French and Italian | Liberal Arts

The Department of French and Italian

The Department offers innovative instruction and research in literature, language, and linguistics, as well as in cultural and visual studies.

Welcome!

The Department of French and Italian offers innovative instruction and research in literature, language, and linguistics, as well as in cultural and visual studies.

At the undergraduate level, the Department awards bachelors degrees in French and Italian. Our majors possess advanced language proficiency, a critical awareness of Italian, French, and Francophone cultural issues, and a refined understanding of language, literature, and the arts.

At the graduate level, the Department provides coursework and professionalization leading to doctoral degrees in French Studies, Italian Studies, and French Linguistics. The graduate programs are complemented by Doctoral Portfolio Programs in Romance Linguistics and Romance Studies. Our PhD students are exposed to theoretical approaches in their academic field, receive extensive teaching experience and training, and are able to carry out independent scholarly research.

Departmental staff and faculty offices are located in Homer Rainey Hall (HRH) on 21st Street between the Harry Ransom Center and Benedict Hall. The main telephone number is (512) 471-5531, with fax at (512) 471-8492.

The Department of French and Italian supports the following Faculty Council resolution on academic freedom and defends the right of all faculty to teach and write about race, gender, and social justice. Here is their statement:

“The Faculty Council resolutely rejects any attempts by bodies external to the faculty to restrict or dictate the content of university curriculum on any matter, including matters related to racial and social justice, and will stand firm against any and all encroachment on faculty authority including by the legislature or the Board of Regents.” The full text is available here.

Giving

Graduate Programs

Rome Summer Program

Lyon Summer Program

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Undergraduate Programs

FRIT Undergraduate Course Spotlight Fall 2022

Faculty & Research

Courses in French and Italian

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Spotlights:

Prof. Antonella Del Fattore-Olson

Antonella Del Fattore-Olson is from Rome, Italy. Antonella is a Distinguished Senior Lecturer in the Department of French and Italian where she has been working since 1984. She is the Director of the summer Rome Study Program. In Spring 2022, she will be teaching "Composition And Conversation (ITL 328)".

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Sofía Aluma-Santos (Undergraduate)

A dual degree graduate with a B.A. in French Honors and B.B.A. in Marketing from McCombs, and a recipient of the James Stephens Memorial Excellence Departmental Scholarship in 2014. She completed a French honors thesis on the lives of the Maghreb women in France, as expressed through literature and starred in the French Department’s student production of Molière’s Les Précieuses ridicules.

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Francesca Beretta (Graduate)

Francesca Beretta is an Italian Studies PhD candidate at UT FRIT. She received her MA in Language and Linguistics from Lancaster University, UK. In Spring 2022 she will be teaching "Advanced Italian".

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