The Cagli Project

The Cagli Project

Apply now to reserve your place in Cagli, Italy.

DATES: June 1 - June 29, 2025

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THE CAGLI PROJECT

The Cagli Project is a deep cultural immersion that begins in the beautiful Italian medieval “city” of Cagli in the Apennine Mountains and the Renaissance cities of Urbino and the medieval city of Gubbio. Students will join a team who have been building an ethnography of the community. Ethnographic writing helps one learn to understand the culture from an "insider's perspective." Students will be on the ancient Via Flaminia from Rome to the Adriatic Sea, where this unique opportunity will give you the tools to acquire practical language and transmedia skills while using proven cultural immersion techniques.

Cagli, Italy

The ability to assimilate quickly and hone in on another culture’s values are indispensable tools for anyone preparing for a career in a world where globalization and multiculturalism are becoming increasingly important. At the micro level, students will learn how to read another culture on their own terms. At the macro level, students will be ready to become facilitators in the intercultural dialogue that the modern world requires. Journalism students will learn a "backpack" style of journalism being a journalist on-the-go, and using a documentary style. You will:

• Understand the role of communication and culture and build your intercultural competence working with diverse populations.
• Develop an awareness and sensitivity to cultural norms and expectations as they are similar to and different from American cultural values, then use this learning in the development of a multimedia project on some aspect of the community
• Understand a culture from an ethnographic insider’s perspective and build your capacity for empathy.
• Display a growing awareness of food, agriculture, and culture as it applies to Italian life style.
• Demonstrate the mechanics and artistry of communication media, then use these skills to tell a narrative about the community in web and book format.
• Learn a more "backpack" style of journalism with the idea of being a journalist on-the-go, and doing documentary style of journalism.

Crest of the city of Cagli.

The City

Hidden from tourists among the Apennine Mountains in the Marche region of central Italy, Cagli offers a unique opportunity to explore authentic Italian life. Cagli has a rich history dating back well over 2,000 years. It became part of the Roman Empire in 295 BC and quickly grew in prominence as a vital stop on the ancient Via Flaminia, one of Rome’s earliest and most important roads. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Cagli’s strategic location made it a popular staging ground for battles. In 1287, the city was destroyed by fire in a battle among noble Italian families but was rebuilt two years later under orders from Pope Nicholas IV. Various noble families held Cagli until the Papal States incorporated it in the 17th century, and it became part of unified Italy in 1860.

Though its history is apparent throughout the town, Cagli boasts a rich modern social scene, with summer concerts and festivals and one of the region’s most beautiful theaters. This city of 9,000 residents is also home to numerous churches, chapels, grocery stores, cafés, restaurants, artisanal shops, soccer fields, a bocce ball club and a hospital. Other outdoor activities include hiking, biking and swimming.

Il Torrione in Cagli.

Despite its relative seclusion, Cagli is easily accessible from Rome via train and bus, with service twice daily. Students can also take advantage of locally run buses throughout the day to important nearby cities such as Gubbio, Urbino and the beach towns of Fano and Pesaro on the Adriatic coast. Using Pesaro as a point of departure, students are able to transfer onto the Trenitalia train network that stretches the entirety of the Italian peninsula to popular destinations such as Rimini, Bologna, Venezia, Assisi, Cinque Terre, Firenze, Milano, Torino, Verona, Pisa, Napoli and the Amalfi coast. Cagli itself, however, is full of charm and has many stories to tell. It truly is la dolce vita!

Recent Cagli Transmedia Projects

Our award-winning program has been operating since 2002. During that time, more than 500 students have participated. The Cagli/Florence Project has been sponsored by multiple universities and the city of Cagli. Dr. Caputo has been the director since 2004. Examples of previous years’ work can viewed at incagli.com; from there you can click on links to many examples of recent student work, including the web magazine, books and video.

Blogsites: Read our intercultural blogs about cultural immersion, Italian style:
http://incagli2016.blogspot.it
http://incagli2015.blogspot.com
http://incagli2012.blogspot.com
http://incagli2011.blogspot.com
http://cagli2010.blogspot.com

Recent Book Projects

Each year, our students create a book that helps tell the story of Cagli and many of its inhabitants. The book consists of an ethnographic record – a documentary of the community. You can browse the book by clicking on the cover below and going to the MagCloud site. All of our students get an original writing credit in the book as well as publication of their professionally edited stories and photos.

Cagli 2016 book

Visit MagCloud, a content publishing web service, where you can publish, distribute, buy or sell content, in print and digital formats

2024: http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/1168058
2016: http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/1168058
2015: http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/971917
2014: http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/833769
2013: http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/656829
2012: http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/436374

Videos

In Cagli we work hard and play hard. These videos will show some of the play we engage in and the works we create:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M18BEUxdjcs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifzEB7MT98g
http://www.incagli.com/2014/videos/
http://incagli.com/2013/?page_id=431
http://incagli.com/2012/video.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRqhJz9MInU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jCTQ9T-Ryw

Academic Credit

Students can sign up for 6 undergraduate credits from the University of Jamestown (North Dakota) or their home campus if they are a partner institution. Credits from Jamestown will need to be transferred back to your own university to appear on your transcript.

Students have the option to earn six credits of an upper-division journalism elective for The Cagli Project.  The credits will be issued by the University of Jamestown, and we will work with you so they are easily transferable to your university. Transfer credit ultimately depends on a student's home university. The cost is $150/credit - the academic credit is $900 for The Cagli Projects (See the FACT SHEET at the top of the page for Program Cost).

Graduate Students

Graduate students are also invited to apply. We’d be happy to talk with you about supervising an independent project that would qualify for graduate credit at your school  —  or to offer this experience as a graduate internship. Contact our Director of Admissions for more assistance at: admissions@ieimedia.com.

Travel Opportunities

The beach in Fano, Italy

There is a free weekend while you are in Cagli. That allows for an easy bus/train trip to Rome (3 hours each way) or to the seaside towns of Fano or Pesaro. If you want to get away to Venice or Florence, you need to take the bus to Fano/Pesaro and then the train to Venice or Florence. (Weekend travel expenses are the responsibility of students).  Many students choose to stay in Cagli. There are evening and casual times at cafés on the piazza along with events in the Opera House and public places. You can take day trips to the beach on the local buses or enjoy the hiking and biking opportunities available. Many students also use this time to continue work on their stories or bus to Gubbio, Perugia or Assisi. On warm days, you can relax in the cool streams within 10 minutes of your apartments. If you would like a longer getaway, consider some add-on extended travel at the end of the project, when classmates might want to join you.

Cagli Testimonials

• "The trip to Cagli changed my life. I know that everyone says that, and it might sound a bit cliché, but my time in Italy truly changed me, my relationships with others, my views on life and my views on the world. In my brief time in Cagli, I became a member of a family. I connected with my Italian heritage, experienced pure human kindness and made friends for life. ... I was pushed way out of my comfort zone but in the best way possible. I have learned to appreciate the things in life that otherwise get overlooked. I appreciate the hard work that it takes to create a quality and honest living and always prioritize time with those I love and care about. These are all things that Cagli taught me and all lessons that I carry with me every day. If you are considering taking the trip to Cagli with Dr. Caputo and his incredible team, I urge you to stop considering and simply commit. This experience will change you for the better." – Stephanie Burger
• "Cagli engages all your senses: your taste buds, your language skills, your people skills. ... 'Living as the locals' gives you a whole new perspective on the village of Cagli. With professors as your guides, you’ll suddenly feel as though Cagli isn’t so foreign after all." – Meagan Newsome
• "Tears ran down my face as I watched our final presentation out on the piazza in Cagli. I was sad to leave, happy that I was able to experience so much and grateful for the amazing people that I was honored to meet and now call my friends.   The Cagli project was truly a gift to my life." – Courtney Dirk
• "The Cagli Project gave me an opportunity for what I consider deep learning and scholarship – the kind from which I will never recover.  Along the way I met amazing people, saw beautiful places, had some incomparable coffee, pastries, pasta and gelato – and decided that no force on this earth would keep me from giving a moment of my experience back." –Rachel Price
• "I’ve made memories in a culture yet untouched by few outsiders and still-fewer tourists. I’ve made lifelong friendships. My time in Cagli haunts my daily life, and I often find myself daydreaming about Monte Petrano, eating cherries on the steps of the Opera House or sitting in the square. It was an immersive experience, to be sure, and the rich experiences I had there still affect me deeply." – Emily Hernandez

Italian Conversation Instruction

Each morning, students will begin with conversational Italian taught by Giovanni Caputo, a professor at Whitworth and Gonzaga University. This “survival” Italian will cover the basics of conversation and provide some insights into contemporary Italian food, wine and culture.

Interpreters

When working on stories, you will be assigned an interpreter to help you with your Italian and to facilitate your interview. The art of working with an interpreter will be a skill you will pick up.

Teatro Communal (the famous Opera House of Cagli).

Accommodations

In Cagli, we will live in shared apartments with full kitchens and washing facilities. There will be many nights where we will have some group meals in various kitchens of our group or in restaurants.

Equipment

While in Cagli, we will have access to digital cameras. Students often bring their own equipment if they want to be familiar with creating products for personal use or for personal social media usage.

Faculty

Participants on a weekend trip.

Current Faculty  (subject to change)

John Caputo, Ph.D., (Program Director) is a professor Emeritus in the Master’s Program in Communication and Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University and the Walter Ong S.J. Scholar. He earned his Ph.D. from the Claremont Graduate School and University Center. His areas of expertise include media and social values, communication theory, intercultural and interpersonal communication, communication and culture. He is the author of six books and has been honored as a visiting scholar in residence at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England; La Sapienza University of Rome; and the master’s program in media and communication at the Universita de Firenze, Italy. He has been taking student groups to Italy for the past 20 years and has been part of the Cagli/Florence Project since 2002. In 2016 he helped create a Sister City relationship between Spokane, Washington, and Cagli, Italy and guides the Spokane-Cagli Sister City Society. He was selected as an an Honorary Citizen of Cagli in 2014 and only the second Honorary Citizen in the more than 500 year history of the city.

Giovanni Caputo (Italian language instructor and translator) has dual Italian and American citizenship and speaks a half-dozen languages. Aside from teaching in Italy, Giovanni has spent time teaching at various levels in the French public school system. Back in the U.S., he works as a French and Italian translator and graphic designer. Giovanni’s academic interests include journalism, short story writing and storytelling. In addition to teaching a course on journaling in last year’s Cagli program, he was also the editor of the Armagh Examiner and Around Armagh, online news and information blogs created for the program InArmagh 2007. Giovanni has been with the Gonzaga-in-Cagli project since 2009 and did the layout and design of its books and program materials.

Kristine Crane is an adjunct instructor at the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications in Gainesville, where she is also working on a doctorate. She began her journalism career in Rome, Italy, writing for The Wall Street Journal and Religious News Service, as well as two English-language start-ups, Italy Daily, an insert to the International Herald Tribune, and The American in Italia, now an online magazine for which she writes a monthly column. She helped cover the death of Pope John Paul II for the WSJ, and one of her stories was nominated for the Peter R. Weitz Journalism Prize for transatlantic reporting. She’s fluent in Italian and had a Fulbright to study migration in Italy. She later returned to the U.S. to attend the Columbia School of Journalism for a Master’s in science reporting and then worked as a health and science reporter for publications in Washington D.C., including U.S. News & World Report, and newspapers in Florida, where she received the Sunshine State Award for health reporting. She’s taught courses at UF in digital storytelling, multimedia reporting, and narrative nonfiction, and she’s an advisor of Atrium, student-led nonfiction publication. She’s freelanced journalism for various publications, along with essays and poems. She holds an MFA from Pacific University. In 2021, one of her poems was recognized in the Giuseppe Carpanacci National and International Poetry and Prose Competition. She will join the Cagli team in the summer of 2024.

Paula Nelson works with both graduate and undergraduate students guiding them to discover their creative potential and to emphasize intention in every aspect of still image making, editing, and sequencing – all elements of visual storytelling. Using a visual language that demonstrates a deep understanding of the power of each image singularly as well as in sequence, students create compelling visual narratives. A storyteller at heart, Paula Nelson began her career of more than 30 years as a staff photographer at The Dallas Morning News. Part of a small team of journalists, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for “Violence Against Women: A Question of Human Rights.” She documented sex-selective abortion, dowry burnings and the sex trade of minors in India and Thailand. Nelson traveled to 48 countries, around the U.S. and across Texas photographing breaking news, multi-picture feature stories, sports, food and fashion. She was recognized with top photography honors from the NPPA, Southern Short Course, the Katies, POY and as a skilled picture editor with strong storytelling abilities from the International Pictures of the Year. Nelson became a picture editor and Assistant Director of Photography, shepherding her colleagues’ award-winning photography into publication both online and in print.

Past Faculty

Kristina Morehouse, (storytelling faculty) graduated with honors with an MS in journalism from the University of Kansas. Her previous degrees include a BS in biology from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a BA in English literature and creative writing from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, also with honors. Kristina worked for 13 years as a reporter and editor at The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, where she earned several writing awards. Kristina teaches media studies and communication theory in the Communication Studies Department at Gonzaga University, along with master’s level writing in Communication and Leadership Studies program. She has been with the Gonzaga in Cagli project since 2009.

David Maialetti (photography) is an award-winning photographer and seasoned photojournalist with more than 20 years of experience. As a staff photographer with The Philadelphia Inquirer, Maialetti covers a variety of subjects, including sports, breaking news and features. Maialetti has been an adjunct photography instructor at Temple University and Community College of Philadelphia. He has taught in various study abroad programs and workshops in Italy.

Darcy Caputo (webmaster and head lab technician) worked for various photography studios before focusing on print journalism, contributing writing and photography to Spokane alt weekly newspaper The Pacific Northwest Inlander and San Francisco’s XLR8R magazine. In 2007, he joined ieiMedia as a lab technician for its programs in Cagli and Armagh, Northern Ireland. In 2009, he joined the Gonzaga-in-Cagli project, first as head lab technician, then as webmaster. During this period he befriended Stones Throw recording artist James Pants and contributed instrumentation and cover art for his 2011 self-titled release. More recently he has been working in the localization industry as a language support specialist for such clients as Microsoft, Starbucks and Playdom, Disney’s Facebook games branch. 

Heather Crandall, Ph.D., (Associate Director/storytelling) has areas of concentration in American Studies, communication and rhetoric. As an associate professor at Gonzaga University, she teaches courses in theorizing communication, media literacy, small group communication, interpersonal communication, advanced rhetorical criticism, organizational communication, and public speaking. In Cagli/Florence, she has assisted with writing and blogging.

Beth Hoffman is an Assistant Professor in Media Studies at the University of San Francisco, where she teaches journalism, audio production and food media. She has reported on food and agriculture for more than 20 years, airing on NPR, The World, Latino USA and Living on Earth. She has a master’s degree from UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism and has completed several documentary projects, including a year cooking with immigrant women in their homes and telling their stories. She blogged for Forbes.com for two years and currently does freelance writing and radio.

George Miller is a longtime journalist. He was a photojournalist and reporter for the Philadelphia Daily News from 1994 through 2005, and he published a local music magazine in Philadelphia from 2010 through 2018. He has been on the faculty of the journalism department at Temple University since 2007. He taught summer multimedia journalism programs in Cagli, Italy from 2003 through 2006, in Armagh, Northern Ireland in 2007, and in London in 2010. From 2018 through 2021, he served as the associate dean for academic affairs at Temple University’s Japan Campus.
He is a graduate of Loyola University of Maryland. He completed masters degrees at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the University of Pennsylvania. He earned his doctorate in higher education leadership from Wilmington University.

Bruno Segatta has practiced the study and mastery of art since earning his degree from Northridge University in 1982. A native Italian, Bruno is fluent in several languages. In the autumn of 1982, Bruno began his tenure at Gonzaga University in Florence, Italy as Assistant to the Dean of Student Affairs. Here he instructed painting, drawing, design and the licate techniques of fresco. Inspired by his surroundings, he specializes in portraying the Cagli, Marche, Florence and Tuscany landscpaes utilizing an abstract style with emphasis on color and line. Bruno Segatta is also an Italian cook, and prepares many of the meals in the program. In addition to working in the Cagli/Florence Project for many years, Bruno has a tour program in Europe named Art, Wine, and Women.

View complete faculty biographies on our Cagli Project Faculty Page.

Program Cost

The cost is $4,945 USD + airfare and includes travel insurance, accommodations, cultural and program activities, and festival/concert access for reporting. 

Application Deadline Details

Our formal deadline has passed, but we are still accepting applications for summer 2025 as long as spots remain available. Please review our application instructions and reach out to admissions@ieimedia.com if you have any questions. We are here to support you through the application process and are so excited to learn more about your interest in studying abroad with ieiMedia!

If you do not have the necessary access to submit your application, start a conversation with us by clicking the Get Started button below. 

Location Map

Links

• Visit Cagli (www.visitcagli.it)
• Glamour magazine (Italy): Ten Reasons Why You Must Visit Cagli (www.visitcagli.it/2017/10/05/10-buoni-motivi-venire-cagli-secondo-glamour)