Undergraduate Bulletin

The Department of Italian offers an A.B. in Italian, a minor in Italian, and a Master’s of Arts in Italian Studies.

Major in Italian

The Italian major takes an integrative approach to prepare students to explore connections and understand the continuum from past to present. From the Gateway course to the Senior Seminar, all courses are designed to introduce students to Italian culture in all its manifestations. Students develop their critical and analytical skills through intellectual dialogue in small class settings while the program’s integrated overseas experience gives students new perspectives and approaches to world issues.

Italian majors at Georgetown are required to complete 10 to 12 courses depending on the results of the student’s placement exam (12 if they begin in Intensive Basic, 11 if they begin in Intensive Intermediate, and 10 if they begin in Intensive Advanced). One course toward the major may be taught in English. Italian Majors are also required to spend a semester or an academic year in Italy studying at an Italian university.

Requirements for the A.B. in Italian

• 10 Courses in the Italian Department  (unless initial placement requires additional language study), one of which may be taught in English.
• Students who are already fluent in Spanish or another Romance Language may take ITAL 009 Italian for Speakers of Spanish or Other Romance Languages instead of ITAL-011 Intensive Italian Language and Culture: Beginner. Students interested in ITAL 009 should contact the professor teaching it before they register.
• Upon successful completion of ITAL 009, students may enroll in ITAL 010 or ITAL 111 depending on the recommendation of the professor.
• Upon successful completion of ITAL 010, students may enroll in a 200 level class depending on the recommendation of the professor.  Students who wish to enroll in a 200 level class are required to take the placement test before enrolling.
• Students may also take three 1 credit courses instead of one of the 200 level courses to fulfill their course requirements

Integrated Writing Requirement

Writing is central to the teaching of Italian at Georgetown. This emphasis comes from a Curriculum Renewal Project initiated by the Italian Department in 2005, which identified writing skills as a crucial area for unifying the curriculum from the language foundations to the upper courses and for the development of critical abilities that become necessary at higher levels of study. The Curriculum Renewal Project involved the design of specific writing tasks reflective of expected learner development at distinct levels of the language curriculum, the implementation of process writing throughout the curriculum, and the elaboration of specific writing goals. To learn more about writing goals at each level of instruction, please see http://italian.georgetown.edu/writing_project/outcomes

Overseas Studies

Georgetown has approved academic programs at the University of Florence (Middlebury), University of Bologna (Brown), and at universities in Milan through IES.  For further information, consult the Office of Global Education website: studyabroad.georgetown.edu.

Italian Major with FLL Business Coursework

See the Business Coursework section of this Bulletin.

Minor in Italian

Minors are required to complete 6 courses taught in Italian or 5 courses in Italian plus ITAL-394 Italian American Language, Literature and Film, which is taught in English.  Students placing above 011, 032, 111, and/or 112 will substitute upper-level electives taught in Italian.

Requirements for the Minor

• ITAL-011 Intensive Basic Italian
• ITAL-032 Intensive Intermediate Italian
• ITAL-111 Intensive Advanced Italian I
• ITAL-112 Intensive Advanced Italian II
• ITAL-233 Writing and Culture/Literature
• ITAL-231 Contemporary Italy or one course at the 200 or 300-level  (including ITAL-394)
   

(For course listings for Italian see Schedule of Classes)