Jumpstart Advanced courses: Fall 2020
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
ANT 100 Intro to Anthropology
This course introduces a series of classical and recent topics in social and cultural anthropology: language, economy, kinship, religion, politics, myth, symbolism, gender, social stratification, ethnicity and nationalism, globalization. Showing how anthropologists have approached these topics through cultural comparison, theoretical discussions will be combined with ethnographic examples taken from the variety of world cultures. Providing a basic vocabulary to the discipline, the course will invite a systematic questioning of taken-for-granted assumptions concerning human beings and their behavior.
ARCL 100 Introduction to Ancient Greece and Rome
This course introduces students to the social and cultural history of ancient Greece and Rome via the major works of historiography, literature, art, and architecture produced by those cultures. This course is classroom-based, but an on-site visit of historical and/or cultural importance may be required
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.
COM 100 Media History
The aim of this course is to provide an introductory yet wide-ranging account over the emergence and development of different media throughout History, from Gutenberg’s printing press to the commercialization of social media. Based on a strong multidisciplinary outlook and a rough chronological perspective, the course explores the relationship between the adoption of technological innovations in the media sphere and social, cultural, economic and political change. The goal is to let students understand how the media not only contribute to historical development, but also influence human experience. Finally, in order to provide students with a global understanding of the topic, rather than concentrating on the West, the course includes case studies about Africa, India, and China.
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. Bring Your Own Camera. If you want to have the ability to control all the aspects of photography, a DSLR camera is highly recommended, or a Mirrorless camera.
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.
SOC 100: Introduction to Sociology
This course introduces students to the systematic study of human society from the perspective of sociology. The course begins with a presentation of classical sociological thinkers such as Marx, Durkheim and Weber and discusses sociology as a particular view on society connected to the sociological method. The course debates a series of classical topics within sociology with examples and case studies from modern day societies: deviance, class, social interaction, social stratification, marriage and family, gender, age, religion and population dynamics. Why societies have divergent norms, rules, and patterns and how do these rules form and why? The last part of the course will briefly introduce contemporary theories of modernity, post-modernity, or “liquid modernity”, and will open up toward a global perspective by debating sociology’s role in understanding contemporary globalization.
Jumpstart Advanced courses: Spring 2021
ENG 102 Writing from Research
This course prepares students to plan, research, and write academic-level research papers autonomously. Students are guided through all writing stages, from preparing an articulated research proposal, to collecting sources and arranging them in an annotated bibliography, to outlining, drafting, and, finally, completing the paper in accordance with current MLA guidelines. Each stage is also punctuated with writing drills in the form of in-class essays, citing and quoting drills in the form of worksheets, annotation drills on select academic sources related to the class theme, and a thorough overview of the use of library resources, both material and electronic. Students will also practice discussing and explaining their project in workshop sessions.
plus two 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.
or, one of the above plus one of the following
COM 200 Communication and Society
This course explores the relationship between communications, media, society, and culture. Within historical and contemporary contexts, the subject addresses how audiences and participants negotiate media in their lives. The course focuses on different media forms, from newspapers to television, and from books to mobile technology. Topics covered include the effects of media on audiences; issues of race and gender in the media; media ownership and regulation; the impact of technological development and institutional pressures on media uses, content, and patterns of communication. Ultimately the course assesses ethical and legal issues which media users and practitioners may face
ENG 204 Survey of American Literature
The course is a study of American literature from the colonial, though the romantic, realist/naturalist, modernist and contemporary literary periods, with particular focus on the major writers who exercised formative and continuing influence on American letters and intellectual life. It is an appraisal of these writers’ roles in the history of literature and ideas, and an aesthetic evaluation of their work. Particular emphasis is placed on the diversity and representativeness of American literature as it reflects social and cultural conflicts related to race/ethnicity, class, and gender.
MKT 200 Principles of Marketing
An overview of the marketing function, its importance to strategic decision making in business, and its practical relation to other functions within the organization and in the external environment, the course is designed around the very easily accessible concept of “The Marketing Mix.” Students explore how marketers analyze and segment markets, select certain segments to “target” and then position their products to respond to the needs of those segments. They investigate the challenges involved in researching, creating, promoting, pricing and distributing products to target customers in both U.S. and international markets.
TTM 201 Intro to Travel and Tourism
This course is designed to give students an overview of the travel and tourism sector from local to international levels. We will analyze the structure, scale, and organization of the industry and explore natural, cultural, heritage, and recreational assets of tourism. Topics related to the economic, legal, political, environmental, and technological aspects of travel and tourism will be examined. Students will participate in various on-and-off-site learning activities to gain insights into tourism destination management and build skills in: obtaining and analyzing current industry data, determining key target markets - establishing site benefits and the impact the destination has on the tourist, the travel and tourism industry, and society. The comprehensive nature of this course will set the stage for more in-depth exploration of the topics, in upper-level TTM coursework.