Italy Field School: Gateway to the Mediterranean

This five-week Field School gave U of G students an opportunity to live and study in Sorrento, Italy at the Sant'Anna Institute on the beautiful Amalfi coast. While living in the heart of the Mediterranean, students took an Italian language course appropriate to their knowledge of Italian (beginner, intermediate or advanced), and learned about the role of Italian food and the Mediterranean diet on culinary and cultural practices in Italy and around the world.

Students from all disciplines are eligible and encouraged to apply to the Italy Field School.

Field School Details

  • Instructor: Alessia Ursella, Italian Studies, School of Languages and Literatures
  • Offered: Summer 2019

Courses

Italian Language (ITAL XXXX, 1.0 credits)

Students took an Italian language course at the Sant'Anna Institute at a level appropriate to their Italian language skills.

Italian Food and the Construction of Authenticity (HUMN 3620, 0.5 credits)

This course focused on Italian food and its representation in literature and film, with a particular focus on the notion of "authenticity." Using Sorrento and Italy as a rich resource, the course moved back and forth between mondern and contemporary Italy and the Italian Middle Ages and Renaissance to arrive at an understanding of how Italian ways of thinking about food have their roots in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Students came to appreciate how these ways of thinking about food have been exported to Canada.