Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies

The Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome (ICCS) is an overseas study center in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

for undergraduate students in fields related to Classical Studies. It was first established in 1965 by ten American colleges and universities; as of 2007 the number of member institutions has now grown to 113. It is sometimes called the Centro, the Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

word for center.

Structure

Each member institution furnishes a "faculty representative" to the Centro; from these, five are elected to sit on a governing board called the Managing Committee, currently under elected-chair Professor Michael Maas of Rice University

Rice University

William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research university located on a heavily wooded campus in Houston, Texas, United States...

. The Managing Committee hires a Professor-in Charge (PIC) for each year, and three subordinate faculty, usually an Associate Professor, an Assistant Professor, and a Graduate Student Instructor, who are responsible for instruction. Students at individual member universities should contact their faculty representative for further information (a recommendation from the faculty representative is required with every application).

The Centro offers competitive admission to North American undergraduate students to study the Ancient City, Greek or Latin literature, Italian language, or (Renaissance and Baroque) Art History. Initially administered by Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

(and housed at Via Ulisse Seni 2), the Centro is now administered by Duke University

Duke University

Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...

and housed at Via A. Algardi 19. A group of 36 undergraduate students is competitively selected as Centristi each semester; the faculty is drawn from American colleges and universities.

The Centro has received financial support from the Danforth Foundation, The Old Dominion Foundation, The Mellon Foundation, The David and Lucille Packard Foundation, its consortium of colleges and universities, and former students. One of its founders was the American Classicist Brooks Otis

Brooks Otis

Brooks Otis was an American scholar of Classical languages and literature. Born in Boston, he graduated from Harvard in 1929, took the M.A. in 1930, and received the Ph.D. in 1935. He was one of the founders of the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome, Italy, in 1965...

, in whose memory the center's library is named.

Faculty

Normally there are four faculty members at ICCS Rome: a senior 'Professor in Charge' (PIC), two junior professors (often an associate professor and an assistant professor), and a graduate student assistant. Faculty are hired competitively at the annual meetings of the American Institute of Archaeology/American Philological Association in January. Faculty duties vary in accordance with the organizational plans of the PIC, but the course load is nominally two courses per semester except for the graduate assistant, who teaches a 1-1 load with additional resident supervisorial duties. The professors live in ICCS-rented apartments in the neighborhood, while the graduate assistant lives on the premises of the ICCS.

Coursework

Indubitably, the heart of Centro coursework is the Ancient City course. Worth two credits and demanding an exceptional amount of time, this course teaches the history of Rome with a focus on its topography, ancient and modern; in short, this course is Roman history as it could only be taught in Rome. Although they are supplemented by a weekly lecture, field trips provide the core of the class, with two to three six-to-ten-hour excursions per week. Each student also must give two on-site presentations, which help further emphasize the physicality of the field.

In addition to the ancient city course students must take two additional courses (some choose to take a third). One class must be in either the Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

or the Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

language. Currently Centro provides two electives, Elementary Italian

Italian language

or Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

and Baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

Italian art history

Art history

Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and style...

; however, Francesco Sgariglia, the program's current director, is developing ideas for new classes that would give Centristi more exposure to contemporary Italian culture, such as 'Italian Cooking.'

Art History is taught by Paul Tegmeyer, a faculty member of John Cabot University

John Cabot University

John Cabot University is a private American liberal arts university located in Rome, Italy. Founded in 1972, it was named after the Italian explorer Giovanni Caboto.-Location:...

. The class consists of a weekly lecture Thursday afternoon and a field trip on Friday mornings, normally to a museum or church. Paul Tegmeyer paints the history of Renaissance and Baroque Art History in Rome as well as Michelangelo

Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...

painted the Sistine Chapel

Sistine Chapel

Sistine Chapel is the best-known chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City. It is famous for its architecture and its decoration that was frescoed throughout by Renaissance artists including Michelangelo, Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio...

Life at Centro

There are only thirty-six students int the program per semester. Students live in a small three-story building that previously served as a convent in Monteverde Vecchio

Monteverde (Rome)

Monteverde is a district of Rome Italy. It is located just outside the Aurelian walls, south of the Gianicolo and southeast of Trastevere. Monteverde means 'green mountain' and is named after the hill that the district is located on...

. Breakfast, dinner, and most lunches are eaten together on all weekdays; the bedrooms are small; the long and frequent field trips for the Ancient City course mean that class time is heavily weighted.

External links

Italy°N date=July 2009°W

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