Umbra Blog – Page 32 – DEV – The Umbra Institute – Study Abroad in Italy

This weekend Umbra’s Arcadia University students participated in an orientation day with Arcadia’s Italian Resident Director. The day was far from ordinary, allowing for open student dialogue and a chance to see the daily life of a rural farmer at a local Agriturismo.

The gracious hosts were the Orsini Family of the Orsini Agriturismo in Massa Martana, who greeted students with a traditional farmer’s breakfast of sweet bread and white bread drizzled with olive oil (made right on the farm). Following breakfast, students sat in on their orientation event which consisted of discussion on being a global citizen and the significance of being an American student abroad. Dialogue included reflections on student’s decisions to study abroad, their selection of Italy and Perugia as the destination and the responsibility of these decisions.

Students were then taken out to the vineyards to experience a grape harvest. Blue skies and sunshine enhanced the experience as participants collected tubs of the ripe fruit. A demonstration on various pressing techniques followed, showing the methods that traditional winemakers use to release the juices and start the fermentation process. The demonstration also included grape stomping, allowing students to try their hand (or foot in this case) at the process.

The day ended with a traditional four course meal prepared by members of the Orsini family, complete with bruschetta, homemade pasta, a pork dish, poor man’s dessert and a glass of red wine crafted by last fall’s Umbra Arcadia students. It was a wonderful day thanks to the beautiful weather and the wonderful hosts!

The Umbra Institute’s Food Studies Program (FSP), now in its fifth semester, has always had an active faculty. Two of the professors, Elisa Ascione (Sustainable Food Production in Italy) and Dario Parenti (The Business of Wine) traveled in August in preparation for this semester’s teaching.

Ascione, the lead professor and coordinator of the FSP, attended an intensive, week-long series of seminars in Tours, France. The seminars were coordinated by food studies scholars Peter Scholliers and Allen Grieco and hosted by the Institut Européen d’Histoire et des Cultures de l’Alimentation (European Institute of Food History and Culture), the premier European organization for scholars who study food. Ascione presented her paper on the second day of the round of seminars and received a certificate of participation at its conclusion.

Parenti, who is in addition to being a professor is also an enologist and a consultant for exportation and marketing of Italian wines abroad, was invited to be a judge at the International Beverage Exposition and Competition in Shenzen, China. Parenti participated in eight-person panel, which judged wines from all over the world.

Above: Elisa Ascione with Peter Scholliers (l) and Allen Grieco (r). Right: Dario Parenti (first from right) at the IBEC.

After enduring (sometimes several) long-haul flights and a bus ride through the Umbrian countryside, the Umbra Institute’s Fall 2013 students have arrived! Perugia’s new foreign contingent was eagerly welcomed to the “green heart of Italy” with a night at the Hotel Gio’ and a traditional Umbrian meal. Students then made themselves at home in their apartments in the city’s historical center while getting acquainted with one another.

The semester kick-off weekend continued with a practical walking tour of essential locales: everything from pharmacies to supermarkets to the best place to sample the iconic aperitivo. Orientation capped off with a two-day open house, health and safety meeting, and group pizza night at local spot Merlin’s.

Next up for Fall 2013 is Intensive Italian Week, when students will be immersed daily in Italian language study while familiarizing themselves with their new surroundings. We wish them all the best as they learn to navigate the ins and outs of Perugia’s ancient roads, cappucini versus espressi, and of course how to properly live la dolce vita. In bocca al lupo!

Umbra Institute professor of photography Philippa Stannard has had shows with photographs taken all over the world, but she only recently turned her lens towards her adopted home, Perugia.

Stannard, in collaboration with her colleague Betty Press (from the University of Mississippi), just had a book of photographs published. The subject is Perugia, seen through the eyes of a foreigner who is a long-time resident.

“Recently Betty came to visit me and asked me if I’d ever taken pictures of Perugia. I realized that I hadn’t—oftentimes we don’t really see the places we live in,” Stannard said recently in an interview with the Corriere dell’Umbria, a Perugia daily. The book’s title, La dolce vista (The Sweet View) is a play on the Italian phrase “la dolce vita” (the sweet life).

The book is available at blurb.com.

Attracting scholars who study food since 1981, the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery is the oldest academic conference on food history. Every year academics interested in using food studies as a lens to examine modern (and ancient) societies gather at the prestigious St. Catherine’s College in Oxford to take part in a series of discussions and hear the newest findings on food history.

Professor Elisa Ascione, the coordinator of the Umbra Institute’s Food Studies Program, was among those presenting at this year’s conference. Each year’s conference has a theme, and this year’s was “material culture”: the artifacts and objects that are used to manipulate food from its “natural” state and the impact they have on the culture of food and the way we eat and cook.

Within this broader theme, Ascione’s paper focused on the way new objects are charged with meanings and social expectations in Italian modern kitchens, especially for women. Her research explored the way a very popular all-in-one food-processor and cooker, described as a “magic” appliance by its owners, acquired an almost totemic status because it is an “unclassifiable” object that defies symbolic boundaries linked to different activities of transformation. In this paper she shows that food preparation and cooking retains deep symbolic meanings even when it is performed through modern technological equipment.

Ascione’s paper is under consideration for publication in the conference’s Proceedings.

With the Intensive Italian students’ departure early this morning (read: 1 a.m.), The Umbra Institute concluded its packed Summer 2013 semester.

Perugia's center — Perugia’s city center bids farewell to summer students and awaits the newcomers.

Umbra staff and faculty will spend the next few weeks preparing for the arrival of new students at the end of August. If you are among Perugia’s next batch of temporary residents, check your email for the Umbra departure handbook, which will answer questions you may have about what to pack and what to anticipate as you prepare for a fall semester in Italy.

Upon your arrival, expect a warm welcome at the airport from Umbra staff members, followed by a bus ride through Italian countryside and a welcome dinner that will make you forget your jetlag. Over the next two days, we will hold orientation meetings detailing your stay in Perugia, an Umbrian city rich with culture, history, and adventure. Get excited for an international chocolate festival, the opportunity to travel to the south of Italy, pizza workshops, academic field trips spanning the peninsula, wine tastings, aperitivi (Italy’s take on happy hour), walking tours, and more.

For more updates on your upcoming life, follow the Umbra Institute on Facebook.

A presto!

Whether away from the United States for six weeks or sixty years, American expatriates feel a twinge on Independence Day. This year, Umbra Intensive Italian students celebrated the Fourth of July with an American-style barbecue, which morphed into a language exchange when local Italian students joined in the star-spangled, hamburger-grilling festivities.

“It was the most popular Tandem language exchange of the summer semester,” said Student Services staff member Marco Bagli, who estimated that 50 people attended the barbecue at the campus of Onaosi, an Italian university.

American and Italian students traded cultural traditions and language tips at a barbecue-themed Tandem on the Fourth of July. — Students celebrated the Fourth of July with Italians at a barbecue-themed Tandem.

The Umbra Institute never misses the chance to celebrate the U.S. national holiday, even if the majority of its summer students — temporary expatriates — will be back in their home country within the month. Americans can assuage any flashes of homesickness by sharing their cultural traditions with their Italian guests — while practicing their Italian.

One of Perugia’s most celebrated events, Umbria Jazz, begins today. Since 1973, jazz lovers from around the world have flocked to this festival, a time when the streets of Perugia vibrate with music and culture from dusk to dawn. This year, students enrolled in Umbra’s Intensive Italian Language through Culture program have the opportunity to partake in the revelry; in fact, one co-curricular activity features an afternoon jazz concert at Bottega di Vino.

Past festivals have featured acclaimed musicians, including Elton John, Van Morrison, James Brown, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and Sting. This year, the likes of Diana Krall and John Legend will perform during the 9-day festival. In addition to ticketed concerts, the international audience may attend free shows throughout the city. During Umbria Jazz, one can’t walk through the center of Perugia without stumbling upon some tunes.

Buona musica!

In cooperation with Washington & Jefferson College, The Umbra Institute hosted Bridges Across Culture, a first-time international conference on the arts and humanities, from June 27-30. More than 100 acclaimed academicians from across the globe presented on a variety of subjects pertaining to the liberal arts.

One of the first speakers at Bridges Across Culture, Dr. Maurice Wheeler of University of North Texas presented his paper, "Bridging Politics, Race and Culture: Operatic Performances in the White House," at the Ranieri Foundation. — Dr. Maurice Wheeler of the University of North Texas presented “Bridging Politics, Race and Culture: Operatic Performances in the White House” at the Ranieri Foundation.

The keynote speakers were Professor Peter Schepelern of the University of Copenhagen, who spoke about the New Danish Cinema, and Dr. Patrick J. Quinn of the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy in Baku, who presented his dissertation concerning the failure of certain British poets to write anything significant for a decade after World War I.

Sessions were held at The Umbra Institute’s Via Bartolo location and The Uguccione Ranieri di Sorbello Foundation. Every day, Umbra organized informal gatherings such as coffee breaks, a dinner in the Umbrian countryside, and two aperitivi.

“The conference was a success: Four days of interesting panels were combined with ample opportunities to meet international colleagues and continue the academic discourse during the breaks,” said Dr. Elgin Eckert, an Umbra professor who co-organized the event with Dr. H.J. Manzari of Washington & Jefferson College.

“Perugia was the perfect location for an international conference,” agreed Manzari. “It’s a central location but off the beaten path.

“Even though we were all from different worlds, we connected with English as a common language, bridging the linguistic barrier to share in the diverse topics that appealed to scholars of literature, for example, as much as to those in science education,” Manzari added.

Bridges Across Culture was free and open to the public, allowing Umbra students to expand their intellectual horizons.

“A number of undergraduate students currently studying at The Umbra Institute attended conference talks, allowing them to observe and participate in advanced academic discourse during their study abroad program,” Eckert said.

Manzari and Eckert are already in talks about next year’s conference.

Faculty and staff take pride in Umbra Institute alumni, especially when the alumni incorporate aspects of their education abroad into their post-graduate careers. From presenting her Harvard thesis at a conference to the acceptance to a prestigious culinary academy, two Umbra alumnae recently drew on their experience in the Food Studies Program for “real-world” success.

Recent Harvard graduate Teagan Lehrmann, an Umbra Fall 2011 alumna, presented her thesis “Sweet as Honey: The Beekeeper’s Fight Against Corn Sugar and Objectivity, 1926-1932” at the Association for the Study of Food and Society annual conference in Lansing, Mich, on June 20. Lehrmann began her research while abroad.

“The Umbra Institute’s Food Studies Program led me to take a critical look at the way we think and interact with our food,” Lehrmann said.

Umbra alumna J — Alumna Julia Rackow poses in a Parmesan cheese cooperative on a FSP field trip in Spring 2012.

Recent Tufts graduate Julia Rackow, an Umbra Spring 2012 alumna, was recently admitted into the San Francisco Cooking School. Like Lehrmann, Rackow said that her experience abroad was key in her decision to pursue a career in food.

“The Umbra Institute’s Food Studies Program led me to (realize that) how we understand and interact with food is constantly in flux,” Rackow explained. “It’s fascinating to see how the old-world techniques and values we once left behind are now becoming increasingly popular in current American food trends.”

Auguri, alumnae!