Rome

Your Rome Experience

• American University of Rome (AUR)

  Our partner institution in the heart of Italy's captial, the prestigious American University of Rome, serves as your academic host for your iCharleston semester:

  • Located in the historic Trastevere neighborhood overlooking the River Tiber.
  • Strong reputation for preparing students to live and work gloabally and across cultures.
  • Small, integrated academic community with a 16:1 student-faculty ratio.
  • Classes taught by award-winning, international faculty.
  • Local neighborhoods and landmarks woven into the classroom experience to provide you with a rich cultural experience of the city's historical and contemporary significance.

  Site Director

  You'll also have a dedicated iCharleston site director – a College of Charleston graduate who has several years of experience working with first-year students. Your site director will be a mentor, program coordinator and sounding board. 

  Visit the AUR Website
• Housing

  Apartment housing

  In Rome, you'll live with other iCharleston participants and American University of Rome students in fully-furnished apartments near the AUR campus.
  

  • Amenities:
    • Fully equipped kitchen (no meal plan is offered).
    • Towels, linens and a washing machine provided in each apartment. 
    • Membership to AUR's fitness studio (included in your program fees). 
    • 24/7 emergency assistance. 
    • Move-in assistance and comprehensive orientation upon arrival. 
  • Traditional Italian Neighborhood: Experience the sites, tastes and traditions of Rome's enchanting Trastevere neighborhood.

• Academics

  Your iCharleston academic experience includes 15 hours of transferable academic credits upon completion of the iCharleston program.

  • You'll need a "C" or better to transfer your courses to the College of Charleston.
     
  • Time in class: Each of your classes meet for three hours each week.
    
    
  • Your classmates: Some required classes are for iCharleston participants only, while other courses may include other students enrolled at the American University of Rome
    
    
  • Academic accommodations: Accomodations are available for those requesting support.
    
    
  • Passport to College of Charleston: You will also participate in a non-credit seminar each week - Passport to CofC - to bond, develop skills and ultimately support your transition to the College of Charleston in the spring.
    
    
  • Go to Class! AUR and iCharleston policy do not tolerate absences from class. Participants can lose their study visa if they are not present for class. 

  Course Schedule

  Your 15 hours will include two courses required for all iCharleston Rome participants:

  • Writing from Research
    AUR Course Number: ENG 102
    This course prepares students to plan, research, and write academic-level research papers autonomously. Students are guided through all writing stages, from preparing an articulated research proposal, to collecting sources and arranging them in an annotated bibliography, to outlining, drafting, and, finally, completing the paper in accordance with current MLA guidelines. Each stage is also punctuated with writing drills in the form of in-class essays, citing and quoting drills in the form of worksheets, annotation drills on select academic sources related to the class theme.
    
    College of Charleston Transfer Equivalency: ENGL 110
    College of Charleston Course Title: Introduction to Academic Writing
    
    
  • Roman Archaeology On-Site
    AUR Course Number: ARC 101
    This is an introductory on-site course exploring the archaeological sites and ancient monuments of Rome. The course will begin with the evidence for the earliest settlement in Rome and continue through the development of the Republic, the empire, and the transition to early Christian Rome. The course will focus on placing the archaeological and architectural evidence in topographical context. 
    
    College of Charleston Transfer Equivalency: CLAS 226
    College of Charleston Course Title: Archaelology of Rome

  You will also select three elective courses:

  • Art of Rome
    AUR Course Number: AH 100
    Art of Rome in an introductory course in the history of art. The course focuses on Rome, from its origin to contemporary times. Masterpieces of painting, sculpture, architecture, and urban planning are examined within their historical contexts. Most of the classes are held on site. The course hones a method of description, critical analysis, and interpretation of art. It builds an understanding of traditional forms and cultural themes useful in the comprehension of all western art.
    
    College of Charleston Transfer Equivalency: ARTH 190
    College of Charleston Course Title: Special Topics in Art History

  • Introduction to Anthropology
    AUR Course Number: ANT 100
    This course introduces a series of classical and recent topics in social and cultural anthropology: language, economy, kinship, religion, politics, myth, symbolism, gender, social stratification, ethnicity and nationalism, and globalization. Showing how anthropologists have approached these topics through cultural comparison, theoretical discussions will be combined with ethnographic examples taken from the variety of world cultures.
    
    College of Charleston Transfer Equivalency: ANTH 101
    College of Charleston Course Title: Introduction to Anthropology

  • Introduction to Italian Language and Cultures
    AUR Course Number: ITL 100
    Open to students with no previous training in Italian, the course introduces features of the Italian language needed for interaction in everyday practical situations, such as the café, restaurant, accommodations, and in the shops. The course satisfies a limited number of immediate needs necessary for survival in the target language culture. Cultural topics, such as Italian gestures, the Italian family, the working world. Religion, and women in Italy, will also be studied in order to familiarize the student with certain aspects of contemporary Italian society and culture.
    
    College of Charleston Transfer Equivalency: ITAL 1EE
    College of Charleston Equivalency: Italian Elective 100 level

  • Living Rome: Urban Spaces, Cultures and Identity
    AUR Course Number: SOC 120
    This course will give students the opportunity to actively explore the multiple dimensions of the City of Rome systematically and on the basis of a theoretical framework of urbanism, cultural studies, and social theory. The students will examine how the city impacts its citizens, its businesses, and social organizations. 
    
    College of Charleston Transfer Equivalency: URST 398
    College of Charleston Course Title: Special Topics in Urban Studies

  • Italian Sketchbook: Images of Rome
    AUR Course Number: ART 101
    An introductory course in drawing. On-site classes will provide landscape views, architectural forms, paintings and three-dimensional sculptures as subject matter, using pencil, pen, charcoal, and sanguigna as drawing techniques. The course includes art historical introductions to sites, individual drawing projects, and a written component related to the experience of sketching on location. The aim is to develop confidence and visual awareness in creating representations of the vast selection of art works that Rome has to offer.
    
    College of Charleston Transfer Equivalency: ARTS 119
    College of Charleston Course Title: Drawing I

  • Introduction to Ancient Greece and Rome
    AUR Course Number: ARCL 100
    This course introduces students to the social and cultural history of ancient Greece and Rome via the major works of historiography, literature, art, and architecture produced by those cultures. This course is classroom-based, but a field trip to a site of historical and/or cultural importance may be required. 
    
    College of Charleston Transfer Equivalency: CLAS 105
    College of Charleston Course Title: History of Classical World
    
    
  • Introduction to International Relations: History and Concepts
    AUR Course Number: IA 100
    This course incorporates discussions about International Organizations, Non-Governmental Organizations, Multi-National Corporations, Social Movements, and Civil Society. It looks at the study of the environment, the emergence of an international human rights regime, the reasons for state failure, the degree to which globalization as a phenomenon is altering the structure of international society, and increasing sources of disorder in an age of international terror, hegemony, and multi-polarism.
    
    College of Charleston Transfer Equivalency: POLI 103
    College of Charleston Course Title: World Politics

  • Communication and Society
    AUR Course Number: COM 105
    This course explores the relationship between communications, media, society, and culture. Within historical and contemporary contexts, the subject addresses how audiences and participants negotiate media in their lives. The course focuses on different media forms, from newspapers to television, and from books to mobile technology. Topics covered include the effects of media on audiences; issues of race and gender in the media; media ownership and regulation; the impact of technological development and institutional pressures on media uses, content, and patterns of communication. Ultimately the course assesses ethical and legal issues which media users and practitioners may face.
    
    College of Charleston Transfer Equivalency: COMM 214
    College of Charleston Course Title: Media in the Digital Age
    
    
  • Introduction to Psychology
    AUR Course Number: PSY 101
    This course surveys the various fields of psychology, with emphasis on recent discoveries and the specific contribution and character of European roots and developments. The primary objective is to lead students to explore and become familiar with psychology's technical vocabulary and concepts, as well as with some of the research findings upon which our knowledge of human thought and behavior is based. Students will be able to master elementary facts in support of those concepts, the basic attitudes of the discipline and its intrinsic interests and to present the newest developments in this field. Students will also develop critical thinking skills and will be prepared to be cautious and analytical consumers of information that is proclaimed to be scientific or based on research. In addition, students will become aware of the relevance of psychology to daily life and will develop respect for the psychological diversity of human beings.
    
    College of Charleston Transfer Equivalency: PSYC 103
    College of Charleston Course Title: Introduction to Psychology
    
    
  • Religion in a Pluralistic World
    AUR Course Number: REL 200
    This course examines the issue of religious pluralism, explores the relationship between religious truth and (in) tolerance, and examines how different religious traditions treat religious truth claims in regard to the social and political context in which they operate. The course examines the issues of pluralism, (in) tolerance and the interferences between the religious and the socio-political realm, both historically and in the context of the contemporary world. This course may involve on-site classes and Friday/weekend fieldtrips to some of the major religious sites in Rome and Italy.
    
    College of Charleston Transfer Equivalency: RELS 1MM
    College of Charleston Course Title: Religions Studies Major 100 level
    
    
  • Public Speaking and Presentation
    AUR Course Number: COM 203
    This course analyzes and applies principles of speech structures to oral presentation. Students learn to analyze audiences, adapt messages, apply critical listening skills and practice ethical decisions in preparing public speaking. Emphasis is placed on building a positive speech environment and practicing speech presentations.
    
    College of Charleston Transfer Equivalency: COMM 104
    College of Charleston Course Title: Public Speaking

  • Principles of Marketing
    AUR Course Number: MKT 200
    An overview of the marketing function, its importance to strategic decision making in business, and its practical relation to other functions within the organization and in the external environment, the course is designed around the very easily accessible concept of “The Marketing Mix.” Students explore how marketers analyze and segment markets, select certain segments to “target” and then position their products to respond to the needs of those segments. They investigate the challenges involved in researching, creating, promoting, pricing, and distributing products to target customers in both US and international markets.
    
    College of Charleston Transfer Equivalency: MKTG 2EE
    College of Charleston Course Title: Business Elective 200 Level

  • Greek and Roman Mythology
    AUR Course Number: CLS 103
    Mythology is the study of the legends about the origins and history of a people, their deities, ancestors, and heroes. The stories of the gods and legendary heroes of the Greco-Roamn tradition have provided the fountainhead for literature and the arts in the service of religious and political imagery down to the present. While the emphasis will be primarily literary, with extensive readings of such writers as Homer and Vergil (noting, in passing, the influence upon later literature), the visual depiction of these myths will also be studied. A field trip to a museum in Rome may be required.
    
    College of Charleston Transfer Equivalency: CLAS 103
    College of Charleston Course Title: Classical Mythology

  • Survey of American History
    AUR Course Number: HST 203
    A historical survey of American society from the Declaration of Independence to the present, topics include the War of Independence and the Constitution. Monroe and Jackson, expansion westwards, the Civil War, reconstruction, the development of Industrial America, the Progressive Movement, World War I, the Depression, World War II, the McCarthy era, the Civil Rights Movement, the Feminist Movement, and the Vietnam War.
    
    College of Charleston Transfer Equivalency: HIST 210
    College of Charleston Course Title: History Special Topics
• Sample Class Schedule

  Monday
  Passport to CofC: 9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
  Greek and Roman Mythology: 10:45 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
  Elementary Italian: 2:05 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

  Tuesday
  Art of Rome: 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
  Elementary Italian: 2:05 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
  Writing for Research: 3:40 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

  Wednesday
  Greek and Roman Mythology: 10:45 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
  Elementary Italian: 2:05 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

  Thursday
  Living Rome: 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
  Elementary Italian: 2:05 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
  Writing for Research: 3:40 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

  Friday
  Elementary Italian: 10:05 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. 
  Writing for Research: 11:40 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

  Note: AUR and iCharleston policy do not tolerate absences from class and participants can lose their study visa if they are not present for class. 

• Expenses

  $14,500* includes:
  

  • 15 transferable academic credits upon successful completion of the iCharleston program.
  • Shared, apartment-style living with 24/7 emergency assistance.
  • Orientation program.
  • iCharleston site director supporting academic and social transition to college life in Rome.
  • iCharleston-specific programming such as cultural outings.
  • Associated day and weekend study tour to Amalfi Coast including Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento, and Capri.
  • Semester-long gym membership.

  Flight costs are not included in program fees. A group flight will be arranged and instructions for securing your reservation will be provided. It is required to fly on the iCharleston group flight.
  *NOTE: All costs are subject to change. No financial aid is available for this location.