Italian Studies

When you study Italian, you learn more than a second language. You open the door to a country rich in art, music, literature, history, and cinematography.

The Italian Studies department offers:

Majors

Minors

Featured course

Jump to level: All Italian Studies courses

by level: 100 • 200 • 300 • 400

ITAL 251 Italian American Culture: Faith, Family, and the Moon
Between 1870 and 1920 over five million Italians immigrated to the United States. This course explores the indelible mark they left on the American cultural, political, artistic, educational and social landscape.
ITAL 262 Beyond the Godfather: New Perspectives on the Mafia
Through the analysis of historical, literary, and cinematic texts, this course explores the representation of the mafia in cultural, gender, and ethnic perspectives. Students will become familiar with different Italian mafias, and will examine and criticize the Hollywood glamorization of mafiosi.
ITAL/WGS 280 Women and Italian Film
A study of the work of four prominent Italian women directors: Liliana Cavani, Lina Wertmuller, Cristina Comencini, and Roberta Torre. While focusing on their depictions of social, cultural, and historical issues affecting modern and contemporary Italian society, the course also analyzes the relationship between gender and theories of visual and filmic representation.

Our distinguished faculty’s publications

News

Student Opportunities

Twice a month, faculty from the Italian Studies program meet with students over lunch to chat in Italian at the Tavola italiana (Italian language table). Once a month, the Italian Studies program offers a film screening to students enrolled in Italian language and topics courses to enrich their knowledge of Italian films. Find out more about the student opportunities available to Italian Studies majors and minors at Gettysburg.

Italian Studies Department Spotlight

Prof. Lidia Anchisi and Jenny Enos
Italian Studies Prof. Lidia Anchisi and Jenny Enos ’18 publish joint research
Max Karen '18
Igniting passion through (global) experience

Max Karen ’18

Prof. Daria Bozzato

Visiting Assistant Professor

“The ‘osmotic interaction’ between instructors and students is the most powerful resource a professor has.”

Italian Studies Prof. Daria Bozzato joined Gettysburg College to share her passion for Italian language, literature, and culture within an academic community that engages education with interdisciplinary inquiry and critical spirit. She firmly believes her role is to be an intellectual facilitator, a cultural intermediary who has to inspire the future citizens of a diverse and respectful society.

“The ‘osmotic interaction’ between instructors and students is the most powerful resource a professor has,” said Bozzato.

Bozzato’s research intertwines literature, science, philosophy, and visual arts. Her scholarship investigates the Italian esoteric environment at the turn of the twentieth century, and specifically examines the influence of spiritualism, mediumistic practices, and the magic on Italian Futurist manifestos, art, and photography.

More recently, Bozzato has been working on how the biological psychiatric approach fostered the alienation and physical annulment of mentally ill individuals in Italy. This research is specifically geared toward the years prior to the approval of Italian Law 180/1978, also known as Basaglia law, which revolutionized mental health in Italy and regarded patients as people and not objects.