Notre Dame to offer new online course on history of Roman architecture

Author: Michael O. Garvey

Undergraduate School of Architecture students play soccer next to the Colosseum, near the Notre Dame Rome Centre

The University of Notre Dame will offer its sixth massive open online course (MOOC), “The Meaning of Rome: The Renaissance and Baroque City,” beginning on March 15 (Tuesday).

The six-week course, taught by David Mayernik, associate professor of architecture, with Jay Hobbs, graduate student in architecture at Notre Dame, was developed by Mayernik and the Office of Digital Learning with the support of Notre Dame’s School of Architecture.

The course will concern the people and events that shaped Rome’s Renaissance and Baroque architecture and the architecture of the world beyond Rome. In addition to considering the city’s urban forms, sacred relics, monuments, theaters and other buildings — and what they reflect of a people’s values — it is designed to teach its participants how to “read” other cities as well.

“Cities have an enormous impact on us and our planet,” Myernik said. “Learning about how the great cities of the past were shaped makes us better equipped to think about how to shape our modern cities.”

Enrollment for the Notre Dame architecture MOOC course on Rome is now open, and free enrollment is available online: www.edx.org/course/meaning-rome-renaissance-baroque-city-notredamex-arc110x.

Contact: Sonia Howell, Office of Digital Learning, 574-631-1061, showell3@nd.edu