Italian Studies at Notre Dame invites junior faculty and advanced graduate students to apply for the sixth annual Rome Seminar, Rome and the Jubilee, 1300-2015, to take place at Notre Dame's Rome Global Gateway, June 9-24, 2016.
This year’s seminar is organized by an interdisciplinary team of distinguished professors at Notre Dame: Ingrid Rowland (Architecture and Classics); Heather Hyde Minor (Art, Art History & Design);Margaret Meserve (History); and Robin M. Jensen (Theology). It is co-sponsored by Italian Studies at Notre Dame, the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, Notre Dame’s College of Arts and Letters, and its Office of Research.
Jubilees began as a Hebrew tradition, detailed in the book of Leviticus (25:8-13). In 1300, however, Pope Boniface VIII established a Christian version of this ancient Jewish year of atonement; instead of “returning every man unto his possession,” Christians were invited to visit Rome and experience the ancient Imperial capital as a place of spiritual redemption and atonement. The city’s monuments provided spectacular physical aids to religious contemplation, from the roads that channeled pilgrims into the city to the churches that offered dazzling visual experiences along with redemption from sin. As Pope Francis has declared a special Jubilee of Mercy from December 8, 2015 to December 2016, the study of Jubilees past and present can provide a timely focus for tracking Rome’s changing fortunes as a religious and political capital, to discover how its mission as a destination for tourists and pilgrims has shaped the face of the city and the growth of its public institutions.
A full program and application information may be found at Rome Seminar 2016. The application deadline is January 15, 2016.