Rome & Vienna: National Identity and Belonging

With Rome and Vienna as home bases, students will experience how national identities are constructed and how we can become more actively engaged in building Christlike communities of belonging. In every sense, the cities will be our classroom: cooking classes in Naples, the birthplace of pizza; gondola rides in Venice; art museums in Florence; bike rides along the Danube beneath an 11th-century monastery; touring Jewish cemeteries in Prague; world-famous Christmas markets in Salzburg; and so much more as we immerse ourselves in the diverse cultures of Italy, Austria, Slovakia, and Czechia.

Through such immersive learning opportunities, we will learn about Italy’s and Austria’s imperial, national, and countercultural complexities. From Michelangelo to Klimt, Verdi to Mozart, Machiavelli to Freud, how could countries that have created some of the most globally celebrated artists, musicians, and intellectuals also give rise to the likes of Mussolini and Hitler? Somewhere between these extremes, Rome and Vienna represent a tangible richness of human resilience, reflection, and rediscovery. Surrounded by centuries of architectural, artistic, culinary, literary, musical, and sociopolitical expressions of national identity and belonging, our program will be centered on three core questions: How are national identities constructed? How do we create communities of belonging? How do we embrace the prophetic call to become peacemakers in an era of ever-increasing hostility?

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