Florence Signature Seminars
Florence programs offers optional Signature Seminars for accepted students. Students will apply for a seminar through their OrangeAbroad portal. Space is limited, and applications are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.
Culinary Crossings: Exploring Mediterranean Food Systems
(Spring 2026 only) This traveling seminar offers a first-hand exploration of the social and cultural exchanges that have been shaping the Mediterranean (and societies beyond) for centuries. It analyzes these issues from a food-systems perspective that investigates how meaning is conveyed through food. Throughout the seminar, we will analyze how food practices express local and regional identities in Sicily. (Limited enrollment)
Empires of Exchange: The Visual Cultures of Power, Mobility, and Erasure in the Mediterranean
(Fall 2026 only) This traveling seminar investigates artistic exchange between the medieval and early modern cities of Ravenna, Venice, and Trieste to discover Roman, Slavic, Byzantine, Spanish, German, French, Arab, Ottoman, Muslim and Jewish influence on Italian art and culture. Throughout the seminar, we will experience the rich diversity of the Italian Peninsula’s north-eastern territories, arriving all the way to its border. Through the themes of political power, cultural mobility and erasure, as well as the dynamics of shared urban spaces, we analyze how the Mediterranean Sea connected Jewish, Christian, and Muslim peoples. While the course focuses on the art and architecture of each region in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period (1000-1700), consideration is also given to the modern afterlives of these sites. Ultimately, we will examine how the medieval and early modern past still inform contemporary concerns on immigration and European political identity. (Limited enrollment)
Peace and Conflict in the Balkans
(Spring 2027 only) This ten-day-traveling seminar offers an immersive student experience of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s social, political, cultural, and natural environment. This experience will allow participants to not only learn about Bosnia and Herzegovina in its complexity, but to reflect on and examine their own worldview, biases, and ways of life. Participants will be encouraged to consider both Bosnia and Herzegovina and their own “homelands” in a comparative light, allowing them to realize that their way of life is one among many, and that it is connected to all others. (Limited enrollment)
All-school field trips
In addition to extensive course-related field study, there are a number of all-school field trips that give all students, regardless of major, the opportunity to appreciate the history, art, and culture of Italy. Transportation, hotel, entry fees, and lectures for the field trips are all covered by the Florence program fee. The all-school field trips offer students a fantastic opportunity to travel within Italy with the guided expertise of Syracuse Florence field trip lecturers.
Course-related field study
Some courses offered in Florence have a field study component designed to provide first-hand experience. For example, Architecture students in professional degree programs participate in a distinct field trip series led by architects. When field studies are associated with a course, an extra course fee is charged to cover supplies, overnight accommodations, entrance fees, and other expenses. A full list of course-related fees will be distributed to all program participants prior to registration; course fees are not billed until registration has occurred and students have selected their classes.