Classical Education in Rome: July 17-30, 2025

Classical Education in a Classical Setting

Close out your academic year by traveling to one of the most beautiful places in the world, learning from our expert guides and professors, and sharing lifelong memories with your classmates and colleagues. Program Dates are July 17 - 30, 2025. 

Most days will begin with a morning tour in Rome, after which we will return to Due Santi, or "Two Saints," the popular nickname for the University of Dallas' Eugene Constantin Rome Campus, as according to legend Peter and Paul met on or near the campus on their way into Rome. Then there will be lunch and the riposo (the Italian equivalent to the siesta), during which time students can swim in the pool, take a walk in the vineyard, or hang out at the cappuccino bar. There is class in the late afternoon, and after dinner, while the sun is setting over the vineyard and the Tyrrhenian Sea is shimmering in the distance, social and academic activities, such as further discussions in the piazza about epic poetry, Shakespeare, Rome, or classical education, often over a glass of Due Santi Rosso.

Your professor is both tour guide and instructor, and the city is your second classroom.

Yes, I have finally arrived to this Capital of the World! I now see all the dreams of my youth coming to life… Only in Rome is it possible to understand Rome. - Goethe

This program combines instruction time in the classroom with instruction on tour in and around the city. Reflecting the experience gained through over 50 years of its famous Undergraduate Rome Program, the University of Dallas also provides extraordinary study tours for adults. Courses can be taken for credit or audited, and the trip is open to adults both in and outside of the UD Classical Education degree programs. Don't hesitate to contact us to request further information.

Note: All program attendees must take one of these classes, either for graduate credit or as an audit. We do not accept program participants who would not be participating in the academic program.

Students choose one of the following three-credit courses.

Key details:

• You do not need to be a University of Dallas graduate student in order to participate in this program.
• The program is only open to adults who can take part in a graduate course. Participants who do not take the courses for credit will pay audit fees rather than tuition. All program attendees must either audit a class or take it for credit.
• There is no guarantee that the courses offered in Rome will count toward completion of your specific program. Please consult your graduate director before registering for Rome courses.

Liberal Learning in Taming and The Tempest (Dr. Kathryn Davis)

In this course we will devote ourselves to Shakespeare, to The Taming of the Shrew and The Tempest, and be open to and enjoy the “infinite variety” that he shares with his creation. But we will also have more specific purposes, based on our setting, Rome, and on a particular concern, education. Our reading of Shakespeare will complement our touring of Rome and the understanding that the city provides of two pivotal moments in the development of Western Civilization, the Renaissance and especially the Baroque. And in our reading two plays that both, at least indirectly, concern themselves with education, we will have the opportunity to reflect on education itself, with Shakespeare our great teacher about teaching.

Public Speaking for Teachers and Executives: A Practical Guide Inspired by Classical Authors (Prof. Stefan Novinski)

Would you like to become a more confident public speaker? Be able to command a courtroom, classroom, or boardroom with your voice and presence? Drawing inspiration from Roman piazzas, Renaissance buildings, Baroque sculptures and classical speeches - and guided by a Drama professor and professional public speaking coach - students will learn techniques for developing their own unique leadership presence. Initially we will focus on diction, breathing, and vocal production, and then, using Shakespeare’s sonnets and speeches, we will explore ways to engage and hold an audience. Finally, students will give short presentations on their areas of pedagogical interest utilizing techniques from the class and inspiration from their time in Rome. The goal of this program is twofold: Participants will learn methods for developing their own unique public speaking ethos, and also be able to teach those methods to their students and colleagues.

Romanitas: A History of the Idea of Rome  (Dr. Erik Ellis)

The course examines the evolution and reception of Romanitas, the ideas, culture, and institutions of “Romanness,” over the centuries, from the earliest times of Rome’s legendary kings to the closing decades of the twentieth century. To a great extent, the history of Romanitas has been written by guests and visitors to the City, and our course will focus on readings of great non-Romans who responded to Romanitas and in turn helped shape it in their writings. We will trace the transformation of the small city of seven hills into the Caput Mundi of a world empire, its reimagining as a premier site of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages, and the tension and complementarity of the pagan and Christian aspects of its heritage since the Renaissance.

Required Texts:

Poems of Rome (Everyman’s Library)

Roman Stories (Everyman’s Library)

David Thompson, ed., The Idea of Rome: From Antiquity to the Renaissance

Course pack for Rome in the 19th and 20th C.

Day at a Glance

In addition to the courses offered, professors will give guided tours of Rome and nearby sites. The program director has almost three decade of experience leading students in Rome. Site visits will include the Coliseum and the Forum, the Pantheon, St. Peter's Basilica, Galleria Borghese, the exquisite smaller Baroque churches S. Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, S. Andrea al Quirinale, and S. Maria Vittoria, and various piazzas, including Navona and the Spanish Steps. 

We will visit some ancient sites, considering how authors have sought the regeneration of their own societies through the appropriation of classical Rome. Largo Argentina contains the ruins of four republican temples which Mussolini had excavated in the 1930s, while the Capitoline Hill, the most sacred site of the ancient city as on it were the temples of Jupiter and Juno, was celebrated by the fourteenth century poet Plutarch and given its contemporary form in the Renaissance by Michelangelo. We will end the day surveying the Roman Forum, the political, social, and financial center of the ancient city, whose ruins inspired Gibbon to write his Decline of the Roman Empire and still astonish today. Other site visits include:

Castel Gandolfo: In this hilltop town associated with the papacy for over 400 years, we will see the papal palace from the main piazza and then tour Bernini's Church of San Tomasso di Villanova to begin our study of the Baroque. The excursion is capped off by a view of the stunning Lake Albano.

At St. Peter's Basilica, the most famous of Christian churches, we will see how the Renaissance gave way to the Baroque. The range of architects and artists who worked on it over a one-hundred-year period means that we will see works by Michelangelo and Bernini, as well as a number of others.

The Campo Marzio was in antiquity the Campus Martius, the Field of Mars, the site of military exercises. On it later was built the Pantheon, universally regarded as one of the greatest buildings ever made. In the redevelopment of Rome in the Middle Ages the Campo Marzio replaced the Forum as the city's center, and still today it is the liveliest spot in the city. We will enjoy Piazza Navona and visit churches that house paintings by Caravaggio, such as San Luigi dei Francesi. 

The Quirinal Hill is less visited than some other parts of Rome, but three of Rome's most interesting churches, all masterpieces of the Baroque, are there, almost in a row. Santa Maria della Vittoria houses Bernini's "The Ecstasy of St. Theresa." Bernini was an architect as well as a sculptor, and his playful (yes, that word is appropriate for this church) Sant' Andrea al Quirinale was the work, he told his son, he was most proud of. San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane by Francesco Borromini, the architect's architect, is, in contrast, notable for its purity of design. Nearby, to end the tour before heading off to lunch at Ristorante Abruzzi (known for its pasta carbonara and green sambuca), is the Trevi Fountain, highlighted in films such as Roman Holiday and La Dolce Vita.   

The Vatican Museums hardly need an introduction. Among the many highlights of the collection, we will see the “Laocoon,” one of the most famous sculpts from classical antiquity; Raphael’s “School of Athens,” “The Disputation,” “Parnassus,” and “The Cardinal Virtues” in the Stanza della Segnatura; and Michaelangelo’s famous Sistine Chapel ceiling. 

The Galleria Borghese is the world's finest small museum. It hosts four of Bernini's greatest statues, including the "Apollo and Daphne," and a room full of Caravaggios. Many of Italy's finest painters are represented on its second floor, such as Raphael ("La Fornarina") and Titian ("Sacred and Profane Love").

Stefan Novinski, M.F.A.

Stefan Novinski is Chair and Director of University Theater at University of Dallas where he teaches directing and theater literature with a particular focus on Shakespeare. He is also a nationally recognized director and performance coach and continues to direct professionally, primarily in southern California where he spent a decade working at multiple Tony-award winning theaters including La Jolla Playhouse, Kirk Douglas Theatre, and South Coast Rep. His public speaking professional development workshops combine elements of Shakespeare performance and classical rhetoric with contemporary leadership techniques and have been attended by executives from Panasonic, Indeed, Disney, and the Gupta College of Business, as well as Classical Education teachers from across the country.

Kathryn Davis, Ph.D.

Kathryn E. Davis is Associate Professor of English at the University of Dallas, where teaches literature courses for the undergraduate Core, the English major, and the Braniff Graduate School. She has over a decade of experience teaching Shakespeare on the high school, undergraduate and graduate levels.  Her research interests include Austen and Dante––her published work can be read in Persuasions: the Jane Austen Journal and Renascence. Her monograph, Liberty in Jane Austen's Persuasion, was published by Lehigh University Press (2017).  She was named 2023 Roubos Sabbatical Fellow at the Bruce D. Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization at the University of Colorado - Boulder.  She is currently teaching for the UD Undergraduate Rome Program. 

Erik Ellis, Ph.D. 

Dr. Erik Ellis is Assistant Professor of Education and Classical Learning at the University of Dallas. He has taught courses in intellectual history along with classical and modern foreign languages to students in primary and secondary schools, undergraduates, postgraduates, seminarians, and monks across three continents. His abiding interest is in the concept of “Renaissance.” His scholarly work focuses on the many manifestations of this cultural impulse throughout history, primarily the renaissances of the sixth, tenth, and sixteenth centuries. His heroes are Boethius, Constantine Porphyrogenitus, and Thomas More, and like them, he has deep love not only for Rome but also for the culture and ideas she has inspired across the millennia.

Carla Hahn Clardy

UD’s Summer Rome Program was an extraordinary experience. I got to live, see, and breathe the things I teach in my Classical Christian school. Dr Kathryn Davis deepened my understanding of Shakespeare, both his life and his work, and I’m a much better teacher because of it. Studying Shakespeare in Rome with dozens of other Classical Christian educators enriched my understanding of the Bard, but even more important, gave me the opportunity to exchange ideas of how to bring his work alive to my students. My studies in Rome had me on fire to return to the classroom. Participating in this program was a highlight not of the summer - but of my life. I grew academically, spiritually, and socially, and I can’t wait to go again next year.

Samuel Kimzey

The UD summer Rome program is an excellent and memorable experience, well worth the time and money to attend. I particularly enjoyed the lovely Due Santi campus, as well as seeing the countless historical sites in Rome and Orvieto. I also enjoyed getting to know my fellow-students who were from all walks of life and yet were united by a love for liberal learning and Western civilization and history. We had an incredible time together, and I am so grateful I was able to travel to Rome on this trip. Dr. Katie Davis' class on William Shakespeare was also an excellent opportunity for me to dive deep into two of Shakespeare's plays through close reading and rigorous, lively seminar discussions. Both Dr. Davis and Prof. Novinski were very knowledgeable and approachable, and it was a pleasure getting to know them and spend time in Rome with them. I would highly recommend this program to anyone interested!

Pete Merkl

Every UD alum daydreams about a do-over, a mulligan, a chance to return to the classroom now, when our blood runs cooler and with decades of hard-earned life experience.

Thanks to the Classical Education in Rome Summer Program, I got my mulligan. Suffice it to say that by the second week, I was staring up at the ceiling at 4 a.m. not worrying about everything worrisome, for once, but pondering whether Prospero was to Ariel as Shakespeare was to his muse. 

Give yourself a break. Give yourself a do-over. It’s tons of fun…in Rome!

Natalie WIlliams

Taking Ethos in the Classroom with Professor Novinski is a life changing experience. I work in college admission counseling, and often give presentations to wide audiences of people. Through Professor Novinski’s class, I learned more than just breathing techniques and warm up exercises to improve my public speaking. I learned confidence and poise. I learned to impart images to my listeners. I learned to trust myself and my abilities. 

The most practical tip I learned was to slow down. My tendency to excitement and nervousness also leads to anxious word-vomiting, trying to impart all the information I can in a short hour. My job is not to word-vomit; it’s to give students and parents insight into the heart and soul of my university, and leave them wanting more. Professor Novinksi’s breathing techniques, his coaching, and his direction all helped me to remember how to draw in an audience. I would highly recommend this class for anyone who wants to improve public speaking techniques. Thanks for a wonderful time!

Applying for Classical Ed in Rome Summer Program

UD Students

To begin the application process, please click the "Apply Now" button, choose your term of interest and then log in to the application site using your current UD credentials (same login information used to access Banner, campus networks, etc). 

Application Components:

• Program Questionnaire
• Emergency Contact Information
• Recent Color Photograph of Applicant
• Copy of Passport valid 6 months after program return date

Non-UD Students

To begin the application process, please click the "Apply Now" button and follow the guidelines for creating a profile on the application site. The applicant will be emailed a site login and will then need to complete some security information before proceeding to the full application. Applicants will need to log in to the site each time they need to access their application information so it is important to save the login details for future use. 

Application Components:

• Program Questionnaire
• Emergency Contact Information
• Recent Color Photograph of Applicant
• Copy of Passport valid 6 months after program return date

The early admission deadline is January 15 and final application deadline is March 1. Once accepted to the program, applicants will be provided with the next steps in the registration procedure and further information about their participation in the Program. Questions about the program and application procedure should be addressed classical_ed@udallas.edu.

Cost of the Program: The cost of the program is the base rate plus the tuition rate.  

Base Rate: This includes housing on campus in a double occupancy dorm with a shared bathroom, meals, transportation, tours, museum fees, international insurance, and tips. Airfare is not included.

$2500 is the special base rate for those who complete an application by the January 15 early application deadline.

$2750 is the regular base rate for applications received after January 15.

Tuition Rate: All program participants must also take one of the three graduate courses, either as a credit-seeking student or as an auditor.

      Credit Seeking

• $2505 at the regular Braniff Graduate School tuition rate
• $1554.60 at the Braniff Fellowship tuition rate

      Auditor

•  The cost of tuition and fees to audit the course is $792. 

Group Discounts Available:

• 10% discount off the base rate of the trip is available for two participants from the same school or family.
• 15% discount off the base rate of the trip is available for four participants from the same school or family.

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