Summer Session 1

This course examines how people, particularly young people, consume media technologies and their contents in contemporary media-saturated life. Employing essential readings on media consumption, fashion, and identity as the theoretical backbone, students will engage in active site-based research project throughout the course. By offering an opportunity to undertake a field study in Milan, the course seeks to develop in-depth theoretical knowledge of the intersections of media consumption, fashion, and identity, as well as to cultivate critical reflection of students’ own consumption of media technologies. (Additional fee: 250 chf for transportation and related activities in Milan)

Designed for students with no prior knowledge of Italian. ITA 100 employs immersive experiential learning pedagogy, providing an introduction to the essentials of Italian grammar, vocabulary, and culture. The acquisition of aural/oral communication skills will be stressed and, as such, the predominant language of instruction will be Italian. By the end of the course students will achieve proficiency at the A1 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Students are expected to acquire the basic knowledge of the written and spoken structures. Students are expected to read and comprehend short passages in Italian and to draft simple compositions / dialogues. Project-based assignments will be designed to foster practical communication skills and encourage efforts towards increased student integration in the local Italian-speaking community. Whenever possible, students will be encouraged to participate actively in local initiatives, festivals, events and to apply the skills they are mastering in class to their co-curricular learning on and off campus

The summer course aims to introduce the main instruments of international law regulating environmental issues at the global level, including the ozone layer, transboundary air pollution and the protection of biodiversity. The course then specifically focuses on the international regime on climate change mitigation and adaptation, including the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. The course finally considers the impact of climate change on human rights and specifically from the perspective of climate change litigation.

This course explores the psychology of persuasion including the foundational theories, research methodologies, and intervention strategies in this area.This course defines the discipline with particular reference to the psychological mechanisms of social influence and persuasion in various contexts (including diversified media and new technologies). Specifically, students will examine how the dynamics of credibility, attractiveness, culture, and emotionality can influence communications and lead to persuasive changes in individuals' perceptions, attitudes, decisions, and behaviors. Particular attention will be paid to building a capacity for analytic observation and critical interpretation of the principles of persuasive communication.

This is a full immersion course that covers the material of ITA 200 and ITA 201 in four weeks, and prepares students for advanced language and literature study. Students will be expected to sign a pledge to use only Italian in and outside of the classroom. Students will develop the intermediate language competences in the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, while discussing and exploring cultural and social issues of Italy and Ticino. Upon successful completion of the course, students will rearch the B1/B2 level of the European Common Framework of Reference for Languages.

This course will survey the history of Italy from the end of the Roman Empire to the dawn of the Renaissance. Topics covered in this nearly 1000-year stretch of time include, but are not limited to, the Germanic invasions of the fifth century, the rise of the papacy and the papal states, the Arab and Byzantine conquests of Sicily and southern Italy, civic government in the medieval city-states, political thought in the age of Dante, Humanism, and the early Renaissance fascination with Roman antiquity. This class takes advantage of FUS’s unique position on the doorstep of Italy and will include several guided visits to medieval churches, castles, towns, and abbeys in Ticino and the northern region of Italy. All reading are in English, a combination of medieval sources in translation and recent scholarship. (This course carries an additional fee: $160 or CHF 150, for those students billed in CHF).

ITA 101 employs immersive experiential learning pedagogy, providing an introduction to the essentials of Italian grammar, vocabulary, and culture. This course is designed for students who have completed one semester of Italian language study. The course provides an introduction to the essentials of Italian grammar, vocabulary, and culture. The acquisition of aural/oral communication skills will be stressed and, as such, the predominant language of instruction will be Italian. By the end of the course students will achieve proficiency at the A2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Students will be expected to be proficient in the written and spoken usage of basic linguistic structures. Students will be expected to read and comprehend short passages in Italian and to draft simple compositions / dialogues. Project-based assignments will be designed to foster practical communication skills and encourage efforts towards increased student integration in the local Italian-speaking community. Whenever possible, students will be encouraged to participate actively in local initiatives, festivals, events and to apply the skills they are mastering in class to their co-curricular learning on and off campus.

The course begins with a review of functions and their graphs, after which students are introduced to the concepts of differentiation and integration. Understanding is reinforced through extensive practical work, with a strong emphasis on applications in economics, statistics and management science.

Based on classical music milestones, from Vivaldi's The Four Seasons to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, the course provides the students with the basic elements needed in order to learn active listening and to develop critical and comparative skills. It explains the various genres from symphonic music to opera, offering the students the tools to better understand the various idioms in Western music, and the historical and cultural context of their creation. The use of the "great works" will also create a cultural portfolio for students and introduce them to the debates related to the character and purposes of music, as well as to its chronological evolution.

The aim of the course is to introduce students to the multiple European realities and to provide the necessary tools for understanding how the EU can face these challenges in an ever-changing world. This interdisciplinary course will allow students to approach these major issues through the lenses of political science, economics, and history. By the end of the course, students will be able to identify the main competences of the European Union as well as the current challenges.

What is "society"? What does its structure look like and how does it work? How does it change? Why does it change? How do are individuals and society intertwined? This course provides students with the tools to answer these questions. Modern societies have experienced dramatic social changes with the emergence of individualism, new class structures, the development of urban life or changing relationships between individuals and their natural environments. Sociology provides an understanding of these changes by studying human interactions and forms of social organization. In this course, students will be introduced to major sociological thinkers, concepts and approaches.

This course introduces students to the basic concepts and tools needed to make wise and informed personal financial decisions. The content of this course is presented from a practical point of view and with an emphasis on the consumer as the financial decision-maker. The primary objective of this course is to help students apply finance practices to their own lives. For example, students will learn how to plan and manage personal finances, how to obtain credit to purchase a home or a car, and how to invest personal financial resources in stocks, bonds, and real estate. Students will also learn how to interpret financial and economic news that have an impact on personal finances.

The course offers students the training to craft compelling videos with strong messages according to different social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. Through hands-on learning, client case studies, shooting exercises around Lugano and workshops for writing and editing content, students will build content they are passionate about and learn to develop it with a strong sense of target audience. (Recommended prerequisite: COM 105 or COM 201.)

In today’s world, data and “numbers” are constantly presented to us: Opinion polling, election results, data on income distribution, or the probability of health outcomes. News media often come with supporting data. This course provides students with an understanding and awareness of the basic mathematics behind such data and how to correctly evaluate them. Using everyday examples from news media, this course will help students learn how to visualize data properly and how to use logic and data analyses to formulate valid hypotheses and reach solid conclusions. (Not open to students who have taken MAT 201.)

This course examines the political processes that shape conflict and consensus in Middle Eastern societies. From this perspective, main regional conflicts are analyzed. The confrontation between (1)Iran and the Arab World and (2)Israel and the region at large are surveyed in light of intra-Arab antagonisms and the historical great power rivalry for hegemony in the area. Special focus is directed toward an understanding of the politics of modernization and the clash between tradition and modernity. Recommended POL 100.

(Interim Session. Course dates: May 22-June 2) This Academic Travel course investigates the history of the built environment as technical, social, and cultural expression from antiquity to the contemporary. It studies building techniques, styles, and expressions in terms of their chronology and context. Themes, theories, and ideas in architecture and urban design are also explored. Among other focus topics, students are encouraged to consider architecture as a cultural expression, study its semiotic potential, ascertain its role within political aesthetics, and investigate its relationship to best practices in sustainable building.

(This course must be taken in conjunction with ML 100) Experiential learning is the main focus of this Academic Travel course that takes place in the capital of Morocco, Rabat. In this full immersion program, students will experience what they learn in the classroom throughout the whole session by acculturating themselves to the norms and expectations of Moroccan culture on a daily basis during their stay, visiting different places, engaging in various interactions with the locals, and exchanging with scholars specialized in their fields. The course first provides students with a historical overview of Morocco since its independence in 1956, focusing in particular on the monarchies of Hassan II and Mohammed VI, the current king; examines gender relations in the light of the Mudawana; explores the ethnic make-up of Moroccan society, in particular its Amazigh component; considers Sufism in its relationship with Islam, in particular as a counter-power to Islamic rigorism; studies the place of the individual in a society where the collective ego prevails. All the themes studied are substantiated with presentations by Moroccan scholars working in the field of sociology, gender, ethnic, religious and music studies, and field trips to Fez, Meknes, and Essaouira. This Academic Travel course carries a supplemental fee: TBA.

(This course must be taken in conjunction with CLCS 258T) Designed for students with no knowledge of Arabic, this course provides an introduction to the essentials of Arabic grammar, vocabulary and culture. The acquisition of aural, oral and written skills is emphasized. By the end of the course, students will be able to engage in simple conversations, read basic texts in Arabic, write short dialogues and stories, and understand the syntactical and lexical structure of Arabic.