Manhattan University

Rome, Italy

Spend a full semester in Rome and experience the Eternal City as your classroom.

Manhattan University’s Rome, Italy Campus gives undergraduate students the opportunity to complete a full semester of academic credit while living and learning in one of the world’s most historic and culturally rich cities. The Spring 2027 program combines interdisciplinary coursework with site visits, excursions, and immersive experiences throughout Rome, along with overnight trips to Florence and Venice.

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Image of Rome, Italy

Overview

Manhattan University is excited to announce its extension campus in Rome and undergraduate students are invited to be part of the experience for the Spring semester in 2027. Spend a full semester studying in the Eternal City, earning a full semester's worth of credits toward your degree while immersing yourself in an innovative, interdisciplinary curriculum, surrounded by Italian culture, history, and daily life. Students are invited to study at our Rome campus, filling core curriculum requirements while experiencing Rome as a living classroom.

Located on the grounds of the Generalate of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, the global headquarters of the Lasallian Christian Brothers, our campus sits nearby Vatican City and the historic center of Rome (Centro Storico).

Program Highlights

Important Dates

  • Tentative dates: February 7-April 30, 2027
  • 12-week semester including a 1-week spring break

Inclusions

  • Unlimited local transportation: monthly metro and bus passes
  • Meal plan including onsite dining and local restaurants
  • International medical insurance
  • Single room accommodations
  • Excursions, activities, and site visits throughout Rome
  • Two overnight weekend trips to Florence and Venice

Cost and Financial Aid

  • Students are billed for:
    • Usual MU tuition and fees
    • Standard room & board fee as on campus ($9,765 is the current rate per semester)
    • $760 study abroad fee
  • All usual MU financial aid and scholarships apply to this program
  • Students are responsible for their own airfare
  • Partial scholarships for this program are offered on a competitive basis

Coursework

  • Students will participate in two interdisciplinary academic programs in Rome, each taught by an MU faculty member and worth 6 credits, for a total of 12 credits.
  • An additional 3 credits will be offered online within each student's major/school requirements.
  • Students will take a total of 15 credits in this program.

Eligibility

  • Cumulative MU GPA of at least 2.75
  • First-year students are eligible to study abroad. Midterm grades and previous transcripts will be checked.
  • Passport valid 6+ months beyond the date you return from the trip
  • No holds of any kind (financial aid, disciplinary, health services, etc.)
  • Cannot travel to the Schengen Area from November 1, 2026-February 1, 2027 (90 days before program begins); you also cannot travel to the EU for 90 days after the program ends.

Courses Offered

Writing Rome: Autobiography, Place, and Self

Dr. Adam Kohler
6 Credits

We often understand our lives differently when we leave them. Living in Rome means encountering a new city, language, culture, set of routines, and ways of moving through the world. But it also means seeing the places and people we left behind from a new distance. This course uses that experience as a starting point for autobiographical writing. We will read memoirs and personal essays while writing about family, memory, home, identity, relationships, place, change, and the stories we tell about ourselves. Rome will enter our writing, but this is not primarily a course about Rome. It is a course about what becomes visible about ourselves when we are somewhere else. Students will write frequently, workshop one another's work, experiment with different forms of autobiographical writing, and substantially revise their work. No extraordinary life experience is required. One premise of the course is that good autobiographical writing depends less on having an extraordinary story than on learning to look closely at ordinary experience — especially while we find ourselves in a new place.

These 6 credits will count towards two 3-credit MU classes. Choose two courses from the available course listings:

  • ENGL 110: First Year Composition
  • ENGL 150: Roots of Literature
  • ENGL 292: Special Topics
  • ENGL 392: Special Topics
  • COMM 270: Special Topics
  • COMM 371: Intercultural Communication
  • SOC 204: Urban Anthropology
The Soundscape of the Eternal City: Music, Acoustics, and Religious Identity

Dr. Mark Pottinger
6 Credits

This interdisciplinary, field-based seminar investigates how sound shapes religious identity and urban space in Rome. Moving between churches, streets, archives, museums, neighborhoods, and contemporary worship sites, students study the interaction of musical practice, architectural acoustics, ritual, law, technology, mobility, memory, and power. Historical case studies—from ancient and medieval Rome through the Counter-Reformation and Baroque eras—are paired with ethnographic and various approaches from the humanities in order to understand the plural soundscape of present-day Rome. No prior musical training is required. Students learn a shared vocabulary for critical listening and basic acoustic description while those with musical or technical experience may pursue advanced analytical work.

These 6 credits will count towards two 3-credit MU classes. Choose two courses from the available course listings:

  • RELS 240: Catholic Mass and its Music
  • RELS 300: Special Topics
  • ART 150: Roots of Art
  • ART 321: Medieval Art
  • ART 322: Renaissance Art
  • MUSC 150: Roots of Music
  • MUSC 216: Introduction to World Music
  • MUSC 240: Catholic Mass and its Music
  • MUSC 400: Special Topics

Ready to Explore Current Study Abroad Programs?

View Current Program Information and Apply on an external website 

Office of Global Engagement & Study Abroad
Miguel Hall, Office Suite 301
4513 Manhattan College Parkway
Riverdale, NY 10471

Phone: (718) 862-7527
Fax: +1 (718) 862-7483
Email: studyabroad@manhattan.edu
Website: Study Abroad