MINOR CHANGES MAY BE MADE TO THIS PAGE IN THE COMING MONTHS.
Course requirements include: weekly readings, class attendance and participation, two group oral presentations, a midterm exam, a final exam, and a final project.
Attendance is required. Students must attend all course meetings and events. Intelligent, informed participation in seminars and sections is also required. Students must arrive in time in class and at all events. Missing classes or events or arriving late will negatively affect your final grade.
Readings: Students must read all assigned materials before the due date; they are necessary prerequisites for lectures and class discussion. Comments and questions about the readings are welcome in class and during office hours. Especially in Trento and Siena—that is, after the first two weeks—students are warmly encouraged to demonstrate in class their familiarity with the day’s readings.
Reading assignments are not extensive—on average, about 200 pages per week—but they vary considerably and require attention and effort. Academic engagement should lead to a thorough understanding of the fundamental concepts covered in the course, as well as their application to the many events that constitute the program. Exams will test students’ comprehension of these texts and keywords. [< this link is not yet active]
As there is not much free time in the early days of the program, it is highly recommended to read the two books assigned for the first and second week (Kant and Scarry) before leaving for Italy.
The following five books must be purchased by all students prior to their departure and brought to Italy; you must buy a paper copy of the recommended editions.
– Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities, trans. William Weaver (Harcourt OR Mariner Books Classics) (if you know Italian well enough you might want to read the original text; see below) [available on Amazon (alas!) for $8];
– Giovanni Della Casa, Galateo or, The Rules of Polite Behavior, trans. M. F. Rusnak (University of Chicago Press) [$ 15];
– Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Judgement, trans. James Creed Meredith and Nicholas Waler (Oxford World’s Classics) [$ 19] (you’ll need to read about half of the book; the specific sections will be indicated later).
– Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, trans. George Bull (Penguin Classics) [$8];
– Elaine Scarry, On Beauty and Being Just (Princeton University Press) [$21 or less].
Please note that it is unlikely that you will be able to find copies of these books on the shelves of a bookstore, so you will need to order them in advance, preferably a few weeks before you leave for Torino. Do this immediately after confirming your participation in the program.
Please note that all students in the intermediate/advanced Italian language course will read Italo Calvino’s Le città invisibili in Italian. Let us know, and we will be happy to give you a copy of the book when you arrive in Torino.
All other readings will be available online as PDF files. Only students enrolled in this program have access to them. To download the files click here [< this link is not yet active] and log in to the Canvas site of the course with your HUID.
Final project: In one of the introductory lectures, students are introduced to the field of visual anthropology and encouraged to choose a topic on which to take photographs over the following weeks; they will then select ten of these photographs and present them in class toward the end of the program. This final project must focus on Italian life as reflected in the activities and customs of ordinary people. You do not need to inform Prof. Erspamer of your topic, but it is advisable that you decide on one as soon as possible and begin taking relevant photos immediately. If you have any doubts about your topic, please consult Prof. Erspamer.
In early August, you will need to organize the project into a short PowerPoint presentation consisting of eleven slides (no more and no fewer than eleven): one with the title and the other ten with one photo each (no more than one). The ten selected photos must illustrate the theme of social, cultural, or anthropological interest indicated in the title and must have been taken on different days and on different occasions at the various locations visited since the start of the program. No more than three photos may have been taken in the same city.
All projects must be sent by email to TBA by August 8. They will be presented in class on August 10. Click here [< this link is not yet active] to see the topics already assigned.
Oral presentation: Each student must choose and read a chapter from Sartwell’s book Six Names of Beauty: “Beauty”, “Yapha”, “Sundara”, “To Kalon”, “Wabi-Sabi”, “Hozho” (PDF files of them will be available for download on Canvas starting in May. If you are interested in presenting a specific chapter, please notify Prof. Erspamer via email; otherwise, one will be assigned to you. Click here [< this link is not yet active] to see the names of beauty that have already been assigned. Each chapter will be read by an equal number of students. Students who have read the same chapter should meet to organize their in-class presentation, which will take place on Tuesday, July 20. Each group will have a total of twelve minutes to present its name of beauty.
Midterm exam: 90 minutes, on Wednesday, July 21. It will include: 1) about fifty short ID questions, mainly on keywords (see the list here [< this link is not yet active]); 2) and two more complex questions requiring essay-style answers of about half a page, based on the readings and topics covered in class.
Final exam: Oral exam, on Thursday, August 12, and Friday, August 13: each student is questioned consecutively by Prof. Erspamer and the TAs (ten minutes each, for a total of about TBA minutes). The evaluation is based on three equally important criteria: 1) competence and accuracy, 2) insight, and 3) appropriate use of keywords.
Technology: We expect that all work students submit for this course will be their own. We specifically forbid the use of ChatGPT or any other generative artificial intelligence tools at all stages of the work process, including preliminary ones.
Grading breakdown:
– 35% Attendance, participation (in class, during sections, and during events), and oral presentation
– 20% Midterm exam
– 35% Final exam
– 10% Final project
– Extra credit (up to 10%): Italian language course
Italian language course: Click here for more information.
