Announcing: The American Institute for Roman Culture and the College of the Holy Cross Rome Program in Archaeology and Classical Studies

for the first time I achieved inner harmony.”
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Italian Journey 1786-1788

This exciting academic partnership offers students an unparalleled educational opportunity to experience a semester of learning centered in the heart of the Eternal City, the birthplace of western culture.  The AIRC/Holy Cross Rome Program welcomes applications from students from approved colleges and universities.  Holy Cross students follow the normal Holy Cross Study Abroad application procedure. Visiting students from other schools please refer to the section below titled “Applying to the Program.”

Foreign study in Rome is a richly rewarding academic experience.  Nothing quite prepares you for your first walk along the stone-strewn path of the Roman Forum or for reading the works of Julius Caesar and Seneca sub arboribus (under the trees) in the very city where these authors lived and wrote.

The American Institute for Roman Culture and The College of the Holy Cross have created a unique academic program that enhances students’ understanding of the development of the Roman Empire and its cultural artifacts from the underground up--through directed readings, specialized lectures, in situ learning opportunities, and hands-on experience.

By immersing students in the broader cultural context of the city, both past and present, participants acquire an in-depth appreciation of Rome’s ancient heritage, its literature, art, archaeological sites and monuments from the earliest settlements through late antiquity, the middle ages, and until today, underlining Rome’s tremendous historical significance for the modern and contemporary world.

Rome is Our Campus
The American Institute for Roman Culture is located in one of the world’s greatest capital cities.  Instructional and support facilities are conveniently located to the city center yet the entirety of Rome itself is our most impressive classroom.

Because they believe that knowledge gained by seeing and doing has a lasting impact on students’ personal and intellectual growth, professors conduct lectures outside formal classroom settings as often as they do inside.  With almost three thousand years of layered history and two millennia as the de facto center of Christendom, Rome serves as a living historical blackboard bringing history, archaeology and classical studies to life.

Students enrolled in semester programming receive museum entrance passes to all sites related to the core programming as well as access to limited access sites not open to the general public.

Program Offerings in Archaeology, Classical Civilization, Classical and Modern Languages

With a small student-to-faculty ratio, the AIRC/Holy Cross Rome Program is dedicated to encouraging academic achievement in its students and offers curriculum designed to balance high academic standards with an active learning environment. In a given semester students can select from a range of course offerings in an interdisciplinary learning environment, including classes in archaeology, topography, digital archaeology, history, art history, religion, architecture, Latin and Greek philology, as well as Italian language instruction.  To further enrich their academic study, students have the exciting and rare opportunity to participate in ongoing AIRC archaeological projects  and intensive course-related field study throughout Rome and its Empire, thereby imparting an unparalleled understanding of--and a hands-on feel for--Roman Civilization. NOTE:  All programming components are subject to sufficient enrollment.  

Academic Features         

•         Full-time undergraduate level classes, with courses approved and accredited through the College of the Holy Cross. 
•         Students receive a grade report from the AIRC and in turn a transcript from the College of the Holy Cross.
•         Ability to fulfill language requirements in Italian, Latin or Greek, with targeted full-immersion courses.
•         All faculty are bilingual (English/Italian) and represent a variety of multicultural backgrounds.  
•         Class size is limited to 10-20 students to ensure maximum interaction with academic instructors.
•         Coursework is fast-paced and rigorous and geared towards the intellectually curious student as a means of encouraging critical thinking,
•         Professors stimulate lively discussion allowing students to engage in a more in-depth study and analysis of related disciplines.
•         Opportunity for in-field learning through on-site class lectures and special projects.

Required Courses:

Forma Urbis - The Archaeology and Culture of Rome
With Rome as both backdrop and focus, this double-credit course is the cornerstone of the AIRC/Holy Cross Rome Program.  The course provides an in-depth introduction—on site and in the classroom—to the history and archaeology of Rome and its environs.  By exploring the social, religious, political, urban and artistic development of the city from the eighth century BC to Late Antiquity and beyond, students gain a rich and nuanced understanding of the formation of Rome and its continually changing urban fabric.

Studies are organized chronologically, regionally, and by topic and offer an analysis of Rome's development as a regional and imperial power.  Students learn about recent and ongoing excavations.  During regular site visits in Rome as well as various regions of Italy and even abroad, students receive on-site lectures, often from guest professors who are experts on a particular site.  Students encounter pioneering research methods such as digital archaeology with IATH.  Finally students have the singular opportunity to participate in a hands-on archaeological project  as a capstone experience of their time in Rome.   

Elementary Italian
Designed for students with little or no knowledge of Italian language, this course provides an introduction into Italian grammar and pronunciation.  The teaching method is “situational” (asking directions, shopping, ordering in a restaurant, traveling, etc.,) and is designed to help students integrate as fully as possible into Rome and Roman culture. Here as with “Archaeology and Culture,” many learning opportunities take place outside the classroom.  Even students who think speaking a language isn’t their strong suit, will be amazed at how much they can learn in a semester.  In some years, higher levels of Italian language may also be offered subject to sufficient student enrollment.   
Courses in Latin and Greek are offered every semester.  The level of the courses is adjusted each year to meet the needs of accepted students.  Moreover, the AIRC/Holy Cross Rome Program also offers an array of other humanities-related subjects taught by experienced academics from Rome’s international academic community.  A full load consists of the double-credit Archaeology and Culture course, Elementary Italian (if a student has no previous Italian), and an elective.  The exceptional student may take an additional elective at an extra charge, but this would be a highly demanding load.
Archaeological Project

Subject to sufficient enrollment and available ongoing excavation projects, students enrolled in the AIRC /Holy Cross Rome Program have a unique hands-on learning opportunity to be directly involved in preserving Rome’s cultural heritage.  Working side-by-side with international archaeologists and conservators on important archaeological excavation and conservation initiatives, students will continue the work of their  predecessors, lending continuity and sense of purpose over time to the Air’s archaeological projects.

Examples of current/past AIRC projects include:  the Post Aedem Castoris excavation, an ongoing archival study project in the Roman Forum; a project to analyze the western world’s most ancient synagogue at Ostia Antica; excavations at Villa delle Vignacce, a second century AD villa in the Park of the Aqueducts; and excavations of Otriculum in Abruzzo.

Exploration and Excursions

Students have the opportunity to explore Rome and farther a-field in the former Roman Empire—with as much as fifty percent of a student’s learning opportunities conducted outside the classroom.  The “Forma Urbis” course includes regular half-day visits to study important sites in and around Rome and may include week-long cultural excursions to world-renowned historic sites as far away as Naples, Sicily, Athens, Carthage, or Turkey.

Through specially-arranged permissions, students associated with the AIRC/Holy Cross Rome Program also have access to otherwise restricted historical sites closed to the general public.  In the past, two of those sites included the Cloaca Maxima, Rome’s 2,000 year old sewer system that is still in use and Santa Maria Antiqua in the Roman Forum. 

Examples of recent field-study learning include trips to Palestrina, Tivoli, and Hadrian’s Villa in Lazio; Herculaneum, Pompeii, Vesuvius, Paestum, Baiae in the Bay of Naples; as well as Roman North Africa. 

Academic excursions such as these afford students the opportunity to delve into Roman provincial culture and the complex, symbiotic process of acculturation within the empire. In Tunisia for example, participants become familiar with Phoenician, Punic, Numidian, Libyan, Berber, Arab, Turkish, and Tunisian cultures, religions and histories.  Recognizing Rome’s ancient influence on these myriad cultures, students gain insight into the evolved cultural diversity of Rome’s great legacy to the modern world.

The American Institute for Roman Culture academic programming receives affiliated transfer credit from the College of the Holy Cross, and is recognized as an affiliated program by that institution. For more information, contact Brittain Smith at the College of the Holy Cross bsmith ( at ) holycross.edu or contact Lynda Albertson at the American Institute for Roman Culture: lynda ( at ) romanculture.org

Housing
For details on student housing click here.

Board

Students receive one meal a day, five days a week (excluding spring break) at specially selected restaurants in Rome.  Otherwise, the AIRC/Holy Cross Rome Program is self-catering; students learn to shop at local markets, further establishing their connection to the neighborhood and to the contemporary culture of the city.

Student Visa

Students are given the paperwork to fill out for the Italian student visa application. Students send the completed application and supporting documents to the Office of Study Abroad at Holy Cross.  Study Abroad will procure the visas and return them to students by courier.

Applying to the Programme

The AIRC/Holy Cross Rome Programme is designed for mature, intellectually curious undergraduate students with a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.0.  Applicants are admitted to the programme based upon a careful selection process that considers previous academic performance and students’ motivation, communicated in an essay, for studying in Rome. Holy Cross students follow the normal Holy Cross study abroad application procedure.  Visiting students from approved partner schools must submit completed versions of the following forms. 

Please contact studyabroad (at) romanculture.org to speak to someone about how to apply.