Students will attend every class and arrive on time for all class sessions and on-site visits. They will keep up with assigned readings and out additional assignments. They will turn in assignments promptly. Five points will be deducted from each assignment that is not turned in on time for each day it is late.

Students are strongly urged to begin to familiarize themselves with the city's areas and public transportation system.

RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT:

The research assignment makes up 30% of the course grade – 20% for the written paper and 10% for the oral presentation to the class. Students should choose a topic relevant to the course and write 1,500-2,000 words, based on research using at least three academic sources (library books, academic web material and supplemented by newspaper articles where relevant). Non-academic internet material is not reliable and should be avoided. (NO Wikipedia, please!) If you have doubts about the appropriateness of a source, check with the instructor. All sources must be cited in the text and bibliography following a recognized citation system.

Students should start researching their topic well in advance and must submit an outline to me by October 6. The outline must include: a thesis or purpose statement, structure and main points of the essay, preliminary conclusion(s), complete bibliography. The deadline for the completed essay is November 10. See the Course Schedule for further information concerning additional requirements and deadlines associated with the paper.

The oral presentations will take place in the last two weeks of classes. Students will be required to give a 10-12 minute explanation of the topic of their research paper, explaining its relevance to the course, the methods used to collect information, their main findings and conclusions and a brief discussion of the sources used. Classmates will be encouraged to ask questions and engage in debate/discussion.

Upon completion of the course students should be able to:

1) Demonstrate knowledge of the city’s urban development since it became national capital.

2) Demonstrate familiarity with the economic, political, social, religious, cultural and institutional diversity that characterizes the city of Rome today.

3) Describe individual neighborhoods and identify their key roles and relations with the broader urban context.

4) Identify the main sociological features of each neighborhood and, where problems and conflicts exist, propose solutions.

5) Demonstrate familiarity with major theories of urban sociology and apply them to the case-study neighborhoods in order to assess their validity and relevance for understanding the particular situation of Rome.

6) Analyze various cinematic, literary and interview discourses of the city by its residents.