ITALIAN DEPARTMENT AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
The Italian Department at Georgetown University is regarded as one of the best in the country thanks to the prestige of its Language, Literature and Culture Program and the high academic level of its faculty. The department offers a Major and a Minor in Italian, and a Masters in Italian Studies. The number of students enrolled in both language and literature courses ranges between 140 and 170 per semester. The Italian Department's integrative approach prepares students to explore connections and understand the literary and cultural tradition from past to present.
Students are exposed to these topics from the beginning of language study. Those who continue to upper level courses can choose among a great variety of courses that cover all periods of Italian literature, Italian theatre, linguistics and Italian American studies, among other subjects.
Recently, the Department has started offering a course “Italian for Spanish Speakers” which has been very successful. The Department offers many study abroad options through the office of Global Services. Undergraduate students can choose courses at Villa Le Balze in Fiesole or they can study in Milan or Bologna, among other options. The Masters in Italian Studies offers three tracks: Literature, Linguistics/Pedagogy, and Business.
It requires students to spend one semester abroad. Students can therefore choose among different Italian universities that offer courses in these three areas such as Bocconi in Milan for those who specialize in business or Università per Stranieri in Perugia for those who specialize in pedagogy. Our undergraduate students’ mastery of Italian is a real asset on the job market. Our alumni have found jobs in many diverse areas: from journalism to finance to museography. Alumni from our graduate program have gone on to PhD studies in prestigious universities such as Columbia and Duke, and have found jobs in private and public companies or have become teachers of Italian.
Students are always very engaged with our Department: every year they form part of Il Circolo Italiano that organizes a variety of events and holds a conversation session once a week. Masters students are also enthusiastic supporters of our language and culture and they have created a radio program in Italian. Faculty in the Italian Department are nationally and internationally known. They all have a very active research agenda and many publications and are regularly awarded fellowships and various forms of support to continue their research.
The Department organizes a conference on Italian Pedagogy every two years. The last one, which took place in October 2015, was focused on the teaching of Italian through culture and saw the participation of many professors from both American and international universities. The Department is a point of reference for all kinds of cultural initiatives in the Washington area and regularly collaborates with the Italian Embassy, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura and the Italian section of the Library of Congress. We have had the honor of hosting famous writers such as Claudio Magris and Domenico Starnone, who will spend the fall semester teaching in our department. For more information readers can go to our website https://italian.georgetown.edu/