Guidelines for your Oral Presentations and Papers:

 

1. Don’t plagiarize. [Sorry to mention this, but sometimes haste leads to bad judgment.] Cite your sources in any way you find clear and convenient: citations are needed, but I don’t care about the precise format.

 

2. Your oral presentation in Rome may be anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes. The version of your paper that makes its way into your portfolio should be at least 4 double-spaced pages with reasonable margins. Proofread it!

 

3. When you present your paper in Rome, try to remember to speak slowly, clearly, and loudly. (You may have to speak over church bells or police sirens.) Your goal is not just to “get through it” but to help the rest of us learn something. Excessive detail is quickly forgotten, but your listener might grasp a detail if you relate it to something already known.

 

Example: “Julius II was born on December 5, 1443” is acceptable but will be quickly forgotten. Isn’t the following more likely to be remembered? “Julius II lived during the peak of the Italian Renaissance. The main acts of his papacy occurred around the year 1500, when both Raphael and Michelangelo were working in Rome.” (If this proves too general, you can refine his chronology as you proceed. Start big, then narrow.)

 

4. Some papers will sound a little like the Blue Guide, and so will some of my remarks. (By this I mean you and I will often have to present “mere” facts and details.) But try also to add one or more “bigger thoughts” relating to our culture wars theme to your paper, even if these thoughts are tentative and cannot be proven. In short, try not only to transmit some facts to the rest of us but try to think! (Raising good questions requires thinking!)

 

Example: “Not only is Bernini’s statue of the Rape of Persephone beautiful, it also seems to me to show the cultural complexity of the Baroque period. We might expect Bernini’s work to be “Christian” in an obvious way, but here we see pagan subject matter portrayed in a powerfully erotic fashion. I wonder how Bernini himself understood the relationship between this sculpture and his presumed Christian faith.”

 

5. Never hesitate to narrow you topic as you investigate it. If your topic is “the Pantheon,” for example, your paper will probably be better if you focus it on some one or two important aspects of the Pantheon. (Examples: its main structural features, its transformation into a Christian church, its “step ring buttressing,” its decorative elements.)

 

6.  I know you are busy now, and time is short, so perfection is out of the question. I also know students have managed to present some pretty good papers in past years, and this has helped to make the course go well.

 

7. If I can help, ask me. If you want me to review a draft, either before your oral remarks or before you turn in your portfolio, I will. Just give me a little time!

 

 

 

 

Choose your hero: Choose any of the following “heroes” from myth and/or history and summarize them and the qualities they incorporate or represent. Reflect at least a little on whether and how their qualities help to illustrate something important about the particular period in which they lived.

Aeneas, Romulus, Numa, Lucretia (= Lucrece), Lucius Junius Brutus, Volumnia, Coriolanus, Portia, Cato the Elder, Pompey the Great, Cicero, Marcus Brutus, Portia, Julius Caesar, Marc Antony, Cleopatra, Augustus, Nero, Trajan, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius

Any of these works of architecture (or any part of them):

The Arch of Constantine, the Arch of Titus, the Arch of Septimus Severus, the Golden House of Nero, the Column of Trajan, the Column of Marcus Aurelius, the Pantheon, the Coliseum, the Ara Pacis, the Tomb of Hadrian (= today's Castel S. Angelo)

Any of these “groups”: the Stoics (Epictetus), the Epicureans (Lucretius), the Vestal Virgins

Any of these practices: the "Triumph," gladiatorial contests

Any of these authors: Livy, Virgil, Lucretius, Ovid, Tacitus

 

 

            Any one of the following saints:

Peter, Paul, Matthew, Sebastian, Catherine of Alexandria, Helen (mother of Constantine), Andrew, Veronica, John the Baptist, Catherine of Siena (request another, if you have a favorite), Francis of Assisi, Dominic

Any one of the following popes:

Gregory VII, Celestine V, Boniface VIII, Innocent III, Alexander VI, Julius II, Clement VII, Pius IX

Either of these emperors:

            Constantine, Theodosius

            Any one of the following “Christian intellectuals”

Doctors of the Church: Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, Gregory I

                        Thomas Aquinas

            The Christian virtues: Faith, Hope, Charity; Prudence, Temperance, Justice, Fortitude           

The Dominican Order (and Saint Dominic)

The Franciscan Order and/or the Spiritual Franciscans (and Saint Francis)

Either of these events: The Great Schism (1378-1417) or the Papacy at Avignon (the "Babylonian Captivity" in the 14th century)

Medieval Christian music: the Gregorian chant

Renaissance Christian music: the composer Palestrina and polyphony  

Giordano Bruno (who was burned at the stake in 1600)

Galileo and his relations to the papacy and the Church

            Any one of the following works of art or architecture (and their significance):

By Caravaggio: “The Calling of Matthew,” “Inspiration of Matthew,” or “Martyrdom of S. Matthew”

By Michelangelo, “Christ Bearing the Cross,” Sistine Chapel (or some part thereof)

The basilicas of Santa Sabina, Saint Johns Lateran, San Clemente, or S. Maria in Trastevere (or any important part of one of these basilicas, such as an apse mosaic or a particular chapel)

Any one of the frescoes in "the Raphael Rooms"

Any one of the paintings on the walls of the Sistine Chapel (by Botticelli & Perugino)  

 

Topics for Papers to be Presented Orally And

 Incorporated into Portfolios: Roma Terza

 

 

Any one of the following political figures:

Cavour, Mazzini, Garibaldi, Mussolini, Alcide De Gasperi, Antonio Gramsci, Aldo Moro, Silvio Berlusconi, Giulio Andreotti

            Any of these popes:

Pius IX, Pius XII. John XXIII, John-Paul II, Benedict XVI

Any of these events, periods, or groups:

The March on Rome, The Treaty of Rome (1957), the “Years of Lead [bullets]” [Anni di Piombo], the Italian Partisans (during WW II), the Italian Communist Party, the events of Via Rasella and the Fosse Ardeatina, The massacre at Piazza Fontana, the kidnapping and killing of Prime Minister Aldo Moro

Any one of these figures (or movements) regarding the arts in contemporary Italy:

The film, La Dolce Vita; the director, Frederico Fellini; “Modernism.”  (Don't choose this area unless you are interested in old film or the arts!)

Any of these works of architecture:

The Monument to Victor Emmanuel, the Palace of Justice, the new Museum of the Ara Pacis (by Richard Meier)

Immigration into Italy: Who is coming, and how are Italians responding? Islam in Italy

Either  of these battles: the Battle at Monte Cassino, the landings and battles at Anzio and Nettuno

The Mafia or key events involving it (like the assassination of Giovanni Falcone)

The European Union (or any subordinate related issue, such as the Treaty of Rome)