Academics
The academic offerings are central to the Italy Center experience. Italy Center students may enroll in various courses belonging to the humanities, social sciences, and business realms. The program offers a selection of twenty courses throughout the academic year, where approximately seven courses per semester meet core requirements.
Courses are taught in state of the art classrooms, with small class sizes (less that 15 students), and highly qualified international professors who have either taught or completed doctoral research in the United States and are familiar with American forms of pedagogy. All of the courses at the Italy Center encourage student development and growth through current events and ideas that students can see and touch – not just read about in books or articles. For instance, Art History students visit sites in Bologna and surrounding areas to see the art they study first hand. Political science students have a change to speak with survivors of armed conflicts and political refugees. Students in the Social Justice and Service learning course have the opportunity to volunteer at one of our many partner organizations in the heart of Bologna, becoming an active instrument of social change. This is how we think of our academic offerings.
The courses are thoughtfully designed to complement the experience of living overseas, where students struggle with questions of ethics, identity, and justice. There are few study abroad programs which can provide such a high quality academic experience. In adherence to the Jesuit tradition, our goal at the Italy Center is to help students grow as compassionate, mature, fuller individuals, who will bring positive change to the community around them, and the world.
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