Center for Italian Studies (CIS) | Italian Studies Program

The Center for Italian Studies was created in 1978 and was the first such center in the United States.

The Center’s mission is

to support Penn’s faculty and students in their research and pedagogy, while engaging the latest trends in Italian Studies, including topics of literature, music, theatre, art, film, history, politics, economy, and society;
to broaden the impact of Penn-based Italian Studies beyond Penn’s campus;
to foster relationships between Penn and the following constituencies: Philadelphia’s Italian-American community, governmental entities representing Italy in the U.S., research centers and cultural organizations promoting Italian issues in the U.S.
Research and teaching areas currently developed by the Center, in collaboration with the Italian Studies Unit of the Department of French and Francophone, Italian, and Germanic Studies (FIGS), include: the tre corone (Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio); the Renaissance and early modern periods; book and manuscript studies; performance and media studies; race and migration issues; and Mediterranean studies.

The Center awards every year the Salvatori Research Award (for faculty and graduate students) and the Amici Prize (for undergraduate students)

Director: Ann Moyer (on leave 2024/2025)

Center for Italian Studies
549 Williams Hall
255 S. 36th St.
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Interim Director: Eva Del Soldato

551 Williams Hall

255 S. 36th St.
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305