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French & Italian News

Assistant Professor Ciro Incoronato joins faculty

We are delighted to welcome Assistant Professor Ciro Incoronato (PhD 2024, Duke University) who is new graduate faculty in Italian Studies. He comes to us with extensive teaching and service experience and is an expert on Mediterranean and transnational Italian literatures, cultures, and...

Professor Proulx organizes international Proust conference in Paris

On March 8 2024, Professor François Proulx is organizing an international conference on Marcel Proust at the École normale supérieure in Paris, as part of FRIT's ongoing scholarly collaboration with ITEM, the Institute for Modern...

Professor Emerita Armine Mortimer publishes new translation

Professor Armine Kotin Mortimer, Professor Emerita of French Literature in FRIT, has published the translation of Julia Kristeva’s “Dostoyevsky in the Face of Death or Language Haunted by Sex” at Columbia University Press. Professor Mortimer, recipient of the 2020 NEA Translation Fellowship,...

21st Century Black Beauty Resistance

Join us in congratulating Amanda Smith who successfully defended her PhD dissertation on Friday, December 1. Her dissertation opened a new, and hopefully lasting, focus of our program on Black collectivism and French Black women individuality. Titled “21st Century Black Beauty Resistance:...

Mount Zion students with faculty in FRIT

Mount Zion (IL) High School visiting French classes

Prior to the pandemic, the French program had organized more than one visit of our French classrooms from local high schools in he area. However, our first visit, post-pandemic, with 26 high schoolers from Mount Zion, IL on Wednesday, October 11 was special in many ways. First of all, the...

Thank you, Professor Mathy!

This past October was busy with two Ph.D. dissertation defenses directed by Professor Emeritus, Jean-Philippe Mathy. Elham Karimi Balan, now at Colby College, Maine, defended her dissertation, titled "Writing the Self in the Language of the Other: Trauma and the Body in Autobiographical Novels by...

Highlighted Courses

French for the Professions

Multidisciplinary exploration and application of French as it is used on the job market and in professional cultures and practices. Professional portfolios, study of French economy and business in a globalized world, and practical applications of linguistic and intercultural skills to the contemporary job market. Advanced command of French required.

FR 485

French Renaissance World- and Race-Making

Uncovering the imprint that the early modern revolution of knowledge about the world and its various ethnicities left on French texts of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Primary texts by Rabelais, Marguerite de Navarre, Ronsard, Du Bellay, Montaigne and others in French, class discussions in French or English as appropriate.

FR 571

Practical Review Italian

Reviews major challenges in Italian grammar, with particular emphasis on the verb system (major tenses and moods, morphology, and aspect) and areas of contrast with English. Prerequisite: Credit or concurrent enrollment in ITAL 104 or equivalent. Image credit (free content): https://imr.dypvp.edu.in/Blogs/overview-of-business-operations

ITAL 210

Italian Culture and Globalization

Introduction to factors that have shaped present-day Italy, with particular attention to globalization; basic concepts contributing to understanding its present social and cultural development in a European and global context.

ITAL 406

French Identities

Concepts of and debates on French national identity. Materials are drawn from a multiplicity of media and from many spheres of modern life in France: political, artistic, the everyday, etc. Identification of major resources for the study of culture and analysis of diverse cultural texts. Strengthening of reading, writing and speaking skills in French through a wide range of exercises and projects.

FR 212

Exploring Rome: History and Culture of the Eternal City

Examines Rome and its roles (religious, political, cultural) in Italian culture from ancient times to the present day. Through history, film, literature, painting and architecture, we will explore the Rome through its various historical and political developments and the effects the city has had on wider Italian and global perception of the "Eternal City". All readings and class meetings are in English.

ITAL 156

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