Major program: The Italian studies major consists of nine courses above the level of basic language.

With Vassar and Wellesley colleges, Wesleyan sponsors the ECCO in Bologna program for all students regardless of their choice of major. Students are required to take a year of Italian language, but two years is highly recommended. Students will take courses offered by the Program, and qualified students will have the opportunity to take courses at the Università di Bologna.  Whether they are abroad for one or two semesters, students may only count two courses toward the major.

Sample Courses: The Courtier and the Courtesan in Renaissance Italy; Dante and Medieval Culture II Fascism, Futurism, Feminism: Forces of Change in 20th-Century Italy

Number of Professors: 2

Italian Studies Building

For more information, visit the Department Homepage .

Title: Faculty Spotlight
Italian Studies Building

Ellen Nerenberg

Professor of Romance Languages & Literatures, Professor of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Chair, Romance Languages and Literatures


Research Interests: In 2001, her book Prison Terms: Representing Confinement During and After Italian Fascism (U of Toronto Press, 2001) was awarded the Howard R. Marraro prize for the best book published in North America on an Italian subject. She is currently working on a study of the representation, in Italian cultural expression and the media, of three cases of homicide in Italy since 1989.