News Archive 2009

December 11, 2009 - See related photostrip

SUF announces outstanding students for fall 2009
SU Florence is pleased to announce the twelve recipients of this semester’s Academic Excellence Award in the categories of Outstanding Students, as well as the first winner of the Studio Arts SUF Purchase Prize Award.

December 4, 2009 - See related photostrip

The Fall 2009 Graduate Symposium: Renaissance High Chapel Decoration
After months of research and a challenging year of studies, the Syracuse University Graduate Candidates for the Master’s Degree in Art History are finally ready to present their theses. This year’s symposium concentrates on Renaissance High Chapel Decoration, a topic, say grads Julia Colchie, Laura Genatiempo, and Shannon Gilmore, they were drawn to following their coursework on Santa Maria Novella and issues of audience.

November 20, 2009 - See related photostrip

Tandem encounters
Italian students visited the Italian Department at SUF and, enchanted by the Villa Rossa and its students, wrote an article for the local newspaper Il Tirreno about their unique experience.

A call for excellence: professors submit selected student nominees for Coluccio Salutati Prize fall 2009
Faculty members have submitted their nominees for SUF’s Coluccio Salutati Prize, a merit award for undergraduate and graduate students intended to recognize those who have aspired to the highest level of integration into the Italian culture, as well as those who have demonstrated academic achievement through their performance in class.

November 13, 2009 - See related photostrip

Studio Arts lecture gives students a close up look at contemporary art in Italy
Studio Art students at SU Florence recently had the privilege of meeting two important figures in the world of contemporary Italian art: Paola Bortolotti, a well-known critic of contemporary art, and Giacomo Costa, an Florentine artist currently exhibiting work at the Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition.

October 16, 2009 - See related photostrip

Countdown to the Festa: SU Florence’s 50th Anniversary Celebration
Almost sixty SUF alumni from the 1960s, ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s are returning to Florence to participate in the 50th Anniversary Festa, a three-day celebration with an optional fourth-day trip to the Tuscan countryside. Numerous members of the Syracuse University, NY and SU Florence communities will also be joining in to celebrate the success of one of the oldest study abroad programs in Italy.

October 2, 2009 - See related photostrip

A close encounter with the origins of the Italian language: Option II students visit the Accademia della Crusca
Ever since their arrival at SU Florence one month ago, Option II students have been fervidly preparing for their upcoming studies at the Centro di Cultura per Stranieri in the University of Florence through intense Italian advanced class, and site visits.

September 29, 2009 - See related photostrip

SUF students lend strong support in marathon against breast cancer
SU Florence students turned out in large numbers to participate in the seventh Corri La Vita, the annual Florentine marathon to raise money in the fight against breast cancer.

September 18, 2009 - See related photostrip

SUF presents world debut of Oscar Wilde’s play A Florentine Tragedy
In an impressive collaboration with New York University, Florence’s City Museum Center and several other important Florentine institutions, SUF presents “Oscar Wilde and A Florentine Tragedy: A Series of Special Events”, including three related lectures and the world debut of Oscar Wilde’s one-act play A Florentine Tragedy.

September 11, 2009 - See related photostrip

The art of study abroad
Through “The City as a Work of Art,” the orientation lecture presented by SUF Professor Alick McLean, and the ‘zone dinners’ created for students to get to know each other, the first week of the semester offered students the opportunity to realize that there is indeed an ‘art’ to study abroad.

September 4, 2009- See related photostrip

SU Florence announces fall 2009 lecture series
The fall 2009 Featured Events series has been announced. The lectures cover a range of topics from the role of architecture in public life, to the influence of patrons in art history, to drama and the Florentine tragedy. Join us for a rich and informative semester of events.

August 28, 2009 - See related photostrip

SUF welcomes fall 2009 students
Syracuse University in Florence staff and faculty are pleased to welcome incoming fall 2009 students. On September 1, students from Syracuse and other universities across the USA will be welcomed at the Florence airport by SUF staff. A four-day orientation follows, where students become acquainted with the SUF program and the city of Florence, as well as receive an introduction to Italian culture.

July 31, 2009 - See related photostrip

Florence architecture students close out SUF summer session
This week saw the SU Florence architecture students from the Three Cities course finishing up projects and participating in their final review. Although SUF's summer session ended for most students on July 10, the summer session in architecture has always extended beyond the regular session for other SUF students.

July 09, 2009 - See related photostrip

SU Florence presents joint initiative "Monument to Legality" to city of Florence
The Region of Tuscany and the Association for the Families of the Victims of Via dei Georgofili recently invited SU Florence to present the project ‘Streets of Legality,’ an ongoing initiative where SUF sculpture students, together with their Italian counterparts from various art institutes in Florence, are working on a monument dedicated to the victims of the 1993 Mafia bombing in Via dei Georgofili, Florence.

June 12, 2009 - See related photostrip

SUF and the University of Florence international exchange
For over fifteen years SUF Option III students have benefited from the agreement between Syracuse University in Florence and the University of Florence (UF), attending courses in various disciplines on the Italian campus.

May 29, 2009 - See related photostrip

Michelangelo and Mapplethorpe: SUF professor curates major exhibit at the Accademia
SU Florence Professor Jonathan Nelson has curated, together with Galleria dell’Accademia Director Franca Falletti, Robert Mapplethorpe: Perfection in Form an exhibition dedicated to the great American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, on the twentieth anniversary of his death.

May 15, 2009 - See related photostrip

SUF spring 2009 Option III students going the extra mile
Although the spring 2009 semester ended at the end of April, there are still four students to be seen on the SUF campus, though they are actually attending class at the University of Florence.

May 08, 2009 - See related photostrip

SUF architecture alum receives prestigious award
SUF architecture alum Christian Sottile received a 2009 Charter Award from the Congress for the New Urbanism.

April 30, 2009 - See related photostrip

City of Prato honors new book by SU Florence professor
The city of Prato, in Tuscany, hosted a presentation honoring the recent publication Prato: Architecture, Piety, and Political Identity in a Tuscan City State, by SUF Professor Alick M. McLean. This book recounts the historical development of the city republic of Prato from the eleventh through the fourteenth century.

April 24, 2009 - See related photostrip

Italian news team attends SUF storytelling session
SUF students Brittney Cavaliere, Fordham University and, Kaitlin Walsh, University of Colorado at Boulder, recipients of the Outstanding Students Award for SUF's Volunteer Program, recently received yet another surprise: they were filmed in action by Italy’s Rai Tre news team as they did a SUF Storytelling session for the fourth grade class in an Italian elementary school.

SU Florence announces finalists in the Academic Excellence Award
SU Florence is pleased to announce the twelve recipients of this semester’s Academic Excellence Award in the categories of Outstanding Students. Says Internship Coordinator Debora Spini, “It was a very, very difficult selection this semester. There were so many outstanding students, it is really so rewarding to see these results in our program.”

April 17, 2009 - See related photostrip

Drawing the Other: VPA and SUF Art Professors Collaborate on Faculty Exhibit
The SUF Art Gallery exhibition Drawing the Other: Works on Paper by SU and SUF Faculty features the work of thirty-two faculty members from SU’s School of Art and Design and SU in Florence Studio Art professors. The recent opening drew a crowd of almost 100 guests, appreciative of the unique opportunity for the students at SUF to see the work of their professors from both the Florence and the home campus.

SUF announces fifth book in the Villa Rossa Series
The fifth volume in the Villa Rossa Series is underway and will be available for purchase in early fall 2009. The book, entitled Sandro Botticelli and Herbert Horne: New Research, contains the texts of six papers delivered by internationally renowned scholars during a three-day conference held in Florence, Italy in October 2008 in celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the publication of Horne’s celebrated monograph on Botticelli.

April 10, 2009 - See related photostrip

SUF presents 50th anniversary celebration
Syracuse University in Florence is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, marking five decades of academic excellence and cultural diversity in study abroad. The 50th Anniversary Festa: A Celebration for SUF Alums will take place from October 25 to 28, 2009, both on-campus and in the center of Florence, with an optional fourth-day trip to southern Tuscany.

Codename Angela: Option II students meet former member of the Italian Resistance
SUF’s Option II students were recently honored with the presence of Liliana Benvenuti, a Partisan during the Liberation of Florence from 1943-1945, during their Italian conversation class with Professor Antonella Francini. A primary goal of this class is to expose students to aspects of Italian culture and heritage. The spring 2009 course is dedicated to the memory of the Italian Resistance in Florence and Tuscany.

April 03, 2009 - See related photostrip

Full house greets SUF architecture symposium
With a standing room only audience as a clear indication of the interest by both the Florentine and American communities in the topic, the spring 2009 symposium Civic Space in Scattered Cities saw the distinguished participation of Professor Margaret Crawford, Harvard University, architect Teddy Cruz, founder of Estudio, San Diego, and Winy Maas, principal architect of MVRDV, Rotterdam. The symposium represents the long and successful legacy of Syracuse University, in New York and in Florence, of discussing challenging contemporary issues of the societies of which it is a part.

An informal discussion on architecture
The SU Florence School of Architecture set the backdrop for an informal discussion between Margaret Crawford and Teddy Cruz, invited symposium speakers, and SUF architecture students the day before the symposium.

March 27, 2009 - See related photostrip

SUF conference on Migration a resounding success
Almost 200 people attended the international conference Migration in Europe: Rights, Participation, and Identity, reinforcing the fact that the themes of migration and immigration are of great importance for understanding Italian and European culture at this very moment. The conference saw an unprecedented collaboration amongst American universities and Italian institutions in Florence: SU Florence, New York University, the European University Institute and the Facolta’ di Legge and Scienze Politiche of the Universita’ di Firenze.

March 20, 2009 - See related photostrip

Flavors of Florence: SUF ‘Hospitality Management’ courses take off in fall 2009
Florence is home to one of the world’s great culinary capitals. The SU Florence campus is pleased to launch a new program entitled Hospitality Management, in tandem with the SU Hospitality Human Ecology Department, offering a total of seven new courses for SU HSP majors. This extraordinary new opportunity comes about through an agreement with the Apicius International School of Hospitality in Florence, internationally recognized for their specialization in Tuscan cooking, culinary arts, wine expertise, and traditional cuisine.

A call for excellence: professors submit selected student nominees for Coluccio Salutati Prize spring 2009
Faculty members have submitted their nominees for SUF’s Coluccio Salutati Prize, a merit award for undergraduate and graduate students intended to recognize those who have aspired to the highest level of integration into the Italian culture, as well as those who have demonstrated academic achievement through their performance in class. Nominated students will then be invited to submit an essay by April 6, either in English or Italian, on some aspect of their experience in Italy. Winners will be announced April 14, and the four winning students will be honored at the Student Day celebration on April 22.

March 06, 2009 - See related photostrip

SUF Patrons calendar of events unveiled
What do a series of Last Suppers paintings, intriguing art installations at the Gori Collection in Pistoia, a fresco-painting workshop, a garden party, an exploration of Renaissance sculpture at the Bargello and Orsanmichele, and private visits to Villa Gamberaia and Villa I Tatti have in common? They are all part of the special calendar of events put together by SUF’s Elaine Ruffolo, Field Studies Coordinator, and Director Barbara Deimling, for the members of the SUF Patrons.

February 27, 2009 - See related photostrip

Former SUF student applies Florence internship experience towards Fulbright scholarship
Jessica Lentner, Vassar University, has passed the first hurdle on her road to winning a Fulbright scholarship to work with SUF’s open access database, the Media Lab: the National Screening Committee of the Institute of International Education (IIE) has recommended her for the grant for the academic year 2009-10 for her project proposal “Capturing Spaces: Documenting Italian Architecture for Preservation and Education.”

February 13, 2009 - See related photostrip

SUF field studies challenge students to look deeper into history
Assisi (80), Rome (165), Ravenna (40), Cararra e Vinci (30) … the figures for SU Florence students traveling to the cities of Italy almost any given weekend is pretty impressive. The SUF field studies program offers a front-row seat to a panorama of history that goes back thousands of years, leading up to civilization as we know it today.

Upcoming Events: SUF announces international two-day conference A Transatlantic Dialogue on Migration
Several hundred participants from the public and private sector are expected to participate in this two-day conference, an extraordinary, collaborative effort between Syracuse University in Florence, New York University, the European University Institute, and Facoltà di Giurisprudenza and Scienze Politiche of the Università di Firenze. In recent decades both Europe and the United States have seen an increase in immigration and growing public controversy surrounding government initiatives to address it.

February 06, 2009 - See related photostrip

Consul General of the United States of America in Florence and Vice President of the Region of Tuscany next guest lecturers at SUF
How can an institution encourage the fight for legality? SU Florence hosts a lively discussion about its commitment, together with the Region of Tuscany, to the education of youth on the subject of legality and their engagement in the struggle against the Mafia.

Learning how to volunteer
Forty students this semester are giving of themselves to their host country through Storytelling sessions, organized by the SUF Volunteer Program for Florentine area third, fourth and fifth grade elementary schools. They met recently with Prof. Vittoria Tettamanti how-to sessions in what can only be described as a very hands-on workshop.

January 30, 2009 - See related photostrip

Learning to listen: FIA grads take experimental museology to the field
The 2009 SU FIA graduate students will soon have an unprecedented opportunity: to propose real interventions to a major upcoming exhibit at the world famous Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi. Through critical observation of visitors in the museum students will identify a setting that could be improved in the exhibition “Galileo. Images of the universe from antiquity to the telescope.”

January 23, 2009 - See related photostrip

Get ready SU Florence: Saint Francis is coming
Saint Francis is coming to SUF, in the guise of Mario Pirovano, a renowned professional actor and long-time collaborator with the Nobel-prize-winning playwright Dario Fo. In a preview of the world premiere English performance, Pirovano will present the SUF audience with one act from Francis, the Holy Jester, the English translation of Fo’s Lu Santo Jullare Francesco, a one-man show that relies solely on the considerable skill and artistry of a highly experienced performer and the imagination of the audience.

First SUF faculty leave granted
SUF announced that Jonathan Nelson has been awarded the first official SUF faculty leave, as was approved by the home campus after nearly two years of discussion to launch this new program.

January 16, 2009 - See related photostrip

Spring 2009 students get oriented
In three action-packed days students have learned about the academic program, met professors through academic advising and class registration, and learned about all of the many opportunities SU Florence offers for engaging and integrating with the local community. They have received email and wireless accounts, taken Italian placement exams, and registered for their permits of stay, as well as met their host families and future roommates.

SUF announces spring 2009 featured events
The SUF spring 2009 Featured Events series has been announced. Covering a range of topics from Michelangelo’s women and fortifications, to St. Francis and the wolf of Gubbio, to the struggle against the Mafia, to the flux of immigration to Italy, to urban sprawl, the spring 2009 semester promises to be rich and informative. Join us for an exciting semester of events.

January 09, 2009 - See related photostrip

Syracuse University in Florence welcomes spring 2009 students
Syracuse University in Florence welcomes spring 2009 students. We are particularly excited because we are celebrating the 50th year of SU in Florence. From thirty study abroad students in 1959, SUF generally has between 300-370 undergraduate enrollments each semester.

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