Smith in Florence

About the Smith Center

The Smith Center is centrally located on the second floor of a historical building that dates back to the 17^th Century. The premises are very spacious and full of natural light, and some rooms have frescoed ceilings and mosaic floors; the main classroom overlooks the inner garden and is incredibly quiet.

Artists, Saints and Patrons: The Secrets Behind the Monuments that Made Florence Great

4 credits, Fall 

This course focuses on some of the most important monuments of Florence, examining their history and art. The result will be the analysis of these monuments from different perspectives, studying the artists who created them, the preachers and saints who lived in them and the patrons who sought and financed them. Particular attention will be devoted to Medici patronage, specifically the figures of Cosimo the Elder, Piero the Gouty and Lorenzo the Magnificent, who had such a profound influence on the artistic events of the fifteenth century in Florence. The workshops on fresco and panel painting will offer deeper insight into the works observed and analyzed during our visits, letting the students see and experience different artistic techniques.

Innovations in Early Childhood Education: Philosophy, Practice, and Public Policy in Pistoia, Italy

4 credits,Fall

Internship and typically involves (but it is not limited to) an academic year commitment. The internship can take the place of a Sede course in both fall and spring, but not a University of Florence course. The internship course is graded, and requires a presentation and a major research paper turned in to the Pistoia program coordinator at the end of the spring semester. The internship, in addition to attendance at an educational center, includes meetings with the Pedagogical Coordination, with families, and equally knowledge of the network of services and the city. Through this type of approach, the students have the opportunity to get to know the school with its practices, its values, its pedagogical foundations, but also a city that works for the youngest citizens and families.

Italian Social and Cultural History: From Fascism to Nowadays

4 credits, Fall 

A multidisciplinary approach to contemporary Italian culture. It also takes into account the historical reasons for the current political situation. The course offers an overview of Italian 20th century history and includes the study of important aspects of Italian life: regional differences, local identities, emigration and immigration, the integration of recent immigrants into Italy, internal fighting during WWII, terrorism in the late ‘60s and 70s, organized crime and the Mafia, Italian politics, sport, the evolution of the concept of family and the role of women in society.

Italian Stylistics (ITL 240)

4 credits, Fall or Spring

A review of basic and advanced language structures. It includes a variety of activities to learn different linguistic registers: collaborating with a local radio station, visiting a newspaper, preparing video material and improving linguistic skills through a full immersion in the city and in Italian life. This is a required course for all students unless they place out of this language level.

History of Costume, Fashion and Artistic Craftsmanship

4 credits, Spring

The course analyzes the birth, evolution, decline, rebirth and the most recent developments of Italian fashion, up to the contemporary Made in Italy. Topics of particular interest and critical analysis are: craftsmanship, circular economy, sustainable production. The course has an interdisciplinary approach, so the trends of Italian fashion over time are decoded in relation to various disciplines, including: history, art history, economics, gender studies, society in a national and international economic and social context. The course will also analyze the relationships between fashion and other disciplines of communication: cinema, photography, the web, journalism, social media. Visits and excursions are essential to underline the leading role of Florence, and of Italy from its origins to the present day and allow us to deepen what was discussed in the classroom, in an authentic context. The course aims to provide the necessary technical and linguistic competence to understand and analyze fashion as a complex socio-cultural phenomenon, alternating both a chronological and thematic approach. In particular, the enormous contribution of Florence, Rome and Milan in the affirmation of Italian fashion in the world and innovation will be emphasized. An integral part of the course is the direct experience of the students: visits to museums and exhibitions, practical workshops and individual and group activities. These practical experiences are to be considered essential elements of the experiential teaching approach adopted by the teacher.

A Factory of Genius: Workshops and Painters in Lorenzo the Magnificent’s Florence

4 credits, Spring

The course focuses on the Florentine painting workshops of the fifteenth century, examining their typology, composition, dynamics between painters and artistic production. After dealing with the problem of the artist's training, the course will focus on the different types of production, in particular those intended for home furnishings and ecclesiastical furniture. The relationship between master and pupil (e.g. Verrocchio and Leonardo, or Botticelli and Filippino Lippi) and family workshops (e.g. the Ghirlandaios) will also be examined. We will try to recreate the daily life of the Renaissance atelier, through drawings depicting artists at work and reading their jokes and pranks. The classroom lessons will be alternated with numerous visits guided by the teacher, in which it will be possible to admire - in churches and city museums - works that testify to collaborations between artists or exemplify particular types of works of art (for example altarpieces, chests, roundels, etc.).

Words Beyond the Page: Six Centuries (1500-2000) of Italian Classics Beyond the Confines of the Text

4 credits, Spring

The main purpose of the course is to bring students closer to some works of Italian literature from the fourteenth to the twenty-first century through their cinematographic transposition. To this end, the course will open with a theoretical approach during which the relationships that traditionally exist between the written page and its translation on the big and small screen will be presented. For each century, with the exception of the twentieth century, to which there will be particular attention determined not only by the richness of the adaptations made but also by the greater linguistic accessibility of the transposed works, a combination consisting of a literary work and its translation into images will be proposed.