Academic English Preparation Program: Fall 2021
EAP 002 English for Academia (& IELTS exam)
This course is designed to develop students' basic English skills, further developing and extending students’ English academic, social and cultural language abilities/competencies to upper-intermediate level and beyond. As the course progresses the focus is put increasingly on using English appropriately when putting into practice the range of university-level study skills. Students will learn essential strategies for note-taking, summarizing, making presentations, assignment and essay writing.
plus one of the following
Art 101 Roman Sketchbook
Roman Sketchbook is an introductory course in drawing. On-site classes will provide landscape views, architectural forms, paintings and three-dimensional sculpture as subject matter, using pencil, pen, charcoal and sanguigna (red chalk) as drawing techniques. The course includes individual drawing projects and a written component related to the experience of sketching on location. The aim is to develop confidence and visual awareness in creating representations of the vast selection of art that the city of Rome has to offer.
FAFD 106 Photography in Rome
Using the indoor places of Rome as the canvas space, students will engage weekly within the city (on-site) to understand the complexities of: composition, materials, exposure, and controlled light to fully realize and capture the micro and macro nature of this monumental city. Practical studio photography time will also permit students to learn the necessary skills of arranging lights and props to capture images using a variety of techniques and lenses. Students will focus on creative solutions to complex photographic problems and discover the versatile and creative potential of working in a controlled environment. This course focuses on the fundamentals of the exposure triangle, composition, and post production to create striking staged photographs of Rome. Assignments will help to learn and apply technical skills gained from the studio and application into other areas of photography.
FDM 105 Digital Design 1: Print Graphics
This is a hands-on, practical course that teaches students the aesthetic concepts of visual communication along with technical skills such as working with Macintosh-based software utilized to create various forms of visual media. The areas of computer art/image making, graphic design, typography, press-ready layout and four-color print processing will be covered. Practical foundations will be applied to design projects as developed through an increasing command of analyzing concepts of design, composition, color theory, and graphic communication.
Academic English Preparation Program Courses: Spring 2022
ENG 101 Writing Fundamentals
This course introduces students to the rigors and discipline of the writing process, stage by stage, from choosing a topic, to collecting information, brainstorming, planning and outlining, drafting, revising and editing, to proofreading and finalizing. Each stage is punctuated with assignments and exercises that familiarize students with the rhetorical modes, from description, to comparison/ contrast, narration, classification, extended definition, cause-effect, and argument. In in-class and at home work, students will practice producing grammatically correct and logically sound claims, arranged in coherent paragraphs; understand and develop the thesis statement; learn to distinguish between primary and secondary sources; learn to annotate sources, and incorporate quotes in their writing with proper lead-in sentences and follow-up; begin familiarizing with citation styles; learn to use information technology, from research to writing and formatting.
plus one of the following
ARC 104 Investigating Archaeology
This course in archaeological techniques introduces students to the principles of survey, excavation, post-excavation analysis, scientific testing and heritage through a mixture of on-site visits, classroom lectures, practical classes and fieldwork. The course will begin with a consideration of the ‘idea’ of the past and examine the historical development of archaeology. The course will then explore the key fieldwork techniques used to survey, excavate and record sites and monuments before considering how scientific techniques can date and analyze artifacts and environmental evidence. Contemporary issues of heritage practice, with particular reference to Rome, will be addressed in conjunction with a group project. The course will make use of ongoing excavation and research in Rome and Italy, and it is possible that this will necessitate some weekend fieldwork.
Art 101 Roman Sketchbook
Roman Sketchbook is an introductory course in drawing. On-site classes will provide landscape views, architectural forms, paintings and three-dimensional sculpture as subject matter, using pencil, pen, charcoal and sanguigna (red chalk) as drawing techniques. The course includes individual drawing projects and a written component related to the experience of sketching on location. The aim is to develop confidence and visual awareness in creating representations of the vast selection of art that the city of Rome has to offer.
ENV 103 Environmental Science
Environmental Science is an interdisciplinary study that includes both applied and theoretical aspects of human impact on the world. In this course, an overview is given of the specific concerns of overpopulation, the energy crisis, and general results of the overstress on the environment, including pollution, poor agricultural practices, and the depletion of natural resources. An inquirybased laboratory component is designed to support students in constructing a meaningful, conceptual foundation of the environmental sciences. Activities and experiments will help students experience earth and environmental sciences as the dynamic system of patterns it embodies.
FDM 105 Digital Design 1: Print Graphics
This is a hands-on, practical course that teaches students the aesthetic concepts of visual communication along with technical skills such as working with Macintosh-based software utilized to create various forms of visual media. The areas of computer art/image making, graphic design, typography, press-ready layout and four-color print processing will be covered. Practical foundations will be applied to design projects as developed through an increasing command of analyzing concepts of design, composition, color theory, and graphic communication.
MTH 102 Statistics I
This course develops basic concepts of probability and statistics with an emphasis on application.
POL 101 Intro to Political Science
This course will provide students with a general introduction to the major concepts and themes of political science, drawing from the sub-fields of political science: Comparative Politics, American politics, International Relations, and Political Theory. As a field, political science is interdisciplinary in nature, referring to a number of disciplines to understand and analyze the distribution of power and authority across a diversity of political systems around the world. The course will cover a number of topics: from competing forms of democracy to the nature of economic development. More specifically, the course will explore, for instance: authoritarianism and democracy, unitary states and federalism, presidential and parliamentary systems. A number of contemporary issues will be addressed, including political violence, competing economic systems, the focus of different policies – i.e. Foreign/Domestic/Economic/and Social policy. The course will show how the same political regime (e.g. democracy) might produce different political systems depending on the prevailing values and norms of two countries (e.g. in the East and in the West). The issue of universal standards and blueprints (e.g. human rights) over different cultural, religious, and social norms will be presented and discussed.
PSY 101 Intro to Psychology
This course surveys the various fields of psychology, with emphasis on recent discoveries and the specific contribution and character of European roots and developments.