Italian
Undergraduate
Undergraduate Studies
View pages in this documentWe offer outstanding teaching in an exciting range of subjects that reflect the latest developments in research, and equip students with valuable skills for the world of work. Students are taught by experts in a range of fields of Italian culture and society, from medieval literature and art to cinema and the modern novel.
Our teaching excellence has been recognised in recent years by the award of five Faculty of Arts teaching development prizes:
- Claire Honess, for her development of resources for Italian language learning (2004)
- Rhiannon Daniels, for her use in teaching of the outstanding collection of the Brotherton library (2007)
- Matthew Treherne, for his work on teaching the visual arts (2007)
- Alan O'Leary, for his work teaching cinema (2008)
- Gigliola Sulis for her work teaching modern Italian literature (2008)
In addition, in 2007 and 2009 Matthew Treherne was awarded University Teaching Fellowship development awards.
Innovative teaching
Our teaching makes strong use of the University's virtual learning environment to support students - we lead in the development of CALL (computer assisted language learning) exercises for Italian and we have also created a software package, LUISA, which is widely used in universities, colleges, and schools.
The Centre for Dante Studies runs initiatives to support students working on Dante, including a national study day on Dante and the innovative Leeds Dante podcast. Italian staff have also established an online introduction to art analysis, designed to support students who wish to work on topics in the visual arts. A project to build up a bank of podcasts, across the Faculty of Arts, to enrich students' academic experience, is also being run from Italian.
Our academics are involved in initiatives which have an impact at national level, such as the Leeds-organised national workshops on feedback and assessment in modern languages, and the Leeds Learning and Teaching Conference. In collaboration with colleagues from Birmingham and Cambridge, we recently organised a national workshop on teaching the visual arts in modern languages departments.
Italian runs its own study skills sessions, and students also benefit from the support provided by the Faculty of Arts, including essay writing skills days.
An exciting study environment
Our students benefit from our exceptional programme of research events and are given support in engaging with the latest developments in research into Italian through the innovative Students as Scholars programme. For example:
- through the Italian Writers in Leeds series, a leading Italian author comes to Leeds every year, giving students the chance to meet an author whose work they are studying;
- the seminar series on Thinking Italian Film (2006-07) brought leading international film experts to Leeds, enabling students taking modules on Italian cinema to learn about the latest developments in film scholarship;
- students taking medieval and Renaissance modules benefit from our public lecture series held in the autumn. In 2009 the theme was the art and literature of Dante's time. In 2008 the lectures were on The Culture of Renaissance Venice. In 2007, a similar series of lectures tied in with the major exhibition on 'Renaissance Siena: Art for a City' at the National Gallery in London. This series brought a range of experts on the Italian Renaissance to Leeds, including two art historians who have worked on the exhibition at the National Gallery.
There is also a lively Italian Society run by students.
Further information for prospective students