Italian Studies
Director of Graduate Studies: Larry Norman
Explore the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures’ Italian Studies program, where students engage the Italian language, literature, and culture through a dynamic interdisciplinary curriculum. With opportunities to study Italy across historical periods and intellectual traditions, the program fosters critical inquiry, linguistic depth, and broad cultural understanding.
Teaching
Students will be exposed to a variety of teaching methodologies through coursework, mentoring and workshops, and will gain teaching experience by serving in different roles in our undergraduate program.
Graduate Assistant of Study Abroad Program in Rome
Each Autumn, one graduate student is selected to serve as Graduate Assistant in the University of Chicago’s Study Abroad Program in Rome (from late September to mid-December). The Graduate Assistant helps coordinate on-site arrangements and provides support to the program's faculty and undergraduate students. Compensation includes: transportation to and from Rome, accommodations, stipend, and per diem.
International Exchanges and Interdisciplinary Engagement
In addition to the primary field in Italian Studies, all of our PhD students create an individual course of study in a secondary field, which can be in a second romance literature or in another discipline. By defining their own path of study while acquiring a rigorous grounding in their chosen fields, students develop the skills and versatility necessary to adapt and succeed in an evolving profession.
The University of Chicago’s Advanced Studies Workshops are a hallmark of graduate study at this University. These workshops provide opportunities for interdisciplinary exchange among students and faculty across the University. PhD students participate in and coordinate these forums for sustained interdisciplinary exchange among students and faculty.
Fulbright Chair in Italian Studies
Each Spring we enrich our course offerings by hosting a professor affiliated with an Italian University, selected through the Fulbright program. Previous Fulbright visiting professors include Roberto Antonelli (università La Sapienza), Massimo Fusillo (università dell’Aquila), Margherita Ganeri (università della Calabria), Claudio Giunta (università di Trento), Guido Mazzoni (università di Siena), Serena Sapegno (università La Sapienza), Gianni Celati, and Carlo Ginzburg.
Mentorship and Professional Development
Each year the Italian graduate students produce in close collaboration with a faculty member a volume of edited texts, translations, or original essays, published in the Susan and Donald Mazzoni series with Longo Editore. This year-long collaborative seminar provides students with a scholarly skill set that goes well beyond what can be learned in the classroom: firsthand experience in preparing a work for publication.
A textual database containing 1960 vernacular texts (22.3 million words, 456,000 unique forms) the majority of which are dated prior to 1375. The OVI offers a select number of research assistantships for students wishing to develop skills in the area of digital humanities.
This project is a long-term research endeavor to preserve and provide access to an extensive corpus of literature written by Italian women authors. It currently includes authors from the 13th century until 1945.
The Library holds a vast collection of Italian printed materials, manuscripts, rare books, journal holdings, databases and microfilm sets, and provides extensive support for developing personal research skills.