“You will never forget”

When asked for her advice to incoming students, our 2022 Outstanding Grad Victoria Katsuba said, “Please take the time to study abroad as it will be something you will never regret or forget.”

This summer, seventeen CSU students took Katsuba’s advice to heart and set off for Italy together to study communication!

Group of students and professors standing together between white stone pillars holding a dark green sign that reads "#RAMSABROAD Colorado State University"

Adventures in Rome

photo collage featuring students learning to make pasta in an outdoor setting surrounded by treesIn the ancient, spectacular city of Rome, Professors Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager and Carl Burgchardt taught two communication studies courses, Bridging Cultures: Italy-USA and Cinematic Rome.

Through their coursework, students learned new concepts of intercultural and cross-cultural communication, construction, and negotiation of Italian identity, and the strategies of an effective dialogue with the Italian Other. And through Roman cinema, students analyzed the social, aesthetic, political, and rhetorical implications of film representations of Rome.

Our students traveled across Italy, visiting Pompeii, Naples, Capri, Florence, and more. While exploring, they encountered some exciting new adventures, from tasting delicious Italian cuisine like gelato, pizza, wine, cappuccinos, pasta, and paninis to—as the program’s wonderful blog puts it— “all the beauty of the Mediterranean Sea and the unplanned tattoos of its jellyfish.”

For more about the Rome study abroad program, you can read the official program description on CSU’s Education Abroad website here, or enjoy perusing the summer 2022 Rome blog, “Reawakened Rams in Rome: Accademia, Amicizia, Amore in the Eternal City of Memories,” here.

Are you interested in studying abroad?

In summer 2023, communication studies faculty will lead three multi-week programs in Italy, South Korea, and Spain. Dates will be announced soon. Learn more about all three programs on our website here, or review the short summaries of the South Korea and Spain programs below.

SOUTH KOREA: Dr. Hye Seung Chung teaches Cinema, Culture, & History in Seoul (SPCM 370C). Develop a passion for South Korean cinema from Golden Age classics of the 1950s and 1960s to the rise of new blockbuster hits and art-house films throughout the contemporary period. Week-to-week students examine cinematic texts within various historical, sociopolitical, and cultural contexts of postcolonial South Korea, paying particular attention to the issues of Japanese colonialism, national division, civil war, U.S. neocolonialism, military dictatorships, the democratic minjung movement, and globalization. Learn more about studying cinema in South Korea here!

SPAIN: Dr. Meara Faw teaches Social Support and Communication in Murcia (SPCM 435A). Explore the theory and research regarding social support, its influences on interpersonal relationships and health, and its social functions particularly within the context of study abroad and intercultural experiences in Spain. Take survival Spanish lessons, visit local organizations and cultural sites, and meet guest lecturers from the University of Murcia. Learn more about studying communication in Spain here!

In conjunction with CSU’s Education Abroad office, we award a handful of scholarships to students in these programs. CSU’s Education Abroad program also offers other opportunities for studying communication around the world.

We’re proud to offer these terrific programs, and we look forward to showing more students around new countries and cultures in the summers to come!