Honors Passport Course to Explore Sicily in January 2019 Intersession

Judith Levine

Professor Rhodora Vennarucci at the Greco-Roman theater of Taormina.

The Honors Passport study abroad course will head to Sicily, Jan. 1-13, 2019, to explore what classics professor Daniel Levine describes as its "mosaic culture."

"It's been very important throughout history, and is wrongfully neglected by study tours," Levine said. "The Phoenicians, Greeks, Byzantines, Romans, Normans and Bourbons were there, so there are many historical connections, with many things to see."

Honors students interested in engaging with 3,000 years of history and climbing to the ever-smoking peak of Mount Etna during the winter intersession are encouraged to attend an information meeting at 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 6 in the Honors Student Lounge (room 130, Gearhart Hall). 

The little island located just beyond the toe of Italy's boot has a long and bloody history of notable conflicts, such as the destruction of the Athenian imperial fleet when they attacked Syracuse in 415 B.C., a decisive blow in the Peloponnesian War, and the race between Allied Generals Montgomery and Patton to capture Messina — and ultimately, Italy — during World War II. 

"Sicily has been exploited by exterior countries throughout its history, and that's one of the reasons that the Mafia arose there," Levine pointed out.

The course is open to all honors students from every college and will be led by three faculty veterans of the popular Honors Humanities Program course (H2P):

• Daniel Levine has taught classics at the University of Arkansas since 1980. He has won several teaching awards and has published extensively on ancient Greek literature and art as well as diverse other subjects. Levine has directed four summer sessions in Greece for the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, one for the Vergilian Society of America and ten "Classics in Greece" summer study tours for University of Arkansas students.
• Jared Phillips joined the faculty of the Program in International Studies in 2016 and is a clinical assistant professor. He earned a Ph.D. in history at the University of Arkansas under the direction of Dr. Randall B. Woods. Phillips is a specialist on the history of post-1945 U.S. foreign affairs, with a special interest in international humanitarianism. Among his other projects, Dr. Phillips is currently finishing a book, Hipbillies: Deep Revolution in the Arkansas Ozarks, forthcoming from the University of Arkansas Press. 
• Rhodora Vennarucci joined the faculty at the University of Arkansas as an assistant professor of classics and art history in 2017. She is a Roman archaeologist whose research focuses on the socio-economic history of Roman Italy. She currently co-leads an archeological project in rural Tuscany as well as the Virtual Pompeii Project, which uses cutting-edge digital tools to investigate spatial cognition at Pompeii. She co-leads the Classics in Italy and the Virtual Pompeii study abroad programs at the University of Arkansas Rome Center. 

Honors Passport: Sicily will also be taught by the students themselves: Each one will research and present on a site, object or event during the trip and keep a travel journal as well. 

The Honors College has partnered with top faculty scholars to offer Honors Passport, a two-week intersession course that takes students to historically and culturally significant sites around the globe. Visit honorspassport.uark.edu to learn more about Honors Passport: Sicily and view photos and video footage of past excursions to Peru and to points along the storied Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route through France and Spain.