Urban Studies

The Department of Urban Studies offers courses focusing on the life and interaction within urban spaces in terms of environment, migration, and street culture.

3 semester credits. This course explores how green spaces can be understood as arenas where climate, cultural heritage, and personal well-being converge. Students will delve into sustainable principles for creating healthy green spaces in cities. They will discover the significance of gardens in fostering beneficial psychophysical practices, and the advantageous implications of green infrastructures for the community. The course delves into the science that underpins the restorative power of nature, exploring how gardens can alleviate stress, promote physical activity, and enhance overall well-being. Through lectures, interactive workshops, and visits to local urban gardens, students will gain a deeper understanding of gardens as places of culture, intended as a polyhedral term that embraces both mind and body, from the individual to the community levels. This course includes an Experiential Learning Project with CEMI.

4 semester credits. This course explores how green spaces can be seen as arenas where climate, cultural heritage, and personal well-being converge. Students will delve into the sustainable principles for creating healthy green spaces in cities. They will discover the significance of gardens in fostering beneficial psychophysical practices, and the advantageous implications of green infrastructures for the community. The course explore the science that underpins the restorative power of nature, exploring how gardens can alleviate stress, promote physical activity, and enhance overall well-being. Through lectures, interactive workshops, and visits to local urban gardens, students will gain a deeper understanding of gardens as places of culture, intended as a polyhedral term that embraces both mind and body, on both individual and community levels. This course includes an Experiential Learning Project with CEMI. This course includes service learning hours within the Florentine Community. Service learning is a method that incorporates intentional learning with service to the community, in which the service component functions as a reflection on classroom learning for all tasks performed. In addition to regular class hours, students will be involved in a volunteer project for the entire session that integrates them in the local community in order to remove barriers and gain a sense of social responsibility. The acquisition of new skills and knowledge obtained in the service learning environment outside the classroom will enrich the learning experience and contribute to personal and emotional growth, as well as cultural consciousness, to develop a greater sense of a global citizenship and sensitivity to the needs of others. Students are guided through the experience by the non-profit association supervisor and the service learning coordinator to enhance outcomes both inside and outside the classroom. The contribution to the association is not only crucial to a deeper understanding of course topics but also allows for a greater sense of belonging in the community, allowing for students to acquire a heightened awareness of emotional intelligence that enhances the classroom learning experience.

3 semester credits. This course will examine excerpts of Dante Alighieri's greatest passages from the Divine Comedy and other works in relation to the space and history of Florence. Textual analyses will be performed, unpacking the dense symbolism and motifs reflective of the intellectual and moral climate during 14th century Florence. Students will visit churches, piazzas, and palaces within the city and will examine these locations in the context of Dante's life and surrounding controversy, the accusations and denunciations in his writings, the physical descriptions of the city, and the characters and historical figures present in his works. The classroom approach of this course is based on experiencing the city of Florence as the academic space for learning and engagement. Classes are not held in a traditional, frontal-style setting; each lesson is carefully mapped for curricular content and featured locations: lectures, observations, exercises, analysis, and reflections on presented topics are held in relevant sites that are accounted for in the academic planning, syllabus, and related course material. Coursework and submissions will be regularly assessed on the MyFUA platform through daily assignments in addition to exams, papers, and projects. Learning through the on-site classroom approach fosters a deeper understanding of the cultural environment of Florence and how it is related to the subject of study represented by the course, and allows the overall experience to contribute to the students' academic and personal enrichment.

3 semester credits. How is individual and collective memory created? What is heritage, and how is it propagated? This course explores memory and memorialization as social phenomena that shape, and are mutually shaped, by both tangible and intangible heritage. Emphasis is attributed to an increasingly relevant concept in the social sciences: multisensoriality. The latter can be framed as a means to attain an embodied experience that can foster the generation of sociological, political, and imaginative considerations. Memory shapes and is mutually shaped by the organization and values of communities. Students will be exposed to a great variety of multisensorial spaces in Florence, such as participatory museums and memorials. These will be examined analytically, with a particular focus on the methodology of ethnographic research, so as to bridge the gap between theory-based knowledge and the applied skills of data gathering and assessment. The approach of this course is based on experiencing the city of Florence as the academic space for learning and engagement. Classes are not held in a traditional, frontal-style setting; each lesson is carefully mapped for curricular content and featured locations: lectures, observations, exercises, analysis, and reflections on presented topics are held in relevant sites that are accounted for in the academic planning, syllabus, and related course material. Coursework and submissions will be regularly assessed on the MyAUF platform through daily assignments in addition to exams, papers, and projects. Learning through the on-site classroom approach fosters a deeper understanding of the cultural environment of Florence and how it is related to the subject of study represented by the course, and allows the overall experience to contribute to students' academic and personal enrichment.

3 semester credits. The development of the city of Florence and that of the Church are inextricably linked with one another; Christian, and more specifically, Catholic faith provided a framework for one’s life, informed the development of social institutions and governing bodies, and inspired the development and flourishing of art and architecture during the period that would come to be known as the Renaissance. In short, this faith touched every aspect of life in the Florence of centuries past, and its present is still seen, felt, and experienced when moving through the dense urban fabric of the city. This course will also investigate the ways in which religious faith permeated numerous aspects of Florentine society and daily life, from the monasteries and convents spread throughout the city, to its charitable institutions and hospitals, to the care for the souls of the condemned, and, more joyfully, to celebratory traditions that survive to the present day. Themed walks will offer an opportunity to explore these themes through engaging with works of sacred art and architecture, as well as sites and routes of religious significance. Works and structures will be contextualized within the historic period in which they were produced, allowing students to understand how and why they were executed, as well as to explore the significance they would have held for their original viewers and to discuss what they mean to beholders today. The analysis of these spaces, places, and works will highlight additional layers of meaning and interpretation: life, death, violence, popular culture, and social change, among others. Open to students from all backgrounds and academic concentrations, this course will allow participants to discover the city of Florence through a unique lens while simultaneously encouraging them to learn about Italian historical epochs and the cultural diversity of its traditions. The classroom approach of this course is based on experiencing the city of Florence as the academic space for learning and engagement. Classes are not held in a traditional, frontal-style setting; each lesson is carefully mapped for curricular content and featured locations: lectures, observations, exercises, analysis, and reflections on presented topics are held in relevant sites that are accounted for in the academic planning, syllabus, and related course material. Coursework and submissions will be regularly assessed on the MyFUA platform through daily assignments in addition to exams, papers, and projects. Learning through the on-site classroom approach fosters a deeper understanding of the cultural environment of Florence and how it is related to the subject of study represented by the course, and allows the overall experience to contribute to the students' academic and personal enrichment.