Italian Department

Chair: Sole Anatrone;

Associate Professors: Simona Bondavalli^b;

Assistant Professor: Sole Anatrone, Alberto Gelmi^a;

Visiting Assistant Professor: Emily Antenucci.

^a On leave 2026/27, first semester 

^b On leave 2026/27, second semester 

Advisers: The Department.

All courses are conducted in Italian unless otherwise specified.

Programs

• Italian Major

Students majoring in other programs may elect a correlate sequence in Italian.

• Italian Correlate Sequence

Courses

• ITAL 105 - Elementary Italian
• ITAL 106 - Elementary Italian
• ITAL 108 - Accelerated Elementary Italian
• ITAL 109 - Advanced Elementary Italian
• ITAL 122 - Queer Italian American Media (in Eng)
• ITAL 123 - Women on the Italian Screen (in Eng)
• ITAL 168 - Food Culture and Italian Identity (in Eng)
• ITAL 172 - Southern Italy on Page and Screen (in Eng)
• ITAL 175 - The Italian Renaissance in English Translation
• ITAL 183 - Becoming Human, Becoming Animal: Tales of Transformation and Hybridity (in Eng)

• ITAL 205 - Intermediate Italian I
• ITAL 206 - Intermediate Italian II
• ITAL 217 - Advanced Composition and Oral Expression
• ITAL 218 - On the Edge of Catastrophe: Giorgio Bassani’s The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
• ITAL 220 - Italian Identities
• ITAL 222 - Italian Journeys
• ITAL 225 - Italian Food: Fact and Fiction
• ITAL 236 - Art in the Age of Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo
• ITAL 237 - The Hell with Dante! A Journey to Inferno
• ITAL 238 - Dante’s Commedia: 100 Cantos to God (in Eng)
• ITAL 240 - Italy and its Migrations: Multimedia Cultural History
• ITAL 242 - Boccaccio’s Decameron (in Eng)
• ITAL 250 - Italian Cinema in English (in Eng)
• ITAL 255 - Four Italian Filmmakers (in English)
• ITAL 261 - Performance and Politics in 1970s Italy
• ITAL 277 - The Jews of Italy. History, Geography, Texts (in Eng)
• ITAL 290 - Community-Engaged Learning
• ITAL 297 - Reading Course
• ITAL 298 - Independent Work

• ITAL 301 - Senior Seminar
• ITAL 302 - Senior Project
• ITAL 303 - Senior Project
• ITAL 305 - Italophone African Narratives, from Colonialism to Post-Colonialism
• ITAL 306 - Reading Rodari: Revolutionary Rhymes, Telephone Tales, Fantastical Grammar
• ITAL 320 - The Language of Desire and the Modern Self
• ITAL 331 - Heroes, Paladins, and Non-existent Knights: The Italian Epic Tradition from Charlemagne to Calvino
• ITAL 340 - Italy and its Migrations: Stories of Italian Emigration and Immigration
• ITAL 342 - Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron: The “Novella” as a Microcosm
• ITAL 345 - Italians and their Languages
• ITAL 375 - Fictions of Youth: Youth Culture in Twentieth-Century Italian Literature
• ITAL 379 - Food and Fiction in Modern Italy
• ITAL 394 - Post-Study Abroad Symposium: Vassar Beyond Borders
• ITAL 399 - Senior Independent Work