SATA Rome 2004

Reflections

Professor Art Ferrari with SATA Rome 2004 students on the roof in Spanocchio, near Siena.

Spring semester in Rome was a time of diverse and rich experiences for Professor Ferrari and eleven Connecticut College students. In his new course on "Individual, Community and Democracy," the group analyzed what it takes to make democracy work, including early efforts by Rome to do so in a republican form of government. Centuries afterward, those failed efforts by Rome helped shape the design of the U. S. Government.

That design, its operation, and potential threats to them, were analyzed by the French social theorist Alexis de Tocqueville in his renowned Democracy in America (1840) and provided a rich beginning for the courses's subject matter on the interplay of democracy with culture, ideology, self, identity, social participation and globalization.

An additional component of the academic coursework was to participate in efforts by the Comunita' di Sant'Egidio to serve the community. This unique organization near John Cabot University, our host institution, generously arranged for the Connecticut College students to participate in some of their efforts. The Comunita' is an internationally oriented group of concerned Roman citizens and spiritual seekers who not only provide direct service to the poor and the elderly in Rome, but also mediate conflicts between warring factions both civil and international as well as working to outlaw the death penalty worldwide. The students' service experience helping the homeless helped them in classroom discussions of social policies toward poverty and made invaluable contributions to their developing analytical abilities as well as their more personal ethics and morals.

SATA Rome students also visited Siena, a few hours north of Rome. Siena is unique in its tradition of civic-mindedness reaching back hundreds of years. Here the students examined Lorenzetti's frescoes depicting "Good Government" and "Bad Government" and were treated to a lecture on these richly symbolic works by Laurenzo Fusi, art historian and director of the Palazzo Papesse, Siena's museum of contemporary art. Professor Fusi, himself a Siena native, joined us on another occasion to lecture on the Sienese system of neighborhoods, currently the focus of Professor Ferrari's research on community, identity and governance. They are the source of the Palio, the twice-yearly horse race in the city center that takes place with much pomp and ceremony — a prime example of great civic pride and consciousness.

Just outside of Siena, Spannochia provided an added attraction for interested students. It is the site of both an archeological dig for Etruscan artifacts and a working farm, the latter rooted in tradition and at the forefront of the movement to return to organic farming. The owners raise vegetables and a special breed of indigenous pig, and even recycle their water. At the end of the visit, we returned to Siena for a party given by UMASS program students in honor of the Connecticut College students.

The mix of academic work, everyday Roman life, travel, art museums and architecture tours, JCU's internationally diverse student body, and our get-togethers outside the classroom provided each student with a stimulating semester of personal growth and education in its broadest, richest and best sense. - Arthur Ferrari, Professor of Sociology, Connecticut College