George Mason University’s
Center for Global Education
Fall Semester in Rome, Italy

FACULTY DIRECTOR:
PROF. BRACK BROWN
PUBLIC & INTL AFFAIRS
(bbrown@gmu.edu)

       FALL 2004

ROME the “eternal city,” founded 2700 years ago is the venue for a semester abroad at our partner university John Cabot University in the heart of old Rome (the Trastevere District) along the Tiber River. You can view an introductory video tour of the campus by going to www.johncabot.edu and hear exchange students talk about their experiences there. The university offers 12 undergrad transfer credits (you need to get pre-approval of these credits from you home department within CAS) in such subjects as: Art History, Business, Economics, European History, Italian Language and Literature, and Politics and International Affairs. Dr. Brown and CGE will help you design a semester package.

Students will live in small apartments near the university. The immediate neighborhood is alive with cultural and intellectual opportunities, including renaissance palaces, art galleries, medieval churches, monuments, open air markets, botanical gardens, cinemas, and restaurants. Trastervere is only a short distance south of the Vatican Independent City State. A nearby hill that offers a panoramic view of all of Rome is where the great nationalist Garabaldi held off an attack of French troops on the city in 1849. Only yards away from John Cabot University is the Corsini Palace where Michaelangelo, Erasmus, and Galileo at times visited, and paintings by Rubens, Van Dyke, Murillo, and Caravaggio can be viewed.

Greater Rome is of course minutes away, a living laboratory of history, art, architecture, politics, and economic and urban development. The Colosseum, the Sistine Chapel, St. Peters, the Pantheon, the Catacombs, famous villas, gardens, aquaducts will be part of your everyday environment.

During your semester in Rome opportunities for very inexpensive side trips to other great cities in Europe will be available. Rome is only 17 miles from the ocean. Weekend trips to such fabled cities as Florence, Naples, Sienna, and Pompei are all within 150mi. of Rome and easily accessible by bus or train in a few hours.

(Contact your program office, Paula Thomas, CGE, pthomas5@gmu.edu or call x2641)

SUMMER 2003 PROGRAM: PRAGUE-BUDAPEST (pdf format)

Summer 2003 Prague-Budapest (htm format)