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French & Italian News

Read article: Professor Fagyal is among recipients of seed funding from BRIDGE
Professor Fagyal is among recipients of seed funding from BRIDGE
Professor Zsuzsanna Fagyal (FRIT) is among the three recipients of seed funding from the Birmingham-Illinois Partnership for Discovery, Engagement and Education (“BRIDGE”) to initiate collaborative research and scholarly exchanges on “...
Read article: Anne Olmstead receives Marita Romine Distinguished Service Award
Anne Olmstead receives Marita Romine Distinguished Service Award
Congratulations to Anne Olmstead, the wonderful Office Manager of the Departments of French & Italian and Germanic Languages, who received one of SLCL’s Marita Romine Distinguished Service Award. Her...
Read article: Prof. Samira El Atia delivered this year's Distinguished Alumni Lecture
Prof. Samira El Atia delivered this year's Distinguished Alumni Lecture
This year’s FRIT Annual Distinguished Alumni Lecture was delivered by French SLATE Alumna Dr. Samira El Atia (PhD 2003) who is Professor of Education and the Associate Dean of Research, Graduate Studies and International Affairs at the bilingual Campus Saint-Jean of the University of...
Read article: FRIT students help select 2025 US Goncourt Prize winner
FRIT students help select 2025 US Goncourt Prize winner
On April 19, 2025, a jury of 10 university students announced Madelaine avant l’aube by Sandrine Collette as the winner of the fourth US Goncourt Prize Selection. Hosted at Villa Albertine in New York City, the award ceremony resulted from months of study and debate conducted by students...
Read article: Amelia Reggi and Williams Asamoah awarded dissertation completion fellowships
Amelia Reggi and Williams Asamoah awarded dissertation completion fellowships
- Amelia Reggi was awarded a 2025-2026 SLCL Dissertation Completion Fellowship for her thesis project, "Bodies in Crisis: Idealized Femininity and the Curse of Womanhood in the Early 20th Century Italian Novel and Play” (Director of research:...
Read article: 150 years of Italian presence in Brazil: Film screening and reception
150 years of Italian presence in Brazil: Film screening and reception
Friday, April 11 6 pm - Lucy Ellis Lounge, 1080 LCLB, and LCLB Atrium The year 2024 marked 150 years since the arrival of Italian immigrants in Brazil, a significant event that deeply impacted the country's culture, society, and...

Highlighted Courses

FR 215 picture

French in the Community

Tuesdays & Thursdays - 10-10:50 am, 1028 Lincoln Hall. Introduction to French-speaking communities in the Champaign-Urbana area. Students collaborate with community partners who serve French-speaking populations, developing contextualized oral proficiency and civic engagement and reflecting on the various cultures, practices, perspectives, and influences of French in our local community of Urbana-Champaign and the American Midwest. Class requires a service-learning component in addition to the regular class times. Students must arrange 20 hours of service learning outside of the classroom over the semester in coordination with the instructor. Taught in French.

FR 215

ITAL 210

Practical Review of Italian

Mondays - 2-3:20 pm in G18, LCLB Wednesdays - online (arranged). Reviews challenges in Italian grammar, with emphasis on the verb system. Students enhance their ability to understand, speak, and write Italian through practice of the main grammatical structures of Italian. The review is integrated with contemporary print, audio, and visual materials that provide a comprehensive analysis of the language in practice, embedded in knowledge about Italian society, culture, and history. Some of these texts focus on the status and role of women in Italy.

ITAL 210

Translation

Techniques in Translation

Tuesdays - online (arranged) Thursdays - 3-4:20 pm, 325 Gregory Hall. Practical introduction in the theories and techniques of translating technical, commercial, scientific, and literary texts from English into French and vice versa. This course may be taught in English or in French; check with the instructor. Same as TRST 419.

FR 419

Masterpieces

Masterpieces in Italian Literature

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2-3:20 pm (location pending). The course explores the boundaries between human and non human animals as they emerge from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century in Italy and Southern Europe. Through reading literary texts such as Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron, Moderata "Fonte’s Floridoro," Luigi Pulci’s "Morgante," and medical texts such as Girolamo Fracastoro’s "On Contagion," we will trace the formation of distinctions between species. Investigative categories will include the distinctions between humans and non humans include metamorphosis, contagion, education, taxonomy, subjugation, hunting, representation, anthropomorphism and zoomorphism, wilderness, misogyny, and promiscuity. Taught in English. Readings in Italian for Italian Majors and graduate students in Italian Studies.

ITAL 420

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