COURSE DESCRIPTION
This on-site course, which will be conducted in English, aims to introduce students to a sociological and spatial analysis of contemporary Rome. It focuses on the changes which are occurring in the city’s populations, its neighborhoods and daily patterns of life and commerce. On-site classes will be held in a variety of neighborhoods in the city in order to analyze the area’s role as a social entity and its relationship with the wider urban context.
TEXTBOOK
There is no textbook for the class. Readings are posted on the course website and handouts, when necessary, will be distributed at the beginning of each on-site visit.
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At the end of the course, students will be able to:
1. Competently discuss the city of Rome in its sociological and spatial dimensions.
2. Learn about the social and cultural changes occurring in the contemporary city.
3. Refine the ability to connect classroom learning with real experience outside the classroom.
4. To use theoretical and practical tools with which to examine a city critically.
5. Strengthen the student’s ability to observe and interact in different social environments in sensitively and culturally appropriate ways.
COURSE LEARNING ACTIVITIES
• Four multiple choice exams.
• Four discussion/threads with replies (min 300 words for the main post, min 50 words each for each reply).
• 10 fieldtrips to different part of the city.
• 1 written Urban Analysis of two streets in the historical center
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ASSESSMENT TOOLS
Quiz Exams 30 %
Urban Analysis. 30 %
Discussion/Threads 40 %
NOTE: NO EXTRA WORK ON TOP OF THE AFOREMENTIONED ASSIGNMENTS IS CONTEMPLATED.
Exams. Four on-line (MOODLE), multiple choice exams of about 10 questions each.
Visual Analysis of Two Streets in Rome’s Historical Center
This exercise, to be conducted alone or in pairs, falls in the category of urban analysis and is designed to provide non-specialized students with an intuitive method to understand, record and describe the evolution of the historical center (i.e. the identity of the historical center). The objective of the exercise is to acknowledge the complex and multi-layered identity of Rome. The exercise includes a visual part with maps and pictures and a written part (1000 words) to be turned in the day of the final.
Discussion/Threads 4 total
Threads are collective discussions. Each student will post 1) a personal statement following the professor’s question of about 300 words and 2) two replies to two different classmates on their own posts. Please reply to students who have not had replies yet. Note that the replies have to be meaningful and helpful (e.g. I like you post because…….. (Replies like I like you post will not be accepted as part of the requirements).
NOTE: See at the bottom of this syllabus for Grades, Grading, and Assessment Criteria.
TH 9\8 IN-CLASS. 9:00 AM. COURSE PRESENTATION. ROME BEYOND THE STEREOTYPES
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TH 9\15 IN-CLASS. EXPLANATION OF STREET EXERCISE WITH EXAMPLES
FRIDAY 9\16. MAKE UP DAY FOR TH NOV 24 THANKSGIVING
ON-SITE. FIRST STEREOTYPE: TRADITIONAL. THE COMMODIFICATION OF LOCAL CULTURE: A WALK IN TRASTEVERE.
Appointment at 9:00AM in class
In this module we discuss the following question:
1. How does globalization and mass tourism affect the tradition, identity and life style of the neighborhood?
At the end of this module students will be able to:
1. To think at Rome not as a city frozen in time but ever changing like any other city in the world.
2. To understand, discuss and describe in writing and visually the effects of globalization on the urban environment and in the social and economic life of the neighborhood.
Readings:
1. Clough Marinaro, I. and B. Thomassen, 2014:” Into the City: The Changing Faces of Rome,” in Clough Marinaro, I. and B. Thomassen, eds. Global Rome (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press)
2. Thomassen, B., and P. Vereni, 2014: “Diversely Global Rome.” In Clough Marinaro, I. and B. Thomassen, eds. Global Rome (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press)
3. F. Trabalzi: The commodification of culture and the changing identity of a Roman neighborhood (working paper)
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TH 9\22 ON-SITE. SECOND STEREOTYPE: ETERNAL. HISTORICAL CENTER BETWEEN LOCAL AND GLOBAL FROM CAMPO DI FIORI TO TREVI FOUNTAIN
Appointment: 9:00 AM at Campo di Fiori by the statue of Giordano Bruno.
In this module we discuss the following question:
1. How does globalization and mass tourism affect the tradition, identity and life style of the neighborhood?
At the end of this module students will be able to:
1. To think at Rome not as a city frozen in time but ever changing like any other city in the world.
2. To understand, discuss and describe in writing and visually the effects of globalization on the urban environment and in the social and economic life of the neighborhood.
No Readings
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TH 9\29 IN-CLASS. THIRD STEREOTYPE: OLD. THE MODERN REINVENTION OF ANCIENT ROME
In this module we discuss the following question:
1. How does ideology shape our understanding of Rome’s past?
At the end of this module students will be able to:
1. To discuss the archaeological landscape of central Rome as the product of modern political objectives and ideologies rather than as the result of ages of history untouched.
2. To understand, discuss and describe, in writing and visually, the effects of ideology and political priorities on the urban landscape and on the life of residents of the historical center from the early 1900s to today.
Readings:
1. F.Trabalzi. The Roman Forum Reinvented (Working paper
2. D. Watkin, “Archaeologists under the kings of United Italy,” pp. 196-200 and “From Mussolini To Hitler to Holes on the Ground,” pp. 201-222, In The Roman Forum (London: Profile Books, 2011).
3. F. Trabalzi, “Primavalle: Urban Reservation in Rome". In Journal of Architectural Education, 42\3 September 1989: 38-46.
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TH 10\6 ON-SITE: THE ROMAN FORUM AS A CASE OF OLD ROME REINVENTED
Appointment: 9:00AM Piazza del Campidoglio
Assessment: Quiz-Exam 1. Due at 8pm. Opens at 5pm. TURN IN THREAD 1. Due at 10pm
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TH 10\13 ON-SITE. OLD IDENTITIES NOT CONSIDERED. THE EX-JEWISH GHETTO: THE PARADOX OF PROTECTING CULTURAL HERITAGE
Appointment: 9:00AM by the statue on the Tiber Island.
In this module we discuss the following questions:
1. How do ideology and political shapes the form of the city and our understanding of it?
2. How do we, as a society, decide which elements of the urban landscape to preserve and which to eliminate?
3. What are the effects of these decisions on our perception of urban history?
At the end of this module students will be able to discuss the paradoxes of cultural identity and urban history.
Readings: F. Trabalzi. The paradox of protecting cultural heritage in Rome (working paper).
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TH 10\20 IN-CLASS. ROME IS NOT ONLY ART, PIZZA AND GELATO. SOCIAL MARGINALITY IN CONTEMPORARY ROME
In this module we discuss the following questions:
1. What is the meaning of social, cultural and spatial marginality in theory and how do you understand it in a city like Rome
At the end of this module students will be able to:
1. Discuss and describe the main aspects of the sociological theories of social and spatial marginality;
2. To discuss the above-mentioned points in two main areas of the city: Testaccio and Park of the Aqueducts.
Readings:
1. bell hooks: “Choosing the Margin as a site of Radical Openness,” in Yearning: Race, Gender and Cultural Politics”, Boston: South End Press,1990.
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TH 10\27 ON-SITE. THE AQUEDUCTS: A HISTORY OF SOCIAL MARGINALITY OF THE FIRST TYPE.
Appointment: 9:00AM at Metro A station Giulio Agricola. Expected return time to campus around 12:15.
In this module we discuss the following questions:
1. What is the social history of the Aqueducts in the last 100 years?
2. Why such a history can be told as a case of social marginality?
3. What type of marginality such a history is evidence of?
At the end of this module students will be able to:
1. Connect the theory learned in class with a concrete case-study in the city;
2. Discuss and describe the social history of the Aqueduct as a case of marginality.
Readings:
1. F. Trabalzi. The Park of the Aqueducts: A history of social marginality (Working paper).
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TH 11\3 ON-SITE. SOCIAL MARGINALITY RECONSIDERED. TESTACCIO A NEIGHBORHOOD RADICALLY OPEN
Appointment: 9:00AM bus stop Marmorata-Galvani near PIRAMIDE.
In this module we address the following questions:
1. What is the meaning of marginality as a space of radical openness?
2. Why can Testaccio be considered a case of a neighborhood radically open;
3. What is the Diffuse Museum of Testaccio and how does it differ from the conventional approach to cultural heritage in Rome.
At the end of the module students will be able to discuss and critically analyze:
1. The sociological concepts of marginality as place of radically openness,
2. The meaning of cultural hegemony and of counter-hegemony as manifested in space;
3. Different approaches to multicultural history and identity.
Readings:
1. F. Trabalzi. Testaccio: A neighborhood radically open (Working paper).
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TH 11\10 ONSITE. ROME AND MULTICULTURALISM A DIFFICULT PARTNERSHIP: ESQUILINO NEIGHBORHOOD
Appointment 9:00AM at Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore in front of the Basilica.
In this module we address the following questions:
1. What is the meaning of multiculturalism today in Rome?
2. What kind of forms multiculturalism has in Rome?
At the end of this module students will be able to discuss and describe with examples cases of multiculturalism in Rome and how it affects the life and identity of all its residents.
Readings: F.Trabalzi. Difficult Multiculturalism in Esquilino, Rome.
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TH 11\17. OPEN
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TH 11\24. THANKSGIVING NO CLASS
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FRIDAY 12\1 ONSITE. ROME IS NOT ONLY BUILDINGS AND TRAFFIC. THE HISTORY OF ROME'S PUBLIC PARKS. THE CASE OF VILLA PAMPHILI
Appointment at 9:00AM Guarini Lemon Garden.
In this module we address the question of public park in the city of Rome from a historical, cultural and social perspectives:
What is a public park in Rome and how does it differ from a public park in the US?
What is the history of the most important public parks in Rome?
What are the challenges of public spaces such as urban parks in Rome today?
At the end of this module students will be able to compare the history of public parks in Italy and the US
Readings: F. Trabalzi. The History of Rome Public Parks (working paper)
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TH 12\2 IN-CLASS REVIEW
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EXAM TBA