Welcome to the Department of Italian Studies
The University of Sydney offers a full range of Italian programs from absolute beginners to PhD.
Italian has been taught at the University of Sydney since 1929, and the Department of Italian is one of the largest and best resourced in Australia. While the Department is at the forefront of innovation with on-line supplementation of its courses, we remain committed to small-group teaching and individual pastoral care for all students.
Each unit of study offered by the Department aims to develop your skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing in Italian. Your analytical and critical skills will also be developed through your studies, which will enable you to pursue interests in all aspects of Italian language, literature and culture. At the University of Sydney, we specialise in Italian language studies, especially:
- Sociolinguistics in the Italian and Australian contexts
- Second language acquisition
- Language teaching methodologies
- Medieval and Renaissance Italian philology
Italian literary history and criticism, with particular emphasis on:
- The Middle Ages and Dante
- Renaissance (fourteenth to sixteenth centuries)
- Critical and literary theory
- Twentieth-century literature and society.
- Migrant literature
We also specialise in Italian drama, with particular reference to:
- Medieval religious drama
- Renaissance comedy
- Commedia dell'Arte
- Twentieth-century theatre in a European context.
The resources available to staff and students in the University's Fisher Library are the most extensive in Australia, with comprehensive holdings and highest level electronic subscriptions in Italian language and literature as well as history, fine arts and the social sciences. You will find that these library, audio-visual and IT resources are invaluable in getting the most out of your Italian lessons at the University.
The University has exchange programs with the Universities of Bari, Bologna, Ferrara, Florence, Pavia, Pisa, Verona, Turin, Udine, the Oriental Institute of Naples and the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, with more partnerships being developed. A range of scholarships are currently available in the Faculties of Arts and Education and from the International Office to enable you to spend one semester studying in Italy in your third year.
In 2003, the Department began offering its Beginners' course at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), and UNSW students can take higher level units of Italian on the Sydney campus.
Italian Studies receives generous support from the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, through the Italian Institute of Culture, and from the Cassamarca Foundation.
