About the Department

While Yale’s Italian department has long been one of the important hubs for Dante studies—beginning with John Freccero, who oversaw the department’s founding—we are committed to providing a broad chronological, disciplinary, and theoretical framework for learning about all things Italian. Contemporary cinema, Renaissance theatre and art, the politics of Fascism and Marxism, medieval women’s writing, translation studies: these are just some of the areas that we cover in both our work and both graduate and undergraduate courses. Such creativity is especially evident in our classes focused on learning and perfecting Italian, from our four introductory and intermediate classes—all offered in Siena during our eight-week summer session—to classes on Italian opera, creative writing, and more.

Our ties with Italian universities—the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, and the Università di Trento—and Yale’s connections with European institutions such as University College, London, ensure that our community is constantly enlivened with students from abroad. This is a community with strong roots in New Haven itself, and our annual film festival and, as of 2024, our Rossini Symposium reinforce our many connections to the generations of Italians who have emigrated to the United States.  We look forward to welcoming new colleagues and students to our home on the 5th floor of the Humanities Quad—as well as to our many events on campus and in Siena!