Art & Incarnation: Rome
Art and Incarnation is an interdisciplinary study abroad program designed for SPU students interested in art, literature, and creative writing. Students share daily field trips to places of artistic, literary, or historic interest (e.g. early Christian house churches, museums, the Coliseum, etc.), then gather for separate afternoon seminars tailored to each discipline. Evenings and weekends are free to explore the city on your own, travel to nearby cities, or accompany professors on guided city walks to fun places off the beaten track (the Roman flea market! Gelato crawls! etc.).
Where: Rome, Italy, from approx. June 26-July 21, 2015 (approx.
Courses, Credits and Attributions:
Students enrolled in the literature and creative writing portion of the program will earn 10 credits toward the English major or minor in Creative Writing and/or Literature. Each course will meet WE and W requirements.
ENG 4953: Writing Rome (5 credits) No Prerequisites
In this class students explore techniques of fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction inspired by the city of Rome. Daily writing assignments, tailored group excursions, along with the study of literary works set in Rome, provide an interdisciplinary, studio-art approach to the craft of writing. In afternoon peer review workshops students will share their creative reflections on the Eternal City, critiquing their own work and that of other “colleague apprentices” by providing targeted feedback and suggestions for revision. Attributes: W/WE credit. This course may substitute for Imaginative Writing (English 2215), or for any of the intermediate or advanced genre workshops in the creative writing track.
ENG 4954: The Eternal City in Art and Literature (5 credits) No Prerequisites
In this course students explore the theme of “Art and Incarnation” through the intensive study of literary works set in Rome and produced by writers from the classic to contemporary age. In addition to exploring the city through daily onsite classes held in conjunction with art history scholars, students will analyze how Rome functions as both a character and a catalyst in works by a variety of authors, including Ovid, Keats, James, Wharton, Auden and Tennessee Williams, and explore how knowledge of Rome’s vital place in literary history may, in turn, inform their own critical, creative, and spiritual reflections on the Eternal City.
Accommodations
Students stay in Trastevere, the medieval “old town” section of Rome–now the hip, “bohemian” quarter–and an easy walk to most major attractions. Student apartment lodgings include kitchen facilities.
Applications due by February 1. Stay tuned for in person info sessions beginning in November!
For more information, please contact Professor Jennifer Maier (jmaier@spu.edu) or the Study Abroad Office.