Study & Intern in Florence (UofM Students)

SACI offers the option to take a 6-credit studio in either art or design. For more information, view the SACI course and program information.

Courses and topics change from fall to spring, so be sure to reference the above document. Some studios have pre-requisites, so pay close attention to that.

If you participate in a 6-credit SACI studio, the rest of your courses will be chosen from the full-course list on the Study & Intern in Florence program. Because of the different schedule and intensity of the studio, you should be aware that some of the courses on the Study & Intern in Florence course page may not be available, due to scheduling conflicts. When completing the Course Enrollment Form on your application checklist, be sure to include alternate course options. Our on-site staff will do their best to get you into the classes you need, but in some instances, they may need to place you in one of your alternate course choices. 

After your application is reviewed by the UofM, you may be required to submit a portfolio to our on-site partners. We will provide details on that process. 

First semester Italian. Develop basic listening, speaking, reading, writing, and communicative competence skills. Some cultural readings are included. No prerequisite.

Further develop basic skills, and improve conversation and comprehension proficiency as well as reading and writing skills. Includes grammar review. Prerequisite: Completion of one or two semesters of Italian language. If you have completed one semester of Italian, register for FLOR 1002. If you have completed two semesters of Italian, register for FLOR 1003.

Syllabus for 1002 (PDF)

Syllabus for 1003 (PDF)

This intermediate through advanced language course will focus on practical skills while emphasizing conversation and vocabulary building. Prerequisite: Completion of three or four semesters of Italian language. If you have completed three semesters of Italian, register for the 5-credit FLOR 1004. If you have completed 4 semesters of Italian, register for the 3-credit FLOR 3100. The 3-credit version of the course has fewer tests, and more focus on a higher level of oral and written work.

Syllabus for 1004 (PDF)

Syllabus for 3100 (PDF)

Students work from the model, with still life and from natural surroundings, and proceed through exercises designed to refine the senses, the student learns to perceive the subject in ways that consider placement of form and division of space. Concepts such as volume, negative space, and the impact of every mark or imprint are presented. Perspective, proportion, composition, and analytical expression, as well as thorough exploration of the possibilities and limitations of various drawing media—pencil, pen, drawing stick, ink, and charcoal—are all confronted. Group and individual critiques are given regularly.

From its beginning, photography has been used as a tool for the exploration of society, and photographers have taken that as one of their tasks. This class will explore digital photography as a tool to view Italian society (and yourself within that society) through various photographic exercises. Students will need a digital SLR camera for this course.

This course will focus on the rise and development of consumer cultures with specific emphasis on the similarities and differences between the Italian and US American practices using Italian products as the case study. The aim is to study and to apply interdisciplinary theoretical approaches to the study of consumer society now and in the past. The course will explore key substantive themes in the history and sociology of consumption.

This course attempts to examine core principles of psychology from a cultural perspective and how communication and culture interrelate. Students will use Italy and Italian culture as an experiential classroom to facilitate intercultural awareness.

The course explores the relationships linking project, merchandising and market and provides, through direct experience, the methodologies and socio-cultural skills to critically evaluate the development phases of a business project. Students will be getting an insight on how the Italian style (in fashion, cultural events, design, food) evolved and changed, on the principles around which these fields revolve, and on their role in the economic, sociological and psychological elements of society.

This course will examine the main economic issues concerning microeconomic theory directly related to the study of the European economy with special focus on Italian peculiarities. Students will discuss the characteristics of the role of EU and the recent monetary union that comes from a long period of economic coordination in a globalized context. Students will study markets characteristics through the analysis of the Italian economic structure, discuss the past and the future of “Made in Italy” sectors and the position of Italy in the international markets.

This course explores the world of work in Italy and how students respond to the challenges that they can expect to encounter while interning in Florence. You can find more information on internship placements here.

The course examines literary representations of Italy, with a focus on Florence and its surroundings, and analyzes how discourses of gender, power, national and individual identity inform literary constructions of the Italian landscape and of the Italian city from the 19th Century to the present. Travel writings as well as poetry and fiction inspired by or set in Florence by authors from different eras and traditions will be contrasted with representations of the Italian, Tuscan, and Florentine space by Italian authors.

The sea is a place where cultures meet. This course will explore its influence, with a special focus on art history and a mainly Italian and Florentine point of view. Topics will include: the impact of Islamic art on Western culture; the role of Byzantine art in the development of Florentine painting; the rediscovery of Greek classical culture and its importance in Renaissance civilization; the consequences of the fall of Constantinople and of the expansion of the Ottoman Empire. Students will explore Florentine churches, palaces, and museums in search of visual evidence of the links between the city and the diversity of Mediterranean culture.

This course was structured out of four core ideas: how fashion designers and artists communicate and market their art; how institutions communicate and market the fashion items and artworks they have on display; how the audience communicates their experience of fashion and of art and how this influences marketing and promotional strategies; how these three processes are implemented through communication and marketing channels and for which purposes. The course will explore its core ideas integrating theoretical and experiential-learning approaches.

This course is an investigation into how the identities of different peoples in the Mediterranean can be understood through the lens of the food they cultivate, trade and eat. After an introduction to different definitions of identity, with a particular focus on the formation, maintenance and evolution of group identity through cultural practices, the course will analyze the history and culture of food in different civilizations of the Mediterranean basi

This course will introduce students to the principles of photography for social media and how essential it is to learn about storytelling. Students will also learn about the power of imagery and its wider impact in the digital world. While an increasing amount of people carry around a phone every day, how many really know the potential of these powerful cameras, and how to use them to create and share images that make an impact with social media audiences? The course will appeal to students majoring in Communication, Marketing, Design, Journalism, Sociology and to all students interested in learning practical skills in photography, including compositional and technical aspects to aid their camera work

Students may either take this course, or the Photography: Exploring Society through the Camera's Lens course. You are not able to take both photography courses.

Traveling abroad has always been, in fact, an experience of enrichment, enhancement and transformation of a traveler’s identity and intimate self. Starting from this assumption, this Creative Writing course will use the narrative strategies offered by modern and contemporary autobiography to draw inspiration from the students’ Italian and European travel experience. At the same time a ‘classic’ field in literature and a flourishing contemporary trend, the genre of autobiography defies categories and allows to experiment with innovative forms - from diary to travelogue, from literary nonfiction to the so-called “autofiction” – that are also currently evolving under the influence of the social networks and the possibilities of augmented experience offered by the web.

The course will deal with the most relevant sociological theories on crime as a particular form of deviance. The aim is to apply different theoretical perspectives to the study of the deep relation between crime and culture in our contemporary societies. Given that crime and culture are two complex and multilayered notions, a variety of materials will be used (sociological essays, newspapers, audiovisuals, TV shows, movies, music, among others) in order to analyze specific case studies both from the US and Italy using a cross-cultural comparative perspective and to stimulate an active in-class students’ participation.

Global Identity: Connecting Your International Experience with Your Future is an optional 1-credit online course that helps you process your international experience and apply what you've learned upon your return.  Global Identity gives you the opportunity to work individually with a trained cultural mentor, helping you articulate your newly acquired skills for future professional opportunities, and differentiating you from your peers.

This course is offered at no additional cost on programs six weeks or longer. There are several sections offered including: Honors, College of Liberal Arts, and Leadership Minor focused versions of the course. Here is a link to additional Global Identity Course Information for details on how to request registration, deadlines and grade basis.