La Spedizione Siciliana

Italian 3008 – Spring 2016 – Professors Barbara Weiden Boyd and Davida Gavioli

Sicily Trip

Italian 3008 – Latin 3311 - Spring 2016
Professors Barbara Weiden Boyd and Davida Gavioli

la spedizione siciliana

This faculty-led study trip, “Sicily: Mediterranean Pasts, Presents, and Futures,” has guided students to an in-depth understanding of the historical, social, and cultural complexities of the island of Sicily, now a part of the nation of Italy but, in the course of its long history as cultural crossroads, home to several early indigenous peoples of the western Mediterranean as well as colonizing Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Spanish, French, and Arabs over the course of more than 3000 years. Because of its strategic location, long history, and a new appreciation for its cultural riches, Sicily is the perfect vantage-point from which to consider the Mediterranean world as a whole, through both historical and contemporary lenses.

In the spring 2016 semester, two Bowdoin faculty members, Davida Gavioli (Italian) and Barbara Weiden Boyd (Classics), offered upper-level courses focusing of various aspects of Sicilian history and culture. Gavioli’s course, Italian 3008 (Of Gods, Leopards, and ‘Picciotti’: Literary Representations of Sicily Between Reality and Metaphor) was organized around literary texts written by Sicilian writers and/or located in the Sicilian landscape, drawn from 20th and 21st century authors; central themes of the course included issues of cultural identity long a part of Sicilian discourse (e.g., is Sicily “truly” Italian? is Sicily really part of Europe, or should it be considered fundamentally Other? etc.) as well as major contemporary social and political issues (the economy; the Mafia; immigration and asylum; etc.). Boyd’s course, Latin 33 (Sicily in the Roman Imagination), was organized around the literary texts commemorating the appropriation of Sicily first by the Greeks and subsequently by the Romans between the 5th and 1st centuries BC. Students read several significant ancient texts in Latin concerning Rome’s occupation and colonization of Sicily, supplemented by readings in English drawn from the many Greek poets and historians who were active in ancient Sicily.

Blog Posts

Day 4: Racalmuto

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Literary parks are a peculiar Italian institution. While some places capitalize on writer sites for tourism (like Sherlock Holme’s … [Read More...]

Pupi

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On the first night in Sicily, we all sat down to una opera dei pupi in Palermo.  Though technically an amusement for children (we … [Read More...]

Che chiesa! (3/19)

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Although this picture does not do justice to the most proportionally beautiful proportional church façade I’ve seen, it does show … [Read More...]

Eryx/Erice

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In the beginning of Book V of The Aeneid, Aeneas and the Trojans sail away from Dido and the kingdom of Carthage. Although they … [Read More...]

Trip Participants Individual Photo Blogs