- City: Sicily, Naples, and Rome
- Term: Winter course with field component during Spring
- Instruction in: English
- Requirements: LATIN 232 OR CICIV 120 taught by Gina Soter
- Students interested in: Classical Civilization, Latin Language
On-campus component: Past or current enrollment in either of the following: Latin 232 Vergil, Aeneid, 4 credits (or the equivalent) OR CLCIV 120 Searchers and Caesars: Place, Peril, and Identity in Classical Antiquity (3 credits).
Each on-campus course includes the reading of Vergil’s Aeneid in English and portions of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. These are the gateway texts to be explored in the study abroad portion of the course. Encounters with these texts allow us to communicate with amazing people from the past and to learn from them about the world in which they lived. Students from both groups will discover that encountering the texts in situ will enchant them in unexpected ways.
Off-campus component (2 credits): The land tells the story. From volcanoes and fertile fields to peaceful streams and the magnificent Mediterranean sea, from elevations with commanding views of the world of the living to the cave where the Sibyl gave prophecies and initiated the way to the world of the dead, we will voyage to stunning, odd, and terrifying landscapes that, throughout the ages, have spoken provocatively to the imagination and artist in all of us. We will meet the characters, literary and historical who inhabit them. Taking Vergil and Ovid as our guides, we will explore terrain idyllic and epic––sites fallen into ruin, nearly forgotten, and others molded for political purposes. On location we will consider the relationship between the place and artistic inspiration and will create our own responses.
The program is taught and led by U-M Instructor Gina Soter. For more information on GCCs (Global Course Connections), please see page 20.
