News

Congratulations to the Fall 2024 Gerald & Beverly Bocciardi Undergraduate Prize winners! 

The conference was held December 9, 2024. 

Professor Akash Kumar is a scholar of medieval Italian literature. He specifically focuses on the history of science and philosophy, Mediterranean Studies, and digital humanities. Professor Kumar is also a founding member of the Cosmopolitan Italies Collective; a member of the executive committee of the Critical Race, Diasporas, and Migrations Caucus of the American Association of Italian Studies; and has served as a member of the editorial board of Digital Dante.

Enroll in Italian 120!

A unique opportunity to sharpen your conversational Italian while reading powerful, unforgettable stories by contemporary female writers from the South.

See detailed course information here

If you don’t speak Italian and are interested in the course, please contact the instructor Annamaria Bellezza at ambellezza@berkeley.edu

Lauren Bartone is a PhD student in Italian Studies with a designated emphasis in folklore. Her background as a visual artist strongly informs her approach to studying Italian culture. Before joining the Department of Italian Studies at Berkeley, she completed a B.A. in Fine Art at UCLA, followed by an M.A. in Education at UC Berkeley, and an M.F.A. at Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Congratulations to the Fall 2023 Gerald & Beverly Bocciardi Undergraduate Prize winners!

Brooke Brogan for “Slow Food: an Italian Story of Sustainability(link is external)” [Italian 3: Intermediate Italian]

A Berkeley EECS alumna who studies Italian while completing her M.S., Asli Akalin, has been featured on the Arts and Humanities website as part of the campaign to celebrate language learning at Berkeley. The accompanying banners for this campaign will be placed on light posts across campus this semester.

Yuqi Tian majored in Italian Studies, Geography, Comparative Literature with minors in Gender & Women's Studies and a Certificate in New Media. She was part of the campus-wide campaign to celebrate multi-lingualism and language learning on the UC Berkeley Campus from 2023-2025. This short interview reveals Yuqi's love for Italian Studies and language learning. 

Why settle for just learning Italian or cooking Italian food while you can do that at the same time?

Complimenti to Cristina Farronato on being awarded a BLC Fellowship for Spring 2024!

Congratulations to Mariagrazia De Luca on being awarded a Daniel E. Koshland Jr. Fellowship in the Art of Teaching Writing!

Complimenti to Cristina Farronato for her simultaneous interpretation of groundbreaking writer and filmmaker Antonio Dikele Distefano’s remarks after a screening of his new film Autumn Beat at the SF Italian Cultural Institute’s celebration of Black Italian arts and cultures.

Congratulations to Kyle Thomson, who has been awarded the Berkeley-Muenster Research Fellowship and the Berkeley-St Andrews Research Fellowship, which will enable him to complete his dissertation in Europe! Complimenti, Kyle!

Congratulations to doctoral candidate Michele Segretario who has won the 2022 Italian American Studies Association Annual Memorial Fellowship Award for his dissertation-in-progress, titled “The Traveling Soundscape – An Acoustic Ethnography of the Italian Migration.” The award is offered to “the author of the year’s outstanding doctoral dissertation or masters thesis proposal or project in Italian American and Italian Diaspora Studies.”

Please join us in congratulating our alumna Elisa Russian, who has accepted a one-year postdoctoral position in the French Department of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland as the recipient of a Swiss Government Excellence Postdoctoral Fellowship!