Global Arc

To develop the skills of speaking, understanding, reading and writing Italian. The main emphasis is on oral drill and conversation in the classroom. Aspects of Italian culture and civilization are integrated in the course. The Italian Language Program uses a new digital portfolio that serves as students' textbook. Through this medium, students are exposed to a more dynamic mode of language acquisition.

Further study of Italian grammar and syntax with increased emphasis on vocabulary, reading, and practice in conversation. Skills in speaking and writing (as well as understanding) modern Italian will also be further developed. Students will deepen the study of grammatical functions through the analysis of Italian culture and civilization. Prerequisite: ITA 101 or permission of instructor.

This course is an intensive beginning and intermediate language course that provides an introduction to the Italian language and culture. It covers the material presented in ITA 101 and ITA 102 and prepares students to enroll in ITA 107. Activities and interactions provide the opportunity to develop intermediate speaking, listening, and writing skills using language of a concrete, conversational nature.

Italian 105 provides the opportunity to further develop Italian language proficiency in all areas-cultural understanding, production and receptive skills-through various types of texts (literature, film, visual culture, music, interviews, etc.). At the end of this course, students will have developed all three modes of communication: Interpersonal, Interpretive, and Presentational. In conjunction with language proficiency, students will develop the intercultural competency necessary to better understand and embrace Italian language and culture as a whole.

This course analyzes Italian culture and cultural changes through products such as newspaper articles, essays, comic books, music, film, food, and visual artifacts in connection with Italian history and society. Italian 107 is intended to provide students with tools for communicating effectively in Italian in an informal and formal context, to move students along the proficiency spectrum toward a more advanced language level, and to promote a global awareness and cross-cultural understanding of contemporary Italian life and culture. Classes are conducted entirely in Italian. Prerequisite: ITA 102 or instructor's permission. Five classes.

This course is designed to familiarize the student with major features of contemporary Italy and its culture. Its purpose is to develop the student's ability to communicate effectively in present-day Italy. The course emphasizes Italian social, political, and economic institutions, doing so through the analysis of cultural and social differences between Italians and Americans in such everyday concerns as money, work and leisure. Prerequisite: ITA 107 or permission of instructor.

This course is designed to give an overview of pivotal moments in Italian culture, such as the relationship between Church and Empire in the Middle Ages, Machiavelli's political theory during the Renaissance, and the rise and fall of Fascism in the 20th century. Through the examination of the most relevant intellectual, historic and artistic movements and their main geographical venues, students will be able to acquire a comprehensive understanding of the development of Italian history and civilization. Prerequisite: Italian 107 or instructor's permission.

Working at the crossroads of American influences and the tradition of political songs, Italian cantautori merge popular appeal and literary sophistication. For at least three generations, their songs have provided an engaged soundtrack to Italy's turbulent social, political and cultural transformations in the post-WWII years. As lyrics on the page, as music to be listened to, and as performances recorded in video, Italian canzoni d'autore are part of Italian history and identity today. Prerequisite: ITA 107 or permission of instructor. This course is taught in Italian.

Considered by many the greatest scholar of his age, a successful rival to Dante, the revered teacher of Boccaccio, Petrarch bequeathed to posterity the most beautiful sonnets ever written in the Florentine vernacular. In the course, we will study the "Canzoniere", his collection of lyric poetry, a book which shaped the language of love in the European Renaissance, and a sample from his "Trionfi". The texts will be analyzed in relation to their historical and cultural context and for the impact they will have on modern European Literature. Prerequisite: One 200-level ITA course or permission of instructor.

This course will introduce students to the basic trends and problems of Renaissance literature as the main source of our civilization. The major literary figures of the 16th-century Italian revival (such as Machiavelli, Leonardo, Galileo, Castiglione, Michelangelo, etc.) will be studied in relation to their time, the courts or the cities where they lived, and their seminal contributions to modern Europe culture including works of visual art, theater, and good living. Prerequisite: a 200-level Italian course or instructor's permission.