Academic Program
Benvenuti e bentornati alla Scuola Italiana!
The 2012 session of the Scuola Italiana offers new language courses for all levels plus new courses on linguistics, literature, art and civilization of Italy. This summer we also have a new level (Level 4) for advanced third level students and for those who need to strengthen their preparation before entering the graduate program.
In 2012, the first level of language instruction will be divided into three tiers. A special feature, besides the afternoon conversation sessions, will be a six week diction workshop with Lorenzo Borgotallo for the language students. For these levels, we will also have a theatrical workshop conducted by professional stage actress Isabella Carloni. The special theatrical workshop is designed to help undergraduates improve their diction while learning new idiomatic expressions outside of the traditional classroom setting. Undergraduate students will have the opportunity to participate in special writing workshops and they are also encouraged to take advantage of the biweekly club meetings on various Italian cultural topics.
We also offer another new workshop on Tarantismo, a hysterical, convulsive dance manifestation attributed, according to popular belief, to the bite of the tarantula, a poisonous spider thriving in the area around Taranto (ancient Tarentum) from which it derives its name. A special course will be offered on this topic.
Two new core courses at the graduate level are also offered: 6550 will teach grammar and stylistics while 6602 has been specially designed to hone writing and reading skills with a cultural emphasis, and deepen students’ appreciation of literature. Advanced culture and civilization courses and graduate literature courses will focus on a wide range of topics through various periods of Italian civilization. They will include courses on Manzoni, the Southern Identity in Italian cinema and literature, contemporary writers, Dante, Semiotics, Italian political thought from Gramsci to Saviano, Tarantismo, as well as theories of literary criticism.
This summer’s program will also include two introductory courses on the history of Italian literature and culture designed for students starting the graduate program. For those specializing in second language teaching, for the first time we will offer a course on the use of new technologies in the classroom as well as two new courses on linguistics taught by Emanuela Piemontese. We will continue to offer the methodology course for second language instruction which includes a practicum.
