J-Term Seminar: Mediterranean Basin

Greece • Italy 

December 29, 2025 - January 16, 2026

IAU’s Mediterranean Basin January Term Traveling Seminar is designed for students interested in an academic and cultural experience in Greece, Italy, and France. Students build visual literacy in the history of art and archaeology as well as examine philosophical literature of the Mediterranean Basin from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. The seminar cultivates students' abilities to synthesize cultural, historical, political, and social information as it relates to the visual arts. The experiential learning component consists of a series of site visits made by academic experts from IAU in addition to local guides and faculty in the fields of history, art history, and archaeology.

Please note: IAU reserves the right to cancel programs due to low enrollment. Itineraries are tentative and subject to change at the discretion of IAU. Students should consult with an IAU advisor prior to purchasing their flights.

Academics

Students can choose one of the following courses:

• Archaeology 385: Greek and Roman Archaeology
• Art History 385: Ancient and Medieval Classical Art and Architecture
• Cross Cultural Studies 385: Cultural Identities in Mediterranean Europe
• History 385: Ancient and Medieval Mediterranean Cultural History
• Religious Studies 385: From Polytheism to Monotheism, The Early Christian Period in Italy, Greece & France

View the 2024 syllabus here. All content and the itinerary is subject to change.

Itinerary 

View the 2025 itinerary here. All details are tentative and subject to change. IAU reserves the right to alter the itinerary.

About the Professors

Professor Pamela Morton is a visiting associate professor fine arts at IAU. Professor Morton is an artist and university teacher who has been living and working in the south of France for over thirty years. An expert on Provence and the artists of the south, she has organized and led museum and site visits for cultural organizations and college students. She lectures on Picasso and Matisse as well as on Cezanne and van Gogh and has taught painting and drawing along with 19^th and 20^th century art history courses for study abroad programs in Aix and Marseille. With a background that includes art restoration and museum education, Pamela brings special insight to her understanding of artistic works and their settings both in time and place. Like the artists she studies and admires, Pamela finds inspiration for her own work in the bold light and landscapes of the south of France.

Robert Wallace (BA Columbia, BA and MA Oxford, PhD Harvard) is Professor Emeritus of Classics at Northwestern University. He has also been a professor at Johns Hopkins, and a visiting professor at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens and at the Universities of Siena, Pisa, Trento, and Syracuse (Sicily). He is the author of some ninety-nine articles on Greek law, history, intellectual history, literature, numismatics, and music theory. His books include The Areopagos Council, to 307 BC (1989) and Reconstructing Damon. Music, Wisdom Teaching, and Politics in Perikles’ Athens (2015). He has co-authored books on Greek democracy, Aristotle, ancient Greek law, and ancient Greek music theory. Current projects include books on Sophokles, Thucydides, and Plato at Play. He has lectured widely in the US and Europe.

Program Fees

Please view the Program Fees page for details. 

Did you know? Students who enroll in a January Term Seminar and the spring semester at one of IAU's campuses consecutively are eligible to receive a $2,000 grant credited to their spring semester invoice. In order to be eligible to receive the grant, students must participate in the Early Start Program during the week between the end of the January Term Seminar and the start of the spring semester. The Early Start Program allows students to move in with their hosts a week before the semester begins, receive language instruction, and participate in local cultural activities! Visit IAU's Scholarship page for additional details.