Shaul Bassi
Claudia Meneghetti
113. Intensive Elementary Italian. (4h) Intensive course for beginners, emphasizing the structure of the language and oral practice. Students acquire the fundamentals of the Italian language: basic structures and essential vocabulary are introduced through quick explanations and a set of activities that encourage their immediate use in everyday situations. Students are gradually engaged in the discussion of social and cultural aspects of Italy today, with special emphasis on their Venetian experience.
153. Intermediate Italian. (4h) Intensive exposure to speaking, listening, reading and writing at the intermediate level with special emphasis on the surrounding Venetian culture. All the main grammar patterns are studied, enabling students to improve their reading, writing, and conversational skills. One weekly hour is fully devoted to conversation in Italian on topics in Italian culture.
217. Studies of Italy. (3h) Survey course on Italian literature addressing special cultural themes in Italy to give to students in Venice a deeper and broader understanding of Italian cultural complexity. Different types of texts – short stories, essays, poems, news items, film, songs, visual material – are read both to improve the students’ acquisition of the Italian language and to address the most important aspects of Italian society and culture (family, politics, religion, gender, migration, sport, food, etc.).
Agnese Chiari
Art 269. Venetian Reinaissance Art. This course offers a general survey of Byzantine and Gothic art in Venice as an introduction to the work of major Early Renaissance painters and architects, such as a Mantegna, Bellini, Carpaccio, Codussi and Lombardo. In the 16th century the focus is primarily on the paintings of Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto and Paolo Veronese and the architecture of Sansovino and Palladio.
Lectures in class are supplemented by visits to churches and museums of Venice.
Field-trips to Torcello and the islands of the Venetian lagoon are part of the program.
Monica Chojnacka
HST 119 (3h) Venice and the World examines the city’s thousand-year history primarily through walking lectures that take place across the city. These walking lectures cover most of Venice’s historic center while paying special attention to certain palaces, churches, streets and squares that were the site of important historical events. These walks are supplemented by readings and in-class discussions and lectures.
Assignments include participation, a quiz, a group project, an essay and a final exam.
Monica Chojnacka
HMN 160A. Venice Today. The course is student-centered and interactive, based on the exploration of issues confronting the city of Venice through joint activities with the students of the University of Venice Ca’ Foscari and involving field research. Mixed teams of Italian and American students develop research projects on the following topics: Travel and Tourism, Lagoon Environment, Migration, and Cultural Heritage. At the end of the semester, the different teams present their projects to the class.