A one-week (July 17-21) summer educational tour & study program in the eternal city designed for participants of any age & experience. This unique program offers a perfect opportunity for guided exploration & discovery of Rome's history, places, and people through the lens of the eternal city's cultural heritage.

Through site visits, lectures, and guest speakers, this experiential course will explore what the city of Rome can tell us about ourselves and our world while introducing participants to the fascinating study of cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible. This will be achieved through a mix of lectures by prominent figures in this field and contextual visits to the most significant sites of cultural interest in Rome.

WHAT IS CULTURAL HERITAGE?
Culture is not one simple object or tradition but is instead the entire set of items, places, and even stories or beliefs that represent a shared experience. This can include tangible heritage (something material that can be easily seen, like art or monuments) and intangible heritage (something you cannot touch, such as language or dance) that together represent a history and an identity of a community that shares values and traditions.

 

 

Each day of this program will touch on a different topic related to the Cultural Heritage of Rome. Lectures & discussions will be led by Dr. Valerie Higgins, Director of the MA in Cultural Heritage at The American University of Rome, and a series of subject experts from the world of academia and the heritage professions, including art crime, tourism, archaeology, and ethnography.

 

LECTURES & DISCUSSIONS
Lecture/discussion topics will cover:

Day 1: Heritage & Power: Controlling the narratives.

Day 2: Intangible Heritage: From toilet habits to temple wear. 

Day 3: Art Crime & Trafficking: The moral, the ethical, & the practical.

Day 4: Heritage, Culture & Diversity: Rome as a laboratory

Day 5: Tourism and Rome - A most challenging relationship

EXPERIENTIAL GUIDED SITE VISITS
Site visits will take place to:

Day 1: The Imperial Fora and Roman Forum

Day 2: The Baths of Caracalla

Day 3: The Museum of Rescued Art and Palazzo Massimo Museum

Day 4: The Jewish Ghetto

Day 5: The Baroque churches of Campus Martius

 

WHO SHOULD TAKE THIS COURSE?

This course is designed to be accessible to students, explorers, and interested participants of all ages and experiences. 
Attendees should be actively interested in Cultural Heritage in general and the development of Rome in particular.

The course can be taken in two ways:

  1. Purely for personal interest and self-development.
     
  2. As above but with a Certificate of Attendance (for career development). This requires a minimum of 80% course attendance.

Attendees of this program may be interested in finding out more about AUR's 15-month master's degree in Cultural Heritage: Sustainability & Community. Please indicate if you'd like us to email you information about the program and potential careers in the field.
Any attendees from this program who subsequently enroll in a master's degree with The American University of Rome will have the complete course fees from this program deducted from their full-time program tuition fees.