Program Courses

 Program participants are required to enroll in a minimum of 12 units. It is also required to register for ITAL 101, LBST 323 and LBST 340. You may then register for any of the other CSUF and/or CSULB courses. 

CAL STATE FULLERTON COURSES: 

ITAL 101 Fundamental Italian (3 units; GE A) (required)
Develop listening and reading comprehension, speaking and writing, and cultural awareness to communicate on a basic level with a focus on oral expression. Introduction to Italian customs, culture and civilization. Conducted primarily in Italian.
 
LBST 323 Cross Cultural Humanities (3 units; GE C.3) (required)
In this class we will explore the arts and culture in Florence in comparison with other parts of Europe and the Americas. We will learn about the construction of race in the Renaissance and examine cross cultural contact in the age of discovery and conquest. We will also consider how the self was presented through dress and fashion.
 
LBST 340 Food in the Social Sciences (3 units; GE D.3) (required)
With a special focus on Tuscany, we will think about how food played a central role in the construction of national identity in Italy. Before unification, food was associated with regional and local identity. As Italy became a nation, food served as both a regional marker in the peninsula and as a national identifier in other places. We will also consider the role of food in such classic social science categories as gender and class. And of course, we will eat and cook Tuscan food!
 
HSS 495: Internship in Florence (3 units)  
An Internship in Florence allows students to explore a potential career field and gain hands-on experience outside of the classroom in an international setting.  The internship is designed to enrich and complement students’ coursework and allow them to apply what they have learned in their major or minor classes. 
 
Any asynchronous online course of your choice. 
 

CAL STATE LONG BEACH COURSES:  

RGR 400: Crime and Punishment (3 units; GE C)
RGR 400 is an interdisciplinary course that explores literary representations and cultural manifestations of issues related to crime, punishment, justice, and violence. Following the organizing principle of a tale of two cities, we will compare the rise and fall of fascism in Italy and Germany by focusing on how Florence and the German city of Dresden—long nicknamed “Florence on the Elbe river”—experienced important pre-and post-World War II events. On location in Florence, we will look for traces of the Nazi occupation during 1943-1944, and we will discuss the role Americans played in the liberation of Italy by visiting the Florence American Cemetery and Memorial. Through films and novels, we will focus on the roles and stories of individuals who were caught up in these turbulent and violent times, both as perpetrators committing crimes and as members of the resistance experiencing persecution.

RGR 314: Introduction to Contemporary Europe (3 units; GE D)
RGR 314 follows the rationale of bringing a unifying regional focus and a multidisciplinary approach to the study of Europe, encouraging students to make connections between the representations of the past and the present; between culture and politics; between ideas, ideologies, and action. Italy is among the six founding members of the European Union, which now comprises 27 member states. The course will focus on Italy’s role in the European Union and it will explore the impact of EU legislation on Florence at the local level. How are food and wine production, art, immigration, climate change, and manufacturing regulated and how does it impact the citizens of Florence? What does it mean in this context, for example, to buy food at the Mercato Centrale versus a supermarket or an upscale chain store like Eataly? On field trips around the city and the region, we will visit areas in Florence that allow us to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be Italian/Tuscan in contemporary Europe.