Profile: Awesome-- Live in Rome! Introduction
Welcome to “Live in Rome!” In this series-within-a-series, Profile: Awesome will be showcasing live updates from participants in the ITAL 3647 “Urban Transformation in Italy” May term course led by Italian Coordinator Kathy Rider. ITAL 3647 offers students the chance to “examine issues of gentrification, immigration, historic preservation, the impact of tourism, urban policy, and more.” The goal of the course is to learn about neighborhoods in Rome and parts of southern Italy, to explore the neighborhoods with local guides, and to focus both personal and intellectual efforts on understanding the contexts and histories of these neighborhoods.
In their introduction to the course blog, https://urbantransformationinitaly.home.blog, students Andrew, Callen, Christina, Jackson, Jordan, Kaitlyn, Sadie, Selma, and Xandra write, “With our diverse backgrounds in study at the U, we all offer interesting perspectives on the events of urban transformation that are happening in these neighborhoods and how they impact the people living in the communities.” The nine students have majors including History, Strategic Communications, Anthropology, Linguistics, and more.
Throughout the course, students are encouraged to use a “Describe, Interpret, Evaluate” framework to understand the contexts and experiences to which they are exposed on the trip and through the course. Describing focuses on what is there, interpreting puts things in context, and evaluating with the insight provided by actual residents allows for judgment and action based on an informed opinion.
You can expect updates about experiences outside the course, experiences within the course, student perspectives, lots of photos, and videos! These perspectives and photos are shared in part to highlight the amazing work of the students in this course, and also to offer some insight into what really goes on in study abroad trips, as close to live as possible, and to really showcase the incredible experiences studying abroad can offer.
