Italian Studies at Penn, part of the Francophone, Italian and Germanic Studies Department (FIGS), embraces research and teaching concerning agents, people and institutions--with related linguistic, intellectual and artistic objects and media--mostly originating from Italian-speaking geographical areas and featuring relationships with the Italian language, its dialects, and the Latinate tradition, from the Medieval period to today.
Italian Studies considers itself as both autonomous and in relationship with a constellation of other disciplines and scholars located in a variety of Penn departments (including not only the other sections of FIGS, but also English, Classical Studies, History, Music, History of Art, and Political Science among others), programs (e.g., Cinema and Media Studies, Comparative Literature, Jewish Studies, Global Medieval and Renaissance Studies), centers (e.g., Gender Sexuality & Women, Africana Studies, Wolf Humanities), schools (e.g., Wharton, Design), and libraries (esp. the Kislak Center).
Research and teaching areas currently developed by the Italian Studies Unit, in collaboration with the Center for Italian Studies, include
a) the tre corone (Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio),
b) the Renaissance and early modern periods,
c) book and manuscript studies,
d) performance and media studies,
e) race and migration issues, and
f) Mediterranean studies.
Please find here a description of our graduate program, and here one of our undergraduate degree.