Liberal Arts & Sciences

While SRISA was founded as an art and design school, over the past decade, the liberal arts program has grown both in size and prestige. Class sizes are small, and taught by accomplished and knowledgeable faculty who have extensive experience as both teachers and professionals in their fields. 

SRISA offers a rigorous liberal arts program with a rich curriculum in varied subjects, including politics, history, and contemporary Italian culture. Students studying these subjects will experience various aspects of Italian society while living in Florence.

Facilities

Liberal Arts courses take place in lecture classrooms equipped with state-of-the-art projectors and computer resources. The chief resource is the city of Florence itself, with its nearly unparalleled concentration of significant art, culture, economic, and political history.

Instruction and structure

SRISA liberal arts courses are 3 credits totaling 45 contact hour classes. They are a combination of in-class lectures and on-site lessons. Students will experience small classroom sizes taught in English. All courses require reading, writing, and research. We encourage students to actively participate in class and provide them with opportunities to engage with content through group projects, presentations and written assignments, taking students out into the city to explore and research directly in the field. 

On-site & hands-on Courses

What makes the SRISA liberal arts experience so enriching for students is the ability to take the theoretical aspects of their class and apply them on-site, both in Florence and elsewhere in Italy.

Students can be out in the Italian cultural landscape, taking advantage of the vast number of museums, monuments and historical locations available within walking distance. In addition, faculty often organize field trips to famous sites and cities like Siena, Rome, Naples, and Venice as well as equally important cities such as Verona, Roveretto, Lucca, and Bologna for students to learn and experience specific aspects of Italian culture. 

Every two years, art and art history students can attend the famous Venice Biennale, one of the most important events in the art world.