Italy - Exploring Dante in Florence

Location: Florence, Italy

Dates: January 2 – January 21, 2025
Students should plan to arrive on or before January 1, 2025. Class will begin the morning of January 2.

Credits Offered: ITAL 276W – 3 CREDITS (CUNY tuition is not included in program fee)

Application Deadline: October 15, 2024

Program Fee: $2,400 (estimate) includes housing (double or triple rooms in hotel) with breakfast, cultural events and international health and travel insurance. Tuition and airfare are not included in the program fee. All students are responsible for arriving at their study abroad location by the first day of the program; this may mean flying the day before.

Payment Schedule: $350 application fee and deposit is due on or before October 15, 2024. $2,050 (program fee balance; estimate) is due on or before November 1, 2024. Payments must be made with certified check or money order. No cash, personal checks, or credit cards. Payments should be made at the Office of Education Abroad during office hours.

Students are responsible for meeting the payment deadline regardless of funding source, i.e. Macaulay Opportunities Fund, scholarships, loans, or any other type of financial aid. Late fees will be applied to all delayed payments.

Financial Aid: Please be sure to meet with the Financial Aid Office to discuss your particular financial aid package.

Scholarships: Gilman Scholarship

Students interested in applying for scholarships should email Stephen Lassonde at ops@hunter.cuny.edu.

Study Dante’s Divine Comedy in Florence, the city where Dante was born and raised, where he first made his name as a poet and politician, and from which in 1302 he was exiled. Dante wrote the entire Divine Comedy, his poetic journey through hell, purgatory, and heaven, during his exile away from Florence, but features his hometown – its people, places, and politics – all throughout the poem.

In this course, we will examine the main themes, characters, events, and many Florentine spaces featured in the Divine Comedy, with emphasis on Inferno (Hell), and explore the artistic responses to Dante’s poem. The written assignments in this writing-intensive (W) course will be tied to our Florence location.

Syllabus

Download the syllabus (link below) for details

Textbooks

Required: The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, Volume 1: Inferno. Edited and translated by Robert Durling (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), in one of the formats below (price varies):

• A physical copy is available in paperback ($21.99)
• A digital edition is available in Kindle ($5.69) or e-book via Hunter College Libraries (no cost)

Also required:

• The Dante’s Florence app ($0.99) available via Google Play (Android) and the Apple App Store (iOS)
• Additional course materials (no cost) provided by the instructor and posted on Brightspace

Prerequisites

All applicants must fulfill the general eligibility requirements.

Grading Policy

• Active Participation (20%)
• Written Assignments (40%)
• Tests (20%)
• Final Project (20%)

Students in this program will receive both credits and letter grades. Grades will count towards their Hunter GPA.