Course Details

Daily Schedule
Faculty

Course Description

Intensive Elementary Italian (June 10-July 23). Double credit. (Italian 11)

Instructors: Prof. Anna Maria Di Martino and staff.

An intensive beginner course which meets 15 hours per week for a total of 90 hours, taught by two instructors. The aim of the course is to develop basic communicative competence in the Italian language, that is, to enable students to interact using language which is both grammatically correct and appropriate to the situation. The course will develop proficiency in "basic" communicative functions (asking and giving information, apologizing, socializing, expressing likes and dislikes, etc.), as well as in "extended" functions (narrating, expressing emotions, uncertainty, opinions, hypotheses). Students will actively practice grammar structures on-site, interacting in the Bologna environment with the help of trained tutors. The course will develop all four skills in an integrated approach, with more stress placed on speaking and listening. Students will write journals and personal letters and read a short story. Classroom activities will use a variety of techniques and authentic materials.
Included as part of the course is a film component. Students will explore the history of Italian film and how it captures Italian history. Bologna is an ideal site for this intensive study since it is home to the Bologna Cineteca, one of the best in Europe. Many of the films typically included in this part of the courses are set in the cities visited during the program.

Schedule

9:30-12:30 - Language Class
12:30- 13:30 -Lunch (on your own)
Lunch (with language partner activities - twice per week)
13:30-14:30 -Language Class
15:00- 17.00 - guided tour (museum, artisan shop, etc.) (once per week)
Saturday: one day trip (four Saturdays)

Additional Activities

1) Language Relax – These meetings with your Language Partner will increase in frequency during the course according to the instructor - time and place at student's choice. These activities provide you the opportunity to speak informally with Italian university students.

2) Film Modules – Once you have gained a basic understanding of Italian language, we will add a small film component into the programs. You will view and discuss Italian film representing various aspects of Italian life and history. Some films may be screened at the historical Cineteca of Bologna.

Sample Weekly Schedule

Please note: These events are subject to change!

Week 1
Tour of Bologna
Slide Lecture on Medieval Bologna
Visit to Portrait Gallery
Tour of Bologna University
Excursion to Ravenna

Week 2
Visit to Medieval Museum
Tour of Archiginnasio (14th-century Anatomy Theatre)
Excursion to Mantua

Week 3
Visit to National Gallery
Lecture on Contemporary Art @ Morandi Museum
Excursion to Verona

Week 4
History and Memory in Italian Film
Lecture, Italian Film and History: the Legacy of NeoRealism
Screening: Roberto Rossellini, Paisà
Screening: Vittorio De Sica, Garden of the Finzi Contini
Discussion of Paisà and Garden of the Finzi Contini
Free Weekend

Week 5
History and Memory in Italian Film
Lecture, Coming to terms with the Past: Memory and Film
Screening: Federico Fellini, Amarcord
Screening: Bernardo Bertolucci, The Spider's Stratagem
Discussion of Amarcord and Spider's Stratagem
Excursion to Parma

Week 6
History and Memory in Italian Film
Lecture, The New Italy: Prosperity and its Discontents
Screening, Francesco Rosi Three brothers
Screening, Bernardo Bertolucci, Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man
Discussion of Three brothers and Ridiculous Man
Visit to the Cineteca

FREE TIME:
Since this is an intensive program, you have limited free time. While dates are subject to change, you will have the following free time. Optional events will be offered during the free time.

One week-end
One afternoon per week
Five evenings per week
Two Sundays
Examples of optional evening or weekend activities (costs not included in the program fee):
Cultural event in town (Film Festival)
BOLOGNA BY NIGHT Shopping/Cooking/Eating together
Sunday day trip
(seaside trip or activity)

Faculty

Anna Maria Di Martino has been Assistant Director of the Brown University Program in Italy since August 2000. She is also program coordinator and instructor of the Brown Summer-in-Bologna Program.
Her twofold interests in foreign Culture/Language/ Literature and Applied Linguistics inform her research, publications and didactic commitment. Besides serving as Coordinator of Italian Language Programs and as Trainer for Teaching Assistants at university level, she taught various courses on Foreign Language Methodology at universities in Italy (Suor Orsola Benincasa - Naples) and in the United States (OSU).
In 2003 she co-authored Scenario Italiano. Materiali di Lettura per studenti stranieri (Bologna: Zanichelli), a reader for students of Italian as a foreign language which focuses on the socio-economic dynamics which have contributed to the changing image of Italy over the last decade. In 1997 she published "Quel divino ingegno" Giulio Perticari. Un intellettuale tra Impero e Restaurazione (Naples: Liguori) based on her PhD dissertation in Italian Studies at Brown. It is the first monographic study of the author and linguist from eighteenth-century Romagna.
Lilia Ceroni has been working as an administrator for the Brown-in Bologna Program since it was established in 1983. She also takes care of the bureaucratic affairs for student visa registration and student lodging issues. She incarnates the historical memory of the program. Lilia has worked with the Summer program since it began in 2004. Lilia has a strong interest in encountering cultures different from hers. Before working for Brown, she traveled extensively for work and pleasure. She also visited the Brown Campus more than once which helped her understand the world the American students come from.
Lilia comes from a small village in Tuscany near Florence, but moved to Monzuno outside Bologna when she married. She feels comfortable dealing with and encountering students- generally her son's age-sharing their enthusiasm for the culture, art and natural beauty of Italy when they come to Bologna.
Evelyn Ferraro is a fourth year doctoral student in the Department of Italian Studies at Brown University. Born and raised in Sicily, after graduating with a Laurea in Foreign Languages and Literatures (with an emphasis on English and French) from the University of Palermo,  she obtained a Master’s degree in Comparative Literature and Translation Studies from Essex University (UK) and  another in Italian Language and Literature from the University of Pittsburgh (USA).  Evelyn is currently working on her Ph.D. dissertation on the culture of Italian migration to North America and its relation to Italian national identity.  Her main interests fall in the fields of migration and ethnic studies, gender studies, and contemporary Italian literature and culture. Apart from research, Evelyn has taught classes of Italian language and culture at Brown University as well as at other US universities.  She currently lives in California with  her  husband ,  who is finishing his Master’s degree in Sustainable Energy.