Italian (ITAL-UA)

Open to students with no previous training in Italian and to others on assignment by placement test.

Continuation of ITAL-UA 1. To continue on to the intermediate level, a student must complete both ITAL-UA 1 and ITAL-UA 2. This sequence is equivalent to ITAL-UA 10.

Open to students with no previous training in Italian and to others on assignment by placement test. Completes the equivalent of Elementary Italian I and II in one semester. Offered every semester. 6 points.

Not equivalent to ITAL-UAV 20. Only by combining ITAL-UA 11 with ITAL-UA 12 can a student complete the equivalent of ITAL-UA 20 and then continue on to the postintermediate level.

Continuation of ITAL-UA 11. To fulfill MAP requirements and continue on to the postintermediate level, a student must complete both ITAL-UA 11 and ITAL-UA 12. This sequence is equivalent to ITAL-UA 20.

Completes the equivalent of Intermediate Italian I and II in one semester.

This course is a prerequisite for other advanced courses in language, literature, and culture and society. Systematizes and reinforces the language skills presented in earlier-level courses through an intensive review of grammar and composition, lexical enrichment, improvement of speaking ability, and selected readings from contemporary Italian literature.

Students entering this course should have mastered the fundamental structure of Italian. Designed to help students gain confidence and increase their effectiveness in speaking present-day Italian. Through discussions, oral reports, and readings, students improve pronunciation, become familiar with idiomatic expressions, and develop vocabulary that allows them to communicate with others on topics such as family and student life, politics, the arts, food, and fashion. Useful for students who are planning to study or travel abroad.

Through readings and creative writing assignments, this course explores ‘translingualism’ as a source of creativity and imagination for new writers in Italian today. With readings ranging from Jhumpa Lahiri, Amara Lakhous, Igiaba Scego, Cristina Ali Farah, Carmine Abate, Helena Janeczek and many others, we explore what is means, in the age of migration, to be “from” a place and speak “a language.” These writers take from their other languages and enrich Italian with new expressions, poetic forms, and imaginaries. They are able to narrate Italy with fresh eyes and tongues. Each week, students will experiment with ‘translingual’ techniques we discuss in class in their own creative writing.

Students entering this course should have mastered the fundamental structure of Italian. Aims to enrich knowledge of Italian language, culture, and society through screening and discussion of contemporary Italian cinema and detailed analysis of selected film scripts. Students are encouraged to use different idiomatic expressions and recognize regional linguistic variety. Special emphasis is placed on developing a more extensive vocabulary and an expressive range suited to discussion of complex issues and their representation.

Introduces students to the theory and practice of translation. While engaging in the craft of translation firsthand, students gain a deeper understanding of the Italian language through the study of contemporary texts, such as Italian novels and short stories. The course also stresses the acquisition of vocabulary and complex idiomatic structures necessary for effective reading comprehension, as well as written expression. A special emphasis is on the analysis of dialogue, style, and linguistic choices of each author, in order to explore the development of the written language, slang, regional expressions, and linguistic differences that have accompanied and defined the evolution of Italian over the past 20 years.

Introductory-level literature course that, through a close reading of authors such as Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch, Machiavelli, and Ariosto, focuses on how to understand a literary text in Italian. Covers Italian literature from its origins to the 17th century.

Introductory-level literature course that, through a close reading of authors such as Alfieri, Foscolo, Leopardi, Manzoni, Verga, D?Annunzio, Moravia, and Calvino, focuses on how to understand a literary text in Italian. Covers Italian literature from the 17th century to the contemporary period.

Same as HIST-UA 121. The history of the Renaissance from its origins in the 14th century to its waning at the end of the 16th century. Focuses on developments in Italy, especially the development of republican city-states, the social basis for the explosion in artistic and intellectual production, and the emergence of new forms of political and scientific analysis.

"This 2-credit course offers an opportunity for students who do know some Italian to read, discuss, decipher, memorize and work with the original Italian text in a number of creative ways aimed at improving comprehension and expressive skills while becoming deeply familiar with a great classic. Offered as a pairing to a 4-credit content course. "

Offers the opportunity to study two of the greatest works of Italian literature, Lodovico Ariosto’s Orlando furioso (1532) and Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata (1581). Looks at these poems in their historical context and in relation to the rich literary traditions of romance and epic that converge in them. Thematic focuses include the construction of gender and the representation of religious and racial “otherness.”

The inventor of modern political science, Niccolo Machiavelli is one of the most original thinkers in the history of Western civilization. In this course, Machiavelli?s political, historical, and theatrical works are read in the context in which they were conceived?the much tormented and exciting Florence of the 15th and early 16th centuries struggling between republican rule and the magnificent tyranny of the Medici family. The course also aims at dismantling the myth of ?evilness? that has surrounded Machiavelli through the centuries, especially in the Anglo-Saxon world, through a close reading of such masterpieces as The Prince, The Discourses, and The Mandrake Root.

The Art of Memory reached a peak of refinement during the Italian Renaissance. Far more than instruments for remembering, memory devices aimed to organize knowledge and were intended as tools for creative output. We examine the impact of the culture of memory on the literary production of the time, highlighting the interdependence between textual and visual codes. Focuses on the heretic philosopher and cosmologist Giordano Bruno, burned at the stake by the Roman Inquisition in 1600, who conceived his imposing mnemonic system as an inner mirror of the infinite universe. Sampling the varied textual genres of Bruno's work (philosophical dialogues, writings on magic, a satirical comedy), we seek to answer the same question posed to Bruno by Henry III of France: is the Art of Memory acquired "by magic" or "by science"?

Making knowledge visible was one of the great Renaissance endeavors. Some of the period's most characteristic products were born out of the conviction that concepts could be turned into images and organized into a visual language, more profound and universal than discursive logic. Egyptian hieroglyphs and dream visions were considered typical vehicles of this advanced mode of communication. The desire to emulate their symbolic density is reflected both in literature and in art, often in ways that challenge common distinctions between visual and verbal communication. In this course you will be introduced to an assortment of works representative of such interplay between text and image: emblem books, dream books and dream-centered works, hieroglyphic inventions and studies, collections of proverbs, iconology manuals, etc. Among the books examined are some widely considered as the finest examples of design in the history of printing. Early modern and recent theory of emblems will also be discussed. As a present-day counterpart of Renaissance emblems, the course will conclude with a survey of corporate logos and Russian criminal tattoos.

This course examines objects with a dual nature: literary artifacts that are also visual compositions - texts that function simultaneously as pictures. While a primary focus will be on Italian 20th century experimental literary forms (parole in liberta, poesia visiva, concrete poetry), students will also explore a wider historical range of such textual-visual hybrids, from the classical world through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Baroque period. In order to trace the transnational circulation of visual models, comparative examples and references from English and other languages will be offered. Specific readings and discussions will address theoretical issues raised by iconic texts - how do we read visual poetry? What does it mean to be engaged as a reader and as a viewer at the same time?

Study of Italian Renaissance civilization from its roots in the Middle Ages. Concentrates on the major problems of the times: the rise of the city-states and the evolution of the signorie, the birth of new language and art forms, and the changing attitudes toward the classical world, science, and philosophy. Students also explore, through readings of chronicles, letters, and contemporary documents, the effects such transformations had on the people of the times, on their daily lives, and on self-perceptions.

Topics vary by semester.

Courses on subjects of special interest taught by a regular or visiting faculty member. For specific courses, please consult the class schedule.

Courses on subjects of special interest taught by a regular or visiting faculty member. For specific courses, please consult the class schedule.

Studies representation of Italian history through the medium of film from ancient Rome through the Risorgimento. Issues to be covered throughout include the use of filmic history as a means of forging national identity.

Subjects of special interest taught by a regular or visiting faculty member. Topics vary by semester; for specific offerings, please consult the class schedule.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a drama queen is “a person who is prone to exaggeratedly dramatic behavior.” While drama queens exist in real life, opera is their ideal environment. Echoing back to their tragic fates, the powerful voices of opera’s heroines never ceased to affect their empathetic public. In fact, excess and overreactions are key to the operatic experience both on stage and in the audience. By focusing on the ways in which drama queens are brought to life, the course explores the social, political, and gender dynamics that inform the melodramatic imagination. Along with a broad introduction to the development of opera from 1600 to 1900, the course offers a theoretical background across literature and musical culture, reception, voice/sound and gender studies. Case studies include works by Monteverdi, Mozart, Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, Puccin. No musical skills required.

Acts of public violence, against individuals or groups of people, have been recurrent in the history of modern Italy. They include large-scale massacres of civilians carried out in its colonies in the 1930s, massacres on Italian soil during World War Two, acts of terrorism peaking in the years 1969- 1982, and a wave of mafia killings in the 1990s. This course investigates possible reasons for this recurrence, considers whether there may be connections between these diverse acts of violence, and considers why they have been open to conflicting interpretations and remembered collectively in widely different ways. Historians have spoken, in relation to this, about Italy's "divided memory". The course examines four cases where violence has given rise to intense controversy and debate over historical memory.

Identical to MEDI-UA 269 The Divine Comedy is a very long poem traditionally judged to be one of the most important in Western culture. At the center of the poem is the human being, his condition in the after life and his punishment or reward. Taken literally, the theme is the state of the souls after the death. But allegorically, the true subject is moral life and thus the torments of the sins themselves or the enjoyment of a happy and saintly life. Since the beginning of its circulation the Divine Comedy has been seen as a text to be read in context, that is in light of the cultural tradition Dante was channelling and interpreting. This course proposes a reading of Dante's Commedia, considered in light of the ancient and medieval idea of learning. The objective of the course is to familiarize students with one of the most important author of Western culture. Through Dante's texts, students will gain a perspective on the Biblical, Christian, and Classical traditions as well as on the historical, literary, philosophical context of medieval Europe.

Students study the Divine Comedy both as a mirror of high medieval culture and as a unique text that breaks out of its cultural bounds. The entire poem is read, in addition to selections from the Vita Nuova and other complementary minor works.

A study of Boccaccio?s Decameron with particular emphasis on themes, conceptual innovations, and influences on French and English literatures.

Studies the relationship between Italian literature and post-World War II cinema, including the poetics and politics of the process of cinematic adaptation. Among the authors and directors examined are Lampedusa, Bassani, Sciascia, Visconti, Moravia, De Cespedes, DeSica, and Rosi.

Courses on subjects of special interest taught by a regular or visiting faculty member. For specific courses, please consult the class schedule.

The success of Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels is astounding, not only because of the record-breaking sales, but also because of the strong emotions they thematize and arouse. In this course, we will read novels, interviews, and essays by Ferrante, asking why her work inspires such passionate reading, and whether there is political efficacy in all this affect. Engaging with Sianne Ngai, Elspeth Probyn, Lauren Berlant and others, we will consider the political and aesthetic implications of ugly and opaque emotions like irritation, envy, disgust, and shame. We will also study major influences—including writers Ferrante cites frequently in interviews: Adriana Cavarero, Carla Lonzi, Luisa Muraro, and Elsa Morante; as well as those she tends to refrain from naming: Christa Wolf and Ingeborg Bachmann. Reading knowledge of Italian is suggested but not required. Class discussion will be conducted in English; texts will be available in English and Italian.

Prerequisites and topics vary by semester.

This 2-credit course offers an opportunity for students of literature courses in translation (for example, Dante’s Divine Comedy) who do know Italian to read, discuss, decipher, memorize and work with the Italian text with a professor expert in the material and to do so in a number of creative ways aimed at improving comprehension and expressive skills.

This course will focus on identity and the autobiographical experience as narrated by a selection of contemporary American and European authors, with a particular attention to Italian examples. Through the analysis of their work, it will focus on how authorship and the identity/presence of the author has evolved in contemporary times, and how this evolution reverberates beyond national borders. We will investigate what moves these authors, what aspects of their experience they choose to narrate and how they relate to their own subjectivity and the world. We will explore thematic differences and convergences, social and historical influences, the relationship between the self and society, the evolution of narrative languages and purposes. The selection of readings is representative of the emergence of a new literary genre that blends memoir, autofiction and fiction, and describes the changing intellectual, cultural and social landscape of a literature that can no longer be contained within its national boundaries, but is inspired by a quest for a new identity or new identities, ignited by and reflected in today’s globalized world.

Aims to teach students how (post)colonialism, immigration and conflict have influenced past and current sociopolitical contexts of the Mediterranean. Through class discussions and critical writing assignments, the course considers the relationship between Mediterranean history/politics and its unique forms of artistic production and narration that have emerged in recent years.

This course examines a variety of sound artifacts and sound related texts from the period between WWI and the 70s — between the early noise machines of the Futurists and the experiments of maverick singer Demetrio Stratos. Yet the focus will not be exclusively on music proper: we will examine sound in a range of manifestations and contexts — propaganda, magic-religious rituals, oral poetry, folklore, commercial sound design, prison songs, soundtracks, etc. The course will touch upon issues such as the relationship between music and other arts; the development of Italian media; Fascist sound politics; prison songs; the discussion on technology for sound production/ consumption in Italian cultural circles; the survival of (largely non-textual) oral-aural art forms. The course is in English, no Italian required.

This course will examine authoritarianism from the Fascist and early Communist years up to the present. Leaders include Mussolini, Hitler, Franco, Stalin, Mobutu, Pinochet, Gaddafi, Mao, Putin, Orban, Erdogan, and more.

In this course we will cover the Italian varieties of food in their past and present forms. The first half of the course will explore the history of food from past civilizations, leading up to World War I, just after the great immigration to the New World. Time periods examined will be ancient Rome, Medieval, Renaissance, Risorgimento, leading to the modern era. The second part of the course will introduce students to the regional varieties of Italian food and the role of this topic in the arts, film and TV.

If in the collective imaginary fashion is linked to glamour, style, and aesthetics, no country more actively evokes and embodies these concepts than Italy. Italian identity, culture, and economy remain deeply connected to fashion as both an institution and industry. Well before Italy’s belated unification in 1861, fashion long played a key role in the construction of national style and courtly life from the Middle Ages and Renaissance to the twentieth-century design houses which reshaped not only commercial and aesthetic trends, but solidified Italy’s association with post-war design culture more broadly. This course explores the development of Italian fashion from its roots in Medieval Communes to the dynamics of the modernity and the post-modernity of the 19 th and 20 th centuries, concluding with a close look at contemporary fashion as a creative force of socio-cultural change.

Covers the Italian varieties of food in their past and present forms. We will explore the history of food from past civilizations, leading up to World War 1, just after the great immigration to the New World. Time periods examined will be ancient Rome, Medieval, Renaissance, Risorgimento, leading to the modern era.

Italian identity, culture, and economy remain deeply connected to fashion as both an institution and industry. Examines how fashion played a key role in the construction of national style and courtly life from the Middle Ages and Renaissance to the twentieth-century design houses, which not only reshaped commercial and aesthetic trends, but also solidified Italy’s association with post-war design culture more broadly.

This course is designed to expose students to some of the main trends of the last 50 years of Italian Pop music. The class will investigate the tension between a national identity as expressed by "melodia italiana" and a local identity as expressed by the main regional songwriting schools (Naples, Genoa, Bologna, etc), and will analyze how both notions have been challenged by Anglo-American mainstream and indie markets, and by North-African immigration. By looking at examples ranging from the emancipation of women as full throatedly proclaimed by such singers as Mina, Patti Pravo, Raffaella Carra, and Loredana Berte, to the role of the transgender community in the foundation of Italian Hip Hop, and up to the overtly racial quarrel triggered by the victory of Mahmood over Ultimo at the 2019 Sanremo Festival, this class will also show how artists sometimes reflected chan es in the Italian societal norms, sometimes instigated them.

Identical to V41.0724. Hendin. Offered every two to three years. 4 points. A study of the fiction and poetry by which Italian American writers have expressed their heritage and their engagement in American life. From narratives of immigration to current work by "assimilated" writers, the course explores the depiction of Italian American identity. Challenging stereotypes, it explores changing family relationships, sexual mores, and political and social concerns.

Prerequisites and topics vary by semester.

Prerequisite: permission of the department. Offered every semester. 2 or 4 points per term. The internship program offers upper-level students the opportunity to apply their studies to the outside world. Working closely with a sponsor and a faculty adviser, students may pursue internships in such diverse areas as international trade, banking, publishing, community organizations, and television and radio programs. Interested students should apply to the department of their proposed internship early in the semester.

Undergraduate students in the Honors Program write a thesis overseen by an Italian Studies faculty member in their senior year. In fall, the student prepares research for their thesis in the course ITAL-UA 999 Seniors Honors Seminar. In spring, the student writes the thesis under the guidance of a faculty member in the course ITAL-UA 990 Honors Independent Study. Both count as advanced courses for the major. Students work closely with a departmental faculty member who becomes the honors thesis adviser (chosen in consultation with the Director of Undergraduate Studies). The thesis should be a work of scholarship and/or criticism from 40 to 60 pages in length.

Prerequisite: permission of the department. Offered every semester. 2 or 4 points per term.

Prerequisite: permission of the department. Offered in the fall. 4 points. Seminar with variable content. Prepares students for the senior honors thesis. Primary focus is on research and the application of critical methodologies. Open to students who have been accepted in the honors program in Italian studies. (See Prerequisite: permission of the department. Offered in the fall. 4 points. Seminar with variable content. Prepares students for the senior honors thesis. Primary focus is on research and the application of critical methodologies. Open to students who have been accepted in the honors program in Italian studies. (See "Eligibility and requirements" under "Honors Program in Italian Studies" in the "Program" section.)

Students will gain understanding of basic messages in simple oral and written material containing standard phrases (questions, high-frequency commands, and courtesy formulae) and some sentence-length expressions, supported by proper context and presented in a clear and plain language. They will be able to acquire key information in the listening and reading of brief, simple, authentic material (i.e. directions, maps, timetable and advertisements), and have a fair understanding of messages of short standard Italian conversations in a limited number of content areas, presented in a clearly audible (and occasionally slowed) speech. Their understanding will include present events and very simple events in the past, presented clearly and in the context of familiar topics. Students will be able to engage in basic conversation relying mainly on ready-made expressions and on short phrases and to respond to open-ended questions as well as to initiate communication on familiar topics, even without being able to continue the conversation in an autonomous way. Stronger emphasis will be given on communicative situations involving first and second person; writing activities will include simple autobiographical information, brief messages, simple forms and lists, where pertinent vocabulary and structure are provided.

Students will gain understanding of oral and written communication on a variety of topics, ranging from personal routine, taste and hobbies to include family, fashion and food. They will be able to acquire key information from listening and reading brief, simple, authentic material, and have a fair understanding of the meaning of standard Italian conversations on a variety of familiar topics, including present and past events, presented in a clearly audible speech. Students will be able to engage in conversations on a variety of real-life situations regarding familiar subjects, to respond to open-ended questions and to initiate communication on these topics, despite not having the skills to continue the conversation in an autonomous way. They will be able to give and follow directions, instructions and commands. Stronger emphasis will be on communicative situations involving first and second person, while skills in mono-directional oral presentation will begin to emerge. Writing activities will include narration of present and past events, personal experiences, school and work situations, as well as brief messages to family and friends.

This daily course immerses students in the Italian language. The basic structures and vocabulary of the Italian language are presented. Students are also provided with systematic practice of oral Italian through dialogues, pattern drills, and exercises. Special emphasis is given to correct pronunciation, sound placement, and intonation. Conducted in Italian.

Students will gain understanding of oral and written communication on various topics, ranging from basic routine tasks to travel, shopping, cultural customs and events in the past, present and future. They will appreciate the increasingly elaborate expression of personal wishes, feelings and hopes. Students will recognize key information in the reading and listening of authentic material, provided it is clearly presented and structured, and will begin to understand advanced texts featuring narration and description of events. Students will be able to handle a large range of conversation tasks and standard social situations. They will be able to interact beyond their mere immediate needs, discussing in some depth topics such as leisure activities, professional goals and personal taste; skills in oral presentation will begin to solidify, as students will sustain a general conversation and be understood. Narrative skills are limited but begin to emerge. Students will be able to write short letters and short paragraphs and show command of simple sentence syntax.

Students will gain understanding of oral and written material on various topics, ranging from general routine and leisure time activities, to more complex topics such as politics, environmental issues, and work environment. Students will be able to read and appreciate pertinent authentic texts with a clear structure, and will also be able to some extent to infer and extract from the material information which at first is only implicit. The understanding of material focusing on the expression of personal thoughts and feelings will progress to include increasingly sophisticated nuances. Students will be able to handle most uncomplicated conversation tasks and standard social situations. Students will be able to: debate and argue for opposite viewpoints on a range of topics and make comparisons and hypotheses. Presentation skills will solidify; skills in narrating in paragraphs will emerge and develop in a creative direction. Students will be able to write letters and short stories and demonstrate limited command of sentence syntax.

This course offers students who are at the intermediate level a daily immersion class. The acquisition and practice of more sophisticated structures of Italian are undertaken. Fundamental oral and written skills are developed, and vocabulary enrichment and conversational ability are emphasized. Conducted in Italian.

The course is an intensive review of Italian grammar. Classes are three times a week. The aim of the course is to develop the knowledge of morphosyntactic structures of the Italian language, and to also reinforce intercultural competence. Class work consists of both written and spoken activities, conversations, and papers and readings related to a wide range of different genres (newspaper articles, magazines, extracts from contemporary Italian literature). All of the activities are primarily aimed to promote the usage of Italian language in real situations.

Students entering the course should have mastered the fundamental structure of Italian. The course is designed to help students gain confidence and increase their effectiveness in speaking present-day Italian. Through discussions, oral reports, and readings, students develop vocabulary in a variety of topics, improve pronunciation, and learn an extensive range of idiomatic expressions. Conducted in Italian.

Students entering the course should have mastered the fundamental structure of Italian. The course is designed to help students gain confidence and increase their effectiveness in writing present-day Italian. Conducted in Italian.

Students will view and discuss Italian films to enrich their knowledge of language and culture, including: classic films; contemporary films, which we will compare with the classics; films in current release and available in the theaters of Florence. Through creative activities, students will work to improve their writing, reading and vocabulary, as well as their skills of observation, comprehension and interpretation. Students will discuss the themes presented by the various films and their place within both Italian history and the history of Italian cinema. Students will address the different elements that make up the text of each film: direction, screenplay, sound score, cinematography and editing.

Introduces students to the theory and practice of translation. While engaging in the craft of translation firsthand, students gain a deeper understanding of the Italian language through the study of contemporary texts, such as Italian novels and short stories. The course also stresses the acquisition of vocabulary and complex idiomatic structures necessary for effective reading comprehension, as well as written expression. A special emphasis is on the analysis of dialogue, style, and linguistic choices of each author, in order to explore the development of the written language, slang, regional expressions, and linguistic differences that have accompanied and defined the evolution of Italian over the past 20 years.

Topics vary by semester

The course will focus on the development of Italian cinema in the post war period, emphasizing the relationship between literature and film adaptation. The books and the films will offer a unique opportunity to analyze and discuss crucial issues related to the historical, political, and cultural evolution of Italy from its Unification to the present.

This course explores urban experience in Italy from two distinct perspectives, the historical and the theoretical. We will start with a historical overview of the evolution of the urban environment in Italy. This overview will extends from ancient and roman times to the (re-)birth of towns by the year 1000, when various towns identified themselves around their piazzas, churches, streets, and within their walls, to the evolution of Italian towns in modern times, the changes in size and organization, the emergence of new spaces and new functions, and the emergence of new institutions such as Cafes, Museums, Train Station. The focus of these first lectures will be on the city of Florence. The second dimension of the course, which will be articulated at two levels, will reflect upon the way in which we conceptualize, represent and construct discourses about cities in modern times. Firstly, we will make an exploration of some texts, concepts that have contributed to shaping our way to understand modern cities. We will also explore the various possible positioning of the self towards the city, the “seer”, the “Flaneur” the Stroller”, and we will investigate how the bodies of these subjects is then constituted. Secondly, we’ll go through some discourses and representations of the city: maps, views, panoramas points, travel literature, tourist guides and narrative literature (e.g. detective novel) will provide with quite different ways to tell of (and relate to) the experience of the Italian and specifically Florentine urban environment.

This course introduces to the many villas surrounding the city of Florence. It aims at illustrating their origins, their history from the Middle-Age to the twentieth century, as well as their economic and ideological factors in the relationship with the city of Florence. The course draws on many disciplines, such as architecture, history, economy, social history, history of art, and landscape art. Conducted in English.

To provide the student with an awareness of and appreciation for the cultures and civilizations of ancient Italy from ca. 1000 to 80 B.C.E. with special emphasis on the Etruscans and their relationship to the early Romans. We shall examine significant examples of sculpture, painting, architecture, city-planning, and the minor arts through power point presentations, the assigned texts, and field trips.

Aims to improve students’ ability to listen, speak, read, and write in Italian. Supports student academic literacy by developing skills in exposition, analysis, clarification, and conclusion. Intended to be taken in conjunction with a “Learning Contract” related to a content course offered at NYU Florence, whereby classes are taught in English, but the student engages in supplementary reading in Italian and writes the final paper in Italian.

Presents a study of post-World War II Italian politics and society in comparative and historical perspective. Seeks explanations of Italian political development in specific historical factors such as the 19th century patterns of state formation and the experience of fascism. Comparative analysis seeks to show how the social structure, political culture, and party systems have shaped Italy's distinct development. Current and recurrent political issues include the problem of integrating the south into the national economy and state response to social movements, particularly terrorism.

The course on “Media, Activism & Democracy” aims at, first, introducing students to the complex and fascinating topic of civil society activism; second, at illustrating them the linkages between activism and media; third, at showing them the impact of civil society’s advocacy on contemporary political systems. In a nutshell, the course aims at providing students with a closer understanding of the civil society activism-media-politics conundrums at the national and global levels.

This course introduces contemporary Italy in all its complexity and fascination. Reviewing politics, economics, society, and culture over the past two centuries, the course has a primary goal -- to consider how developments since the 1800s have influenced the lives and formed the outlook of today's Italians. In other words, we are engaged in the historical search for something quite elusive: Italian “identity”. Topics will include the unification of the country, national identity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the First World War, and Italian fascism, World War Two and the resistance, the post-war Italian Republic, the economic "miracle", the South, the Mafia, terrorism, popular culture, and the most recent political and social developments, including Italy and the European Union. Lectures combine with readings and films (taking advantage of Italy’s magnificent post-war cinema).