Italian Studies

The Ph.D. program in Italian Studies at Harvard University is committed to providing a state-of-the-art interdisciplinary approach to Italian studies, with special emphasis on the fields of Medieval and Renaissance cultural history, 19th- and 20th-century literature and society, contemporary Italy, media theory, the history of design, and cultural economics and analytics. 

We believe that the building of solid historical, philological, and theoretical foundations should be accompanied by critical practice, intensive interaction with new and emerging forms of scholarship, and a hands-on familiarity with new media and technologies. For this reason, all graduate students in residence during the spring attend the De Bosis Colloquium in Italian Studies, which consists of weekly meetings with the authors of newly published books in the field. Students in the program advance their academic trajectories through structured research residencies at partner institutions, both in the U.S. and internationally. They also often broaden their work through secondary fields integrated within the Romance world or in adjacent areas like Classics, Comparative Literature, Critical Media Practice, or by getting involved in metaLAB (at) Harvard, a research and design studio dedicated to exploring and expanding the frontiers of networked culture in the arts and humanities.

Courses 

Our faculty teach courses and seminars in both Italian and English. Recent topics include: Computing Fantasy: Imagination, Invention, Radical Pedagogy (Munari / Rodari / Calvino) (Schnapp); 14 Things: A Secret History of Italian Design (Schnapp); Fragments of a Material History of Literature (Schnapp); What is Time? (Erspamer); Identity or Community: The Meaning of Epic (Erspamer); Preparing the Revolution: Machiavelli, Gramsci, and the Power of the Defeated (Erspamer); Satire and Censorship in 20th-Century Italy (Camozzi Pistoja); Alchemy and Literature (Camozzi Pistoja); and seminars on Boccaccio, Dante, and Petrarch, beyond their most canonical works (Camozzi Pistoja/Schnapp). To support the development of research and writing, students participate in departmental graduate workshops convened by faculty on a rotating basis.

Over recent decades, visiting professors to the program have included Giorgio Agamben (philosophy), Daniele Archibugi (political science), Piero Boitani (comparative literature), Adriana Cavarero (political philosophy and gender studies), Paolo Galluzzi (history of science), Carlo Ginzburg (history), Ara Merjian (art history), Federica Pedriali (literature and theory), Gabriele Pedullà (literature and history), Pier Luigi Sacco (cultural economics), Sergio Zatti (literature and psychoanalsis), and Emanuele Coccia (philosophy, environmental science, and fashion history). Many of them were invited under the aegis of the Lauro De Bosis Committee, established at Harvard seventy years ago in memory of Lauro de Bosis, a poet and intellectual who  his life fighting Fascism.

Among the many Harvard professors who offer courses cross-listed with Italian Studies or of interest to our students are Shawon Kinew (History of Art and Architecture), Luis Giron Negron (Comparative Literature), Nicholas Watson and Leah Whittington (English), Gennaro Chierchia (Linguistics), Kathleen Coleman (Classics), Hannah Marcus (History of Science), David Stern (NELC), Francesco Bondioli and James Hankins (History), Thomas Kelly and Federico Cortese (Music).

Because the program’s emphasis is on innovative approaches to Italian cultural and literary studies, we encourage students to embark on a highly individualized course of study that often includes enrollment in other courses within the Romance Languages and Literatures Department, as well as in other disciplines, including history, philosophy, women and gender studies, media history, art and architecture, music, classics, religious studies, anthropology, and social studies.

An agreement with other academic institutions in New England allows students to enroll in courses offered by their Italian departments. Information about cross-registration is available on the “Course Search” page of MyHarvard under “Other Resources.” In addition, graduate students at Brown University and Harvard collaborate to organize Chiasmi, a joint conference in Italian Studies, held alternately at Harvard and Brown.

Teaching 

In addition to forming capable and creative scholars, the program promotes their effective teaching at all levels. Beginning in their third year, students teach language classes; once they have completed their general exams they may teach sections of courses in Italian literature or culture.

Resources 

Graduate students at Harvard University discover an unusual wealth of research resources. Among them is the library system, which includes Widener Library, the largest university library in the world; Houghton Library, with its collection of manuscripts, ancient books, and papers of major Italian authors and intellectuals such as Pirandello and Salvemini; and the Harvard Film Archive, which contains a magnificent collection of world cinema. These repositories supplement a number of research centers related to Italian studies, including the Mahindra Humanities Center, the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, the Film Study Center, Dumbarton Oaks, and I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies.