Francophone, Italian and Germanic Studies: Italian Studies, BA
Italian Studies offers programs in language, literature, music and opera, film, linguistics, cultural studies and civilization for students with or without a background in Italian. At the core of this program is the study of the Italian language and culture(s), understood both in the narrow sense of verbal communication, but also in the larger sense of textual messages: literary, cinematic, historical, art-historical, and mass-cultural. From the beginning to the advanced level, students develop and strengthen linguistic, analytical, and digital skills and achieve linguistic fluency and cultural competence that can be applied to upper-level courses that explore literary, musical, cinematic, historical, art-historical, and mass-cultural works across the centuries.
The department strongly encourages study abroad in Italy during Summer (Penn in Florence) and sponsors several semester/year programs in Bologna, Milan (Bocconi), and Rome. Advanced language and content courses taken abroad may count toward the FIGS major as well as the minor and the certificate in Italian.
The minimum total course units for graduation in this major is 32. Double majors may entail more course units.
For information about the General Education requirements, please visit the College of Arts & Sciences Curriculum page.
| Code | Title | Course Units |
|---|---|---|
| College General Education Requirements and Free Elective | ||
| Foundational Approaches + Sectors 1 + Free Electivces | 20 | |
| Major Requirements | ||
| FIGS 1000 | Seeing Differently: Transcultural Approaches to Francophone, Italian, and Germanic Studies | 1 |
| ITAL 0400 | Intermediate Italian II | 1 |
| ITAL 1000 | Advanced Italian I | 1 |
| Electives | ||
| Advanced Language | 1 | |
| Advanced Italian II | ||
| Business Italian | ||
| Business Italian: Italian for Special Purposes | ||
| Business Italian: Italian for Professions | ||
| Business Italian: Translation and Interpreting | ||
| Intensive Italian, Culture, and Conversation - Penn in Florence | ||
| Masterpieces-Italian Literature/Seminars | 2 | |
| Best Sellers in Italian Literature | ||
| Italian Seminars 3000 Level or Higher | ||
| Italian Translation | ||
| Dante's Divine Comedy | ||
| Italian American Studies | ||
| Contemporary Italy | ||
| Italian Film and Media Studies | ||
| Race and Ethnicity in Italy | ||
| Italian Gender Studies | ||
| Italian Fashion | ||
| Italian Visual Studies | ||
| Italian Foods and Cultures | ||
| Italian Literature | ||
| Italian Innovations | ||
| Italian Renaissance Studies | ||
| Mediterranean Studies | ||
| Italian Performance Studies | ||
| Italian Science and Philosophy | ||
| Italian Material Studies | ||
| Italian Digital Humanities | ||
| Boccaccio | ||
| Machiavelli | ||
| Petrarch | ||
| Italian Music | ||
| ITALIAN HISTORIES | ||
| Italian Diaspora Studies | ||
| Additional Electives 2 | 6 | |
| Additional courses taught in Italian at the 1000-level or higher | ||
| Courses taught in Italian at approved study abroad programs | ||
| Independent Study | ||
| Independent Study | ||
| Independent Study | ||
| Honors Research Project | ||
| Honors Thesis | ||
| First-Year Seminars | ||
| Representations of Rome in Film and Literature (1848-present) - First Year Seminar | ||
| Desire and Deception in Medieval Erotic Literature | ||
| First-Year Seminar: Italian Histories | ||
| First-Year Seminar: Italian Music | ||
| First-Year Seminar: Italian American Studies | ||
| First-Year Seminar: Contemporary Italy | ||
| First-Year Seminar: Italian Film and Media Studies | ||
| First-Year Seminar: Race and Ethnicity in Italy | ||
| First-Year Seminar: Italian Gender Studies | ||
| First-Year Seminar: Italian Fashion | ||
| First-Year Seminar: Italian Visual Studies | ||
| First-Year Seminar: Italian Foods and Cultures | ||
| First-Year Seminar: Italian Literature | ||
| First-Year Seminar: Italian Innovations | ||
| Major-related courses taught in English or other languages, either in FIGS or in other departments | ||
| Hellenistic and Roman Art and Artifact | ||
| Roman Architecture and Urbanism | ||
| Classical Mythology in the Western Tradition | ||
| Roman Sculpture | ||
| Hellenistic Art and Spectacle | ||
| Hellenistic Cities Seminar | ||
| Topics In Medieval and Renaissance Art | ||
| Caravaggio Seminar | ||
| High Renaissance Seminar | ||
| Southern Baroque Art Seminar | ||
| Ancient Rome | ||
| The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire? | ||
| Sex and Gender in Ancient Greece and Rome | ||
| Citizenship, Belonging and Exclusion in the Roman World | ||
| Introduction to Mediterranean Archaeology | ||
| Greek & Roman Mythology | ||
| Dangerous Books of Antiquity | ||
| Foreigners in Rome | ||
| Topography and Monuments of Ancient Rome | ||
| Medieval Literature and Culture | ||
| Chaucer: Poetry, Voice, and Interpretation | ||
| Chaucer Seminar | ||
| Drama to 1660 Seminar | ||
| Europe: From Fall of Rome to Age of Exploration | ||
| Machiavelli and Modern Political Thought | ||
| Composers: Opera Composers 1600-1900 | ||
| Composers: Mozart/DaPonte | ||
| History of Opera | ||
| Film Music in Post 1950 Italy | ||
| Florence Myth and History | ||
| Italian History on Screen: How Movies Tell the Story of Italy | ||
| Sicily on Page and Screen | ||
| Italian History on the Table | ||
| Fascist Cinemas | ||
| Film Sound and Film Music | ||
| Florence in History | ||
| The City of Rome: From Constantine to the Borgias | ||
| Food and Diet in Early Europe: Farm to Table in the Renaissance | ||
| Cultura E Letteratura | ||
| Black Italy: Transnational Identities and Narratives in Afro-Italian Literature | ||
| Introduction to Italian Cinema | ||
| Contemporary Italy: Pop Culture, Politics, and Peninsular Identity | ||
| Modern Italian Culture | ||
| Florence Throughout the Centuries | ||
| Titian and Venetian Painting | ||
| Caravaggio | ||
| Michelangelo and the Art of the Italian Renaissance | ||
| Italian Theater | ||
| Italian Scandals | ||
| Palermo: Urban Migration, the Built Environment, and Global Justice | ||
| Palermo: Empires, Mafia, and Migration | ||
| Queer Cinema | ||
| Rome in Cinema: Representations of The Eternal City | ||
| Mafia in the Movies | ||
| Historical Eras and Topics: Earlier Periods | ||
| Baroque Opera from Monteverdi to Gluck | ||
| The Holocaust in Italian Literature and Film | ||
| BFS--Med/Red Dante in English: Creative Responses to the Divine Comedy | ||
| Writing About Art Seminar | ||
| Caravaggio Seminar | ||
| Renaissance Europe | ||
| French & Italian Modern Horror | ||
| Introduction to Paleography & Book History | ||
| Myth Through Time and in Time Seminar | ||
| Medieval Italian Literature | ||
| Dante's Commedia I | ||
| After Dante’s Divine Comedy: Transmission and Material Form, Creative Adaptation and Performance | ||
| Petrarch | ||
| Boccaccio | ||
| Topics: Renaissance Culture | ||
| Transalpine Tensions: Franco-Italian Rivalries in the Renaissance | ||
| Digital Humanities | ||
| Modern/Contemporary Italian Culture | ||
| Topics: Literature and Film | ||
| Post-Human Landscapes | ||
| 20th-Century Italian Fiction and Film | ||
| Italian Thought | ||
| Machiavelli’s Political Thought and its Modern Readers | ||
| Pasolini and Calvino | ||
| Theories of Nationalism | ||
| Politics of Post War Western Europe | ||
| The European Union | ||
| Comparative Politics of the Welfare State | ||
| Religions of the West | ||
| Christian Thought From 1000 to 1800 | ||
| Coursework in another foreign language relevant to the student's interests. | ||
| Total Course Units | 32 | |
- 1
You may count no more than one course toward both a Major and a Sector requirement. For Exceptions, check the Policy Statement.
- 2
The remaining 6 c.u. of electives can be any combination of:
- Additional courses taught in Italian at the 1000-level or higher.
- Courses taught in Italian at approved study abroad programs.
- ITAL 3999/4999: Independent Study.
- ITAL 4000: Honors Research Project.
- A maximum of 3 courses taught in English or other languages, including:
- Major-related courses taught in English or other languages, either in FIGS or in other departments.
- Coursework in another foreign language relevant to the student’s interests.
- First-Year Seminars counted retroactively.
- In order to count additional courses taught in English or other languages toward the concentration, students must arrange an Italian component with the professor.
Honors
Applicants must have a minimum GPA of 3.4 in the Major.
| Code | Title | Course Units |
|---|---|---|
| FIGS 4000 | Honors Thesis | 1 |
The degree and major requirements displayed are intended as a guide for students entering in the Fall of 2024 and later. Students should consult with their academic program regarding final certifications and requirements for graduation.