the complex historical discourse linking form, materials, aesthetics, and spatial compositions with the colonial reality of the Italian Peninsula. Engaging with the Italian landscape from the Risorgimento era to the post-Second World War years, the course examines major architects, including Terragni, Piacentini, Mazzoni, and others, alongside European anti-fascist intellectuals of the period, such as Antonio Gramsci and Rosa Luxemburg.

We will explore the relationship between architecture and empire through policies of internal and external colonization that constituted the backbone of Italian Modernism, focusing on how these policies regarding class, race, and gender shaped the lives of both colonial subjects and Italians alike.

Counts as an IDEA course requirement for Syracuse students.

This course has an associated course fee. See the Course Fees webpage for more information.

Pre-req: ARC 134.

HST400.1 Before Rome: Etruscans, Greeks and Others (Fall)

This course has an associated course fee. See the Course Fees webpage for more information.