May 2011 – DEV – The Umbra Institute – Study Abroad in Italy

American Association of Teachers of Italian saw a strong contingent of professors from Perugia at its annual meeting.

Since they’ve already been through orientation, including Officer Michele Canneschi’s famous safety talk, everyone is beginning to explore on their own and find out which pizzeria is the best (Ian stands firmly by Mediterranea) and who makes the tastiest panini (Ciao Ciao, without a doubt).

Tonight, they’ll begin to see some of Perugia’s gelaterie with the Umbra Gelato Night, an evening of free gelato at “La Fontana,” which we believe is easily in the running for the best in the city. In fact, food professor Simon Young likes it so much that he asked them to make him beer-flavored gelato for his food course last semester!

We have no doubt that the students will find their own favorites and run into as-yet undiscovered restaurants and shops. Again, benarrivati!

Umbra students have been helping with an intercultural research project for years as both research interns and subjects. (more…)

Here we are again, getting ready to greet another group of students! With the impending arrivals, Umbra staff are doing their usual preparations: making sure the busses are ready to bring students up from Fiumicino, putting the final touches on orientation preparation, and enjoying the warming Umbrian sun.

Once the students arrive, the Umbra staff takes great care to make sure that they are well-situated in their new home. They get oriented in their new apartments, a run-through on places to shop (both for food and clothes!) around town, and a talk about safety in Italy. Following that, they jump straight into classes… quite the load for the first few days!

The good news is that they’ll be coming into a city that is culturally rich — see the Umbria Jazz festival, the Green Days festival, and the many others that Perugia hosts — and surprisingly welcoming. Can’t wait for you all to get here!

One on one learning with Umbra faculty advisors makes in-depth research while studying abroad possible. (more…)

This semester twenty Italian students enrich the Umbra Institute’s already integrated academic environment! (more…)

Umbra professor gives radio interview regarding his recently published book, Celtic Revolution, “a popular history of Celtic civilization.” (more…)

The Umbra Institute is equipped with its own library–a great resource for students while abroad.

It’s rare that a study abroad institution has a library of its own for its students. Most institutions rely on public libraries or the local university’s library as sources for their students’ research. Local resources alone would be great…as long as the local language weren’t a barrier.

While students at the Umbra Institute have access to three local libraries–Universita’ degli Studi di Perugia’s library, Biblioteca Augusta—the public library (which houses books up to four-hundred years old!) as well as the library at the Universita’ per Stranieri, students are fortunate to have a library of their own right here at Umbra.

The Institute claims an in-house library with nearly 3,500 books that’s constantly being enriched and expanded by its professors, some of whom have authored the books themselves. Complete with books in both English and Italian, Umbra’s bibliotheca has a rich selection on books ranging in many topics from Italian history, culture and food to politics, art history literature and the arts; photography, music, opera and cinema.

Umbra has furthermore just recently updated its cataloging system, enabling students to access the library’s catalog directly from Umbra’s networked computer lab which now has over 30 PCs and high-speed WiFi coverage throught the Institute.

Even more unique is Umbra’s access to online journals and databases including JSTOR, Wilsons and more. With independent research and honors programs becoming more and more popular at Umbra, it is imperative that students have access to as many research sources as possible. It allows the professors to ask more from our students when extensive research resources at their disposal.

The Umbra Institute will soon be initiating a library development campaign; We hope that alumni and friends of the Institute will help us reach our goal of 5,000 well-selected books by the fall semester 2012.

This Tuesday, November 17th the Umbra Institute co-sponsored a public lecture given by Steve Clemons of the New America Foundation on the state of American foreign policy under the Obama administration.

The fifth in a series of public lectures sponsored by the Umbra Institute and the Uguccione Ranieri di Sorbello Foundation, the talk was entitled “Gauging the Course of US Foreign Policy: Has the Obama Bubble Burst?” Mr. Clemons serves as Executive Vice President of the New America Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute founded in 1999 in Washington, DC. He also publishes The Washington Note, a well-regarded blog on the politics of foreign policy.

Mr. Clemons spoke on the successes and failures of the Obama administration in foreign policy, focusing primarily on the challenges faced in Iran, Afghanistan, Israel-Palestine, and with China. Noting that no other president has ever taken office facing such a multitude of pressing foreign policy situations coupled with an international economic breakdown and a major domestic health care policy debate, Mr. Clemons suggested that by now – just over a year since President Obama was elected into office – there needs to have been what he called a “Nixon to China” moment where the Obama administration demonstrated to the world a significant achievement in at least one of these crises. Mr. Clemons expressed his support for the Nobel Foundation’s decision to award Obama the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this year, and called Obama’s speeches in Cairo and Turkey great successes, but said also that much more needed to be achieved in his first year than has been realized.

Following his lecture, Mr. Clemons opened up the floor to questions from the audience, and Umbra students actively participated in a discussion that continued upstairs at a reception in the Sorbello Foundation library.

An American media group, an international talent agency, and Perugian officials are collaborating to launch a new film festival here in the Umbrian capital, one especially dedicated to cutting-edge film technology.

Stratus Media Group announced today as part of their global expansion strategy, SMDI is collaborating with government officials in Perugia, an international talent agency and local and international businesses to establish the new International Perugia Film Festival in Perugia, a city already a noted center for the arts and culture.

The Perugia International Film Festival, which will be directed by Emanuele Rossi, is intended to be a premiere international film festival focusing on the industry of film and technology. Current plans are to showcase its preliminary launch in 2010 and to have its full-scale festival in 2011. Already in place are regional and international corporate sponsor support, premier venues provided by the city and the support of the city and regional governments of Perugia and Umbria.

This would be another excellent opportunity for Umbra Institute Italian Cinema students to contrast Italy’s cinematographic past with international cinema’s present. Though neither is truly international, Perugia already has two film festivals, both of which are well-attended by Umbra students.