Aug 27, 2024

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

Mar 5, 2024

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. Previous work in collaborative map making, community dialogue, and participatory art forms led to her project A City in Maps, completed as the artist in residence at the de Young Museum of Art in San Francisco, and lead to other collaborative projects including Paradise, A Map for the Centennial of the Panama Pacific International Exposition, and SF New City Atlas, a series of creative maps for the San Francisco Arts Commission. Her current research examines how culturally based identity and belief systems change in form and function across national contexts. Her academic interests primarily focus on belief systems about luck, migration, and the visual and material culture of Sicily and the southern Italian diaspora. » read more »

Oct 24, 2023 

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.

Jun 13, 2023

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

In a fun-filled morning, the students of Italian 1 gathered in the kitchen at Morgan Hall to learn how to cook authentic Italian cuisine. The activity aimed to give the students a hands-on experience of cooking some classic Italian dishes and to rehearse their knowledge of food vocabulary. » read more »

May 19, 2023

Mia Fuller has been promoted to Full Professor. Mia’s promotion is a recognition of her excellence in research, evinced by her many significant interventions into the field of Italian Studies (and beyond), and her outstanding teaching profile. Many of us know that this also includes countless hours of first-rate graduate student mentorship. All of this is even more commendable given the steady and thoughtful leadership she’s provided as Department Chair and the Director of the Program in Romance Languages and Literatures over the past several (and uniquely challenging) years. Please join us in sending her congratulazioni vivissime!

May 19, 2023

Congratulations to Nicole Trigg on receiving a Summer Dissertation Writing Award from the Berkeley Graduate Division! Complimenti, Nicole!

May 19, 2023

Congratulations to Ph.D. Candidate Sean Wyer on being awarded a Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship! Complimenti, Sean!

The Newcombe Fellowship, funded by the Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation, is the largest and most prestigious award for Ph.D. candidates in the humanities and social sciences addressing questions of ethical and religious values in interesting, original, or significant ways. Fellows receive a 12-month award of $30,000 to support the final year of dissertation writing.

Sean Wyer can be found on Twitter (@sean_c_wyer) and on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-w-494b034b/).

May 1, 2023

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

This fellowship is a grant designed to provide graduate students teaching Reading and Composition courses in 2023-24 the opportunity to improve existing and develop new pedagogical skills and practices. Only twelve students receive this stipend to participate in the Summer Writing Institute, led by Joseph Harris, a leading scholar in composition studies. Recipients are also invited to participate in the Fall 2023 Art of Writing fellow meetings concerning writing pedagogy. Complimenti, Mariagrazia!

Mar 14, 2023 

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

These fellowships will provide lecturers with the equivalent of one-course release time to work on individual projects designed to further their own professional development. Research projects might include: designing and developing instructional materials of various kinds; developing innovative uses of technology; developing new course syllabi or curricular innovations or assessment plans; engaging in independent study of an area of relevant literature, including enrolling in a course of relevant interest offered at UC Berkeley; doing an empirical study of some aspect of language learning; preparing a research paper for public presentation or publication in a professional journal. The fellowship culminates in a presentation to the UC Berkeley language community and a report published on the BLC website. Past fellows have also presented their research at conferences, or published their work in established journals.

Feb 28, 2023