Global Business Institute: Florence - Summer

 

Welcome to the Global Business Institute (GBI), your opportunity to study and practice business at one of five international campuses. GBI prepares you for the business world through coursework that advances your degree, out-of-the-classroom experiences that create cultural competence that make recruiters want to hire you.
 
Florence is the ideal setting to spend the summer studying in one of the most historic, cultural and beautiful cities in the world. The city is filled with cobblestone streets, open-air markets, unique food experiences, artistic masterpieces, stunning architecture. The city is an important Italian business hub for human resources, fashion marketing, and tourism management. You will take 2 courses (6 or 7 credits - depending on the courses that you select) on this 6-week long program.  No previous Italian language experience is necessary. 
 
The city of Florence and hills of Tuscany becomes your classroom during this program. The program includes a full day excursion to Siena and San Gimignano. Students also have the opportunity to interact with the local community and immerse themselves in optional cultural activities through the CAPA My Global Education program. CAPA-led events include a walk up to Piazzale Michelangelo for stunning views over the city of Florence and a hike in the nearby hills, followed by dinner in one of the best pizzerias in town. Other activities, often self-guided, reflect what’s going on in the city at the time and may include a walking tour to the most important markets of Florence, tasting typical Italian snacks, a night at the opera, or attending a soccer match at the Florence Stadium.
 
Want to learn more? Check out the Pitt Business To the World student blog and this video. 
 

What You'll Accomplish: 

As an engaged and active participant in this program, you will have the opportunity to: 

  • Fulfull major elective course(s) and general elective course requirements. 

  • Develop global competency skills through coursework and cultural experiences. 

 

Florence, Italy is the capital city of the Firenze province and Tuscany region. It is surrounded by the picturesque rolling hills of Tuscany. Florence is a majestic city that is visually stunning, culturally rich and has a storied past. Florence was founded as a Roman Military colony around the 1st Century BC. The city’s population began to grow due to its location in the fertile, farmable hills. Its location also was perfect for economic development in the region.

 

Florence became a haven for an ever-growing immigrant population that still exists today. Florence has its strong Italian roots but is also very much a multi-cultural city. Due to the growing economy and influx of immigrants it became the perfect location for merchants and artists. This in part, led to the Renaissance period in the 14th to 16th centuries. Many of the most influential artists of that time period flocked to the city to work on their art including Michelangelo, Botticelli, Ghirlandaio and Leonardo da Vinci. They left behind masterpieces in the forms of frescoes, sculptures, paintings and architecture that are still visible throughout the city today. Despite its pivotal role in the history of civilization and its significance as an artistic and cultural center, Florence retains the bustle and charm of a small town in a bygone age. Ancient, medieval, renaissance, cosmopolitan, yet with all modern conveniences, Florence, perhaps more than any other city, is a tapestry displaying Europe's emergence from the Dark Ages through to the 21st century.

 

Where You'll Live: 

You will live like a Florentine during your program abroad. Housing placements are scattered throughout the city-center and location depends on availability and housing option. Exact addresses are provided closer to departure. Regardless of the option you choose, nothing is ever far from you in Florence. The city is geographically very flat, pedestrian friendly, and walkable. Remember, though, that it is a very old city - expect uneven roads/sidewalks and lots and lots of cobblestone. Like the streets of Florence, no two apartments on the Pitt in Florence program are alike in terms of design, but all will give you a comfortable place to call home in Italy. Most apartments are located within a 40 minute commute to the CAPA Center, either on foot or by bus. Apartments are still within what is considered the city-center. 

You can expect the following for your accommodations:

  • Shared bedrooms ( typically 2 students/bedroom)
    • There are typically up to six students in each apartment
  • A fully equipped kitchen
  • En-suite bathroom (generally 1 bathroom for 2-4 students)
  • Washing machine(s) in the building or apartment (Italian apartments typically do not have dryers).
  • Meals aren’t included, so plan on learning to cook with local ingredients or budget money to eat out.

We do our best to provide the most accurate information about housing and amenities but due to the nature of the locations in which we offer programs and limited availability, these items are subject to change. Contact your program manager with any questions.

Florence can be very warm in the summer. A/C is not common and, if/when available, is regulated.

What You'll Study: 
  • You will take two courses on this six-week program.
  • The courses are approved by Pitt and you will receive letter grades for the courses.
  • Please note that the Italian language (ITAL0101) is for 4 credits. Pitt faculty member Jenny McCord will teach some of the Italian language courses.
  • The other courses will be taught by local faculty from CAPA.
  • If you are an Italian major or minor, please connect with Lorraine Denman, Pitt Italian Language Program Coordinator. 

 

 

Key Issues in International Economics for Managers (BUSECN1508)

Fulfills a requirement for the CPIB/ Global Management major. 
The objective of this course is to examine theoretical analysis of international trade and commercial policy. Students will look at the pure theory of international trade as exemplified by comparative advantage and gains from trade in the classical and neoclassical models and explore alternative explanations of trade and development. The theory of customs unions and modern day explanations of preferential trading arrangements will be explored and some of the principal unresolved theoretical and practical problems of free trade will be examined.

International Marketing (BUSMKT1461)

Fulfills a marketing major elective for Pitt Business students.
This course reflects the increasing amount of international marketing carried out by a wide and diverse range of organizations. Starting with why organizations may wish to expand their activities across national boundaries, students develop knowledge to identify which markets to enter, the methods of market entry available, and the management and control implications. The student will be encouraged to perceive the role of a global marketing manager, and to make decisions that could affect the outcome of a global marketing plan. This includes the international marketing environment and the international marketing mix, namely product, pricing, distribution and promotion, as well as emerging issues in international trade such as trading blocs, trade barriers, and the standardization versus customization dilemma.

Writing the City-Florence (ENGWRT1200)

This course is a creative writing workshop designed to explore the experience of traveling and living abroad in Florence in both verse and prose. Along with the workshop we will also read and discuss texts that focus on Italy in general and Florence specifically from both the native and foreign perspectives, noting particularly the literary techniques and strategies that various writers have used to verbally map out the territory of the city and to express their own place and experiences within its walls. The texts will provide us with a forum for discussing each author’s relationship to and the literary expression of place. The texts will also provide us with models for weekly writing exercises.  I believe that we can use our unique position as sojourners abroad to begin to chart our own internal and imaginative landscapes. Our ultimate goal will be to produce a finalized, substantial text—or series of short texts—suitable for performance and/or publication in the literary world beyond this class.

 

Italian Renaissance Art History (HAA0302)

This course introduces students to painting, sculpture, and architecture in Florence in the Renaissance. Beginning with the great projects of the Middle Ages that defined the religious and political centers of the city, attention focuses on major monuments of the Renaissance. Discussion will center on how works of art were made, their style, and how they communicate intellectual meaning. Sub-themes that intersect with the most recent research in the field of art history are interwoven into each class period. Topics for discussion include the cross-cultural fertilization of artistic ideas, how women, the poor, and children were depicted in Renaissance art, conflicting ideas regarding patronage, and how works of art construct religious, political, gender, and class identities. This course analyzes the interrelationship between people's creative achievements and their society. In other words, students must understand a work of art in the social, artistic, and historical context of medieval and renaissance Florence.

For Italian majors or minors, this course is also cross-listed as ITAL 0183. 

Special Topics: Museum Studies (HAA1030)
Through museum visits in Florence and Rome students will realize that most of the artworks actually displayed in public museums once belonged to private collectors and were not produced to be seen by a large public. During the course students will explore the history of collecting objects. They will start with the sacred collections of Classical temples, passing then to the libraries of Medieval monasteries and the ideas of the Abbot Suger. They will imagine recreating a Medieval Schatzkammer and an Early Renaissance Studiolo thanks to the remaining precious vases that belonged to Lorenzo the Magnificent and the documents of the Urbino Palace and Isa-bella d’Este Studiolo. They will ‘virtually’ visit the Paolo Giovio collection, and the real Studiolo of Francesco I as well as 16th and 17th century Baroque Galleries. They will follow the growth of European National Museums of the nineteenth century (Louvre, British, Muse-ums Island in Berlin) as symbols of national pride as well as the Florentine private collec-tions transformed in foundations like the Bardini and Horne Museums. An in depth study will be done on the Uffizi Gallery in order to understand the transformation of the gallery from the late 16th century to the present day. Finally they will face the role of museums in the contemporary world making a personal research on Florence main museums’ visitors.

 

Syllabus:
Interculture and Migration (ITAL1084)

Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Specific Geographic Region,  Diversity  General Education Requirement

Italy has long been a nation of emigrants, but only in the last few decades has become a nation receiving large numbers of immigrants. The fall of communism in Eastern Europe, and wars and violence in the Balkans, across Africa and the Middle East, have spurred new migrants towards the West in search of safety and economic prosperity. The unique position of the Italian peninsula in the Mediterranean has made it a key territory of arrival in these modern-day migrations, but to what advantage and to what cost? This course will explore the complexities of cultural identity and migration, and the impact they have on intercultural conflict and cooperation. There will be a particular focus on migration in Italy and on the marginalized communities of contemporary Italy, such as migrants, their Italianborn non-citizen children, and the Roma. We will examine the fluidity of cultural boundaries across time and space, and how ingroup and outgroup dynamics contribute to the manufacturing of fear and prejudice among populations. During their semester abroad, students will reflect on the various elements that define a culture while gaining an increased understanding of how culture shapes individuals and how our cultural identities interact in shared social spaces such as the piazze of Florence. 

Syllabus:
Italian: Here and Now (4 credits) (ITAL0101)

An introduction to the Italian language, including basic grammar, vocabulary and speech patterns. Primary goal is to achieve competence in the spoken language, along with basic skills in reading and writing. Face-to-face lesson meetings consist of communicative activities in which students practiced learned structures and vocabulary.  Students will watch/listen/read lectures, complete exercises related to grammar and vocabulary. This instructional approach is designed to allow for maximum interaction in the classroom environment, so that students can receive extensive feedback on their progress. 

Italian: There and Then (4 credits) (ITAL0102)

Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Second Language  General Education Requirement

This course is designed to teach you the basic vocabulary and grammar you need to navigate Italian culture, history, and society. This innovative class consists of face-to-face class meetings in which students practice their Italian in communicative activities.  In addition, students will watch/listen/read lectures, complete exercises to hone their Italian linguistic skills. Students will also  learn about Italian culture, including Italian fashion and design, travel destinations, popular culture, and contemporary literature.  Primary goal is to achieve competence in the spoken language, along with basic skills in reading and writing.

Italian: What If (4 credits) (ITAL0103)

Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Specific Geographic Region,  Second Language  General Education Requirement

Learn Italian in a comfortable and interactive classroom environment! This course is designed to teach you the vocabulary and grammar you need to navigate Italian culture, history, and society. This course consists of face-to-face class meetings in which students practice their Italian in communicative activities. Students will also watch/listen/read lectures, complete exercises to hone their linguistic skills to better their Italian. In addition, students will learn about Italian culture, including current events, Italian politics, and contemporary literature and cinema. Emphasis continues to be placed on the oral-aural skills, but the reading and writing skills become increasingly stressed.

Depending on enrollment, students in this course may be combined with students in ITAL 0110 and instruction will be differentiated. 

Medieval and Renaissance Literature - Florence (ITAL1085)
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Literature General Education Requirement
 
The course will introduce students to the history of Italian Literature, focusing on great masterpieces (in English translation) from the 14th to the 16th century. A multidisciplinary approach, dealing with social, political, historical and philosophical implications will provide further understanding by placing literary works in a comprehensive cultural context. Special emphasis will be placed on the impact of Italian literature in European culture in pre-modern age, stressing the broad influence of Dante's Comedy, Boccaccio's Decameron and Ariosto's Orlando Enraged. Students will be provided with the basic operational tools to help them recognize different literary genres and understand why certain forms of artistic expression are peculiar to certain ages, at times to the exclusion of others. Literary issues such as the great divide between high and low literature, the question of language, the relation between classical, Christian and chivalric epics, the concept of originality in the Middle Ages, the circulation of books and the development of a reading public will be thoroughly investigated. Students will be able to follow the formation and the evolution of the mainstream literary tradition, and appreciate the innovative charge, both in form and content, of the works selected. They will also learn to practice a close reading of the texts, and will be encouraged to form their own critical opinion on the writings analyzed for their oral presentations. The first lessons will be devoted to a general overview of the 13th and the 14th centuries both from a historical and a more specifically literary perspective. Then the focus will shift onto the role of Dante in shaping the vernacular literature as a means to bridge the gap between academic and popular culture, to Boccaccio's ground-breaking work in restyling storytelling into an art of conversation and therefore a collective enterprise, and finally to Ariostol's humorous contemplation of human vanity and foolishness. Each lecture introducing a new author will be preceded by a brief outline of his life and literary output, and will then proceed with the description and analysis of his major work.

 

Cross Cultural Psychology in Florence (PSY0186)

This course will explore the field of cross-cultural psychology through a focus on a specific country and its inhabitants: Italy. Aspects of cross-cultural analysis from the field of cross-cultural psychology (as well as interdisciplinary elements from sociology, anthropology, biology and ecology) will be discussed, including: cultural influence on human behavior, attitudes, values, communication and societal organization. Special topics of ethnocentrism, individual vs. collective societies, plural societies, cultural views on mental health, and intercultural communication are highlighted. Methodological issues of cross-cultural research will be reviewed, and students will have the opportunity to conduct a cross-cultural interview and be participant-observers of their own experience here in Italy. The city of Florence and its inhabitants become the classroom through various excursions and field work. Participants are encouraged to reflect on their own cultural origins in regards to behaviors, communication, attitudes and values, as well as their acculturation experiences while studying in Italy.

 

Syllabus:
Foundation Drawing (SA0130)
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Creative Work  General Education Requirement
 
A studio arts drawing course for beginning and intermediate students that explores an essential aspect of artistic self-expression and the techniques necessary to learn to draw what you see. The course will examine Florentine artists' drawing techniques that raised the level of this medium during the Renaissance period from preliminary studies to that of true works of art. Visual perception is a way of seeing that differs from our typical way of seeing. The objective is that of teaching students how to transmit what they see, an artistic perception which will permit them to explore their personal mode of expression. The course will concentrate upon the component parts of drawing, the necessary aspects self-awareness and general creativity, learning to draw what is out there and self expression.

 

Foundation Painting (SA0120)
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Creative Work General Education Requirement
 
Investigate concepts of color, form, line, composition, volume, space, and the use of oil paint as a medium. Beginning or intermediate levels accepted. This course is structured to introduce oil painting starting from the basic techniques and introducing new approaches and ideas. Students should take advantage of open studio hours to complete their assignments. At the beginning of each new topic and project students will be asked to list the techniques acquired in the previous lessons before moving on to a new exercise. Students will be expected to complete at least 4 paintings to successfully complete the course in addition to completing the weekly assignments.

 

Syllabus:
Analyzing and Exploring the Global City - Florence (URBNST0408)

Florence is a global heritage city: millions of people every day crowd into its small streets admiring the ancient buildings and its artistic heritage, which creates revenue as well as issues. For this reason, contemporary Florence and its inhabitants are less well-known by visitors. Florence today has an ethnically diverse population with complex socio-cultural dynamics that shape the identity of this fascinating city. Although migration to the city has intensified over the last few decades, ‘multiculturalism’ is not a recent phenomenon: over the centuries the city has celebrated diversity, with different ethnic groups, different nationalities and various religious groups who have contributed to Florence’s social and cultural wealth. Even the briefest of walks can unveil this wealth to the eyes of the attentive observer – and it is precisely this ‘below the surface’ understanding that this course provides. Florence is, and always has been, a ‘global’ city. We will analyze the complex dynamics that shape the identity of Florence by applying a critical perspective to the notion of globalization and by analyzing the socio-cultural forces at play both historically and presently. Students will learn to analyze the cultural variety present in the city, examining which ethnic communities live in Florence today, and gaining insight into their lives through scholarly sources and direct observation. Throughout the course we will discuss the relativity of cultural values; we will analyze how multicultural aspects of Florence’s identity have been discursively constructed and by which social actors; we will review which policies the local and national administration have put into effect to deal with these issues.

 

The University of Pittsburgh partners with the CEA CAPA Education Abroad for this program. CEA CAPA works with institutions of higher education to build programs that meet their goals for learning abroad, and offers study abroad and internship programs in destinations around the globe. CEA CAPA focuses on academic offerings, support frameworks, and oversight structures for students and visiting faculty.

The CEA CAPA Florence Center is housed in three buildings in the heart of Florence, including in Palazzo Galli-Tassi, a 15th century palace. The CEA CAPA Florence team is available throughout your program to assist and support you 24/7 with any urgent situations.

 

Your Pitt Study Abroad Contacts: 

Dr. Philip Hnatkovich

Hi I'm Phil Hnatkovich and I'm a Global Experiences Manager in the College of Business Administration. I've worked in higher education for nearly two decades, both as a lecturer and as a study abroad manager. I came to the field of international education after years of international study, beginning with language and cultural studies in Acadie, then historical research in French, Cornish, and English port communities and pirate havens, and finally as a co-founder of an international digital educational program aimed at transcribing historical documents from the 17th century. I'm thrilled to help students find their own paths from travel to professional opportunity!
 

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Your In-Country Contacts: 

Jenny McCord

Jenny McCord is our on-site Pitt faculty in Florence and teaches sections of ITAL 0101 Here and Now, ITAL 0110 Firenze Popolare and ITAL 1084 Interculture and Migration. Jenny moved to Florence in 2015 after a decade in Pittsburgh teaching for the Department of French & Italian and working with study abroad summer programs in Bologna, Rome and Florence. She holds an MA in Italian Literature and an MT in Foreign Language Education from the University of Virginia, as well as a Master in Intercultural Studies from the University of Padova.

Items Billed by Pitt

  In-State Out-of-State
Tuition Fees $5,034.00 $5,234.00
Program Fee $3,565.00 $3,565.00
Pitt GEO Admin Fee $300.00 $300.00
Total Billed by Pitt $8,899.00 $9,099.00

Estimated Additional Out-of-Pocket Costs

Airfare $1,800.00
Meals and Personal Expenses $1,500.00-2,000.00
Local transportation pass $65.00

 

Remember that your lifestyle and spending choices can greatly affect the amount of money you'll need while abroad. Visit our Budgeting page for more information. The above estimates are estimates.

 

What's Included: 

As a part of your GBI: Florence Summer program fee, the following are included:

  • Tuition for 6 credits (or 7 credits if you take the Italian language course)
  • Shared accommodations throughout the program
  • Excursions and cultural activities, including the CEA CAPA co-curricular calendar of offerings. The co-curricular events/activities from the past have included: a gelato tour around the city, a boat ride on the Arno, a cooking class, and more! 
  • Day trip to Siena and San Gimignano 
  • International travel health insurance

A transportation pass is not included in the program fee, but one can be purchased locally if desired. 

 

When You'll Go: 

This program runs for six weeks, beginning in May and ending in late June or early July. See the dates sidebar for exact program start and end dates.

What Else You Need to Know: 
  • Florence can be very warm in the summer. Please prepare yourself that A/C is not as common and, if/when available, is regulated. 
  • For scholarship opportunities, be sure to check out the Funding Sources pagePitt Business students may also apply for additional scholarships through the Pitt Business Global Experiences Scholarships here, as well as crowdfund using the Pitt Business Fund My Travel page. Please note that the application deadline for the Pitt Business Global Experiences Scholarship is the same as the program application deadline.