Undergraduate Academic Programs
The Italian Department offers students the following undergradaute academic programs:
Italian Major
Major with Business Coursework
Italian Minor
Minor – Business
Double Majors
Senior Honors Thesis and Undergraduate Research Fellowship
ITALIAN MAJOR
Italian Majors at Georgetown are required to complete 10 to 12 courses taught in the Italian language, depending on the results of the student's placement exam (12 if they begin at the Intensive Basic Level and 10 if they begin at the Intensive Advanced Level). Italian majors are required to study a second language unless they are pursuing a second major, business coursework or pre-med. Italian Majors are also required to spend a semester or an academic year in Italy studying at an Italian University.
Italian majors can pursue a second major (or a minor) in other departments of the College to help prepare them for successful careers in their chosen profession.
Required Courses:
12 General Education courses
4 Second Language courses (intensive track recommended) except if a
student pursues a double major, pre-medical studies, or business coursework.
10 to 12 Courses in the Major + 1 Gateway course in English taken second semester of the first year. This course satisfies one of the two Literature and Writing requirements of the College.
I. The Gateway Course:
ITAL-042 Gateway to the Major (taught in English)
II. Italian Language Courses:
ITAL-011 Intensive Basic Italian
ITAL-032 Intensive Intermediate Italian
ITAL-111 Intensive Advanced Italian I
ITAL-112 Intensive Advanced Italian II
ITAL-231 Contemporary Italy (before overseas study)
ITAL-233 Writing: Literature/Culture
ITAL-237 Business Italian (for students pursuing business coursework or business minor)
III. Italian Literature and Culture Courses
Students must take one course from each of the following groups:
a) From the Origins to the Renaissance
ITAL-311. Italian Art, Literature and History 1200-1500
ITAL-368. Politics, Society & Culture in Renaissance Italy
ITAL-379. Poetry of Courtly Love in Italy
ITAL-383. Love, Religion, and War
ITAL-391. History of the Italian Language
ITAL-412. Boccaccio
b) From Baroque to the Age of Realism
ITAL-358. Literature of United Italy
ITAL-370. Modern Italian Theater
ITAL-382. The Fantastic in Nineteenth & Twentieth-Century Italian Literature
ITAL-384. Theater and Opera
ITAL-385. Madness in Italian Literature and Theater
ITAL-388. Sex and Politics in Italian Theater and Cinema
ITAL-392. The Theater of Power: Dynasties, Politics, and Theater, 1500-1800
ITAL-452. Theater of the Sacred: Between Faith and Politics
ITAL-467. Italian Theater
ITAL-473. Farewell to Realism: Decadence, Avant-Garde, Modernism
c) From Modernism to the Present
ITAL-315. Le Altre Italie: Italy and the Culture of Contemporary Ethnic Identity
ITAL-321. Poetics of Lightness: Italo Calvino and Post-War Italian Culture
ITAL-337. Italian Cinema: Adventurous Journey
ITAL-359. Bella Ciao! Women’s Identity in Twentieth Century Italy
ITAL-360. Giallo! Italian Detective Fiction
ITAL-380. Identity and Resistance in Fascist Italy
ITAL-381. Italian Contemporary Poetry
ITAL-390. Mafia: Realities and Fiction
ITAL-393. Modern Italian: dialects and other varieties
ITAL-404. The Twentieth-Century Italian Novel
ITAL-411. From Novel to Film
ITAL-425. From Mazzini to the Euro: The European Consciousness in Modern and Contemporary Italian Literature
ITAL-426. Encounters with the Other: The Ethnographic Imagination in Italian Literature
ITAL-445. The Betrayals of Translation
ITAL-471. The Writing Factory: Science, Machines, and the Technology of the Word in Twentieth-Century Italian Literature
IV. One literature/culture elective from any of the 3 groups listed above
V. Dante
ITAL-460 Dante – The Divine Comedy
VI. The Senior Seminar
ITAL-489 Senior Seminar
NOTE: Students who study abroad for a semester can apply two courses taken abroad toward the Major. Those who study abroad for a full year may apply no more than four courses toward the Major.
BUSINESS COURSEWORK with an Italian Major
The Business coursework program is available to Italian majors. The business coursework consists of 14-15 courses, and is the functional equivalent of a second major. No more than 25% of the 38 courses required for graduation may be taken from The McDonough School of Business. The requirements for each program may be found in the College Bulletin.
The business-related requirements of this program consist of 14-15 courses:
5 prerequisites
4-5 core courses
5-8 upper-level core concentration courses
Prerequisites:
ACCT-001 Principles of Accounting (ACCT-101 is required for the Accounting Concentration)
ECON-001 Microeconomics
ECON-002 Macroeconomics
MATH-006 Statistics with Exploratory Data Analysis or ECON-121 Economic Statistics
MATH-035 Calculus I
Students who wish to pursue this program must take the 5 prerequisite courses before applying to the program. To apply, students should submit a Declaration of Business Coursework Form to the Georgetown College Dean's Office, indicating completion of all pre-requisites and stating the intended field of concentration. At the end of each semester, all requests are submitted to The McDonough School of Business for review. Interested students should complete the prerequisites by the second semester of sophomore year.
The second language requirement is waived for students in the Language with Business Coursework Program.
ITALIAN MINOR
Required courses:
ITAL 011
ITAL 032
ITAL 111
ITAL 112
ITAL 233
ITAL 231
Contemporary Italy or 1 or more courses at the 300-level
NOTE: Students who study abroad for either a semester or a year can only apply one course toward the Minor.
BUSINESS MINOR
A Business Minor is available to Majors in Italian.
The Business Minor consists of seven courses, four prerequisites and three upper-level electives:
Four prerequisites:
Principles of Accounting (ACCT-001) or Accounting I (ACCT-101)
Microeconomics (ECON-001)
Macroeconomics (ECON-002)
Statistics with Exploratory Data Analysis (MATH-006) or Economic Statistics (ECON-121)
Note: MATH-035 (Calculus I) is a prerequisite for any Finance class.
The four prerequisites must be completed before enrolling in any other business coursework and prior to submitting a request for the minor. The minor request is submitted to the Georgetown College Dean's Office. The College Dean's Office will forward all requests to The McDonough School of Business at the end of each semester.
Upon completion of the four prerequisites and acceptance into the minor, students select three upper-level electives from the areas of Marketing, Management, or Finance. Please note all restrictions, prerequisites and fall/spring availability as indicated in the Course Descriptions sections of this Bulletin and the Schedule of Classes.
DOUBLE MAJOR
Italian Majors may double major in another language or in any of the disciplines in the College:
American Studies
Anthropology
Art, Music & Theater
Biology
Biochemistry
Chemistry
Classics
Comparative Literature
Computer Science
Economics
English
Government
History
Interdisciplinary Studies
Linguistics Mathematics
Philosophy
Physics
Political Economy
Psychology
Sociology
Theology
*Italian Majors who pursue a double major or business coursework are exempt from the second language requirement.
GUIDELINES FOR THE SENIOR HONORS THESIS AND UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP
The following guidelines are provided to Italian majors who have been invited to write a Senior Honors Thesis and/or have been awarded the Italian Department Undergraduate Research Fellowship. These guidelines are designed to assist students as they undertake their research project and help faculty members in their role as thesis mentors.
Senior thesis topic and structure
The thesis topic should be on an aspect of Italian literature or culture.
It is recommended that students conduct research on a topic that they already have some knowledge. If the secondary source used is in English, students should provide the Italian translation in endnotes. The approximate average length of the thesis is 45 to 50 pages, excluding bibliographical references.
The thesis will be written in Italian
What are the expectations for a good thesis?
The thesis should be supported by a cogent argument. It should demonstrate originality of thought, analytical strengths, and ability to integrate and cross disciplines. It should also comply with the standard criteria for quotations and bibliographical references.
Thesis mentoring
The thesis will be mentored by a faculty member whose teaching and research are related to the thesis topic. The choice will be made in consultation with the Chair of the Department.
Steps and deadlines
Due to the rather demanding work required for a Senior Honors Thesis, invited majors are invited to think of their project as early as possible. They should complete the Honors Thesis Form and submit a thesis proposal before or while studying abroad. Students are strongly encouraged to begin their preliminary research on the topic in the spring semester of their junior year, by reading sources in their bibliographies, by adding new items, by further elaborating on their project, and/or by familiarizing themselves with the thesis process with the aid of their thesis mentor. It is recommended that Italian majors, while studying abroad, remain in contact with the faculty mentor and use the semester or year abroad for initial research on the thesis topic to ensure that progress is made on the thesis during the time spent at the Italian university. Students who have been awarded the Undergraduate Research Fellowship should submit a three-page report on the work conducted during the spring semester by June 30th. Upon their return to campus in the fall of their senior year students should register for ITAL 489 – The Senior Seminar.
The thesis proposal should include:
A discussion of the topic that the thesis intends to examine, an explanation of how the student will address the central question proposed, and a bibliography of relevant primary and secondary sources to be used for the thesis research.
Project Timeline
In the fall semester of their senior year, students will continue working at their projects within the framework of the Senior Seminar (ITAL 489). Mentors with help students get a good grasp of effective thesis writing techniques, and will guide them to appropriate resources. Students are expected to meet regularly with their mentors, and to submit to them their work in progress, so as to receive feedback and suggestions about further revisions whenever necessary. By the end of the Fall semester of their senior year, students are required to have submitted to their mentors at least 12-15 pages on their thesis topic, either as a formal paper to be expanded in the subsequent months or as a first portion of the thesis itself.
It is expected that students will complete and submit a copy of their complete thesis to both their mentors and the Chair of the Department by mid April of their senior year. Since for ITAL489, the Senior Seminar, students receive an “IP” grade on their fall transcripts. Upon completion of the thesis, the grade is changed to a final letter grade.
The research standards and expectations for honors theses are very high. A student who receives a distinction is supposed to have performed at the highest level that Georgetown University can attain. The honors thesis is expected to provide evidence of original research, accomplished with strong analytical skills. Students should carefully investigate what the existing scholarship has produced on their topics, and offer innovative and sophisticated arguments in a well-defined theoretical framework.
For the Honors Theses, the manuscript should be bound, double-spaced, typed in 12-point Times font and pages should be numbered, except the title page and the table of contents. The title page should contain the thesis title, the student’s name, the mentor’s name. The second page should have a table of contents.
For footnotes, endnotes and citation standards, students should follow a standard scholarly format like the MLA Handbook or the Chicago Manual of Style.
Students are also required to give an oral presentation before a small group of faculty members at the end of April of their senior year. Faculty members invited to the presentation should be given a copy of the thesis. Immediately after the presentation the faculty will discuss the thesis and the oral presentation and give a final evaluation of the student’s thesis, and to deliberate in favor or against the “distinction” award.
In case additional revisions of the thesis are necessary after the oral presentation in order to incorporate comments from the faculty members, students should turn in a copy of the final version of the thesis to their mentor which will be kept in the department.
The final assessment for the honors thesis will be posted on the students’ transcripts as either “Senior Honors Thesis” or “Senior Honors Thesis with distinction”
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